Europcar Back Down!
June 10th, 2009 
Uncategorized 
Paul
I try to keep this blog focused on photography, but I’ve just had a small triumph against multinational car rental company Europcar/Alamo that I’m bursting to tell you about.
I hired a car from their Gatwick office last month and when I returned it they found a bulge in the sidewall of one tyre. There is only one way such damage can be caused, and that’s by hitting a curb. Since I hadn’t hit any curbs I knew I didn’t cause the damage and so the tyre must have been in that condition when I picked the car up. Europcar had a different view. They maintained the damage was my responsibility and deducted over £60 from my credit card.
After a month of hassle, phone calls – holding on the phone to speak to people who never show up and listening to the inane garbage they play while you’re waiting (anyway, why do they think that hearing a recorded voice telling you how much you mean to them as a customer is going to help when you’re still holding after eight and a half minutes?) – Europcar today backed down, said they’d refund the charge, and wished me a nice day.
A victory for the citizen in the face of corporate bullying! Hang out the flags!
The moral of the story is that if you feel unfairly treated by one of these companies, badger the hell out of them until they realise you’re not going to give up. Then they’ll figure out it’s more hassle for them to deal with you than it is for them to surrender.
People power. Yeah.
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