Europcar Bulgaria Avis 22

Измамни !!! Ще ви откраднат парите.Тези са и за линч и за НАП.Аз лично ще подам сигнал за измама.

As many other reviews have said, this operation is dishonest and a scam. I hired through GoldCar which is a subsidiary of Europcar.

After we collected the car, we took it 2 hours south of Sofia. On the return journey, the car's oil temperature kept jumping into the red overheating reading. We stopped the car at the next safe place, and phoned Europcar, who asked us to check the coolant in the engine bay, there was barely any coolant in the car, and evidence of coolant leaking. Europcar said they would send a tow truck to us in 15 minutes. 1 hour and 15 minutes later we were finally collected and towed to Europcar Sofia inside a KIA dealership. They changed out the car, but ultimately we arrived at our destination 3 hours later than expected. Europcar offered no apology for this delay or problem with the car, neither verbal nor in terms of compensation. To their credit, they sorted the issue relatively quickly, but it still would have been preferable to not receive a car with a coolant leak in the first place.

To their credit, the staff at Europcar in the Kia dealership were friendly enough and got us back on our way as quickly as possible. Our replacement car was fine, and we made it to our destination and back to Sofia without issue.

Upon returning the car to Sofia airport, we dropped the car in the Europcar area of the car park, gave the keys to the Europcar representivie, and made our way to the desk in the terminal. Upon reaching the desk in the terminal, the representivie (according to the rental agreement a man called Galabov, S), said we had damanged the car. He showed us the pictures sent by his colleague in the car park. These pictures showed mud on the underside of the front bumper on the car. We told Galabov this was just mud, and he told us we were wrong and he could see the scrapes and scratches. Much like others I had not taken any pictures of the underside of the car. In fact, the vehicle condition diagram on the rental agreement does not depict the bottom of the car, so even if there was pre-existing damage here it would be impossible for Europcar to denote it. I hire 40-50 vehicles a year around the world and have never had a hire company flag the underside of the car, and as such I never took any pictures of it.

Galabov refused to accept this was just mud, and I knew I hadn't damaged the underside of the car, so I asked him for water and tissues so I could go clean the car myself. He handed me 3 wet wipes and I walked all the way back to the car park, got on my hands and knees and wiped the underside of the car down, releaving there was only mud on it - a common and unsurprising occurance in Bulgaria in winter.

The car park attendant then came over and I asked him to show me the damage, rather than getting on his hands and knees to look UNDERNEATH the car, he used the selfie camera on his phone to inspect, and agreed there was no damage.

Upon returning to the Europcar desk in the airport, my partner (who stayed with Galabov while I went to clean a hire car with a wet wipe), got me up to speed with what Galabov had been saying in my absence.

Remarks included
- My colleague is a professional and doesn't make mistakes when spotting damage - this is obviously untrue as he was too lazy to wipe the mud off the car, and also admitted he made a mistake when I cleaned the car with a wet wipe.
- You're getting a 50,000EUR car for 60EUR - this is completely irrelevant, and also is simply how the car hire business model works
- You only paid 60EUR for a week of car hire - this is true, but I'm not Europcar's pricing department, I didn't set the price, merely agreed to pay it
- We shouldn't have opened the engine bay to inspect the coolant level - his colleage on the helpline advised us to do this, we were simply following instructions

While my partner was telling me everything he said, Galabov piped up and told us if we had a problem with him we could involve him in the conversation, to which my partner responded that she was just catching me up to speed. To Galabov's credit, I'm impressed at his ability to realise he was being talked about rather than talked to, considereing his inability to tell the difference between mud and damage.

Galabov eventually finished all the paperwork for the car and literally threw the final receipt at us. No apology was made for his or his colleagues incompetence about knowing the difference between mud and damage, or trying to scam us.

If you're planning on hiring off Europcar Sofia Terminal 2, ensure you take pictures underneath the car, bring a set of portable car ramps so you can inspect the underside of the vehicle, buy a bottle of coolant to put into their poorly maintained car, and ensure you bring wet wipes when returning the car - in my experience 3 is sufficient but you may need more.

As others have stated. They charge you for damage to the underside of your vehicle which you would never think to check or take pictures of. No way of disproving the damage but they don't have to prove the damage wasn't there beforehand. Everyone will say this but I know I didn't curb the car to cause the damage shown so it is clearly a scam. Proven more so because they showed me additional damage which i can prove wasn't me, they will clearly just try to charge for anything and see what they can get. If anyone hires a silver Corsa CB2956ME and is charged for a scrape to the underside then fight it as I've already been charged for it

Nur Ärger. Kaution abgebucht, obwohl laut Vertrag nur geblockt werden darf. Ein Betrag sogar doppelt abgebucht. Rückabwicklung dauert lange und mühselig. Wir haben Check 24 informiert. Diese zermürben uns mit Papieren einzureichen, obwohl alles online verfügbar ist. Finger weg. Größte Abzocke ever.
Ärgerlich, weil das nicht das erste mal passiert.

On return of the vehicle, I have been told the vehicle has suffered a dent on the bottom of the car - this was not an area I have taken a photo of and they were not able to provide evidence, it was not like this before. Ended up with a charge of 400 euros and looking at all other reviews online - it seems this is a popular scam in Bulgaria, operated by rental car company owners. Well I can confirm, Europcar is one of them.

Never rent a car from this company- as others have said above, they charge you enormous amounts for damage that you have not done and it is under the car so basically you don’t/cannot really check when you take the car! Never use them. Scammers!!!! be Aware!!!!

This is a scam company. Do NOT rent a car from them. They call themselves Europcar but do not behave like Europcar elsewhere. They are trying to charge an enormous sum for damage that did NOT occur.

I wish have read the reviews before renting car from Europcar in Varna, Bulgaria.

if you are reading this, don't rent a car from them.

This is fraud company and running a scam by cheating people for the damage which customer didn't do.

Now I read similar experiences from other customer as well, they will point a minor scratch somewhere bit under which is not easy to spot.

They charged deposit money on my credit card and promised to return money in 2 days after returning the car.

After 3 days, sent a mail to return the money back, no reply, called them on 5th Day and asked them to refund the deposit, they said we have refunded from our side, talk to your bank.

On 9th Day, got an invoice and charged around 300 Euro for the damage on the car which I never did.

Company don't bother to give any picture of the damage, called them again to send me pics with date and time stamp, they promised to send but no reply.

On 10th day, sent a mail again to send me pics, got 2 pictures with very minor scratch in front bottom part of the bumper and other pic showing a cut in the tyre but no date/time stamp.

This is pure cheating, how can you come back after 10 days with some pic that something went wrong with car and no date/time stamp of pic.

Either they have some old pic and they do this with everyone or someone else has done it in last 10 days and they charge old and new customer.

I rented car at Varna airport from 12th July - 13th July.

Same problem as others customers, they took the caution for a small scratch under the car, that is impossible to see when you look at the car. It seems like they do it to everybody and they are a big SCAM, I can't know if it was already because of course I didn't check under the car before, but according all the people who have the same problem here, it is on purpose fo sure and it was already on the car. AVOID THIS SCAMMER

Wir haben ein Auto gemietet inkl. Vollkasko ohne Selbstbeteiligung und im Vorfeld schon mehr deswegen bezahlt. Als wir angekommen sind, mussten wir 2 Stunden auf das Auto warten und man wollte uns nochmal eine zusätzliche Vollkasko berechnen für 135 Euro. Erst nachdem wir einen bulgarischen Freund dazugeholt haben, war plötzlich alles ein Missverständnis. Trotz Vollkasko ohne Selbstbeteiligung haben sie 1300 Euro Kaution von der Kreditkarte gebucht. Die zocken einfach ab und wollen 50 Euro pro Tag haben, Finger weg von Europcar und Goldcar.

Never rent a car through them. They owe another company called Goldcar, which is still managed by them. Such a bad experience we had. Rented a car and in the next 30 mins the tire went flat. Long story short we have been advised by their employee to go and find a service and pay from our pockets, but when we found one and they replaced the tire and advised that we don’t owe anything. I asked why is this and then I was surprised to find out that they are serving their cars. I tried to speak to them couple if times, but to no adequate response from them. Employees were rude and acting unprofessional. The guy that I spoke to was Bozidar Boshkov - very unhelpful and unpleasant. At the end i had to pay 380 leva(190€) for a single tire, but take into account that this is written nowhere into the contract. I asked them multiple times to explain why there prices are not mentioned but to no answer. DO NOT HIRE THEIR CARS UNLESS YOU WANT TO WASTE YOUR MONEY.

Excellent car and high-quality service. Thank you

EUROPCAR SOFIA AIRPORT IS THE WORST RENTAL CAR COMPANY ! Do not rent a car from EUROPCAR SOFIA AIRPORT . They charged from me 480 euro EXTRA to day ; 120 euro for special insurance (SUPER RELAX) + SCRACH INSIDE THE CAR 200 euro .
When I bought this insurance last week no none told me “this insurance is only for outside damages״ . If you hear the title of the insurance”SUPER RELAX” how you can believe to this company that charges you for damage ? I am told that “NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR YOU WILL NOT PAY!!”
I paid for SUPER RELAX INSURANCE but they CHEATED ME TO THE END .
Also they charged for parking (??) , for fees , for taxes .. Any way do not rent from them !! Be careful!!!

Everything we hoped for and more.
We were helped by an english speaking staff. In the second week of our holiday we had an accident. They were more concerned about us than the car. Europcar brought us a new car in no time so that we could continue to enjoy our holiday without any problems. Really great service and nice people. Thank you Europcar!

Outstanding service, new vehicles :)
These guys are pro

You are better off on foot, really.
I regularly get my rentals from Europcar here in Germany and I'm generally satisfied with the cars and customer service. But Europcar Bulgaria is entirely different deal.
Crappy, old cars full of dents and scratches. The employees will try to scam you out of your deposit especially when personal handing over of the vehicle is not possible. This is what happened to me.
A bunch of fraudsters typical for this corrupt country. Stay away from them!

Do Not Use Europcar .
I have rented from Europcar all over Europe . But when I rented from Sofia Airport , I should have known something was not right , when the man behind reception said " You are probably better off taking photos of the car " .
This I duly did - when I picked up and when I dropped off .
When I returned to the UK , I got my invoice for the prepaid rental .
Surprise , surprise - an additional charge of £ 289 for " damages " .
Following multiple email exchanges with Europcar Bulgaria and Europcar UK - NOTHING . All correspondence ceased once I sent them the photos I had taken of the car . Europcar UK said they would investigate and get back to me within 28 days . Its now been six weeks . Not a peep .
I now have to sit and waist more time on them .
If this is not theft , I don't know what is .
I will never use the again

I rented a car from Europcar Bulgaria January 2018.VERY disappointed.Awful customer service.We paid for SUV because it was heavy snow weather,but we got a small Renault Capture.The guy there was arrogant and unfriendly...Do not use ever!!!