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Recommended and used by Thomson Holidays – Part of TUI

13/11/2003 

I have just returned from a short holiday on the Costa de la Luz in Spain and I have come across a rather nasty scam used by Europcar at their depot at FARO airport. It may well be possible that this is common practise all across Portugal but I can only comment on my case with specific reference to FARO.

The car was pre-booked with Thomson’s at what seemed a very reasonable rate of £75.00 for seven days. In line with all other car rental firms across Europe I obviously, and wrongly, assumed that this would be an all inclusive rate with nothing further to pay except fuel.

I was wrong and when I went to collect my car I  was quoted a rather high excess charge in case of  damage which I could eliminate by taking out an ‘excess reduction cover’ at a cost of 7.20 Euros per day for the smallest car in group A which, when added VAT at 19% adds a staggering Euro 59.98 [ £ 42.85 ] to the hire price, an incredible 57%.

And it does not stop there. All over the office and the counter at their FARO depot are notices offering a 10% discount on petrol if the car is returned empty accentuating that this option would reduce the  return check-in  time and the transfer to the airport.  Whilst I was there nearly everyone took up both these options in the believe that this would be beneficial.

It was not until I re-read the rental agreement later in my hotel when I realised how this scam actually works. You pick up the car with a full tank and irrespective of the petrol in the tank upon your return you are then charged for a full tank as per manufacturer’s specification. Furthermore you are charged a higher price than the petrol stations charge and you forfeit any petrol left in your tank upon your return. [ Petrol station price 97 cents – Europcar petrol price 104 cents = 7.5% surcharge]

They are clearly aware that it is virtually impossible to return a car with an empty tank and so gain all the petrol left by their customers.

And to crown it all – they never deducted the 10% they offered initially to entice you to take up this option.

We will be taking up this matter with Thomson as Europcar are their recommended Car Hire Partners, in the hope to stamp out this deliberate scam and hopefully be more detailed about the hidden charges which are not immediately obvious and we will also be contacting Europcar in Portugal to ask them what happened to the 10 % discount they promised in the first instance to entice their clients to take up this empty tank option which works entirely in their favour and is of no benefit to the hirer.

UPDATE 23rd December 2003

Europcar in Portugal have replied on the 17th December 2003 and have apologised for the overcharge and agreed to refund an amount of Euro 8.00 back to the original credit card.

UPDATE 22nd January 2004