Ecrcs Avis 12

My experience with the European Car Rental Conciliation Service was deeply disappointing.

The process felt purely procedural rather than investigative. The decision relied almost entirely on the rental company’s internal records, without meaningfully addressing contradictory evidence I provided, including proof of timely payments and the company’s own admission of a system error.

The most serious part of the complaint — aggressive and threatening communication from the rental company triggered by their internal mistake — was effectively dismissed on the basis that verbal exchanges cannot be verified. As a result, customer treatment appears to fall outside meaningful review.

The overall impression is that the service prioritises confirming whether the company followed its internal process rather than assessing fairness or accountability. The outcome did not feel balanced, independent, or consumer-oriented.

In practical terms, the service added no value and did not provide an equitable resolution.

Submitted a dispute for a car rental with AVIS/Budget, waited two months to basically be told, not a lot.

I queried how did I know the photos AVIS/Budget provided were of the car I returned, what proof is there? They were random photos that could have been off any car. The video I provided of the returned vehicle clearly showed the registration plate. Their photos could have been of any car (possibly not even my one).... yet this was not been responded to by ECRCS in their final decision.

Additionally, ECRCS agreed that in my video no damage was shown of the returned vehicle... yet AVIS/Budget found damage 10 minutes later, having moved the car... how do I know they did not cause it? No response was provided by ECRCS in their final decision.

AVIS/Budget initially sent a final invoice agreeing all was OK and the car was returned with no damage, then next day they suddenly find damage... again no response was provided by ECRCS in their final decision.

In effect, I don't see any point to using ECRCS or raising a dispute with them.... they don't answer the questions you pose. They simply provided "text book" responses from Avis and agreed with them.

Waste of time.

Companies like AVIS/Budget are allowed to do whatever they want and are accountable to no-one, they make up claims and provide no follow up or proof. A shambles of a scam.

Dont waste your time with ECRCS. You'll achieve nothing.

Sent a detailed complaint to ECRCS, and they sided with the rental company. I’m not writing a bad review because of that, but because it seems all I got back after waiting 40 working days , was a generic response that seemed to completely ignore all of the points made in my complaint. I asked for the evidence/proof from the rental company and was sent a credit card receipt, an invoice, and an email from enterprise stating it was our fault. Not sure how that’s a proper, objective investigation. Finally, the tone in the emails is disrespectful and dismissive. As another reviewer mentioned, it feels like the responses are AI generated.

I would write 0 stars but there isnt an option. It is a complete waste of time asking the ECRCS for support, I dont even think there is a human working there - they certainly dont bother to read your claim and side with the car hire company

As with other reviewers, this is a case of a company marking their own homework. Completely sided with Europcar and no ignored customer complaints. Hugely disappointing but not unexpected. Do not rely on them for any positive resolution of a problem you may have with a rental company.

rental company (Avis/Budget Spain) gave me an X5 instead of Series 7 I booked, their reasoning is that "to them" they classify as the same car, while there are over 60,000 euros cost difference between the two when bought brand new.

complaint about the issue to ECRCS and they went "yap, its the same type of car" what a waste of time do not bother with those people, anyone that thinks that those two cars classifies in the same category should not work in the car industry.

One is a top of the line LUXURY sedan and the other is a PREMIUM SUV.

ECRCS cannot be impartial as the y are financed by the car rental companies

I made a complaint about Hertz (worst Customer service ever). Did not get any reaction even not when I contacted them about it. Looks like a butcher judging his own flesh.

I asked ECRCS to intervene and they successfully did.
Very happy with the results

We contacted ECRCS after Europcar at Venice airport took £228 from us for damage not caused by us.

When we collected the car on our arrival at Venice Airport, we took a lot of pictures of damage already existing.

When we returned the car, the returns office wasn't open for starters (it wasn't lunch time, they were supposed to be open) and the collection desk was too busy to deal with us. So again we carefully went around the vehicle, no extra damage caused.

Then over a few month period, Europcar told us twice that the damage was caused by us and told us it would be £228. We disputed this and sent them all of our time dated photographic evidence. They never replied but for an acknowledgment email.

Then £228 went out of our account after an email saying they were taking it, Europcar are very non communicative.

We then looked online to see what we could do, as we thought we'd been dealing with this correctly.

We found ECRCS, sent them all of the information and evidence and a few days later they had resolved our issue and Europcar accepted fault on there behalf (I just think they ignore email and expect people not to bother chasing the money!) and we got the money back the following week.

So do try contest it if you're being robbed. Nobody should have to pay more for their car hire if they do nothing wrong and car hire companies like Europcar are terrible for this.

If I caused damage I'd always be happy to pay for it fixing, but I imagine someone hasn't done their job correctly at Europcar and they've tried to pull a fast one or they take the money off folk for car repairs and never actually repair the cars.

Thank you ECRCS for an efficient, helpful service.

I had a disappointing experience with ECRCS. Despite providing clear evidence of deceptive practices by a rental company, they sided with the company, ignoring my valid concerns. Their lack of support for consumers is alarming. I can't recommend their service if you're looking for fairness and protection against unethical practices.

I raised a complaint about a hire company who had charged me £100s in 'damages' for their defective hire car. (A wheel arch trim had loosened by approx 5mm at one side). For vehicle owners - the car manufacturer admits fault and offers repairs free of charge under warranty. You'd think that'd be enough to conclude that it would be wrong to charge a customer for car defects. Unfortunately not.

ECRCS sided with the car hire company because the defect supposedly presented itself during my hire, completely ignoring that the 'damage' in question was for a warranty issue. "In light of the evidence before us we are of the view that the charges have been correctly raised by Sixt and we are unable to uphold your complaint against them."

Waste of time, and shameful precedent to set that car hire companies can do this and get away with it. ECRCS should be standing up for what's right and protecting customers interests, Instead they have supported practices that serve to rip off and unfairly treat consumers.