In my case Europcar in Nice tried to foist a Fiat Sedici on me instead of the reserved Passat (or si

I paid up front $410.79 for a 3 day car rental pick up in Zagreb, Croatia, drop off in Dubrovnik. They sent me an email shortly before I left re-confirming. I called the day before the pick up to reconfirm. The person who answered the phone said they do not have a car for me. The front desk personnel of the hotel I stayed at and I searched for 1/2 day for an auto that would seat 5 adults comfortably. There was one auto left---through Dollar--but I couldn't pick up until the next day. This ruined our plans for a leisurely trip through collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire Plitivice National Park. We raced through it. The charge collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire from Dollar for a 2 day car rental was $785.00. I fought with Auto Europe from the day I returned to the states - 9/19/09 to date. They finally put my rental money back on my charge card (on 11/9), but not for $410.79. They held back approx. $29. because they charge in Pounds and the dollar had dropped since I paid for it. I've also been arguiing with them too give me the difference between collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire $785. and the $410.79 I paid. Hah! "They are doing their best to hear back from Sixt".
I take it you rented through the AutoEurope UK site and not the AutoEurope US site. That is the only reason I can think of that you would get a refund in dollars, but have a differential in pounds. That being the case, I can understand a fluctuation in currency exchange, it could have just as easily gone the other way.
Now, if the car was not available, then AutoEurope should have refunded the full amount, which it seems they did. I do not think they should be liable for you paying $785, but they should have tried to do something to arrange for a car for you.
I do not think that their responsibility should end with the reservation because they should be more able to negotiate on your behave, being the giant company they are, than you could do in this situation.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. We used Sixt in France last December after years of AutoEurope/Europcar and were very pleased with the service. AutoEurope should certainly have been able to get you a car at another agency.
I have no experience renting a car let me say up front. But aren't there some documents from your original rental agreement? If so, they might specify AE's responsibility....forgive me if this is really stupid. Sometimes the small print rules.
I've rented from AutoEurope for over 30 years. Perhaps 75 different cars. I've had lots of problems with the actual car rental companies (Avis, Hertz, EuropCar) charging me for stuff that they should not charge me for. AutoEurope has always resolved things in my favor when the problem was not an "error" by me. Sometimes, however, you have to be persistant and I've had to write up long expanations that I've FAXed to them (FAXes seem to work better than e-mails).
Last Friday, I took "daveesl's" suggestion collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire of raising * ^%$$^^* with Sixt, not Auto Europe. I never thought of that---thinking they were one and the same company and Auto Europe could handle it. Auto Europe could not get a response from them, but I did--this morning. They offered to pay me the difference between what we paid Dollar $765.84 and what they charged us - $410.79.
It is absoltely ridiculous to state "DO NOT HIRE FROM THIS COMPANY" - over 25 years I must have hired 150 plus cars and had run-ins over every conceivable issue I can think of with all of them - I think the idea is cover your back and damage limitation.
Yes, I see that she got the car fixed, but the facts are still skewed. There is no AutoEurope office that she could have called - never has been. So the facts of the story were misrepresented. She may have called her cc company; she may have called collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire Sixt; but unless she called Maine, she did NOT call AutoEurope (a company, by the way, that I have made auto rental arrangements with in Europe more than 100 times and have never had them let me down - but sometimes you DO need to call them in MAINE).
I rented the auto from Auto Europe. They are a broker for Sixt. I called the phone # listed collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire on my rental car voucher. Auto Europe has responsibility because they rented the car to me. They contracted with Sixt in Zagreb, Croatia to rent a car to me. Neither company lived up to their obligation.
I, too, have rented from Auto Europe in the past and have never had a problem. You all can rent from whomever you want, but after what they put me through, I will NOT rent from them again. Not only did we lose valuable vacation time, but I have spent about 30 hrs. working on this at home.
mar35-- after more than 20 years renting from AutoEurope (more recently with their Portland, ME office), I started to notice a negative trend in their service. After two times of overcharges, we entered a complaint into the Better Business Bureau process and were compensated after evidence of Bait Switch practice was presented and confirmed. I was very saddened by this as I had been a very, very loyal customer. I have been using HERTZ for the last three years; they have been great beyond expectations. Just presenting my experience, take it for what is worth to you. If is any consolation, if you travel frequently you will find that NO COMPANY EVER is good all the time to everybody. I am surprised that some people will take a complaint about a company as a personal affrent; dumb beyond belief.
Slightly off topic but why use AutoEurope at all? Why not just check what the car hire companies can offer you and choose directly? One less link in the chain to go wrong and an obvious place to complain should something happen.
In my case Europcar in Nice tried to foist a Fiat Sedici on me instead of the reserved Passat collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire (or similar) as per the rental agreement. Sorry, but a rebadged Suzuki SX4 ain't in the same class as a Passat. I know a bit about cars.
The only Passat in stock was an automatic and I'd reserved a standard. The clerk wanted an extra 1,000 euros! A call to Maine and AE straightened things out in my favour in minutes... I put it down to the fact that AutoEurope has a lot more clout than I do.
Finally, because of their leverage, AE sometimes can offer deals. In my case it was free zero deductible insurance for the term of the rental. It came in very handy. I've been driving for nearly 40 years and have never so much as scratched a car but in Carcassonne I backeed into a wall in a dim underground garage and put a couple thousand collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire euros of damage on the car. Didn't cost me a dime.
As I've stated many times on this forum, when I've had a problem with the final billing, it has been much easier I've found it to be a lot more productive to work things out through AutoEurope than to deal with the car rental collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire office in Europe collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire (who often don't speak English). When doing the latter I have been stonewalled, lied to, and have NEVER had my problem resloved (about 3 instances). With AutoEurope about 6 "problems" (which were all not the fault of AutoEurope - they were the rental company's problem like charging me for insurance or refueling costs when I didn' do either) collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire were resolved in may favor - sometimes with a lot of communication with AutoEurope collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire to provide proof when the rental company stonewalled them too. About half of those instances, AutoEurope paid me out of their pocket when the claim dragged on on.
In my experience (well over 70 rentals) the final AutoEurope price is always at least 10% less than their on-line system displays (like a AAA or AARP discount). This year my flight to Europe was cancelled and I had to leave the next day. I called AutoEurope they changed my reservation for 1 day later e-mailed me a new voucher.
we hired a car from auto Europe for our holiday in Florida. We needed a six seater and received confirmation. When we got to the airport the car we had hired was not large enough. It was a car we were unfamiliar with so we had assumed it was large enough. The rental company hertz didn't have any cars large enough so we cancelled and rented elsewhere. Neither auto Europe or hertz will refund us and to add insult to injury they gave just charged us for a tankful of fuel they are refusing to refund.
I didn't see this thread originally, but it's funny that I also rented via Auto Europe and Sixt from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, perhaps around the same time the OP did. When I arrived, there was only one car left (and fortunately it had papers to drive through BiH!). But, now I must wonder if I wound up renting the OP's car, due to some mix-up? Multiple reservations via Auto Europe - who knows? Perhaps had I shown up later than first thing, collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire the OP might have snagged collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire my car and I would have started this thread?
I'm renting from Sixt in Slovenia in a couple of weeks - skipping Auto Europe as the middle man this time (Sixt directly was cheaper). My experience last time with Sixt was fine (car was a tad dirty and reeked of smoke), collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire but the car ran fine and did the job. I guess I'd rent from Auto Europe collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire again if the price was right, collision damage waiver cost enterprise uk car rental hire but if I can do it directly with Sixt for near the same price, why bother with Auto Europe?
Hey Ira; Actually we could have had a large Mercedes, but wife chose the BMW. Tough decision. I did have a little scratch on the front left fender. Two thousand euros and AX premium insurance paid everything. Cost for the insurance was $19.95.