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.