Europcar refunds massively overcharged customer

Europcar has apologised to a customer who was overcharged by nearly £1,000 for a minor windscreen chip.

The incident was highlighted in a new report by consumer rights magazine Which? accusing the whole industry of ripping off customers.

It claims some car hire firms are charging customers more than double the going rate for repairs.

Investigators from the magazine took photographic evidence of damage from car hire customers across Europe who believed they had been overcharged.

Photos were shown to three Which? Trusted Trader garages who were asked how much they would have charged for the repair.

In eight out of 12 cases all three garages quoted less than the car hire companies charged for the repair.

And in four of these cases, the car hire company charged more than double the average estimates.

In the case of the Europcar customer, Which? said he was charged £1,154 for a small windscreen chip that could have been fixed for as little as £35.

Europcar issued a statement which read: "Following the commencement of an investigation, last June 23 2017, by UK Trading Standards into repair costs levied by Europcar UK, the company is undertaking a thorough investigation and Europcar UK is fully cooperating with the authorities. Given the ongoing investigation Europcar cannot provide any more substantive comment at this stage.

"Europcar is sorry that there was a delay in responding to Mr Vicary regarding the charges applied following his rental in France last year. The company is also sorry that the original charge for a full windscreen replacement was made in error.

"Following investigation, it was identified that Mr Vicary had been incorrectly charged and a revised invoice for €102 was issued for the cost of repair for a minor chip.~ At the same time, a refund was processed for €1171 against the original charge."

Which? conducted a separate survey of more than 150 readers who’d been charged for car hire damage.

It found 44% said they had been hit with an excessive charge, almost 18% said they had been charged for damage they knew nothing about, and 59% said they had never received any evidence of how the charge was calculated from their car hire company.

The magazine claimed ‘industry insiders’ told its researchers that a drastic drop in profit margins has led some car hire companies to look for new ways to make money from their customers.

Rory Boland, Which? Travel editor, said: "Car hire firms now need to clean up their act and be upfront about the real cost of renting a car instead of offering too-good-to-be-true prices, then clawing back profits via ridiculous repair bills."

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