A quick question for readers of this blog – have any of you used Easycar for car rental, and, if so, did you find them reputable?
I ask this because I organised a car to be ready for us when we landed in Malaga on the evening of the 27th (Dec) last.
We were arriving in (my wife and two young children) with two large suitcases, some hand luggage and a pram for the baby so I arranged for a medium sized family car.
However, when we arrived in Malaga, the local Easycar company had no confirmation of our booking and refused to give us a car (despite my having the print out of the confirmation email I had received).
I had already paid Easycar for the car and I ended up having to find another company to rent a car from. All that was available was a Fiat Punto – trying to fit us all into the Punto, with our luggage, for a two hour drive to Seville was no fun.
I have contacted Easycar since (their helpline was closed at the time) and they said if I forward the invoice from the other rental company they will consider refunding me!
So, is this common Easycar practice and do I have any chance of seeing my money again?
Tom, I think that easycar is part of the easy group (easyjet). I believe it is reputable, and with your printed information etc., I would be very surprised if you didn’t get your money back. I know someone that knows Stelios if you have any problems 🙂
P
Tom, I checked with my Da who goes back and forward a lot to Malaga. He hasn’t used EasyCar but highly recommends CarJet who are very cheap and reliable.
Very similar thing happened to me in Rome two years ago. Arrived at the EasyCar office in Roma Termini to find a guy from Finland with a confirmed booking, fuming but not getting a car. I introduced my confirmed booking and was told there was no car for me either – something to do with EasyCar Roma not being the same as EasyCar Italy and dispute between the two.
They offered me a Fiat cinquecento (cunttagetinta with wife, three kids and luggaage for two weeks), then screwed me around for four or five hours telling me I was getting a car from the airport/other office. Ended up renting a new car from EuropCar and eventually got my money back from broker (recar.org), but lost three quarters of a day holiday and gained much unexpected stress.
We used Easycar before .. they are cheap but you get what ye pay for.
ChaBoyo,
my problem is I paid and didn´t get any car – so I didn´t get what I paid for!
Tom: Easycar’s rep sux – made a lot of TV stations in the UK. If I’d known I coudl have recommended one of the local Spanish hire companies. Most are pretty good: Sol-Mar is my fave and you can bookonline no problem.
Dear Mr Rafferty,
I regret that you have not yet sent the documentation in to us. When you contacted us, we provided you with the supplier’s confirmation number: 729683404. Therefore a vehicle should have been available for you.
In order for us to investigate the matter, we said that we needed you to forward a detailed covering letter with the easyCar rental agreement number stated in it, the invoice from the replacement vehicle hire along with your bank statement showing the debit by them. This information is all necessary in order to help you.
I hope that if you have not sent the documentation as yet that yo do so very soon. Please do not send the documents on their own as this may greatly delay our response.
Please send the covering letter and all other documentation to:
Post-rental Query
Customer Care Department
easyCar (UK) Limited
The Rotunda
42-43 Gloucester Crescent
London
NW1 7DL
United Kingdom
Once we have received these documents, it can take from five to twenty-one working days for a reply from the supplier as they may need to locate hard copies of documentation in addition to speaking to staff members who may be on regularly scheduled leave. We will endeavour to have an answer for you as soon as possible.
I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and as you were advised when you telephoned, we look forward to hearing from you soon so as to resolve this matter.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Hi Tom
I have used them a number of times – including at Malaga – without any problems. In fact they were very good. However, I would have been fuming as well if it had happened to me.
EasyCar is just another car rental broker. I understand they work with different suppliers like Alamo, Hertz, Avis etc. I have used them many times in the UK, the Netherlands and France without any problems, but the actual level of service depends more on who the supplier is then on EasyCar. Their rates are normally very good though.
Can any one help as I have contacted easycar by their web site and cannot get any response to my claim.
Unfortunately for me my Holiday travel arrangements were spoiled by the poor service provided by your organisation for which I hold you completely responsible.
I made a booking to rent a car using your on line reservation system and the reservation was confirmed and you took my payment in full before I collected the car.
This I agreed to do based upon the fact that I trusted you to be available at Malaga airport for me to collect the agreed car hire vehicle.
I was misled since when I made the booking I was led to believe that you had a car collection point at Malaga airport. When I arrived I found that this was not the case.
After searching for your customer service desk without success I enquired at the airport information kiosk and they advised me that they thought your organisation provide car hire through another agent. Unfortunately they were unable to name the agent so I spent an hour or so asking at each car hire point at Malaga airport. I finally managed get the agents at NISA car hire to try to contact your company without success. They kindly found me your telephone number and I called your number. Now I was greeted with the usual telephone options all of which were not useful in my situation since they all required me to use the internet for which I had no access. The only telephone option was for new bookings so I called them to make a new booking. I asked about my current booking for which the response was negative and when I said that that was not helpful they hung up. I called again and was told that only new reservations could be made, so I asked for a quotation and the first request was for my password which of course I did not have since I was at an airport without any internet access. The time now is 19.00 hours and I have wasted around 3 hours and decided I needed to make a booking for another car. I again telephoned and was informed that the earliest available car would be 23.00 hours. Again you were unable to tell me the agent or where I would collect the car. This was unacceptable and I had no other alternative but to make arrangements with another car hire company. I rented a car then from NISA car hire at a rate of 216 euros.
I am very dissatisfied with your service and expect to be compensated as soon as possible
Thank you
I have had a very similar problem as others on this site. When arriving at Alicante airport nobody had a record of our hire car, which had been booked by internet and paid for. After being pushed from pillar to post for about 3 hours we were given a telephone number to call supposedly a local number) – it wasn’t and within 3 minutes had put 10 euros into the pay phone!
Eventually nobody helped us and we had to book and pay again for another car. When arriving home the monies for the first hire car had been taken the day I booked it from my credit card. I have been trying to get a refund ever since – that was Christmas time. I’m furious and would never use easyCar again.
As Mr Dorrington will be able to confirm, as soon as we bacame aware of his problem, he was refunded in full.
With regrard to Ms Harris, I am unable to find any bookings under her name. There has also been no contact that I can trace for someone of her name. If she has had any difficulties, easyCar will always do all that we can to correct them. Therefore, I hope that she will write in to the address that i provided earlier on this thread:
In order for us to investigate the matter, we need you to forward a detailed covering letter with the easyCar rental agreement number stated in it, the invoice from the replacement vehicle hire along with your bank statement showing the debit by them. This information is all necessary in order to help you.
Please do not send the documents on their own as this may greatly delay our response.
Please send the covering letter and all other documentation to:
Post-rental Query
Customer Care Department
easyCar (UK) Limited
The Rotunda
42-43 Gloucester Crescent
London
NW1 7DL
United Kingdom
Once we have received these documents, it can take from five to twenty-one working days for a reply from the supplier as they may need to locate hard copies of documentation in addition to speaking to staff members who may be on regularly scheduled leave. We will endeavour to have an answer for you as soon as possible.
I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and we look forward to hearing from you soon so as to resolve this matter.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Basically if you are lucky enough to get your car then there will be no problem, but when there is a problem then you can forget it. I spent prob +- £30 from my mobile to their premium rate number and then another £21 train ticket (I spent my last bit of money on them) because they are useless.
When I arrived at Southampton airport at the Alamo front desk (eaycar supplier), they had no car despite my comfirmation e-mail. Alamo couldn’t help me and Easycar made a packet with their premium rate help number and still couldn’t help me. STAY AWAY from them, better to deal directly with ALamo website (just as cheap, their front desk not as cheap as webpage). This is my advice, never pay upfront (which is what I did, always book, this way they can’t steal your money). If you have a problem with Easycar, attack with everything you have, otherwise they will do this to someone else. You owe it to your fellow traveller. I sent a recorded letter and will give them 7days, then will complain to consumer direct and various other bodies.
I hope this answers your question
Cheers
Alex –
I am sorry to learn that there was difficulty with your rental. We only received you email in our customer care inbox at 04:28 this morning. The booking was confirmed by Alamo with confirmation number 732005767 provided by them.
Please allow us time to investigate your situation and find out why Alamo did not supply a vehicle to you as booked.
No letter has been recieved here at the head office as yet, and all correspondence is replied to within two working days or frequently one working day of receipt.
I assure you that even had you not posted anything here, you would have received full attention from me and my staff.
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Finally, I got through to someone, I even got hold of the webmaster’s number by tracking your webpage through a database to see who your ISP provider was, needless to say no one answered the phone, maybe I’m not the only one thats tried this route.
I sent a letter by recorded delivery and according to Royal mail it was delivered on the 11th June 2007 (I can provide you with reference number if you want), this was a tip I got from a consumer group web page. Basically from what I can see on the web and all complaints is that you guys get away with most cases and then try put out the fires on the most hardened complainers. Why dont you run your business properly to begin with, you guys explain away your bad customer relations by saying you pass on savings to the customer, BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE IS NO CAR AT AIRPORT. Even after your premium rate call centre admitted that I should get my money back, why was this not an automatic process, why did I have to send a letter of complaint through. Were you hoping to score EasyMoney. EasyMoney is a nick name that I picked up from another webpage referring to you guys. This is what you should rename your business to, afterall you have successfully won court battles against companies such as Easynet (BSkyB) for daring to use the EASY brand.
I WANT MY MONEY BACK NOW, I WANT IT IN MY BANK ACCOUNT, I REFUSE TO GET RIPPED OFF, the worst part was that I was on a tight budget and couldn’t even get another car. I really had a bad day esp as I worked the whole night before.
Don’t take this personally Jean, they must pay you extra for being able to take the battering, but my anger towards your company is ver BIG.
Dear Alex,
I assure you that the letter was not received here, as all post for customer care is passed directly to me. Did you send it to the address on Gloucester Crescent? Was it addressed to easyCar or to a specific person? Please provide any proof that you have so that this may be investigated, as i assure you that this letter is not here.
I would also mention that I do not know what number you telephoned, but the numbers to ring are on website. There is no other number and would be interested to know what one you were provided with.
With regards to why we require someting in writing in order to investigate a complaint about a supplier, under the Data Protection Act we do not have access to any information or documents between you and the supplier. The iformation must be provided in writing by you. For your own protection we may not, under any circumstances, request directly information from the supplier about your contact with them and they may not provide it. The Act is there to protect you and your details from possible misuse by an unathorised third party. I do see that the delay may be frustrating, but far less than identity theft would be if the Data Protection Act did not exist.
As I mentioned in my previous comment here, you did have a confirmed booking, 732005767, and we are now investigating why no vehicle was supplied by Alamo on your behalf. Regretfully this must be done and until Alamo respond I cannot progress this further.
Furthermore, at no time has it been intimated that we intend to ‘rip you off’ or that Alamo may not indeed agree to a refund the the money if appropriate. I have promised in my email that I sent from our website (Incident 070613-000010) sent at 09:12 yesterday, that we will investigate and we are. Please allow us to do so.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Goto http://www.royalmail.com, here is the reference DL186069907GB. The address is the right one.
If you talking about your 0906 333 333 3 number, then you can forget it, I refuse to give you another penny with your premium rate number.
SMOKE and MIRRORs, in your response you dilute the problem by deflecting it onto Alamo and talking about the Data Protection Act. If I return a product to shop they put the money back on the card that it was bought from without any data protection problems. When I spoke directly to Ramona (you have voice recordings) and she admitted that I should get my money back I was not dealing with Alamo I was dealing directly with your company, besides she could easliy have asked questions to verify my identity as I have registered on your webpage.
That number 732005767 Ramona gave to me, and I gave this to Alamo front desk, but they didn’t have it on their system. I then told Ramona to sort it out, a company that operates properly would have internal escalation procedures and contacts to sort problem out, but she ended up phoning the Alamo front desk instead of their head office which obviously will not work.
Now if you have beef with Alamo that is your problem, but I paid for a service through your company, when I did not get that service I phoned your premium rate number to get it sorted out, they were unable to do so after spending a fortune on mobile costs. I WANT MY MONEY BACK, I DO NOT WANT ANY RUBBISH ABOUT ALAMO, DATA PROTECTION ACT etc
Besides how dumb do you think I am, any laywer will laugh at you when a letter of complaint is prove of identity in first place, what difference does it make, why can other companies give cash back without letter of complaint. I’m sure other readers here are laughing at your feeble excuse. It is designed to filter 90% of the poeple that will give up and then you get EasyMoney.
Last week in Holland I had to change a rental made and already paid, one less day than originally booked. Easycar charged me 30€ for the change and no refund for the lost day. I know ALAMO did not charge easycar for none of the issues. It is clear they lost a client as I feel cheated. Read carefully what you are accepting as terms and conditions before making a booking through this company.
Yes Damian, I feel your pain. I’ve had to send a second letter, this time on garenteed post which is a special delivery as Jean claimed they didn’t recieve the first letter. It has been almost a week now and still no response, this by the way is the kind of customer service you can expecr from them. Unfortunatley they don’t seem to care if they lose customers as they have an endless supply of poeple to give bad service to, you esp find this out when phoning their premium rate help line.
Easycar in Malaga is terrible, too. I had to wait a long time, was charged a “fuel surcharge” that was never mentioned. I’m not the only one, either: Easycar review .
David
this has happened to me also, i paid and was alocated a car but none turned up at malaga airport, i spent 1 hr on the phone to easycar and the hire company with no anser from hire company and the lady at easycar sayin they cannot help, so after 2 hrs i had to hire a smaller car at more money, i will never recommned this to anyone,,i still havent received my money back and have had no replys to my letters, this is theft and have now advised all my guests not to fly easyjet or use easycar, so this makes more money for ryan air, how can he run a company like this, he is stealing from the people that made him a multi millionaire,,
I feel that I have been robbed. I booked to collect a Sabb 93 from Luton airport for myself, my future wife and 3 kidz, assured on the web site the offered car would take 2 adults and 3 kids. I checked via the web site contact us to be assured in writing the car would accept 2 Adult 3 Kids.
On the big day suprise no car at the airport, it was in London. National car rental acting on behalf of Easycar tried to unite me with the car but could not, apparently easycar did not pass on the delivery request to the supplier, to have it in Luton, even tho all my paper work shows Luton collection. In the process of trying to get me to the car, it transpires that the car has only 2 rear seat belts. After 1.5 Hours on the phone trying to talk to customer services, I was told I could not cancell and a refund would need to be investigated. I would need to submit via email. Easy car are in breach of contract, breach of trading standards and have breached the trades discriptions act, but they will still not give a refund without a fight!
I now have a list of company contact emails and have contacted my credit card supplier. I urge any one to do likewise. I can supply email addresses if required.
I booked a car hire a couple of weeks ago, throughout all of the booking screens it said CDW was included, yet after putting credit card details in confirmation comes back saying not included.
I phoned, I emailed, I have written a letter by recorded delivery to EasyGroup as the response by phone and email was so scripted it just wound me up even more. Basically I have to pay 50 Euro’s when collecting the car…..
They are so clearly breaking the Trades Description Act.
Today I received a letter saying that easycar are a seperate company and to contact them via the website! yet funny how they all have the same registered address……
I will send the letter again by recorded but address it to Jean Marie to see if I get anywhere.
Any help would be much appreciated…..
I spent quite a few years working on various car rental front desks in the UK and southern Europe. Without drowning you in endless detail, here’s a couple of useful tips for smooth & hassle-free car hire: always hire from an actual fleet operator, not a broker – if anything goes wrong, matters can be dealt with locally and no endless bouncing around between the operator, the broker and yourself; and two, if you do go via a broker, look at the small bits and go for one that offers a 24-hour manned helpline via a local, national or shared-cost line – anyone who provides a helpline via a premium-rate line with only vague reference to service hours should be steered well clear of. For most people, price is the determining factor and so it should be – however, for only a few coins more you can get peace of mind and a hassle-free experience. The (often only minor) difference ought not to be that important when you’re on a well-earned break. As an earlier correspondent on these pages has rightly noted, with easyCar you pay what you get for – they operate on razor-thin margins and will save money where they can, such as through minimal staffing and poor procedures, and make money where they can, such as debiting your card fully on the off and providing only premium-rate helpline numbers. I know plenty of people who have had no problems with easyCar, but when things do go wrong, oh boy! Yes, easyCar does have an unfortunate reputation through its practice of squeezing out every possible dollop of revenue wherever possible, but that is so because they need to make up on their almost non-existent profit margins. In the end, headline-grabbing low prices should always ring that old warning bell in your head: “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
I will be going on holiday to Barbados soon and thought I should do some research before hiring a car from easycar. After reading the comments above, I think I will hire from an actual fleet operator, not a broker.
Same sad experience on the 28th July 2007.
Arrived at Rome Flumicino Airport having pre booked a car through easycar. The sub contractor “Locauto Tirreno” had no record of a booking and no cars available.
With partner, two tired children and four suitcases ended up with a Fiat Punto from Hertz.
I had a very bad experience too with Easycar and like many before no car was available when I arrived. The thing that shocked be was the “we don’t care” attitude both at the local supplier and with Easycar.
This was three months ago and I am still waiting on getting my money back. I would go down the legal route but will end up in a considerable expense for me even if I get the 150 quid back.
I don’t think we should tar all web based brokers with the same brush. I went with Argus Car Hire http://www.arguscarhire.com recently and everything went smoothly. The reason i went with them is they only ask for a deposit up front with the rest paid on arrival (and they are cheap). So the risk even if the car isn’t there (which is was with a very friendly crowd Victoria cars in Alicante).
We need cheap car hire – but we also need good service!
Sucess! (See previous entry 23-07-07)
I informed my credit card company of the level of service received from Easycar and Mastercard have refunded the money back onto my card.
Good old Mastercard, they are more than happy to refund the money and chase Easycar, as soon as they had my documentation with breach of contract and trades discription act all over it, they took only 4 days to refund the cash, I still have not had a reply from Easycar regarding a refund!
So Internet booking with a Reputibale Credit card
Mastercard – 1 Easycar – 0
I will never use Easy anything again
I have exactly the same experience.
I have just returned from 2 weeks in Italy which started with my first day at the airport with the wife and 2 kids finding a substitute for not so easycar dot con’s incompetence.
I have a huge phone bill from their complete indifference to the fact that I booked and paid for a car in February which was not available for collection at the specified time. In fact the supplier they used simply said they have no car and easycar would call. Of course they did not. I emailed the following day to notify them of the more than three times the price I paid for the alternative with a request for them to call. Of course they did not.
I have not yet received compensation but will be doing so either directly through them, through my credit car company or through the small claims court.
In the meantime, reputable or otherwise I am grateful for this websites opportunity for me to offer simple advice to anyone contemplating booking their car with easycar.: DON’T – I could not recommend their service less.
hi
I have just booked a flight and car with Easyjet to go to a feneral. I have found out that the car reservation is not valid. The Easyjet website gives misleading information. I asked them to cancel the flight as I have no car on arrival at Luton Airport at 22.00 hrs(september 5th). “No sorry we can not cancel the flight we can only cancel the car” was the reply. Now i am going to be stuck in Luton with no car and needing to travel to Swindon for a funeral in the morning(September 6th).
If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated. I am never going anywhere near Easyjet for as long as I live. I will also be telling me kids and their kids and so forth. I hope you read this Stelios
Regards
Richard
Same thing happened to us in Alghero, Sardinia in early August.
No record of the Easycar booking at the Alamo desk, and no car available, in spite of our confirmation print-out, Easycar voucher number, and the really nice reminder that Easycar sends out a few days before you travel.
We booked on the spot with the really nice Hertz people. Have just received a credit card statement showing the full Easycar payment made on the day we booked. Absolutely scandalous.
Replied to the email that was waiting for us when we returned home, only to find that you have to make the complaint through the website which is impossible to get your head around. What about a new service – EasyComplain – they need it.
Unfortunately I didn’t read this before booking our hire car in Valencia through easyCar. Same story – they took our money without checking that their contractors had a car available, leaving myself, wife and two infant children in the airport at 1.30am. Fortunately a friend drove for over an hour to pick us up.
Once we got home it tooktwo letters before we got our money refunded and any later correspondence requesting additional refunds which are due have been ignored. Shockingly bad company.
What schocking service by Easycar and Alamo. Can somebody help me with an E Mail address of Easycar. Living in South Africa – Their website link for customer service does not work here. I am another client who was double charged by Easycar and Alamo. Whatch this space for MY story.
Thanks for the tip! Have just come across this as I was about to book with EasyCar. Have booked with argus instead for Portugal later this month. Hope that goes well!
I have used Easycar a few times recently (mainly in Italy) and have found the service to be fine. I always pick the cheapest hire car I can find and find very little difference in the actual product. I have never actually had an Easycar branded car and mainly seem to get cars from Hertz or Europcar. So I’d say that easycar are fine – just like all the others.
I had the exact same problem as above.
1) On 29 September 2007 I rented a car from EasyCar from EasyCar’s online website, and received an email receipt for the rental of a BMW I series or similar (which incidentally was intended as a birthday present); my credit card was debited for the FULL AMOUNT of the rental of EUR 265. 22;
2) On the same day, 29 September 2007, I received the voucher for the vehicle (4709-1217-7091-1 – 29/09/2007) which indicated that the supplier of the vehicle was Guy Salmon at Gatwick airport;
3) On 7 October 2007 I received a document reminding me of my reservation and telling me which documents to bring to Gatwick on my arrival, because I wouldn’t get the car unless I had all of the documents;
4) On 12 October, I arrived at Gatwick airport, and went to the service desk for Guy Salmon (which is operated by National and Alamo as well) and was told that my reservation was cancelled (reservation # 602U81701, Account No. E96401 EasyCar Guy Salmon — D9547) and that there was NO CAR AVAILABLE, AND NO CAR FOR ME TO RENT;
5) On the same day, I called EasyCar Customer Service from the number provided on my rental contract and spent HOURS on the phone with them trying to get my money back for the rental, since there was no car. Fortunately, Alamo let me call from their number so I wasn’t having to pay the 60 pence per minute.
The Easy Car Representative spoke directly with the supplier from Guy Salmon/National/Alamo. The supplier told her that there was NO VEHICLE for me to rent, and that the reservation was cancelled as of 1 October 2007.
Neither Guy Salmon nor Easy Car informed me of the cancellation, AND OF COURSE, EVEN THOUGH THE CAR WAS CANCELLED OVER TWO WEEKS BEFORE I CAME TO COLLECT, I RECEIVED NO REFUND. Neither has refunded the money debited from my credit card. In fact, I received a reminder to pick-up the vehicle A FULL WEEK after the cancellation.
Exactly Like the others, I was told that if I sent a cover letter and supporting documentation, they would “investigate” the matter. I STILL have not received the refund for 265 euros and have my credit card company breathing down my neck.
EASY CAR IS A TOTAL SCAM. I WOULD NEVER RENT FROM THEM AGAIN. THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY, NOT PROVIDE THE CAR, AND THEN MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO SPEAK WITH ANYONE WITH THE AUHTORITY TO GIVE THE MONEY BACK.
I have an update: only a few days after posting my review on EasyCar’s business scam on several websites (and sending them the web addresses) I got a letter saying:
Dear Ms Wheeler,
Thank you for your patience whilst I awaited a response from Alamo.
We at easyCar would like to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to you. As you know as soon as you contacted us we immediately escalated your concerns to them. Unfortunately, despite numerous requests, they have not provided us with a full and satisfactory reply.
Because of this, your case was escalated to the Head of Customer Services for easyCar, Janet Garner, for consideration. She has now reviewed the your case and has agreed to a goodwill refund of £184.76 in full and final payment. You should expect to see this in your bank account within 3-5 working days. This includes an adjustment for the exchange rate since the booking was made. Unfortunately easyCar cannot be responsible for any further fluctuations in the exchange rate.
Here at easyCar we do strive for a high level of customer satisfaction and the level of service that you have received is not typical of what we would hope to provide. I appreciate that you may have a less than favourable view of easyCar at this time and trust that this goes some way to restoring your faith in us.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie Feddercke
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
I guess I should say that the best way to get your money back after EasyCar scams it from you is to post your complaint all over the web. It’s amazing that a company as large as EasyCar has actually created a system where they 1) take a customer’s money immediately 2) fail to provide the vehicle 3) charge the customer 60 pence per minute to complain about it 4) establish a call center that costs 60 pence per minute but doesn’t actually have anyone who is authorised to issue a refund and 5) fail to respond to the theft for 2 months.
In response to Ms Wheeler latest blog, we needed to find out from the supplier why they had not allocated a vehicle to her. It is usually necessary to get the supplier’s side of the issue, because although I am not at all saying that this was the case here, it is always possible that the customer was not allowed to rent because of a problem with their credit card, driving licence endorsements or being under-age for the rental. Following a response from the supplier, a refund will be issued if appropriate, but one cannot be issued by the call centre as the incident must be investigated.
Although Ms Wheeler is entitled to her opininon, may I set the record straight and clarify that the issue was not ongoing for two months as the rental was only scheduled to commence on 12 October 2007. We had been waiting since that date only, as my email to Ms Wheeler stated, for a response from the supplier about this matter and we had initially told her that the response from them could take from 5 -21 working days. Her hire should have commenced on 12 October 2007. On 12 November 2007 the 21 days we allow the supplier for a response passed, but we did try one final time for a response from them. When they still failed to explain why no car had been allocated, we refunded the customer at that time.
I would also like to apologise once again to Ms Wheeler for the supplier’s failure to provide the car and the inconvenience that this caused her.
Although I read this blog to see what is going on and I completely support anyone’s right to post anything they like, I can assure you that in this instance the refund was based on our usual policy and nothing else. Furthermore, I have provided here and elsewhere the details for contacting us should you choose not to want to telephone.
You can contact us by going to our website: http://www.easycar.com and clicking on the FAQs in the orange panel near the bottom and then clicking on Ask A Question and following the instructions. This is the method most people use to contact us. You may also send a letter by post by sending the covering letter and all other documentation to:
Post-rental Query
Customer Care Department
easyCar (UK) Limited
The Rotunda
42-43 Gloucester Crescent
London
NW1 7DL
United Kingdom
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Jean Marie,
First off, thank you for coming on this site and commenting.
I have to say I think EasyCar’s attitude to customer service is appalling. You take people’s money under false pretenses and then when people complain, you throw the burden back on them to get their money back.
Money should not be taken from anyone’s account until the car has been secured.
If there is a problem with the booking, the money taken from the account should be returned automatically with no quibble.
I had money stolen from my account by Easycar. I NEVER got it back. I never got a rental car from Easycar. I made numerous calls to Easycar at International roaming rates. And I had to source a car at Christmas with two small children in a foreign airport at nighttime.
You ask me to produce proof? I throw it back at you and ask you to prove to me that Easycar didn’t steal my money. Show me the invoice from your supplier for the car you charged me for. Of course you can’t because you took money from me for a car you never supplied.
To my mind that is nothing short of criminal.
Tom – will you allow me to post my reply that I sent to your email address here s well?
Jean Marie
Jean Marie – absolutely, please do post the reply you sent me.
Thanks,
Tom
I dunno why – but I can’t post it, please let your readers know that I have responded. It would be most kind of you.
Jean Marie
Jean Marie sent me the following reply:
Dear Mr Raftery,
Thank you for speaking to me on the telephone today. May I offer condolences again.
This is the response that I was writing to you when I went on your website and read of the loss of your mother last January:
“Thank you for your personal email.
May I firstly reassure you that we do not take money on false pretenses. No voucher is ever issued unless the supplier has confirmed that there are vehicles available. In a very small number of all rentals there is a problem. Probably yours was caused by someone not returning the car or the vehicle breaking down – unfortunately at this late date I do not know why a car was not there for a confirmed booking.
Smitha also supplied you with the confirmation number from the supplier which was 729683404 on 27 December 2007. Here are those details:
easyCar Booking Details
Booking Number 461212156190-1
Booking Location Malaga arpt (AGP) – ESAL54E44A
Supplier Location Code AGPT71
Vehicle SippCode IDMR
Vehicle Description Intermediate 4/5 Dr Manual (A/C)
Pick up 27 December 2006 18:00 – 19:00
Dropoff 07 January 2007 18:00 – 19:00
Supplier Confirmation 729683404
I have looked on our Customer Interface System and on 8 January I wrote to you on Incident 061227-000450 asking for documentation for the replacement car so that I could refund you in full for both your easyCar rental cost and the difference in the cost for the replacement car and you never responded to me. I could not proceed until you did so, and to date you still haven’t. Did you get a replacement car? Have you the documentation? I know it’s almost a year later, but I did ask you for it at the time and I would be only too happy to proceed if you would just supply it.
Any company must have procedures to follow, and I do not believe that it is unusual to ask for supporting documentation before making a refund. I do apologise if this does not meet with your approval, but please, help me to help you! If you do not have any documentation for a replacement car, let me know at once and I will refund just for the easyCar cost, but I would really prefer to do as I promised back in January and refund you in full if you would just let me have the replacement car documentation.”
Because you did not respond, no further action could be taken. I now can assume the reason you did not respond last January was your bereavement as well as the ill health of you little son. I know ‘if onlys’ are useless, but if only I had known, all of this could have been dealt with then for you. I really do care about helping our customers and whether you believe it or not I do all that I possibly can to do so.
I would like to sincerely apologise again for the inconvenience caused to you. Because of this, I have just tried to credit your account with 460.84€ for the cost of the easyCar rental only. Unfortunately I am unable to process the refund that is due to you because your credit card has expired. Would you please provide me with your new credit card details: type of card, full number, start and expiry date? In the case of debit cards please also provide the issue number (if any).
I apologise for the delay. Once the new card details have been received, the pending refund will be issued immediately, and if you can provide the amount of the replacement car I will refund the difference in rental cost for that as I promised in January and again on the telephone today.
Although your Incident is showing as “solved” this is an internal system procedure and does not mean your case is closed, you can resubmit further information using the reference number below.
Once again, my belated condolences.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie Feddercke
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Jean Marie,
thanks for the phone call and the email.
I have replied to your email with the details you were looking for.
One thing I will take you up on, when you say:
To that I say:
Easycar could save itself a lot of negative feedback if it automatically refunded people the amount deducted from their account when they are made aware that no car is/was available.
If I, as a customer, ring Easycar’s helpline and hear “Sorry the car wasn’t there but we have refunded the money to your credit card account” it sounds a lot better than “Sorry the car wasn’t there, now get all the documentation, get an envelope, get a stamp, address the envelope as follows, ….”
Putting barriers in people’s way gets their hackles up and gives people the impression that you don’t want to or are unwilling to help.
I will leave it to the readers whether the quick response by EasyCar customer service after posting my complaint on this website was coincidental….
I should also point out that the response by Jean Marie on this website was the first and only non-automated response I have ever received from EasyCar. The other responses were all clearly templates with my voucher number inserted in the correct place. In fact, I think I saw the same response I that I received posted by another blogger on this same site, who also got a personal response from Jean Marie after he posted his complaint on the web.
I agree with my colleague above that it’s appalling to think that EasyCar might have a “procedure” which includes (a) accepting advance payment, (b) confirming reservations by email, (c) not supplying a car (in my case, the reservation was cancelled a week and a half before pick up and nobody ever contacted me), and (d) making it extremely difficult, expensive, and time consuming to obtain a refund
EasyCar held my $388 (orig. purchase price in Euros) from 28 September 2007 until 15 November 2007. The car was cancelled by the supplier on 1 October 2007.
Think of all of that interest! Google “customer service EasyCar” if you would like to see all of the people who have had this exact same thing happen to them, some of whom have also been waiting for months for a response from a human, let alone their refund. I sickens me to think that EasyCar’s “business plan” might actually involve making interest off the money it scams from customers like me.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like it would be much more efficient for EasyCar to refund money when the supplier actually tells EasyCar’s customer service rep (with the cancellation number!!!) that there’s no car…. so maybe there’s a different reason that the “incident must be investigated.”
As I Googled EasyCar, I realized that over and over again I was seeing the same scenario: people who rented high-end vehicles were showing up to pick up their vehicles only to find that there was no car available, but EasyCar had already charged them for the rental (and in my case, confirmed the rental twice via email!). Also, it seems like a coincidence that the customers with the highest rental value per incident were the ones being affected by the “process” that Jean Marie continues to defend. When they complained (at 60 pence per minute), their only remedy was to write a letter “explaining the problem.”
It could be just a coincidence, but with so many obstacles to getting a refund in time, money, effort etc., it *may* be that EasyCar’s business plan understands that some customers will just give up and not even try to collect the refund from a cancellation, especially after multiple letters, phone calls (at $1.20 per minute!!!), etc. don’t get the kind of personal, polite response Jean Marie gave me today.
Dear Ms Wheeler,
I am responding to this from home, so I cannot view the thread of your easyCar incident, But I can assure you nonetheless that none of the responses that you received from easyCar were automated. They may have an automated portion at the very beginning, explaining how to respond and then advising that our response was below, but each and everyone of them had that personal email response which was signed by the individual who responded to you.
I have reused the same text on this blog in some cases, for example, because the information is the same and I want to ensure that a clear concise and accurate response is made. This does not lessen the basic information provided. I apologise if you disagree.
I cannot confirm this until I’m back at work on Monday, but I believe that one of the earlier responses sent by easyCar that you felt was automated was actually from me. I assure you that all emails are answered by a human, within 2 working days of receipt and generally within a couple of working hours. The time an email is recieved and the time that the response is sent is shown on each one. All of the emails are signed by the real names of the person who responded.
easyCar is an internet-based company and that is the best and least expensive way for someone to conact us. Everyone who contacts us gets the same treatment – if you have a query, we can respond immediately, if you have a problem, we do may it in writing so that it can be investigated with the supplier.
As I explained, there can be many reasons for a car not being allocated (a problem with the credit card or licence as I mentioned before for example). We expect a response within 5-21 days from the supplier and most come back well within the timeframe. I can only apologise again that it was not the case with you, which is why we refunded ourselves when they did not.
I have been in customer care for more than seventeen years and I do sincerely want to help, but I have enough experience to know that although in isolated cases there can be mistakes made, there have to be be set procedures to follow to ensure the best care for everyone over-all. The easyCar procedure of asking for documetation is not unusual and regret if it leads to delays, but we do our best to solve all incidents as fast as possible.
I understand your inconvenience and dissatisfaction over what happened to you, but it was the exception rather than the rule and I am sorry for your experience. We do have many satisfied customers, including the three or four who have taken the trouble to post their favourable comments on this Blog. Regretfully it is only natural for people to voice complaints, rather than satisfaction.
This is a debate that could go on indefinitely and I would close my comments and not respond further on this particular matter by saying that my team and I will always do our best to solve any problems and answer the many general queries that come our way daily.
I assure you the only reason we are here is to help you. If we fall short from time to time, I apologise, but like you all, we are only human.
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Elizabeth, et al.,
After following this thread for several weeks, and getting boned by EasyCar myself, I have decided to start a Jean Marie fan club.
If you’re interesting in joining, please mail your application to the following adddress:
easycarcanblowme@googlemail.com
Kind Regards,
Mike
It is very easy to avoid beeing cheated by EASY CAR; book other companies. Bealieve me, you will save of money. EASYCAR does not have own cars. They have to rent through others, therefore their profit is what they can cheat to the customers. NEVER AGAIN
Mike,
In fairness to Jean Marie, she has been responsive to problems that have arisen and has responded quickly.
Easycar’s inability to source cars and their tendency to hold onto money when no car has been delivered is completely reprehensible but don’t personalise it around Jean Marie.
Jean Marie is simply doing her job, and doing it well, unfortunately she is working for a less than scrupulous company.
My brother who lives in the UK had a look around for car rental options for us when we visit him in August 2008.
He came up with the name easycar and said they have the best rates. After being burnt by a mickey mouse company in South Africa called ResQrent-a-car, I had my doubts, so did a bit of checking.
Well, I am so glad I did. Perhaps there are a few clients that say they had no problems, but the majority are disgruntled and I would rather pay more than take a chance on being ripped off.
Wow!
I just googled ‘post rental charges’ from easycar’s website as I didn’t know what it referred to. I still don’t know, but I do know I won’t be returning to the form to book the Cadillac in LA.
Thank you to all the people taking time out to write down their stories, you’ve saved me stress and easycar have lost a booking.
Leigh
Interesting response from EasyCare regarding 5-21 days to confirm with their partner why a vehicle was not available for rental. It is a bit backwards.
If a passengers purchases a ticket to board a plane and arrives at the airport in time and isn’t provided a seat. The airline either rebooks or immediately issues a refund. The major airline will quickly contact the local airport and confirm whether a seat was available or if they were overbooked and left passengers stranded. NEVER is there a mention of giving the local airport agent 5-21 days to verify proper identification, and security compliance was met before issuing a refund.
I think EasyCar (which I will not rent from based on feedback) doesn’t keep the interest of the customer. If they have vendors which do not respond after 5-21 days it is their responsibility to eliminate those vendors from their network. Many other brokers or 3rd parties (Priceline or Hotwire) have eliminated relationships with vendors due to poor performance. Additionally, EasyCar should immediately contact another vendor to find an alternate car on behalf of the customer (if contacted while someone is at the airport with breach of contract). In comparison, when dealing with a travel agent if your flight is canceled (not his/her fault if the airline cancels), they make every effort to get you on alternative carrier (vs. you walking from tkt counter to tkt counter looking for an available seat).
Hmm, this is all very interesting. I must have made about fifteen rentals with easyCar without any problems. However, my next booking would have been a one-way rental in Germany involving picking up my parents who are landing at a different airport in a different city around midnight and and I can’t risk a **ck-up with a non-existent car.
So despite having been a very satisfied customer with easyCar on every previous occasion, I think I’ll be avoiding them this time around and look for a company with accessible customer service (https://www.simplycarhire.com ?).
Mind you, the majority of problems described here seem to be in Spain, Italy, or the UK…
PS Can anyone comment about Holiday Autos? My gripe with them in the past was having to pay $300 one-way rental charge at the airport when Holiday Autos assured me I wouldn’t have to pay it. After a month or so they did refund me, along with the fuel charge that I hadn’t expected or requested them to refund. Digressing though…
Thanks to everyone who has passed on their unfortunate experiences with easyCar!
Hi Everyone Easycar……………….EASY MONEY more like.
Hi
I collected the car on 13/12/07 a vauxhall corsa from Alamo at Bremen Airport. On the day it was due to be returned 17/12/07 the car developed a fault it could only drive a max of 30kmph on the autobahn and all of the engine failure lights were lit up on the dash. I contacted the rental office who advised me to return the car to them at Bremen Airport where I could exchange it for another for the remainder of the rental period ( approx 4 hours) Or if I was really worried to take it to an Opel dealer in rural Germany and explain the problem AND the fact that I would not be paying for any work to be done and to forward any invoice to Easycar/Alamo with my basic German language skills -RIGHT!. I left the car with Alamo in their car park and they checked it told me that the fault light was not on when they started the car in the car park and it was fine. At this point they also checked the car over for damages & clocked the fuel and milage all of which was again fine. I requested an alternative vehicle because the fault lights had been on all the way from Bergen to Bremen and I had little confidence in the car. The only vehicle they could offer us in exchange was a 9 seater mini bus. So we put our luggage in this(so we didnt have to cart it about ) and left it in the car park and got a tram into town.At about 5 o’clock we returned got our luggage from the mini bus and returned the keys to the office where we were told no further checks/paperwork were required as they knew we had left it in the car park and it had not moved. We then left Germany. On the 23/12/07 I recieved an invoice ( I Think it is an invoice it is in German) for 750 euros. I dont know what for or why. When I had this document translated it literally just says “deduction from relevant visa card 750 euros” and that is it no explanation nothing.On phoning the extortionate rate customer service line(service my a**)they advised me to forward all documentation by email to them and they would sort it out.
Today is the 7/02/08 I still have no response at all other than “We are awaiting a response from Alamo”
I have spent at least £40 trying to get an answer from them on the phone,sent numerous emails and am £550 down in the first place. NEVER EVER USE THIS COMPANY. My brother who is in the Army and is based in Germany(which is the reason we were there) said that there are warning in the social areas on base now about the perils of using easycar as there are just so so many complaints. ie charging a guy for damage to a rental car while he was serving in afghanistan and had been there for 5 months.
I wish to get my money back but have absolutely no faith in this company,their products,their service or their ethics.
Stacey
You need to pick and choose – we’ve never had a problem with Easy Car but be aware of Argus Car hire and their supplier National Car Hire. Despite them promising that they ‘search the net for the cheapest prices so you don’t have to’ we had an appaling experience with them and National Car Hire at Carcassonne Airport at Christmas 06/07 and they are not recommended!
In summary they downgraded our car without notice from a c class (Focus/Astra) to a Citroen C1 – as four adults with cases and bags we couldn’t fit in the car – it was Dec. 27 and we had no travel alternatives. We had to duplicate trips to get eveyone to our destination with significant inconvenience and cost. We were cautioned by the police for overloading the car on the one occasion that we squeezed everyone in. Our holiday was ruined as we couldn’t really use the car and since then they have refused to refund us the cost of the car (which also had no rear wiper – when we went back to the office to point this out it was closed).
They couldn’t care less, do not man their phones as stated 364 days a year (we couldn’t get them in head office on Dec 27 to see what we could do) and Hertz was cheaper at their own admission. We have tried to speak to Greg Turley – Argus MD but he refuses to return our calls. In conclusion Argus and National overbook, you run the risk of a ruined holiday and neither could care less. Do not use them – they are appalling.
It’s so interesting reading the blogs above about the huge number of unsatisfied easycar customers. I am now one of them!
I hired a car through Easycar to be picked up from Bergamo airport in Italy. All was fine until we commenced the drive back from the resort to the airport (about 200km). After loading the car up with luggage at the hotel, it would not start. After several people had a look at it outside the hotel, we came to the conclusion that it was an electrical fault and was not going to start. To shorten the story, I made many many phone calls to easycar, Locauto (the firm easycar use in italy) and back to the UK to try and get some answers, as we were flying back that following morning. Easycar were quick to pass the buck onto Locauto and locauto told us that we would have to wait til monday to have a replacement car!! This is a day after our flight!!! Despite several further phone calls, the best response we could get was ‘someone will come along to tow the car away at 1pm, but you’ll have to make your own way back to the airport’!!! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We were stranded in a foreign country, in a remote area, not being able to speak a word of Italian and told to make our own arrangements. Luckily, we found a very kind gentleman who spoke very good english and searched for a taxi for us that afternoon. We took the taxi at a cost of 200 Euros and got the the airport. Upon arrival, we were told that no refund could be given as we would have to write to customer services when back in the UK! Again, I was speechless! Firstly, they should have been apologetic. Secondly, they should have arranged the taxi and paid the driver upon arrival at the airport. As a result of all of this, we lost the last day of our holiday which included wasted ski pass and ski hire already prepaid, incurred excessive phone costs and additional taxi fares – all totalling 376 Euros.
I have emailed Easycar with a detailed claim and been told their system cannot take the file size due to the attached receipts!! What do they expect for an email which is primarily used for receipt of claims!!! I’ve now send all the information via recorded delivery to arrive today and will await their response.
Having spoken to them on the phone yesterday, they were very obstructive and claimed they needed to see all the information before making a decision whether to provide the refund! How clear cut can it get – the car broke down and we had to get a taxi – easy!
I will be making a call every day and insisting upon an urgent refund and also insisting they call me back immediately so i’m not wasting any more money with easycar.
I have also advised the bank so that they cannot take any further money from me.
I have stated in the letter that they have until 16 March to provide the refund as a backstop date. If i am not happy with any proposed refund by this date, I will simply refer the matter to the small claims court as i’m sure they won’t have a problem deciding this one!
I am utterly disgusted with the service provided. I now don’t care what they say or how the apologise – i just want my money back. That is not too much to ask!
If anyone has a direct phone number for easycar other than the rip off 090 number, it would be appreciated.
In response to Mr Davies:
On the day that he experienced the breakdown, 16 February (three days ago) his father contacted us by telephone at approximately 12:27 UK time. The agent who took the call immediately apologised and called Locauto who agreed at that time that they would refund his taxi costs if he would supply receipts. Mr Davies’ father was advised of this.
I regret that Mr Davies considers it obstructive to request receipts, but no business would issue a refund without documentation so that the correct amount could be credited.
An email was then recieved from Mr Davies to which we responded by requesting the documentation by post so that it could be passed to the supplier, Locauto, for consideration. Our website is not designed, as he suggests, for receipts to be attached but for correspondence with our customer via email. It is unusual to need documentation and when we do, we ask for this to be copies of the originals, sent via post. We also ask for it by post because the website, to be secure from viruses and spam, has a limit on document size and content. This is for protection not only of our systems but also of the customers as well.
We have today received the documentation by three separate emails as well as by post and have sent it immediately to the supplier of the vehicle, Locauto.
Although I do regret the inconvenience caused by the breakdown at the end of their rental, the car did work for the first five days and as one must realise that although it was very unfortunate, a car can break down at any time. We are very sorry that it happened, but it was beyond anyone’s control to anticipate this happening.
Although Mr Davies has mentioned that he intends to call and email every day, this will regretfully not speed up the process. Neither the call centre nor those of us at the head office can accelerate the response from Locauto, who by law have up to 28 working days to respond. We do however, have responses from them on various queries in a single day on many occasions and we specify five to twenty one working days to allow for any investigation that they may need to make.
As we explained, there is no question of a refund for the taxi costs, as well as any other legitimate expenses he incurred, but this must come from Locauto as they were the supplier. It has not even been one day since the documents were escalated to Locauto, I would respectfully ask that Mr Davies allow us and Locauto the opportunity to make the refund costs as promised, but a telephone call by us or to us will not speed up the process.
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
I have been following these posts for a while, since I had my own frustrating debacle with Easy Car. I really think it’s worth emphasising that Jean Marie makes a real effort to respond personally to all of these posts, but if you write to EasyCar directly the best you will receive is a form email and a web address where your claim is posted, but no regular updates are made.
I think it’s misleading that when you read these blogs, you have the impression that EasyCar cares so much that its customer service reps respond to this blog themselves, when in reality, unless you are lucky enough to find Tom Raftery’s site, you will never have a personal response from them. I waited for months to get a response to my email claim (with attached receipts) and got nothing (besides an auto-reply email) until I posted here and heard from Jean Marie directly.
The fact that Jean Marie’s public posts present an image starkly different from what a customer would receive from the company directly appears to me part of EasyCar’s entire scam.
I agree completely with the post which describes EasyCar’s “customer service” as obstruction. I will NEVER rent from them again. And based on association, I will NEVER use EasyJet or any other related service.
Dear E –
Regretfully I don’t know who you are, or what your experience was. If I did, I could investigate what you say about auto replies more thoroughly.
What I can say however, is that every single email received at easyCar.com gets a personal response from an actual person. Many are responded to by me, I pick up many incidents on the customer care interface, but the rest of the team answer them as well, and they always sign their names at the bottom just as I do, so you know who has read your email and taken the action on it. If you think that all you got was an auto reply, then with respect, you may not have scrolled past the opening discalimer and read the personal response below.
Templates may also be used for some responses, but there is a good reason for this: it ensures that the correct and accurate information is supplied and prevents possible misunderstandings or omissions. It does not mean that thought and care has not gone into those templates for the call centre. I use them too.
There are literally hundreds of successful and trouble free bookings made with easyCar every day. In the rare case that someone has had an bad experience with a supplier, we escalate it to the supplier as soon as we know about it and updates are made only when the supplier responds, but no other update would be made until they do respond.
The majority of our customers contact us with questions about their rentals, such as how to add an additional driver or can they collect a car in one place and return it to another etc. Most emails are responded to and ‘solved’ at the same time. It is the exception rather than the rule to have things go wrong, and when they do, we will investigate why.
The call centre is not equipped to solve issues with suppliers and was not intended to do so. It is not a ‘compliant’ line, but a query service. They do ask for documentation in writing which is necessary so that it may be passed to the supplier involved. This is no different from any other company, which needs to investigate an incident that happened elsewhere or receipts or invoices provided before considering a refund.
Many of the responses that I have made to people on this blog contain information exactly the same as what they also received on the easyCar website, not different in any way at all.
There is no obstruction, which would serve no purpose whatsoever. Why would any company want their customers to be unhappy? That makes no business sense at all. I assure you that we do all that we can to help when things go wrong. Sometimes, however, the solution the customer wants is simply not possible and for that I am sorry.
I do regret E’s experience but without knowing details, I cannot comment further to assure him or her that he or she was responded to by a human every time not an auto reply.
Jean Marie,
Do you monitor all of the feedback left here? If you do, I was wondering why you did not respond when I left my sorry tale of Hire car woe on this site. Do you choose only to respond to some?
When I tried to talk to Easy car there was no one able to respond in the way that you are able to on this site why should this be the case.
Thank you Jean Marie for your response. It is appreciated. However, I must reiterate that this really is the first customised response, whether it be by phone or email, that I have received since the incident. I should not have to log onto a blog to obtain this!
Yes, your customer service rep apologised to my father, but with all due respect, he wasn’t the one stranded in Italy. The least I would expect in that situation was a direct apology and assurance that I would be reimbursed all costs incurred to put my mind at rest and allow me to get on with the final day of my holiday. As it was, I was required to coordinate everything and the enjoyment of the holiday came to an abrupt end – again, no apology has been received for this.
You have not stated in your reply about the fact that I was promised by your rep on the day the car broke down that I would refunded the taxi bill immediately upon arrival at the airport that afternoon – this did not happen and Easycar have provided no explanation as to why it did not happen. My comment regarding the obstructiveness of Easycar was made on this basis: As i’ve already made Easycar aware that your supplier already has a copy of the receipt for the taxi, why then request further copies and delay proceedings. This is a classic example of your customer service dept not paying detailed attention to each and every case.
I do not deny that fact that every car can brake down and that it was an unfortunate event. However, it is the terrible mess and subsequent events following the occurance that has upset me.
My suggestion that I will contact you every day with an update was said out of sheer frustration at the lack of contact from yourselves. It wouldn’t do any harm to make contact with each complainant to keep them informed of progress, and by this i certainly don’t mean one of your standard templates – these only serve to irritate people.
I’m glad that you have confirmed that I will be receiving the taxi costs and that the other costs are being considered. However, Locauto received the taxi receipt on Saturday 16 Feb with still no sign of a refund despite your own staff (lawrence) stating that I would receive it there and then. To make matters worse, when I attended the Locauto office, the attendant found it very amusing when speaking about my case on the phone to his boss. This is insulting and as far as i’m concerned sums up the service provided to date by Easycar.
I would suggest you consider more carefully whom you choose to use as suppliers.
Robin –
I ‘monitor’ this the same as anyone else does who subscribes to this blog. Sometimes there is something to comment on, and when there is, I do so. I usually respond to posts when there is a full name so that I can investigate what has been said or when the comment is general enough not to need specific investigation.
Now that I have a full name, I can now see that we did investigate your experience and as soon as you contacted us by email, you recived a signed response from Livia Sabu advising that we had escalated it to the supplier to find out what happened.
I responded to you myself, as soon as we heard back from the supplier, who accepted full responsibilty and said it was a human error on their part. I personally issued you with a full refund of your easyCar cost.
Here is the text of Incident 070723-000260 as you will be able to remind yourself if you care to visit our website, but in this text, I have deleted the amount refunded for protection of personal data.
Response (Jean Marie Feddercke) 22/08/2007 12:55
Dear Mr Hough,
Thank you for your patience whilst I awaited a response from Alamo.
They would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you by a ‘human error’ in their reservations department. Because of this, they have asked that we refund the amount of XXX to you in full and final payment on their behalf. You should expect to see this in your bank account within 3-5 working days. Unfortunately easyCar cannot be responsible for any fluctuations in the exchange rate.
I would like to add my apologies on behalf of easyCar for your experience. I appreciate that you have a less than favourable view of easyCar and Alamo at this time and trust that this goes some way to restoring your faith in us.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor”
You may have also put a charge back in, but if the bank paid you too, you got a double refund.
Dear Mr Hough,
With respect, all contacts to the call centre are recorded and we advised your father that the taxi fare to the airport would be refunded when the receipt was sent in to us here at easyCar. At the time of that telephone call, it was only the one receipt that had been agreed to refund by Locauto.
Unfortunately, the copy you mention of one taxi receipt left at Bergamo would not have been useful, in light of your additional expenses for which you have now submitted receipts and documentation. Furthermore, a local agent at the location would not have the authority to issue a refund of the size you required for that taxi, particulary as most locations are virtually cash-free.
I also regret that you feel that there was a lack of contact from us, despite Lawrence calling you father back to tell him about the taxi fare refund and the two emails you received from Marina.
When you emailed us for the first time on 17 February, you sent your email to a mailbox that is not constantly monitored, rather than sending it through the website directly to Customer Care. It was found on the next check of that mailbox at 12:35 on 18 February and you received a personal response from Marina, who advised you that regretfully the attachments were too large and asked you to post them to us.
Today, you sent the attachments as individual emails and we were able to receive them and they were immediately sent to Locauto by Marina, who once again wrote to you explaining that she had done so. This was 45 minutes before you wrote anything on this blog.
I am sure that when Locauto respond, they will also address the issue of their staff member, whose attitude would not be one that we would expect from one of our suppliers. I assure you that we do not find it amusing and have not indicated this in any of our contacts with you, but they must address the issue.
As Marina has advised you when she emailed you on our website, and I have reassured you here, we expect a response shortly from Locauto. Although we say to allow 5-21 days, they do generally respond quickly and when we get their reply we will email you.
I assure you that although I do not object to your entering comments on this blog, we were dealing with your experience swiftly before you wrote anything here and we will continue to do so.
Double Insurance fee’s. Maybe I am just careless but I have made apx. 1500 business trips within Europe and many included a car rental.
I booked with Easycar and took their zero risk option. When I picked up the car at the geneva airport I was asked if I wanted some type of insurance. Honestly, insurance coverage on car rentals is not that straight forward to me. I took it because I ASSUMED alamo or national had a copy of the contract I made with EasyCar.. their partner in this transaction. Later, I found I had in fact paid twice. Asked for a refund and was told the terms and conditions on my agreement with easycar clearly stated I did not need to take additional insurance with alamo or national. Thus, my error. Now I have been told my insurance was with yet another company, an insurance company.
I agree I should have read the t and c’s carefully, very carefully.
Yet, I made the contract with easycar and their agent should have known this and not charged me for additional insurance. many emails between me and easycar have resulted in getting the same reply..
‘your mistake herrick’.
Sorry this took so long. has anyone else been through this or am I the only dumb one out there?
thanks
robert
Robert Herrick, do not feel alone. My cousin has the same experience. Even if you have read the t and c’s, they will find a way to milk you for extra income. That is the way these sharks work. I am sure you will not make use of this bunch again. Spread the word. I know what I will do.
Although I do regret it when someone buys more insurance than they may need to, this something that is beyond easyCar’s control. All insurance cover taken as an extra at the time that the booking is made is provided by Drakefield Insurance Services Limited and not easyCar. Liability for claims in excess of the insurance cover purchased rests with the hirer of the vehicle. easyCar do not provide insurance cover of any kind in relation to the hire of the vehicle and are not liable for damages incurred in the event of an accident.
During the booking process, but before your card was debited, you both will have selected the Zero Risk Insurance. On that page of the booking process, the following information is displayed: “…We offer you a Zero Risk Option (the official term is Excess Reimbursement Benefit). If you opt in for this, you will be able to reclaim the damage costs (the excess). The benefit of the Zero Risk Option is that, when you collect the car, you do NOT need to buy any Additional Damage Insurances that the car rental supplier may offer to you. Full Details (this is a link)…”.
Further information about the insurance provided is found on the second part of your rental agreement voucher: the portion that you retain and do not give to the supplier upon collection. On this portion of the voucher it also advises again that additional insurance should not be purchased from the supplier.
In other words, although I do regret that you both purchased additional insurance from the supplier as well as Drakefield, it is a matter beyond our control. As you were advised in the details provided when you purchased it, this insurance is not the same as the SCDW offered by the supplier. If you take this coverage, you should not have purchased the SCDW available from your supplier upon vehicle collection.
Jean Marie
It is not usual to leave reviews if the vendor provides exactly as require. Usually it is given only if above and beyond or way below expectations. As I posted earlier based on feedback of others I wanted a first hand look I was curious and made a reservation (2 in fact) with EasyCar and had back-ups at other agencies.
Canary Islands, Spain (LPA for 1 day & Tenerife for 4 days).
EasyCar did charge $10 for credit card fee which I felt was excessive as it should be a percentage of the transaction up to a certain amount but I didn’t mind too much because the cost savings (of the car rental agencies I knew of) did justify the fee.
Both pick-ups were without effort or incident. I supplied the booking voucher, drivers license and cc for deposit.
The local agency had all of my information (I won’t mention the name) and tried to push insurance but I declined.
Thanks Easy Car for two issue free transactions and significant cost savings.
We have just had a disappointing experience with Easycar.
Due to flight delays the Locauto desk at Milan Malpensa was closed on arrival and there was no way to contact Locauto.
Fortunately, we were able to get a lift to our holiday destination 100 miles away with friends.
We spoke to Locauto the next morning to arrange to collect the car later in the hire period when we were able to return to Milan. Locauto said this would be a new contract and would be chargeable.
We spoke to Easycar who referred to terms and conditions.
All in all, poor customer service. Locauto close early at 22:00 while most others close at 24:00.
It seems that Easycar / Locauto make active full use of their terms and conditions.
Reasonable? Not in my opinion.
EasyCar is a joke!!
I rented a car for the Easter weekend 3 weeks ago for collection at Marble Arch, London. Imagine my surprise when I showed up and Europcar, the designated contracter at this site, had never even received the booking from EasyCar. This was confirmed by the EasyCar call centre (which I reached after considerable expense and wasted time) with little in the way of an apology, let alone a replacement vehicle or immediate refund.
If this sounds bad, there was at least 1 other customer at the Europcar counter who had experienced the exact same thing.
This incident has wasted my time and completely screwed up my weekend. Most infuriatingly EasyCar has been sitting on my money for weeks.
There is simply no excuse for “customer service” like this. I will badmouth this POS company until the day I die. In the mean time I can only hope I receive a full refund for the rental and expenses incurred. I will sue EasyCar if I don’t hear back from them soon and advise other customers to do the same.
Easy Car is a Joke (part II)
I’ve”enjoyed” Easy Car services as Robin Martin did this Easter Weekend.
In summary
It appears that my booking was not transfered to Europcar like at least two other customers at Edinburgh. All of that despite the booking confirmation and a reminder email by Easycar and the money paid.
In Details.
The operator on the customer helpline (very expensive) kept saying “sorry, sorry” but we were left on our own with no assistance. When I got through to talk to a call centre supervisor, she only offered immediate refund or paying for the extra cost if I managed to find a car (same car class) by my own on Easter Weekend !
What’s next.
1) Look for a post from Jean Marie (Easycar Customer Care advisor)on this forum. He seems busy reading it.
2) Sending a letter to Easycar asking for all the cost to be covered (new car rental+ new insurance + train tickets to go where I had to go) plus COMPENSATION.
3) Contact Customer Protection Services to know precisely my rights
4) Because I’m very angry : write to few newspaper to tell them about it.
Bertrand
Referring back to Liz C’s comment above. It seems that the Easycar/LocAuto “partnership” is somewhat of a money making machine for both parties and nothing more. Since the huge problems I had, it has become evident that there is not an ounce of coordination or communication between the two parties – and this shows in their service!
Since my post above in early February, I received an email from Easycar stating that Locauto had sincerely apologized for the inconvenience caused and that they had asked Easycar to give me the refund I was asking for. The refund went into my account. However, two weeks ago, I noticed that Locauto had kindly decided to take £90 out of my account wihout any notice whatsoever. I do not know what this is for. I can only imagine that they are now charging me the pick up costs due to the car breaking down!!
Anyway, my bank are disputing the item and if necessary i’ll take them to court. Despite an email to Locauto and Easycar asking for reasoning behind this, i’ve not received a single response. This shows that not only is the Easycar customer care during the rental appalling, but also the post-rental customer care. Maybe they don’t know the meaning of the phrase.
To make things even more laughable, they have offered me £50 off my next Easycar rental – do they really think that the hassle caused to me is worth only £50!!! I’m sorry, but never, ever again with this shameful outfit.
Good luck to everyone, i’m afraid you’re going to need it!
Hello all –
Yes, I do read this blog regularly. I make no bones about it!(and by the way I’m a she not a he) Regretfully, it seems that sometimes people are more willing to put things here than come to us directly, or wish to make sure others know what they have to say. Therefore, it is only right that I do the same 🙂
I do apologise that the two of you were inconvenienced by the car shortages that happened at Easter. Both of you had refunds in less than one working day and I am very sorry for your experience. Unfortunately, at peak periods, such as Easter, it takes very little to go wrong and have a knock on effect. There was a car shortage which was due to some cars breaking down or being in accidents as well as some people who had cars not returning them on time.
In the unlikely event of a car shortage, we always ask that the customer find a replacement car and we and/or the original supplier will pay for the difference. We cannot find another car for them because, rather obviously our supplier has no cars. If our supplier has none, we would have to do the same as we ask the customer to do which is to approach any other local suppliers and see if they have a car. Because we have no business relationship with any others at the location, we cannot obtain cars from them, but you, the customer can. I do apologise for the inconvenience that this causes.
We said from the outset to both Robin and Bertrand that they would be refunded for their easyCar rental cost as well as the difference in cost for their replacement cars. The easyCar costs have been refunded and we will refund any difference in rental cost as soon as they advise us of the costs.
With regards to the post made by Mark, he was refunded on 20 February for the cost charged by Locauto. This was only three working days after he first told us of his difficulties following a breakdown. The £50 off his next rental was offered at that time as a goodwill gesture because of the additional inconvenience surrounding his day’s skiing which was missed.
Unfortunately Mark does not appear to have contacted us again regarding any additional charge made to by Locauto. There have been no emails received from him at easyCar about this new charge which is greatly dissapointing because surely his previous experience should have reassured him that we do investigate and also solve problems as swiftly as possible (three days in his case) for our customers. Had he done so, it would have been responded to as promptly as the original contact.
So Mark,If you would please respond on Incident 080216-000068, I assure you that we will investigate this on your behalf.
Once again, let us help you.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Well, this doesn’t offer any explanation for my experience at Milan where the complete five day rental was cancelled after our flight arrived late. We didn’t ask for a refund, just a car for a shorter duration. We got nothing. They kept our money.
It is still my opinion that this company and/or its parners exploit the terms and conditions.
I would just like to say that when I had a similar experience with a car rental last October, where Easy Car’s supplier did not supply a car.
Contrary to Jean Marie’s assertions, when I called Easy Car I received NO assurances that they would reimburse me for the cost of a similar vehicle if I went to another supplier, even though Easy Car’s supplier spoke with Easy Car’s customer care on the phone and told them himself that there was no car, and also offered to replace it with another similar vehicle. I also was not assured by customer care that I would even receive a refund for the car Easy Car did not supply, but had already charged to my account.
For obvious reasons, I had to go without a car for the weekend, because I did not want to be in the position of being taken for the cash of both the rental with Easy Car and the rental from another supplier. I was essentially left by Easy Car without a solution, when it was their fault that no car was available, and when Easy Car had been informed several weeks before the date of rental that there would be no car available. There’s no way of getting around this; it’s terrible customer service.
Several months after not receiving the car, or any alternative car, I received the refund. But it took several emails to Easy Car, several expensive phone calls of 60 pence per minute with customer care people not authorised to help in any way, and several blogs on this site, and on others, for Easy Car to finally refund. shouldn’t have been that hard, when Easy Car’s own supplier, calling from the business phone, with the cancellation number on the vehicle, told Easy Car there was no vehicle for me to rent. Not suprisingly, I received a refund only a few days after Jean Marie responded to my blog on Tom’s site. Coincidence? I think not.
I will never rent from Easy Car again. The business model is a total scam.
In reply to easyCar “Once again, let us help you”.
I booked a car and I didn’t get the service I’ve paid for. I do accept that problem could happen from time to time but here are few points I’d like to make (some are also valid for any customer service issues) :
1) Bad business practices can only be tackled if people (with valid claims) complain. Remember the airlines overbooking policy and the EU ruling to stop it or at least to protect the customer is a good example. So do as I’ve done, write to customers defence bodies and newspapers.
• The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian_jobs_and_money/story/0,,1079995,00.html
• The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/invest-save/questions-of-cash-easycars-mistake-was-costly-ndash-now-i-want-a-full-refund-394711.html
• Trading Standard to formally complain about the quality of the service
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/ (how to complain and get your money back)
2) easyCar should make it clear in the small print on the booking confirmation at least (or clearly displayed on the website) that in the absence of a car the customer IS AUTOMATICALLY refunded and his cost for renting through another company will also be covered. The first operator I spoke to on the phone only offered the refund. It was only when I got to speak to a supervisor that the second option was offered to me. Dear easyCar make sure your staff do offer the second option at the first instance to ease the pain of your dear customers. Please make sure that the car provider’s staff are also aware of this arrangement.
3) From easycar website “ By operating a premium rate telephone help line: the cost of providing telephone-based support is only paid by those who have a need for it.†That’s outrageous! The last thing I want to do is to spend more money with your company when you have just failed me. Dear easyCar please make sure that the car provider provides a free phone to your stranded customer(s) or provides a free helpline “car awolâ€.
easyCar is going to refund me for sure and I have experienced personally less distress than some of you have but I still do feel cheated. I’ve tried to be constructive to help easyCar to improve their customer service which is probably fine if you get a car 🙂
Bertrand
Jean-Marie,
Thank you for commenting on my post above. You are correct, Easycar responded to my request for a refund within the same week the claim was made. However, this new occurance occurred at the start of March and I copied Easycar in (easycar@custhelp.com) on my email to Locauto. It appears as though you didn’t receive this so I have today forwarded the same message to you. If you have not received it, please post here with an alternative email address as I do not feel that I should have to pay the extortionate amounts of money to make contact with you if my emails aren’t getting through.
Mark
Easy Car launched a ‘green policy’ in Sep 2007, with ‘a dedicated micro site providing smarter driving tips to help drivers reduce their CO2 emissions’. easyCar are committed to providing an environmentally friendly car rental service to help minimise climate change now and in the future.’
They achieve this by their staff not turning up to open the rental offices, or by taking bookings for third party suppliers who do not have vehicles available. No cars, no emissions.
They are reputable for being bloody useless. And who has to sort out the problem? The customer of course.
Jean Marie,
You seem to be representing the easycar company through your posts on this site – will you pass all these complaints further up the hierachy and get a formal reply from the top regarding the shocking service? Or do they believe this is all acceptable and not care?
Does anyone have an email for Stelios? Wouldn’t it be nice if he replied to this thread of messages spanning over a year of annoyed customers.
I’m looking around for a car hire for the south of France in a couple of weeks time, and I shalln’t be going for Easycar – just like every other person that reads this very useful thread.
You book and pay with easy but another company, chosen by easy, provides the car.
When we, customers, have a problem, easy tells us to contact the company that gave us the car.
This company can pass the problem back to the customer.
this is wrong. we book and pay Easy and they should manage customer issues. they do not.
And good luck getting escalation or resolution..
I am still trying after several months.
Rich,
There are literally hundreds of successful, trouble free and enjoyable rentals booked through easyCar every day, but regretfully only the very tiny minority who have a problem choose to enter their comments on this or any other any blog. When they do comment here, I will respond only if my comments will serve a truly useful and positive purpose or if I have enough information to advise them further (which I cannot do if I do not have a full name). I will not engage in online arguements or respond to derragatory or inflammatory remarks.
Although I comment here to clarify various matters which bloggers bring up here, this blog is not affiliated to easyCar in any way and any information left here by bloggers is not necessarily responded to or acted upon by easyCar. What I try to do here is provide advice in how to properly contact us through our website and clarify matters when they arise here.
If a person sincerely seems to have an issue which I can look into, I will always do my best to find out what happened, as long as they follow the correct procedures which will help us to help them.
Anyone wishing to have their experience investigated should contact us through the website http://www.easycar.com and click on the ‘online support’ message on the lower left of the page. All emails submitted by this method are responded to in less than two working days and generally within two working hours. If it is necessary to escalate to the supplier, it may take them some time to respond, so the more documentation that can be supplied the better to speed the process up with them. It is important to remember that easyCar is not the supplier of the car, so if a person has an experience that they would like investigated with the supplier, we need to contact them and cannot solve it ourselves in the first instance.
Although Stelios is the founder of easyCar, he is not involved in the day-to-day running of it or in any of his more than 15 companies such as easyBus, easyHotel, easyOffice, easyCruise etc. There is no email address through which customers of any of his companies can contact him directly. All of his companies have specific procedures in place for customer contact and any queries should be directed to the correct website for resolution and advice.
I hope that this has been helpful.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
In response to Jean Marie’s blog, it MAY be that a large number of easyCar’s customers have trouble-free rental experiences and only those who have trouble blog here. Just as easily, it may also be that a large number have problems and just haven’t seen this blog.
However, what is the more clear to me is that these blogs (and this isn’t the only website with these complaints) establish a pattern and practice of easyCar’s disregard for customer satisfaction, which, far from being isolated instances, actually indicates that it is built in to easyCar’s business model.
As an example, if I have a problem with a rental car company which actually has a philospophy based on customer care, that company will try to solve my problems on the spot, will try to minimize my inconvenience immediately, and will have mechanisms in place to ensure a prompt refund when lack of service was clearly their error. However, the complaints of the disgruntled customers on Tom’s site indicate the exact opposite. In other words, the complaints are less about the occasional issue of being left stranded, but instead about the company’s response when the customer is left stranded.
The question is — would you rather use a rental car company that solves your problem at the moment you are left stranded, or would you rather have a company which will leave you stranded, which may or may not refund your money 3-6 months after you are left stranded, and will charge you 60 pence per minutew and make you send several letters, emails, etc. to get the refund?
I think blogs like this provide an essential service by allowing customers to make an informed choice.
After my personal experience with easyCar, I will NEVER, ever use them again. I would call on all of the people who have blogged here to boycott easyCar and its affiliates and to convince their friends, family and co-workers to do the same.
Just thought I’d provide an update on the drama I experienced over the Easter weekend. True to her word Jean Marie did refund me the full amount of my rental and also refunded the difference between the rental cost and the train tickets I had to buy as a fallback (~£14 on sending in proof of purchase).
So at least I got (most) of the money back from EasyCar but this hardly compensates for the hassle, time wasted and weekend ruined (I had intended this to be a golfing weekend but hardly considered lugging two golf sets onto a train over the Easter w/e feasible…).
Based on all the other comments on this blog I can’t help but feel that the only reason my complaints were dealt with promptly is because I publicly aired them here.
Whatever the case, I guess I can count myself (relatively) luckily compared to most here and be safe in the knowledge that, just like EJW above, I will NEVER ever use easyCar again.
PS: If there’s one company worse than EasyCar it has to be the refunds dept at Virgin Air. After promising me a full refund for a ticket on the phone I have still not received anything 4 months later. Ba$tards litterally stole £454 of my money.
I agree – I think blogs like this provide an essential service by allowing customers to make an informed choice.
HI IVE USED EASYCAR .COM MANY TIMES IN LARNACA CYPRUS, WHEN NEEDING TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE YOU CAN INSTANTLY SPEAK TO A HUMAN BEING WHEN YOU ARE ABROAD. BUT WHEN YOU ARE IN ENGLAND YOU HAVE TO PAY A PREMIUM RATE TO END UP SPEAKING TO SOMEONE IN RUMANIA STELIOS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF HIMSELF I ASSUMED AS HE IS SUCH A SUCCESFUL MAN HE WOULD HAVE MORE RESPECT FOR THE CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE HELPED MAKE HIS MILLIONS PAYING 60 PENCE A MINUTE TO ADDRESS A COMPLAINT OF YOUR COMPANYS MAKING IS DISGUSTING STELIOS YOU NEED TO ADDRESS THIS INSTANTLY I GO ABROAD AT LEAST 5 TIMES A YEAR I WILL NOT BE USING EASYCAR EVER AGAIN.COM AND I AM ABOUT TO APPROACH LONDON TONIGHT IF THIS IS NOT RESOLVED MAYBE THEY WILL HAVE MORE LUCK .I AM A TELEPHONIST AND I HAVE NEVER FOUND ANYTHING SO FRUSTRATING NOT EVERYBODY HAS 24HOUR CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET I CAN NOT IMAGINE HOW THEY HAVE FOUND THIS EXSPERIANCE I HAVE A VOUCHER FOR A CAR I HAVE NOT BOOKED AND AM WORRIED THAT THEY HAVE TAKEN MONEY OUT OF MY CREDIT CARD YET I CANNOT GET TO SPEAK TO ANYONE.JACQUI SMITH
Dear Ms Smith,
All four of your emails have had responses in a very short time. I have personally responded to two separate emails from you on our website. In each of those that i sent to you, I have explained we do not contact our customers via telephone, but by email because we are an Internet-based company. There is no specific Head Office telephone number because of this. The only telephone numbers are the ones as displayed on the website. Furthermore, emails give both parties a time and date permanent thread which a telephone call cannot do.
I do regret that you appear to have a complaint, but until you wrote here on this Blog, you did not supply any information about what your problem might be. Even if we should telephone you from here in the UK, we would only be able to advise you to write in via our website regarding any complaint. All queries of this nature must be in writing so that they may be investigated fully.
With respect, had you responded with details of your complaint to either of my earlier emails which were sent today at 10:10 or yesterday at 13:33, I could be assisting you already with your query.
Your entry on this Blog is the first time that you have actually said what it is your compliant is about. Until now, you have provided no information whatsoever, except to ask for a telephone number which does not exist. The numbers which appear on our website are the only ones available for those who choose to contact us by telephone, rather than by Internet.
Although I understand that not everyone may have access to email or internet it would appear, with respect, that you do since you have repeatedly emailed us over the last two days but unfortunately are not providing the very basic information that we need to help you.
If you would kindly advise via our latest email thread of 080520-000041 which of your several bookings might be in error, I would instantly be able to investigate this for you.
I do look forward to your response via the correct channels so that I may assist you as fully as you would like.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie Feddercke
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
So I used Easycar for my week’s holiday in the south of France, even after reading all these comments. Eascycar were by far the cheapest when I was looking for bookings so I thought I’d risk it.
However, a few days after the easycar booking was completed online and you get told which company the car was coming from I looked them up on Google and emailed them to confirm the booking was in place.
The 3rd party company was ADA and replied quickly to confirm all the details and the car, which was excellent. There was no problem at all with the car during my holiday (remember that “no problems” shouldn’t be a bonus, it should be expected as you are paying for exactly that service).
From the comments above I think there is a bit of a “hit or miss” success rate when dealing through Easycar, but at least by confirming directly with the 3rd party hire car company I knew that everything was properly booked in.
Cheers,
To Phil who posted a comment on 31/07/07
How does one go about finding who the fleet operators are?
I was intending on hiring a car from EasyCar when I come over to the UK in July but this site has me a little worried. I have hired from them in the past without problem but I don’t want to be faced with any hassles, particularly as I’m in Sydney, Australia and it would be extremely difficult to deal with any complaint given the cost of the calls and the time difference.
Hi Cygnatius,
I’m jumping in…
here at easyCar we use a variety of suppliers world-wide, based on both value for money as well as availability of the car that you want.
In the UK for example, we use Alamo/Europcar, Avis and Sixt.
There is no need to telephone, because you can submit an query on our website http://www.easycar.com and click on the left hand side near the bottom where it says “ONLINE SUPPLOERT CLICK HERE”. Tell us what location in the UK you want to get the car and the size of the car, and we can tell you which suppliers we use there. If there is more than one, we cannot be more specific until the booking is made, because as I menationed, it is based on the availability of the car and one might have it and another not.
I hope that this has helped and that you will contact us on our website.
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Jean Marie,
Maybe you can help me with this one.
I have just booked a car for Venice Airport using Arguscarhire who have used another website called Car Trawler who have reserved me a car with Easycar. (The supplier was unknown to me until I’d clicked on the “pay” button unfortunately). Reading through all these blogs…….. who will actually provide me with the car will it be Easycar or another carhire company?
If the car isn’t available when we get there or the desk is shut(quite likely as most flights to and from Venice appear to be 2hrs late at present economising on fuel I believe)who do I contact at a non premium rate please?
I’m a little worried as we will only be in Italy for 2 days and won’t have time to spend hours at airports.
Many Thanks
Hello Concerned,
I look at this blog on my own time to troubleshoot is someone has had a problem and not had the help they feel was needed, but to be frank, using a blog to contact a company rather than using their own website is not really the best way to get a fast, full and accurate response to a general query.
What if I go on holiday or get sick or my computer at home dies or just for some reason I don’t look here regularly? What if I retire? It’s gonna happen… You would get no response, and be left with a feeling that easyCar does not answer you!
BUT… you would get a response quickly (within two hours M-F 8:30-17:30 and under a day at weekends) if you went through our website, http://www.easycar.com and clicked on contact us and then followed the instructions that I have put at the bottom of this response. OK? I will now climb down off my soapbox and respond to you. Sorry that I am a grunpy old lady on Saturday mornings. My friends tell me I am actually usually not a rotweiller, but a pussycat.
Because I don’t know your name, or have an email address (which I would have had you contacted us through our website – oops there’s that darn soapbox again!) I can’t say this with 100% certainty, but I do not believe, based on the limited information that I do have, that you have NOT booked through easyCar. I think that you were directed by the search engine to an Italian company called E@sy Car Palermo. The company E@sycar Palermo is not part of, or connected to, easyCar.com. or the easyGroup and therefore I cannot advise you if the booking is with them. Their website is http://www.easycarspa.com .
If the booking was made with us here at easyCar in the UK, you would have been given a 13-digit agreement number that would appear similar to this: 0000-0000-0000-0. If you do not have that, it is defiinitely not an easyCar booking.
There is no non-premium number to use because we are an internet-based company and that is how we prefer for our customers to contact us. The premium rate number is provided for the few customers who choose to use the telephone, and we feel that they should bear the cost of providing a telephone service, rather than charging all customers more per-rental to pay for the calls of a few.
If you still think that you may have a booking with us and not E@sy Car Palermo, please go to our website, http://www.easycar.com , scroll down the Homepage until you see the words ONLINE SUPPORT. Click there. You will be directed to an new page. Select ASK A QUESTION. Fill in all fields that are required (putting a 0 or n/a if you do not have what is asked for) and then scroll down and click on SUBMIT QUESTION. If you have not contacted us before, it will then ask you to create an account, which allows the email to be sent to us. Click on SUBMIT. A few FAQs may appear. The idea behind this is that a lot of questions can be answered without waiting for a response. If none os the FAQs help, click on SUBMIT and you will be given your personal Incident Number. I just did this, and the whole process took under two minutes.
Soooo, at the end of this long response, if you still think that you may have a booking through easyCar, please provide the information through the website and you can even put FOR THE ATTENTION OF JEAN MARIE ONLY in the subject field. That way, they will leave it for me to respond to.
I do want to help you…all of you, and so do the rest of my team at http://www.easycar.com.
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Despite the fight to demonstrate Easycar want to help its customers, I have a friend who has had the opposite experience.
He hired a car from Easycar via their website. The car was picked up in Italy, and in accordance with the contract (stated under “local terms” on the Easycar website), the car was returned with a FULL tank of petrol. However the fuel gauge was faulty showing less than what was in the tank, even though he could not get any more fuel in.
It was reported to the Italian company first thing, including the fact that the tank was full, but they deducted 15 litres of fuel from my friends card – obviously estimating the cost to fill the car by reading the faulty fuel gauge and not refilling the car with fuel, otherwise they would have been unable to get any fuel into the tank. The Italian company referred him to Easycar customer service.
Easycar responded by producing a statement from they Italian company showing the deduction for 15 litres of fuel, and Easycar are satisfied the statement proves the car was not retuned full, and any dispute lies between him and the Italian company as there is a contract between them relating to the terms of refueling. Firstly, they have used a credit card without refilling the car by guessing the value of fuel from reading the faulty fuel gauge. In my opinion this a misuse of the card details and just as fraudulent as someone steeling card identity since it was outside the terms of the contract because the car was returned full. Secondly, the statement they produced is not evidence that the value of the fuel actually went into the car – that would be impossible. Thirdly, the contract to hire was with Easycar and they should be responsible rather then leaving their customers to deal with an Italian company. Easycar said there was a separate contract with the Italian company for the refueling of the car.
So, unbeknown to my friend at the time the contract was agreed with Easycar – this is how it worked: the car hire contract was with Easycar which has to be paid before you get to your destination to pick up the car. Then, unwittingly, you enter into a second contract with the supplier (the Italian company), introducing new contract terms that you cannot see before booking the car hire, and therefore cannot disagree with (if you were aware at the time it was separate contract) otherwise you will lose the money paid to Easycar for the car hire.
At all times this was never clear and he believed the contract to be between him and Easycar. Easycar will not help and refer him to the deal with the Italian company. Easycar refer to their “local terms” on their website as a separate contract with the local company, which refers to the refueling term – this is shown under the Easycar name on their website without any mention of a second contract with a third party (the Italian company). Despite the term saying that refueling “is paid locally by you” does not say this is a separate contract with a third party to which Easycar have no liability. The upshot is that Easycar have taken money for car hire and excusing themselves of any responsibility under a separate contract to which they are not party to, leaving its customer to deal with a third party (the Italian company), unable to speak the language, and the Italian company refering him to Easycar customer service!
I hope this helps others to make up their minds about Easycar being reputable.
Easy Car? More like SLAEZY CAR!
Firstly they have terrible customers service – you’ll need these people when you find youve PAID FOR A CAR THAT DOESNT EXIST. I booked a Ford Mustang and when I found at they had those crap Chrysler Sebrings instead I complained – nothing was resolved in the UK cos .. see above — so I get to the U.S. kick up a fuss and get upgraded to a 4×4 – == still a load of stress for nothing !
i have already rent with easycar once and everything was great.But at the suppliers they wanted a huge amount(around 1000 euros)to be kept fron my credit card for “insurrance” till i return the vehicle.In my card I just had 300 euros.i used another credit card to take this amount.Where can i find this information?Where should I search?I ve read the easycar terms and conditions and they say nothing about that.Easycar is responsible or i should see the suppliers terms and conditions?
Hello,
To respond to both the recent bloggers above, as I have mentioned previously, I cannot investigate a comment here if I do not know who they actually are. With respect, a Blog is not the best place to get the information that you require from any company. It is much better to go to the company itself.
As I have said many times before, we respond to all emails promptly if they are sent to the right email address, http://www.easycar.com and click on contact us. I have also provided the head office address frequently. Therefore, if you are serious about wanting a positive result to whatever your complaint or experience, it is far better to go to the company rather than just blog about it.
Just to help you all as much as possible, here are somne guidelines to help us help you…
We do not guarantee a specific model of car, only a car from that group. There are very clear worldwide guidelines, using something called SIPP codes. In other words, if you book a compact car, the examples shown might be a Ford Focus Hatch, a Ford Focus Estate or a Smart ForFour. You might get one of those, or you might get another from the same group which is called CDMR.
I regret that if you are disputing a charge was made to you by the supplier of the vehicle there will be no records of this charge here at easyCar. In order for us to investigate the matter, I will need you to forward a detailed covering letter with the easyCar rental agreement number stated in it, a copy of the invoice from the supplier related to the charge along with your bank statement showing the debit by them. If you do not have an invoice, please enclose a copy of the document that you signed upon vehicle allocation. Please do not attach the documents to an email to send to us because our firewall and spam filters may prevent us from receiving them. All documentation must be sent by post. Please note that you should NOT send originals of any documents as documents will not be returned.
With regards to why we require something in writing in order to investigate a complaint about a supplier, under the Data Protection Act we do not have access to any information or documents between you and the supplier. The information must be provided in writing by you. For your own protection we may not, under any circumstances, request directly information from the supplier about your contact with them and they may not provide it. The Act is there to protect you and your details from possible misuse by an unathorised third party. I do see that the delay may be frustrating, but far less than identity theft would be if the Data Protection Act did not exist.
Please also note that your easyCar voucher does not include supplementary charges such as refuelling, added drivers, insurance, VAT etc. These are agreed and/or paid locally by you.
Furthermore, all insurance cover is provided either by Drakefield if you purchased the Zero Option when booking or by the company supplying the vehicle for rental and not easyCar. Liability for claims in excess of the insurance cover purchased rests with the hirer of the vehicle. easyCar do not provide insurance cover of any kind in relation to the hire of the vehicle and are not liable for damages incurred in the event of an accident.
Please send any correspondence to:
Post-rental Query
Customer Care Department
easyCar.com
Highbridge, Oxford Road
Uxbridge UB8 1HR
U.K.
Once we have received these documents, it can take from five to twenty-one working days for a reply from the supplier. We will endeavour to have an answer for you sooner, but under current legislation, they do have that long (and a bit longer) to respond.
I would also always encourage you to click on the links to the terms and conditions before you decide to complete the booking. The specific terms and condition for your rental can ONLY be accessed during the booking process itself, but before your card is debited. Therefore, if you do not like soemthing (the fuel policy or deposit for example) you can exit at no cost or obligation to you.
On the page of the booking where you select your extras and are advised of the deposit, there is a panel near the top which states: “Booking Details (View terms and conditions)”. There is a link there to the terms and conditions. This page is before any of your details have been taken.
Furthermore, before your card is debited for the booking, you must also tick a box which states: “By checking this box I acknowledge the terms and conditions detailed above.” There is a link to the terms and conditions just in case you had not read them previously.
I know I have crammed an awful lot into this, but I think that it is important to let you know as much as possible so the we cand do all that we can for you.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie Feddercke
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Jean Marie, thanks for your reply to the above but unfortunately my friend has done all what you ask and got no where, that’s why it’s important for others to see publicly to enable them to make an informed decision when they consider hiring a car from Easycar.
Thanks a lot for the information Jean-Marie but i have to inform you that i ve sent the same e-mail with all the information of my reservation at easycar.com and noone has answered me till now.and a final question:is there a difference between the super-mini cars and the economic cars?Because I paid a bit more to upgrade from super mini to economy and the suppliers gave a fiat panda(that is certainly SUPER SUPER MINI).
Thanks
VG
VG – all emails sent to easyCar to the customer car interface are responded to in a short space of time. If you did not receive a response, please provide your Incident Number and I will investigate. The number would look something like this: 080000-000000.
Mr Rivers – you are a third person commenting upon something to which you were not a party. Under the Data Protection Act neither you nor I should be commenting about someone else’s experience. If your friend was dissatisfied, please ask him to write in to the address that I provided previously.
As I said in my earlier email. A blog is not the place to come for answers from any company. Please ask your frieind to contact easyCar through the correct channels which will result in a fast response.
Regretfully, I cannot continiue indefinitely to respond here, on my free time, in addition to my full time job working for easyCar. I do it because I believe that easyCar is a good company and that I do a good job for them every day as do my whole team. It bothers me when people do not agree and I will always try to help, but this is getting out of hand, with people coming on this blog and asking questions that should be directed to our website.
Please contact me and my team at http://www.easycar.com or by post for full and correct responses to all your queries.
Kind regards,
Jean Marie Feddercke
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
It’s been interesting to watch the posts since we left our complaint three months ago.
Our flight arrived late, the hire desk was closed, the local car hire company cancelled the booking and kept the money. (Fwiw, it closed two hours earlier than major companies)
It is apparent that whatever EasyCars intentions may be, this is a flawed business model. EasyCar does not control the whole process. It cannot deliver a reasonable customer experience if it’s partners decline to be reasonable. And I think that is being charitable.
I just came across this site by chance and thought I’d let folk know I’ve used Easycar ha;f a dozen times now in UK & Geneva and always been pleased with the service I received & the great value. I know they subcontract but so do many many other businesses nowdays. Having worked close to customer services in a large reputable company I know that every company has its f*** ups & needs a Jean Marie to help sort things out (I’d employ her any day – well done).
Like so many other people I have been shocked by Easycar’s complete lack of customer service.
I rented a car back in May in order to help my sister move and provided Easycar with my age (24 years) at the time of the booking – when I arrived at the airport I was told by Budget (the company Easyjet had chosen as the local contractor) that they would not rent a vehicle of that size to anyone under the age of 25… something that does not apply to most other car rental companies.
I called Easycar’s shockingly expensive (60p a minute!) “help” line and was told that I would simply have to accept a smaller car and I could apply for reimbursement of the cost of having booked a larger car later on. I explained to the gentleman on the phone that this would not work for me as I had chosen a larger vehicle because – and I know this seems shocking! – I needed a larger vehicle! I asked if Easycar could put me in touch with another Car Rental Company (of which there are many at Stansted Airport) in order to honour their agreement and was informed that no they could not and I would have to take the smaller car.
I walked over to the National Car Rental desk and inquired into their policies and was told that they could rent me a car the size of the one Budget was refusing me. Once again I braved the “help” line in order to inform Easycar that I would not be picking up the Budget car as they had breached the contract that they had made with me by failing to provide the product I had paid for. Much to Easycar’s dismay I had the audacity to request that I have the money I had pre-paid (over 140 pounds) reimbursed – to which I was told I would have to apply to the company to get my money back.
This application apparently cannot be submitted by email – despite all Easycar.com’s transactions being over the web – so not only did I have to print off my Easycar Booking Voucher (something that they already have a copy off in their computer system, since they were the ones to email it to me) with my attached cover letter, I then had to pay postage from Canada in order to get these documents to them.
So, so far Easycar has not only failed to provide me with a Car, their mistake has also cost me a more expensive car rental as a result of not pre-booking with National Car Rental, the cost of calling Easycar’s “help” line in order to be told that they were actually unable to provide any assistance, and then finally I’m now paying for postage in order to get reimbursed the money that I lost as a result of their ignorance of their Contractors Terms and Conditions.
So I’ve wasted enough of my time and money on this Easycar debacle so far – but wait – there’s more! I receive an email from them a few weeks later informing me that they “regret that [they] cannot refund [me] for [my] booking” because I failed to read the Terms and Conditions which state that “The Minimum rental age is 23 years depending on vehicle group”.
But wait! Remember the part where I’m 24 years of age as specified in my cover letter and during the process of making the booking – and since the Terms and Conditions governing the Vehicle Group is dependent on the Contractor, a piece of information that Easycar does not provide until after you book – and have provided your age – it is really up to them to make an informed decision as to who to Contract out to… but clearly the the Customer Care agent is unable to actually read the Cover Letter that I have spent $7.50 to post to her… so now I have to explain Easycar’s Terms and Conditions and the format of their bookings process to one of its employee – and the person in charge of Customer Care no less, which lets face it says a lot about the quality of its staff.
I get an email back within days letting me know that I will be refunded my money. Now remember how I booked the car back in May? Well it was now August – so Easycar held on to my money for 4 months – and only agreed to return it after considerable effort on my part.
As far as I’m concerned all of these complaints are basic breach of contract issues, which put Easycar clearly at fault, and as such they should be working for their customer – ’cause let’s face it, I’m never going to book with them again and after hearing my horror story nor will any of my friends and family.
It is my personal opinion that Easycar’s staff are not really as unorganized, technologically inept and untrained as they would like you to believe, but rather that these are tactics in order to avoid returning the money that they have illegally held on to. These people are unscrupulous. Stay very far away.
And if you’re unlucky enough to already be caught up in this web of corporate corruption just persevere – they are in the wrong and if you keep fighting it they will eventually email you those magical words: “We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you.”
Hi there!
I was wondering whether you’ve got any contact details for Jean Marie or EasyCar Customer Services. I’ve got an issue with an illegal CC charge by the company, and in order to sort that out, need some contact details, at least, as there is nothing on their website, but enquiries I made were ‘successfully’ ignored…
Would really appreciate that…
Tatyana,
I believe that you have contacted us about an unauthorised charge made to your card. As I advised you previously on 2 September, under the Data Protection Act we cannot supply the details of any booking to you because you were not the booker and it was a different email address than the one that you used.
If you have cause for concern, and have no knowledge of a booking made through easyCar or easyVan, you need to contact the police as I advised you before on 2 September. If you do that, they can arrange the necessary documentation to allow us to release details for the person who booked and if this person is not known to you, you can then proceed against them legally to recoup the cost. It is up to you to go to the police if you believe that someone has used your card fraudulently. Until then we cannot legally do more.
As I have advised several times on this blog, to contact Customer Care you should go to http://www.easycar.com,
Or, as I have also advised previously, you can write to me at:
Post-rental Query
Customer Care Department
easyCar.com
Highbridge, Oxford Road
Uxbridge UB8 1HR
U.K.
Jean Marie Feddercke
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
This is just a small point but still a little annoying. I recently hired a car from Alamo via easycar at Sanford airport, Florida. The car was there on time and was issued to me with no problems, but it was a Chevrolet Malibu – I had paid for a ‘Chevrolet Impala or equivalent’, but the Malibu is a smaller and cheaper model in Chevrolet’s range, though admittedly still reasonably large. My point is that a model from another manufacturer can be considered to be an ‘equivalent’ but another model from the same manufacturer can’t if it’s smaller and cheaper. That’s like saying a Ford Focus is the ‘equivalent’ of a Ford Mondeo, which it obviously isn’t though it could be the equivalent of, say, a Vauxhall Astra. It was late at night and we’d driven away before I noticed so I didn’t argue the case, but I wasn’t pleased. The car also had a very noisy wheel bearing, but I put up with this for the two weeks as I would have wasted a day trying to get it changed as we were 40 miles from the airport.
Jean Marie,
I am sorry to resort to an open forum to ask for advice, but I have emailed easycar via the support form on the website twice with no response. I have also tried calling the helpline three times and each time I am on hold for 10 mins and then the line goes dead. At 60p per minute I can’t keep trying this!
I have two questions, which I am struggling to get answered.
-1 My flight lands at 22.50 in Milan. I have currently requested to pick the car up on the following day as I expected the office to be shut when I arrived. Once I had paid for my booking it said that sometimes the office will stay open. Can you please confirm whether I will be able to pick up the car after the flight lands?
-2 Will there be any additional optional or compulsory charges when I pick up the car (e.g. excess waiver, addtional driver, young driver etc)
Thanks
Arrived at Alicante airport at about 10pm and eventually found the easycar area (actually called aurigacrown) and off we went. After approximately 10 minutes my dau.ghter mentioned that there was a lot of black smoke coming from the rear of the car. We pulled up as soon as was practical but the car ceased to function almost immediately.
We telephoned the airport and were told that we had to call roadside assistance ourselves which we did.
After an hour or so waiting I again called the airport to ask how we were to complete our journey and was told you have to get taxis. When i asked if they could call 2 for us as i did not have any numbers being newly arrived from england was told that it was not their responsibility.
My partner mamaged to get the petrol attendant opposite to call 2 taxis for us. these arrived at roughly the same time as the pick up truck and we got to benidorm just after 1:30am. The taxis cost us 180 euros.
The next day we heard nothing from easycar or auriga crown and when on the next day at about midday we had still not heard anything we contacted the benidorm office to see what was happening. we had to go to their office in another taxi.
We were eventually refunded our taxi money but were told that it was not our job to call the taxis. the pick up roadside assistance has that duty but we had been misinformed. We were also told that the report said that the clutch had gone on our first car which as it was an automatic was quite strange.
When we enquired about having a car we were told that the benidorm office did n,ot have the same size car as we had booked from the airport,we would have to return to the airport to get another car.
They would not send a car to us, but would rather holiday makers waste their time running around sorting their problems out.
We had to hire a second small car from benidorm to drive to alicante and then hire a 3rd car to continue the holiday with.
This was on the third day of the hoilday so we had booked a car for a week yet had the car for just over half that.
When I returned the car after the holiday the petrol was still over 3/4 full though I had paid for it. i was refunded no money as ‘some people return it empty’. When i replied that i had not had the chance as i had not had the car long enough it was just more shrugged shoulders.
The whole experience put a huge stain on the holiday and is always the first thing we mention when people ask how it went. easycar have been very difficult to contact via e mail since our return though we even left our mobile numbers.
I think it is disgusting that they keep the money for the petrol that customers pay for yet do not use, tbough I am sure the next people get it for free as to sell it twice would be unethical and probably illegal. Should i hear more i shall post on here to let you all know how caring a company they are.
People should be aware that when you have paid your money up fromt you are always going to have a battle to get proper care and attention whereas when payment depends on care and attention this problem seldom arises
I had my trip to Zurich cancelled. This was “Unforeseeable events beyond your reasonable control” as described in their terms & conditions. I informed Easycar about this a full 4 weeks before the hire was to commence and a weeks after I had booked and paid for it. They refused. They had suffered no loss but rather this feels like extortion. I was going to recommend them to many of my business partners but that is now out the window! Where is upright decency and honesty? Easycar why don’t you do the right thing?
Since I myself have had problems renting cars through easycar, I have searched for reviews on EasyCar and while not surprised to see a lot of negative reviews I hvae been very surprised at how many negative complaints there are on the company. So I am not alone.
We booked and paid in advance to book a car in Reims, France the August bank holiday 2008. I had arranged to pick up the car between 10am and 11am on the Saturday- when I arrived at the address on my confirmation (and on the map) the rental place was shut. To make matters worse everytime I tried to contact the help lines I would get disconnected. Very frustrating paying premim rates from overseas and getting cut off everytime you get to the initial automated intro. The local help numbers on my confirmation also yielded no help as those who answered had never heard of easycar. We had to book another car from another outfit.
I have requesetd a refund as I never picked up a car, they say they aim to provide a response within 5-21 days and they will use the full 21 days. I am still arguing with easycar to get a refund with no luck. They are of course stating the place was open when it very clearly wasnt or I would have picked up the car I had paid for. The customer help section is probably the most unhelpful I have ever experienced. I am guessing they are not trying to rely on repeat customers or their reputation for business. I would not recommend for anyone to use easycar.
There must be a way we can stop the EasyThiefs.
I am yet another victim. My car arrived okay, but since my holiday, I keep receiving mysterious invoices and they are stealing money for weird ‘admin’ costs, for example the cost of processing a traffic fine that never happened. They are small amounts, but imagine how much EasyTheifs are coining in if they add a tenner here, a tenner there, assuming that most customers will deem it too small an amount to pursue? Jean Marie has been “helping” with my enquiry, but after several emails and threats of legal action from me, their tactic now is to bury their head in the ground and simply ignore me. If anyone starts a campain against them, I am most certainly signing up.
Dan
And while I am at it, Jean Marie,
You wrote “As I have advised several times on this blog, to contact Customer Care you should go to http://www.easycar.com”
If you can find your customer Service address by navigating the labyrinthine convoluted website you suggested, then you are smarter than Steven Hawkin. If I hadn’t come across this forum, I would never have found your address.
BOYCOTT EASYTHIEFS. NOW.
I am very disappointed by Easy Car services. I rented for three days in Italy the car. First the girl from company Easy Car did not understand English, besides contracts forced us to sign in Italian. But trifles all it still. We have received car Renault Scenic (booking AUDI A3) at which from different directions there were dents, and also the back headlight is broken. Because of it we were stopped constantly by the Italian police. We asked to change the car on what have received the answer that another is not present. If we do not take this, to us will expose penal sanctions.
Hello all,
I have been on Holiday and my goodness you have been a busy lot! I still say that this is not the best place to contact us, but the website for easyCar is.
And with respect to what Dan said above, it IS easy to contact us through the website. On the HOME PAGE of the website which is http://www.easycar.com, on the left, near the bottom, just under where you select your dates etc, there is a picture of a woman in a headset, showing our telephone numbers and just next to that in capital letters it says ONLINE SUPPORT Click here, and if you click there, you are taken to the page where you can do so by email. This shows without even scrolling down, and is visible at once when you go to the Home page.
And further to Dan’s comments, the charges that he is complaining about were NOT MADE BY EASYCAR, but by the supplier of the car, who is independent from us and is called Europcar. We asked Dan for documentation of those charges way back on 25 March 2008, but he did not send in anything to help us find out what the charges that Europcar had made until late August! That was a delay on his part, not ours, of five months. This means that both we and the supplier do have a more difficult time tracing what the charges might be.
As well as myself, a colleague of mine Lisa, has been in contact with Dan by email since August, before he went on the Blog here, advising him of what was happening. As soon as Lisa hears from Europcar she will update Dan on the charge, which was not made by us.
Now, who’s next? Per, there is no booking under the name of Per Andersen, therefore I can only comment in general. The terms and conditions to which you agreed do highlight the no cancellation policy, but if you contacted us as much as four weeks before your booking was due to begin, you could have changed it to a date in the future. If you provide your details, THROUGH THE WEBSITE NOT HERE i will investigate this on your behalf.
Kirsty, i cannot comment, because with only a first name i cannot find you on our system (which records all contacts), but i guarantee you we do not wait a whole 21 days if it is at all possible to respond sooner. That time frame is set by the suppliers, not us and we cannot respond to you until they respond to us. We often get answers from suppliers the same day we contact them, and that makes the customer complains that they don’t think we investigated at all, so we just can’t win!
Finally, Kestuis. You booking was not with us. We are sorry but the Italian company E@syCar Palermo is not part of, or connected in any way to, easyCar.com or the easyGroup and therefore we cannot help you. The website for E@sy Car Palermo is http://www.easycarspa.com and we suggest you contact them directly. I hope that this information is useful for you.
I have provided all the correct contact details for easyCar several times on this Blog, but here they are again:
Post-rental Query
Customer Care Department
easyCar.com
Highbridge, Oxford Road
Uxbridge UB8 1HR
U.K
http://www.easycar.com
Jean Marie
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Jean Marie,
My intitial complaint about phantom charges was in March. As requested, I sent documentation in the post. I heard nothing back, but decided the amount stolen was not worth pursuing. It was not until another phantom charge was taken in August that I decided to contact you again. Every email I send to you is either ignored, or a reply is sent saying you need between 5 days and 21 days. Well, it is now 40 days since you sent your first email requesting beteewn 5 and 21 days, so your responses are about as useful as being ignored. I have sent all the documentation again by recorded delivery, including a copy of the letter I posted back in March which was ignored, so let’s see if you carry on your policy of ignoring. Customer Direct will be pursuing this on my behalf after 7 days. If Easythief spent half as much time sorting out their operation properly as they do fobbing off complaints, they would be a lot more popular.
And another thing, Jean Marie, clicking on your friendly-looking lady in the bottom corner of your home page does take you to a support page, but I bet you can’t tell me how to navigate to any page that shows your address to send a complaint/enquiry to, for anyone who is bored of sending emails that fail to be resolved.
I feel it only fair to let you know that after threats of involving Customer Direct, Easythief have accepted responsibility and are refunding my account for the phantom charges they/Europcar took from my account. Thanks. But without wanting to sound un-gracious, it really never was about the money. It was only a few quid each time, but what I objected to so strongly was the practice that rental companies freely indulge in of stealing small amounts from customers in the hope that no-one will bother going through months of admin hell for just a few quid. Over time and with many many customers, this will add up to a healthy sum. No explanation was offered by Easythief / Europcar, so I imagine the practise will continue. I urge everyone to boycott them, or if not, then to pester them relentlessly for even the smallest amount they steal. Right, I’m off to book a holiday. Can anyone suggest a decent car hire company?
Prior to reading this blog, I reserved a car with EasyCar for October 12th to 14th at the Malpensa (Milan) airport. Fearing the worst, I was presently surprised. EasyCar had a desk at the airport and there was no line. The car was great, much better than the one I had reserved and paid for in advance. I would use EasyCar again.
I’ve just found this blog having been treated like something on the underside of your shoe by a customer service team leader in Lisbon. I cannot believe a company can be so un-customer friendly and down right rude. I have escalated the issue to the head of customer services Janet Garner as I will not back down on this. If I don’t have any luck with her I will be taking them to court. My correspondence so far has gone as follows:
Message 1:
Dear easyVan / easyCar,
I attempted to collect my pre-booked van this afternoon only to be informed by staff at the rental company that they could not rent it to me as I had a total of 9 points on my licence in the last 5 years. In the terms and conditions on your website it specifically states that:
“The driver can have no more than 6 penalty points on their licence (minor offences only)”
I would like to clarify that points are only active/live (which is the definition of “on your licence”) for a period of 3 years from the original date of offence. After that time the points are dropped from the licence. In my case I only have 6 active points (all minor offences) and thus I fully conform with your terms and conditions and I should have been able to rent the van.
I spent a total of 2 hours driving to and from the rental company only to be told I could not have the van which has now put me in a serious and unfortunate predicament. I would like to request an immediate full refund, compensation for my time/petrol going to and from the rental company and an apology. Please be assured that legal action will be taken if necessary.
I would appreciate your urgent attention to this matter.
Regards
Reply 1:
Dear Mr Jones
Thank you for contacting us.
Unfortunately, in accordance with the Driving Laws, the points that you have are expired after 5 years and not 3 years, thus you unfortunately did not qualify to collect the van from this location.
On the page of the booking where you select your extras and are advised of the deposit, there is a panel near the top which states: “Booking Details (View terms and conditions)”. There is a link there to the terms and conditions. This page is before any of your details have been taken.
Furthermore, before your card is debited for the booking, you must also tick a box which states: “By checking this box I acknowledge the terms and conditions detailed above.” There is a link to the terms and conditions just in case you had not read them previously. To view the terms and conditions without making a booking, go to the homepage of the website and click on the icon marked ‘Our Ts&Cs’, then select the location.
I regret that I must remind you that these terms and conditions advise you that easyCar operates a no refund and no cancellation policy in some cases. You can however, cancel your car hire free of charge within seven days of placing your booking as long as the cancellation is made up to 24 hours before your pick up date and time. Credit card fees are non-refundable. When cancelling after seven days of making the booking you are not entitled to a refund. However, for just £7.50 per rental, we offered you the option to cancel your booking after seven days of booking and up to 24 hours before your pick up date and time. This was shown on the booking page where your details were taken.
I am sorry for any inconvenience but I am unable to cancel and refund your booking if it does not meet the criteria as outlined above and I hope that this clarifies the situation.
Kind regards,
Dann Campbell
easyCar Customer Care
Message 2:
Dear Dann Campbell,
Unfortunately for you having done some more research on this I have discovered the followings facts. On the following official government UK driving laws website in section ‘Endorsements codes and penalty points’ it states that “An endorsement must stay on your driving licence for the following periods of time: Four years from the date of offence”:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/EndorsementsAndDisqualifications/DG_4022550
Now the penalty points in question on my licence have an offence date of 26th April 2004 so in accordance with the official UK driving law I had only 6 points on my licence at the time of rental and thus fully conformed with your terms and conditions.
I say again I would like an immediate full refund, compensation for my time/petrol going to and from the rental company, compensation for calling your 60 pence per minute telephone number (for over 60 minutes) and an apology. Please be assured that legal action will be taken if you do not comply.
I would also appreciate a phone call to confirm the above actions.
————————————-
They are now arguing that actually I don’t have to comply with their T’s & C’s but also Northgate’s who were hiring the van to me. I never heard such bull. Not a happy customer and I will fight this until I get my money back.
I had the same experience as Robert Herrick (4/3/2008) in that I paid for the zero risk option and was then charged for insurance on arrival in Ljubljana at the Alamo desk. I explained that I had already paid for the insurance but I was pressurised in to paying for more as the staff dismissed easy cars insurance.
I did contact easy car on my return and dealt with Jean Marie. Unfortunately I was not happy with the response I got. I was advised that it was beyond easy cars control if I chose to ignore what the website stated regarding not buying anymore insurance. I was made to feel that I was entirely responsible and no one at Alamo was. My argument was that why were the staff at Alamo not aware of the fact I had paid for the zero risk option. Or maybe they chose to ignore it as I am sure they are aware of this insurance. I had never used easy car before and I certainly wasn’t expecting a hard sell on arrival. I would also like to point out that when I made the above points to Jean Marie, they were not answered and I was told the matter was now closed.
Jean Marie, unfortunately I was not happy with the way you dealt with my complaint as I was made to look like I was stupid and that easy car bore no responsibility.
IN A NUTSHELL IF A CUSTOMER HAS PAID FOR ZERO RISK OPTION INSURANCE THERE SHOULD BE A ZERO RISK OF THEM HAVING A HARD SELL ON INSURANCE WHEN COLLECTING THE CAR.
I would still like to be refunded for the insurance I paid for with Alamo. They may not be easy car staff but they are still representatives of them.
A completely dissatisfied customer!!
Benjamin, No matter how many times they fob you off (and it will be many), or ignore you (a very popular tactic), delay you or stone-wall you, DO NOT GIVE IN. I pursued my greivance for 6 months, and they finally relented. I think their training involves “grinding down” tactics, in the hope you will give up, even when they know they are wrong. My advice would be a) Do everything by letters in the post, as emails are fobbed off or ignored (they will probably say they never recieved the letter, so do it registered). b) Involve Customer Direct, part of Office of Fair Trading. They are fantastic, and will gladly add their clout on your behalf. You can give EasyCar a seven day ultimatum to give you a final answer before Customer Direct follow it up for you. c) Shout from the roof-tops about how awful EasyCar are. I am seriously considering setting up a group of disgruntled customers, but wouldn’t know what to do with it.
Good luck.
Ditto Jason.
Cheers
Dan
I had the same problems as Jason , re the Insurance “Zero Risk” options . I had to pay TWICE for the insurance . Easy car are brokers . Best book direct wite a good car hire firm .
@ Peter Curran – can you recommend a good car hire firm?
Wow! I just heard about easycar on CNN in the USA. They were recommending it as a great alternative car rental service. I went on line to check it out since I need a car for Thanksgiving weekend next week. I certainly NOT be using them now. Taking money up front and not immediately refunding when there is no car? That’s just awful.
I will continue to pay a few dollars more for Hertz (I have been using them for over 20 years). Yes, they cost a bit more but they are totally reliable. You get what you pay for. I hope CNN sees this site before they continue to praise this company.
I was thinking of using Easycar to hire a car in Florida next year. Not any more! I’m glad I came across this blog before making what could have been a big mistake. I’ll be booking direct with Alamo, even if it does cost more. Thank you everyone for your comments.
What we must understand once and for all is that Easy Car are acting as agents and in order to offer cheap prices they sometines act as agents for the worst of the worst car renting companies.
If you have to use EasyCar or you think the price is too good to resist first check the company involved or else go with a reputable firm ,something I will DEFINETELY do from now on , I WILL NEVER EVER use EasyCar again for reasons very similar to the ones mentioned above
Hi, can anyone recommend a reliable/reasonably priced car hire company for Paphos Cyprus?
I just recently had a first (and I believe last) encounter with Easycar. Had I read this thread I would have never booked through them! (Serves me as a lesson).
To make a long story short:
my husband and I booked and prepaid a car rental
at Venice Airport via the easycar website.
At the time of booking we selected the
car pick up time as Wednesday 25th February at between 21.00 and 22.00 hours at Venice Airport.
On 25th February we landed at Venice airport and arrived ad the
Thrifty/Dollar rental office (the actual rental company) at approximately 20.50 only to find it closed. We enquired at the other car rental offices who told us that the Thrifty/Dollar office closes at 20.00. We also tried contacting both the EasyCar customer service and the Thrifty customer service but they were both closed at this time.
We waited from 20.50 until 22.20 in front of the car rental desk, in the vain hope that the front desk clerk would show up.
We had to find alternative arrangements for the night, taking a a bus and a train and sleep in a b&b and then return to Venice airport the next morning, all at our own expense. (Forgot to mention, I am also pregnant which doesn’t make things easy either!)
We had also left a note for the Thrifty front office requesting that they call us in the meanwhile, but they did not, and matter-of-factly said that they had written down that we were to collect the car on 25th February at 12.00.
I also called your Customer Service on the morning of 26th February, and the lady I spoke to told me that she/her colleagues would be looking into this matter and would call us back, but have so far received no call or email from anyone.
Actually, I managed to find the Easycar email in the meanwhile and sent a formal complaint, only to discover that I already had a “complaint account”, and they had noted my phone call query of 26th Feb as “solved”…yeah right! Their comments were only half true- missing the whole bit where I was requesting an investigation, refund and also to be called back with a plausible explanation.
After my email I have now received a reply from one of their clerks saying that they will be investigating the matter.
They better investigate it pretty quickly as a pregnant woman is one not to be messed with… what with all the hormones and all!
Will keep you posted on the progress!
Actually, here’s a good website that might help anyone who has a claim: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress/ecc_network/car_rental_report2005.pdf
It contains different examples of claims against car rental companies, and at the very end there is a full list of addresses of regional European Consumer Centres!
Cheers!
Ivana
I recently booked a car through Easycar to Christchurch, New Zealand. I did not realize but they do not actually have an operation there like the others (Hertz, Avis, Jucy, Maui), but instead work through a third party contractor. The third party company did not have a car for me when I arrived, and would not pick me up at the airport for me to even talk with anybody as they did not have any cars (there is a direct line phone in the airport to request pickup).
They said that they sent an email back to Easycar saying they did not have any vehicles but I never received any notification from Easycar. They also said that I should not be charged and not to worry about it. However when I got home yes indeed the charge was on the statement. I replied to my initial confirmation email from Easycar to request that they remove the charge but they are saying I will have to send a copy of my confirmation and my credit card bill through the post to their offices in England as their email system cannot handle attachments. I replied with the date, amount, and reference number on the credit card statement but they responded saying that I would need to provide physical copies of everything, otherwise they will not look into the issue. (Note also that if you need to call Easyjet customer service– to correct their screwup– you must pay for the call.)
Well the problem I had with easy car was easy to fix. Easy car was impossible to deal with. Even after many e-mails etc they were totally evasive and did not listed to us! I contacted my credit card company and they reversed to charge back to Easy car. I got my money back. Good old VISA came to my aid!
I have had a really torrid time with Easycar. I rented a car last December in Malta via their 3rd party agent Europcar. The car was in a terrible state with dented doors, blocked wiper jets and would only start with the accelerator fully depressed.
Anyway that was one issue, the second issue was an erroneous charge placed on my credit card 5 days after the rental. No explanation was offered for this via mail or email.
I raised both points with Easycar but only the first issue was dealt with. They offered sincere apologies and £30 off my next rental. The credit card issue was not even mentioned by them
I eventually got in touch with my credit card company who refunded the erroneous deduction. However after 2 months the decision was reversed and the money taken off my account again. The reason was apparently due to Europcar informing them of a “traffic violation” I commited during the rental.
Nice of them to tell the credit card company. It would have been even nicer if they had told me or provided me wtih legal evidence. No supporting documents were ever offered for this and it seems highly dubious that a traffic violation could be processed 5 days after a rental. Even giving them the benefit of the doubt regarding this matter, why was I never informed of this?
Anyway for me the £30 offer is risable. Why in the light of such shoddy service/treatment would I want to use this company again?
46 euros is not a vast amount of money but on principle I feel consumers deserve much better treatment than this and will not drop this matter until I receive some satisfactory answers.
Thanks so much everyone! Our family, from Perth Western Australia, were contemplating hiring a car from Easycar in the UK – Not Now!!
I will never use easycar again, booked a car with them at Faro airport and when I arrived they had nothing at all, asked me to get a taxi to my hotel and then come back the next day to pick up a vehicle if they could find one, in the end i hired from another company at the airport and they told me that easycar often let down customers by not having enough cars to cover the bookings, two weeks on and i still dont have my money back. easycar claim this can take upto 4 weeks!!!!you have been warned, avoid at all costs
FOR GODS SAKE DO NOT RENT FROM EASYCAR OR THROUGH THEM! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
The great new york swindle?
From: william ford (cafebroadband@live.co.uk)
Sent: 29 December 2009 17:59:28
To: easycar@custhelp.com
Thank you for stealing my money – in this hoax of a car rental booking.
Upon arriving at JFK Airport – I was met with the most ignorant – bad mannered American female that I have ever had the misfortune to meet!
My booking was refused because my plane was five hours late and she “needed a new voucher with a new date on it” so I was refused a car and told in no uncertain terms that it was my own fault for booking through your company!
I have began writing in earnest to The Office of Fair Trading – Trading Standards & the Consumer council to enable a thorough investigation of your company. I have just wasted nearly two thousand pounds on a holiday to sit in my apartment – as I had no car – nor any chance of booking an alternative – due to the Christmas period.
I have written to the FBI fraud protection agency so that they can investigate from the USA and I have commenced civil litigation to recoup my money – which will include the full cost of my expenses – including taxis and interest. I have written to the New York Mayor to make him aware of the corruption and theft that is ocurring within his City – which was an option offered to me at JFK International.
My associates are currently constructing a web site to warn other potential customers of the scam that portraying itself as an agent for National car rental – this site will be warning customers around the globe of the appalling scheme which leaves customers stranded at the airport with no recourse to remedy of any kind.
I have written to National concerning the disgusting excuse of a representative at their depot at JFK International airport.
I shall keep you informed of all further actions as and when they unfold. You have my personal assurance that I will not rest until Easy car ceases to exist and the international community is warned of the scam which is National car rental.
The Great Car Rental UK Scam That Is Easycar
Truly disgusted
William Ford
For The Campaign Against Corporate Fraud (2009)
I don’t think we should tar all web based brokers with the same brush. I went with Elephant Car Hire http://www.elephantcarhire.com recently and everything went smoothly. The reason i went with them is they only ask for a deposit up front with the rest paid on arrival (and they are cheap). So the risk even if the car isn’t there (which is was with a very friendly crowd Victoria cars in Alicante).