LoyaltyLobby story about Europcar scamming customer at Sydney Airport

[Mattg]

I came across this article on LoyaltyLobby about Europcar at Sydney Airport:

https://loyaltylobby.com/2025/02/10/reader-case-fraudulent-practices-at-europcar-sydney/?omhide=true

If the claims in the article are true, this all seems pretty dodgy. The main issues seemed to be:

• Europcar changed the price of the rental after the person had already picked up the car
• The person did not get the car they booked
• There was no report provided of existing damage to the car
• When they returned the car, they were told it was all fine but then an hour later (when the customer was already inside the airport terminal) Europcar advised they found a scratch and would charge for this. The scratch was already there when the customer picked up the car, which they had proof of, and Europcar's "proof" was an image of how the car looked two weeks before this person picked up the car.

The customer escalated this to Europcar's head office, and the extra charges were removed. Still, all in all, doesn't sound great.

 

[esquire]

Interestingly my company (>6500 staff in Australia) only offers Europcar as a last resort (ie manual request) - was told by our travel manager there were a disproportionately high number with claims and insurance issues compare to others. Wonder if this is related?

 

[anat0l]

Although the big car rental companies (except maybe Sixt and Budget) all have the collective ethical integrity about as worthless as a Zimbabwean dollar, Europcar has had a long standing bad reputation of dinging customers for almost any damage on checkout, no matter how small or superficial it may be, and - yes - like in the posted example, they are not above using underhanded and unethical tactics to bring about those damages.

You'd think they were on commission when they charge the customer for damages, really weird.

Still, probably better than being falsely accused of having stolen the vehicle and having the law come after you (*cough* Hertz *cough*).

 

[Happy Dude]

Would there be enough evidence to support criminal charges? Looks like a calculated attempt to steal/defraud.

 

[#flying]

I avoid Europcar like the plague. Not the first time they’ve engaged in questionable conduct.