Auto Europe, any problems......

I've never had a problem with them, but I have always confirmed my rental right away. I have done a lease and 3 rentals using Auto Europe.

I'm puzzled. Even if you made the reservation by phone, you should have received an e-mail with the quoted rate and how long you had to confirm. Didn't that happen?

We had a reservation through AutoEurope for a car rented in Frankfurt and dropped off 2 weeks later in Florence. When we were ready to sign, I noticed that the Eurocar reservation stated we owed 500E for the drop fee. I showed them the AutoEurope voucher showing that we prepaid for the rental including the drop fee. Eurocar printed out a new contract without the 500E and we thought we were set. After returning home and receiving our AX bill, instead of being charged a local tax of 17 euros, the 500 was also charged. When I contacted AutoEurope they worked with me get get my AX creditted for the double charge without any hassle. So a minor problem with the reservation, but taken care of without any issues. When I spoke to Autoeurope, they suggested that if the car rental reservation does not match the voucher, have the rental car company call AutoEurope while you are still at the counter.
I will use Eurocar for our next trip.

We had a negative experience in '09 when we showed up in Orvieto to rent our car & they didn't show any sign of our reservation. They didn't have any spare cars to rent so I got on the phone with AutoEurope. I spent over an hour on the phone with them & they weren't able to locate a car for me that day in the immediate area. We ended up taking the train to Siena (which was our next stop) & the next day we were able to pick up a car late in the day in Siena. I was told to keep all my receipts for expenses incurred due to the inconvenience & when we got home, AutoEurope reimbursed me for most of the expenses. What I didn't like is that my original rental was supposed to be through Hertz but the agency AutoEurope ended up having to send me to was Europcar & the cost ended up being higher than what Hertz was going to charge & AutoEurope wouldn't eat the difference considering it was their fault in the first place but I let it go.

Continued... I am now contemplating whether to use AutoEurope for our upcoming car rental in Italy and in spite of our bad experience, I think I'll still use them. One advantage is that they have a 24/7 call center so if something does go wrong, you can call. My upcoming rental will be through Europcar and I thought about dealing with them directly instead of using AutoEurope to facilitate the rental but Europcar doesn't have a customer service phone number which makes me nervous. Perhaps once you have a reservation with them they'll give you a phone number but I wanted to ask a question & went to their site & all questions are handled through e-mail. I like knowing that I can reach someone if I have a problem so for that reason, I think I'll use AutoEurope again. Plus, their price is better than the Europcar price quoted on their web site. I'm sure the vast majority of people haven't had a problem with AutoEurope so I'm confident that my next experience with them will be favorable. I also shopped Gemut.com & their rate was exactly the same as AutoEurope but again they don't have a 24/7 call center. Their offices are open 8-5 PST which doesn't do me much good if it's 9 hours ahead in Italy! I think you'll be okay but my advice is to call the rental agency directly prior to your trip to confirm that they received your reservation from AutoEurope so that you can avoid the problem that we experienced. Good luck.

I've used them three times without incident. They gave me the wrong car seat once in Orvieto, but that may have been a translation error on my part. Generally, they're pretty good.

I have never had a problem with AutoEurope, however, I have had issues with the rental car agency Avis. To make sure my rental goes as smoothly as possible, I call AutoEurope and finalize my rental with an agent on the phone. I confirm all extra charges and make sure I can cancel my rental up to the time of pick up. I have a copy of my rental agreement with me when picking up the car. Just this past November, Avis tried to charge me more for an extra driver than was stated in the contract. Years ago, Avis tried to charge us for cleaning our car after three weeks of rental. Now I reconfirm, and have the agency sign a statement saying that I do not have to vacuum the car before turning it in. In ref to your quote, AutoEurope will tell me that the price is not set in stone until they charge my credit card. So, if you see a great price and want to lock it in, charge it. You can always cancel it. If you then see the price has been reduced, (I'll check prices daily) you can always cancel your contract and make a new one. Have a great trip!

Dennis, I have to repeat Doug's question; "didn't you get an Email confirm"? We love AE, and use them for most of our EU auto rentals. One year we used a another company, and they tried to "slam" us with a higher rate. I learned right there to always carry a copy of my rental agreement. And I don't rent from AE without using my VISA to firm up my rental. If I find a better deal, I just cancel. And I have never had any problem with them not crediting my VISA.

Yes we did get a voucher via e mail with all the rental information but when I called back to confirm/pay AE said there had been an increase in price and they cancelled the reservation.

Be careful. There is a company called autoeuropa and their website looks just like the autoeurope website and it even has autoeurope's phone number listed! We have rented from autoeurope several times with no problems. last year I thought I was renting from autoeurope but it was autoeuropa. we didn't have any problems, but when we got back we got a ticket in the mail. I tried to call autoeuropa to confirm that it wasn't a scam, and that's when I found out about the two companies. I could never get ANY response out of Autoeuropa but my bank was able to confirm that the notice and deduction from my bank account were legitimate (fee charged to give the authorities my information), unfortunately, the confirmation from the bank came after the deadline to pay the ticket and now it will cost me more when I pay the ticket. I haven't paid the ticket so I guess when I go back one of the first things I will have to do is find out how to pay the ticket so I won't be arrested! on the upside, the way the euro is going my fine is getting cheaper.

I've forwarded a link to this thread to the President of Autoeurope. This just doesn't square with how they usually do business.