We are former Lynnwood/Everett WA residents who now reside in Central Florida. We have travelled with Rick Steves guidance since 1988 when he had an upstairs store in Edmonds. That being said, we ran into problems this past August when we went on a 30-day trip to Germany/Italy/Croatia, a problem that cost us an additional $4K that was not budgeted.
There were extenuating circumstances that we had little control over that caused us to shorten our European vacation by a week and leave from Zagreb rather than Stuttgart that resulted in an additional charge of $4091 over the $2600 rental charge from Europcar. At the beginning of our trip, I was hospitalized in Stuttgart for 4 nights/5 days with a severe bacterial infection of the kidneys that was treated with antibacterial and saline infusions for several days. On my release I felt well enough that we could continue with the trip even though I had little energy and I still felt I had a UTI. On 8/6/2022 I had a relapse while in Croatia and was admitted to a hospital in Rijeka where I was again given a series of antibacterial and saline infusions and later released with oral tablets to continue with the medical procedure. The doctor in Rijeka advised that should I experience further symptoms I should either return to Rijeka for treatment or return home for treatment by my own physician. On 8/13/2022 I started experiencing some symptoms a third time and we decided that it would be best to return home as soon as possible and see my physician on our return. I emailed my doctor and was advised to go to an emergency room when we returned. We were able to get tickets to our home from Zagreb leaving in the morning on 8/15/2022 we felt safe enough traveling if I stayed very hydrated on the trip per medical advice. I did follow up with an emergency room visit and appointments with my physician, and I am now on weekly testing to ensure I do not relapse. The Europcar agent in Stuttgart had originally advised that we could turn the car to any Europcar station, so I returned the rental to the station at Zagreb airport on 8/14/2022 not knowing there would be a one way drop or premium station fee. Our initial plan had been to return the car to Stuttgart on 8/19/2022 and fly home a few days later, but we could not foresee the medical issues we had. Europcar refuses to negotiate the additional fees with us.
We have addressed the $4091 fee for the Zagreb drop off with Europcar customer service during numerous phone calls, advising them that the rental agent in Stuttgart told us that we could drop the car at any Europcar office in Europe and that there was nothing on the rental contract that addressed early drop off at other locations. They told us that we could access the drop off cost on their website, hard to do when you are on the road in our situation and just trying to make it home. We even sent them the medical records from Stuttgart and Rijeka to no avail, they won't even try to negotiate a reduced fee. We are now on a mission to spread the word about Europcar's business practices and lack of customer service, they are not to be trusted. If you are planning a driving trip to Europe, please follow Rick's guidebooks places to go/see and fully research your rental car company so you won't have a bad taste when your trip is over.