Europcar

Long queues and very slow service. Wife was offered an 'upgrade' from your compact manual car to an auto Volvo V40. Hard sell was given on the insurance even though we have our own. Roadside assistance was then pushed and also motorway prepayment. We had to insist to not have them added. On checking the proposed 'upgraded' car in the parking lot we noted lots of damage on the car including a hole in the windshield from a stone strike. At this point we asked to change car... Long story short, they don't have many small cars.. we were offered a Mercedes commercial Van which looked like it had been used on a building site.. meanwhile a young for who were on holiday were given off with a similar commercial Van with Europcar advertising all over it. They were unhappy and asked to change as they were not used to driving such a big car. They were eventually cajoled into taking it.. we were eventually given a Fiat Tipo that looked half decent. Also told that we can take it back without fuel as an apology for making us wait.. I don't trust them and will be taking it back full! BTW the car stinks of smoke and anything left in the car overnight stinks too.. will update after we take the car back.

Do not use Europcar at Faro Airport if you don't like getting scammed. I made two rentals but checked in with different names and credit cards. They claim that I'm the driver on both cars and charge me another 65 EUR's because they say they can't change the name due to technical issues. If they can't realize that I don't need to drive 2 similar cars at the same time and can't change a name, I wonder what they need personal "service" for. A business or a service employee for that matter that can't change a driver's name and want to lose a customer for 65 extra EUR's does not deserve to be in business. I recommend you use other alternatives - there a plenty.

Because Easyjet cancelled my original flight I had to rebook car hire totally incurring £50+ extra charges for the same car for 2 hours longer. When I picked it up I refused excess insurance as I have an annual policy. Undeterred the checkin clerk tried to sell me that and other roadside insurance which although I refused somehow got into the form I signed. I ended up being charged about £90 for this. I've protested but Europcar refuses to budge. Why can't car hire companies (in general and Europcar in particular) stop making their operations so stressful for customers?

Europcar is terrible. Use Avis or Hertz. Firstly I was mis sold an upgrade which ended up costing twice as much as the woman said. Secondly after returning the car at the time stated over the phone I was still given an extra day charge. Livid.

Service was ok, although very slow. Car was terrible. Covered in dents and scratches, clutch making a bad noise, stains on seats, not cleaned well and the windscreen wipers were defective so dangerous when raining. When I told Europcar about the issues with the car they couldn't of cared less. Will not use them again.