Fraud warning Enterprise Car Rentals in Europe

nothing reported here by this first-time poster is really a surprise. It has long been discussed here that when you book a car in Europe on a US car rental site (Avis, Hertz, Enterprise, etc) they are just helping you as a "courtesy" but your contract is actually with the foreign operator licensing the brand name. Expect difficulties if there is a problem with the rental and you call the US operator for help; they'll wash their hands of it and tell you to work with the company you actually rented the car from.

Next time you rent a car in Europe, you may want to check with this firm - https://www.gemut.com/ . I believe they have a U.S. toll free number and they will handle all the details for you.

When I returned my Budget rental car in England, I received an invoice almost 70 percent higher than the quoted price on Expedia. I have disputed the bill with Budget, and if they don't satisfy me I'll take the dispute to Visa. Disappointing stuff.

"When you pick up the car, you will get a contact NOT IN ENGLISH"

You rented a car in Germany and were surprised to find the documentation was in German?

In pricing, it very clearly shows the € price under the USD price, and says "**Converted amounts are estimates and are subject to changes as exchange rates vary." And "you will be charged in EUR".

There's a link to terms and conditions showing that your agreement is with Enterprise Autovermeitung Deutschland of Frankfurt.

You are clearly unhappy, but you entered into this agreement when you clicked ti accept their terms.

This has NOT been my experience with car rentals in Europe. My first European rental was 27 years ago and I believe that I have rented over 25 different times. Most recently I rented an Avis car rented for 3 weeks in France and invoiced for the exact amount quoted in the original quote (via Priceline); ditto for Europcar in England and, hopefully, an upcoming Hertz rental in Spain.
Perhaps AUTOEUROPE might be a good resource for those who are hesitant about European car rentals.

We have rented many times from different major companies through AutoEurope and have always had plenty of local charges to pay: second driver, road tax, daily this or that. In fact, the only time we haven't had extra charges is when we lease a car longer term.

The original agreement was on a US site. I also read the FINE PRINT, nothing about T&C in Germany. I was booking through an AMERICAN company for service delivery in Germany. If the German company is separate, why did they not indicate it?

If you bought a BMW from a US dealer for German delivery, the contract is created in the US and paid from the US BMW company. SImilarly, if you buy any product from China purchased through their US division, it is settled in US dollars and bill in the US.

Why is a car rental, a PRODUCT, any different?

Worse part is this. No one from Enterprise customer support has returned my calls or emails for 6 weeks. That tells me that they simply do not care anymore about customer service. Sad, as they use be the only company I dealt with.

I'm sorry for the problems with your rental agreement. This won't help your current problem, but may help others. For future reference, Auto Europe is a US company acting as a consolidator with major rental car companies all over Europe. I rented through them several years ago in Italy without problems. Reviews on the forum have been good.
https://www.autoeurope.com/

The original agreement was on a US site. I also read the FINE PRINT, nothing about T&C in Germany. I was booking through an AMERICAN company for service delivery in Germany. If the German company is separate, why did they not indicate it?

Your car was from their subsidiary or affiliate (document doesn't indicate which) "Enterprise Autovermietung Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG" according to https://privacy.ehi.com/en-gb/home/subsidiaries.html .

Enterprise USA won't discuss it any further. All they did was help set up the rental with the German site, they didn't rent you a car. Problems, you need to take it up with Enterprise Autovermietung Deutschland. Sorry you didn't realize this.

I am sympathetic, especially since this seems to be a first time Enterprise European rental.

I can’t help with this situation, but I have rented from enterprise in “Europe” twice fairly recently - but not on a U.S. site: most recently in Wales and in England a year or so ago. The charges and terms were exactly what I was quoted (and not in dollars), but I booked through the website listed for the location from which I wanted to rent.

I understand your logic, but it sounds like this was a learning process on how things work in international car rental. Europe is a pretty big area, with a lot of different countries, and blasting “Enterprise in Europe” doesn’t lend a lot of credibility to your situation. And sometimes just because one way of doing things makes sense to me doesn’t mean there isn’t a different way - and I simply wasn’t aware.

"I was booking through an AMERICAN company for service delivery in Germany. If the German company is separate, why did they not indicate it?"

They do. When you book a car for Germany on the US site, it has a link to terms and conditions. These state that your agreement is with Enterprise Autovermietung Deutschland. The terms and conditions are (not surprisingly) in German, and the pricing is in Euros. It's not an American company you were dealing with - Enterprise operates globally through a network of subsidiaries and franchisees, and these are the entities you contract with.

I once rented thru Gemut. Oddly, they rented the car thru Autoeurope, which I can do myself. Then I had difficulty picking up the car in Lisbon because the local Europcar office could not get their cardreader to accept my American Express. I needed to use the AMEX because AMEX was used to reserve the car, and all charges need to be on the same card in order to take advantage of the CDW. I contacted AMEX and they could see that there were no attempts made on my card. I couldn't reach Gemut by phone. I ended up leaving a message and four hours later and after we had left the rental car office, I got a call back from Gemut. In the end, it was Autoeurope that resolved the situation. Gemut just added another layer to the transaction with no benefit to me.