AutoEurope no more 24 hour help line?

I am no help, but for my last 2 rentals when I checked Autoeurope first, it didn’t offer free cancellation! I don’t know if that is country specific or a new policy. Both were “cancel at my time for only…..” One was @$20 and one was @ $50.

This is the customer service number from their website +1 207 842 2094.

Last year while in Abruzzo I damaged the car on which I had zero deductible. When I returned it at FCO, the rental company printed out a repair bill and my credit card was charged. I then had to get reimbursement from AutoEurope. This was different since I was insured through AutoEurope rather than the rental supplier. A few years earlier in Turin, I had damage and all I had to do was leave the car at the supplier and they handled the whole thing.

Until I had to file a claim with AutoEurope rather than, I never had the necessity to contact customer support.

Thanks Philip for supplying that number, I missed it. I had called a different Portland number earlier today. I called the number...got an automated service that told me to file a claim through the website and then hung up. So I'll start there, but this is definitely a big change over previous rentals. I'll report back on the outcome in case anyone else is stuck back in 2010 like me...

However, I'm cautiously optimistic because I did pay AutoEurope for damage coverage so hopefully they will cover it. How did your claim work out - was it a challenging process?

We haven't rented a car for a few years but one of the reasons we chose them when we did was the promise of 24 hour service. If you had a problem at the rental counter in Europe with the time difference to the US it was nice to know they were a call away. Unfortunate that appears to be no more.

Looking on the wayback machine https://web.archive.org/web/20210711055044/https://www.autoeurope.com/about-us/ in 2021 they said "Our friendly representatives are available" in a dangling sentence so it looks like they had chopped off the 24x7 from the end of the sentence. Although there is a graphic on that same page that says "reach us 24x7".

In 2019 at https://web.archive.org/web/20190212193915/https://www.autoeurope.com/about%2Dus/ they said "Our friendly representatives are available 24/7 so you will always find someone who is ready to go that extra mile to ensure you are completely satisfied" right in the text of the page.

Nelly, check the rental voucher that AE emailed you. Buried on page 4 was the following -
ASSISTANCE OUTSIDE OFFICE HOURS
If you need assistance with your ongoing rental or picking up your car outside office hours, please call our dedicated support team on +49 89 220 61 492. The line is open Monday to Sunday, from 7:30 to 23:00 (CET), and assistance will be provided in English only. During office hours, please call +49 89 412 07 269. All car rates are guaranteed in EURO , all local fees are billed in local currency.

To obtain a better rate on the car, I rented from their AutoEurope.eu website which is why the #s above are in Germany. The only glitch in getting the reimbursement was that they could only transfer funds using the European IBAN system so they could not electronically transfer to my US bank which uses SWIFT. Fortunately I have an account at Wise that could receive the funds. I’m assuming that you used the US website so that should not be a problem.

Closing the loop on this story. Indeed, it is next to impossible to talk to an AutoEurope customer service agent. The one time I did reach someone to ask a question about how to respond to a field on the claim form, the person got very snippy with me. However, the automated insurance reimbursement process did work once I figured it out and I was paid in full for my out of pocket costs within two weeks.

The process was not as satisfactory as before, when AE was so responsive, but it worked. I will probably continue to use AutoEurope but have reset my expectations.

Very interesting. Thanks for drawing our attention to this, Nelly. It's a shame they have changed their business model. I am glad you ended up with your reimbursement.

Thanks for this very helpful, interesting post. I, too, have used AutoEurope for years. Recently when reserving a car rental at London Heathrow, I wanted to speak to a "live" representative to be sure my reservation had 0 insurance deductible. I called the phone number I've used for AutoEurope in the past and (as I recall) received no answer. I wondered if their phone number had changed so looked on the website for a new number/couldn't find a phone number at all. I then sent an email message asking for a phone number and received an email response. When I called the number, I made my reservation, but the representative didn't sound as friendly as those in the past, and based on his greeting ("Good afternoon" when it was 9:00 a.m. in the US), I'm guessing I was speaking to someone outside the US.

In summary, the whole experience of contacting AutoEurope and making the reservation seemed very different from my experience in the past. I am pondering whether to continue renting through them in the future.

The Auto Europe decline in service has been one of the biggest disappointments in my travel planning.

I had used them since the 1990s, but after a really frustrating situation in 2024, I realized they had abandoned their commitment to customer service.

You can still get good prices through Auto Europe, but you’ll be dealing with any aggravation on your own with the actual rental agency.