Comments on: Is Easycar reputable?

By: Robyn

Robyn — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:22:56 +0000

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.

By: Bamboozled

Bamboozled — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:16:16 +0000

@ Peter Curran - can you recommend a good car hire firm?

By: Peter Curran

Peter Curran — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:25:03 +0000

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 .

By: Dan Goldthorp

Dan Goldthorp — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:56:57 +0000

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

By: Jason Dainty

Jason Dainty — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:02:41 +0000

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!!

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:54:14 +0000

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.

By: William Creech

William Creech — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:02:25 +0000

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.

By: dan goldthorp

dan goldthorp — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:51:38 +0000

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?

By: dan goldthorp

dan goldthorp — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:17:18 +0000

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.

By: dan goldthorp

dan goldthorp — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:12:08 +0000

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.

By: Jean Marie Feddercke

Jean Marie Feddercke — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:35:13 +0000

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

By: kestutis Isakas

kestutis Isakas — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:43:30 +0000

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.

By: dan goldthorp

dan goldthorp — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:17:52 +0000

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.

By: dan goldthorp

dan goldthorp — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:11:25 +0000

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

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:32:24 +0000

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.

By: Per Andersen

Per Andersen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:51:03 +0000

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?

By: Mark Stewart

Mark Stewart — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:23:59 +0000

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

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:57:21 +0000

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

By: Nigel

Nigel — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:47:50 +0000

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.

By: Jean Marie Feddercke

Jean Marie Feddercke — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:24:47 +0000

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