Originally Posted by arrgee1991

I thought greenmotion were ok, giving us a nice car, VW Touran rather than expected VW Passat which was handy for the luggage, but when we returned the car, there was a "chip" on the windscreen. The chip was no bigger than a pinhead, and given how quickly it was spotted I suspect it was a known issue. Nothing hit the windscreen, except rain, for the week or so I was driving the car.

In the thirty years of so of hiring cars, I have NEVER been charged for anything but this time I got charged £90 for a repair. I don't know if the repair will ever take place. Maybe another £90 will be charged for the next hirer. I wouldn't be surprised if the insurance on the car covered glass damage.

Also another gripe is the shuttle bus. Although the transfer to the hilton is free, you have to pay £2.50 for each person to go back to the airport. And if you just miss one, you will wait for nearly half an hour for the next one.

Not really sure why they charged me as all it will result in is the loss of a potential customer in the future because I really don't need the hassle of making the claim, hell, I may have even done the bus trip again.

Ah well, back to Budget at Stansted. I should have stuck with them, as they have never given me anything but good cars and good service. Green Motion can join Europcar/National on my blacklist.

NOTE - Europcar/National were five hours late delivering a car and then offered an economy (Polo) rather than a compact (Golf or equivalent). When I complained they suggested I could go to the airport to get a bigger car, as it was Saturday afternoon and the office was closed. I told them to take it back and just crammed everything into our Fiat Panda which had a bigger boot than the Polo.

Originally Posted by Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

...
Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Originally Posted by LizFox

Re annual insurance. I'd recommend it every time.

We hired from Hertz in the summer and stopped at the supermarket on the way back to the airport. Someone'd scratched the car from pulling out next to us and we didn't see - but the guy at Hertz did when we got to Stansted. Cost us 340 quid for a scratch less than an inch long! Our annual insurance reimbursed the full amount so we got our annual fee back.

Needed for peace of mind. (The insured person has to be the driver.)

Liz

Originally Posted by Kurz

Do not be sucked in by a price of Europcar Stansted 'too good to be true'.

Europcar policy is to rent out cheap and later charge your credit card for phantom services. Please read on.

In January 2014 Momondo provided the most convenient rent-a-car at Stansted and we booked via CarTrawler for 2 days a car with Europcar. CarTrawler offered for € 6.90 per day an insurance to cover the GBP 1,000 own risk Europcar applies. Collecting the car at Europcar Stansted we were offered the same extra insurance for GBP 30 per day. We felt for a rent of less than 40 hours we could do without the extra cover. What a mistake!

We drove the car carefully, no damage whatsoever and returned the car at 23:45 PM at Stansted. Notwithstanding Europcar claim to be open till 01:00 AM, the Europcar desk was closed. We had to leave the car keys at the key return box. We didn’t realise that now we were a Europcar hostage. A day late our credit card was charged for an extra GBP 92.

We should be happy we were not ripped off for a larger amount.

Endless calls with the service dept finally revealed that Europcar proclaims we had returned the car with a scratch. A true lie that brings Europcar money they miss by renting out cheap and not selling you an insurance that costs more than the rental price.

Europcar is a rent-a-car company definitely to be avoided.