On a trip to Ireland in October, we had to rent a car to see ourselves around. We booked the car online from a website called “Irish car rentals”, but it turns out to be a front for europcar.ie.

We had been warned about hidden charges for additional collision insurances (Collision Damage Waiver, CDW), and that one way to avoid those charges was to pay with a credit card offering some sort of coverage.

So we had this covered, but the pain did not stop here.

Perhaps naively, we assumed that any card that the car was paid with would do. As it turns out, the card needs to be in the name of the driver. Regardless of whether the card account is in their name. This is a bit of a bummer when you are waiting for a new card in that name to be issued, but you have another one for the other account holder. This was solved easily by changing drivers, but annoyances kept happening.

After the trip, we received a satisfaction survey, which I completed thusly.

The attendant tried to force sell me a bigger car, bigger insurance and second driver. I didn’t want any of them. He then told me that fuel was included. It’s only after checking the paperwork in the evening, as the attendant didn’t let me at the time, that I realised it was an option I could have declined. The attendant never mentioned it, but ticked the box saying that I accepted it.

The car was fine, but previous renters had smoked in it, which left a lingering smell behind.

This, rightly, seems to have alarmed some customer service representative, who followed up on the 13th of October

Europcar is focused on every customer having a first class experience. Unfortunately, it looks like your experience wasn’t as good as we would like it to be.

We would like the opportunity to see if we can resolve your issue. One of our operation managers will contact you directly as soon as possible.

Very well, I thought.

Today is the 24th of December, I’m still waiting to hear from them.

Bottom line: don’t trust whatever the unpleasant person behind the counter says. Come prepared, and don’t accept any additional fee without checking that you have no other choice. Or just avoid Europcar in Ireland.