Europcar Firenze Via Borgognissanti

Incompetent customer service team and dodgy ad anything. We have been charged $1500 4 months after our rental for an internal bumper sensor that they are claiming was damaged during our possession when the car was returned in perfect condition. They can't provide any proof of impact damage and are incompetent at customer service and won't answer any questions to resolve the matter. Currently disputing via Australian car rental conciliation services. Not worth the stress and hassle, get the train or anything but stay clear from Europecar throughout all of Italy.

Horrible customer service, very unprofessional staff. You feel like they are doing you a favor. To make things even worse, months after the car was returned, I've got an additional charge on my credit card. They said it was related to fees for "preparing a damage report" - altought the car was fully insured and, for this very reason, there was no pre inspection of the car during the check out. On top of that, when returning the car in Venice on a Saturday afternoon their office was closed and I had to leave the car in a carpark (and paid extra for it!) over the weekend - so I wasn't there when they prepared their "damage report". Never again Europcar Italy!!

Great fast service. Had the exact car we had in mind. They spoke great English.

We picked up our vehicle in Florence. At pickup they didn't have the car we reserved (we reserved an Audi A3 and specifically wanted a sedan). The car we received had a quarter of a tank of gas, though they marked it as having a full tank of gas on our contract. The car was defective and broke down in less than 5 miles of driving. We had to wait over 1.5 hours for a tow. We were told that we had to get a taxi to take us to pick up another car and that we would be reimbursed for the taxi (27.7 EUR) when we picked up the replacement vehicle. We were not reimbursed at the counter and were told that Europcar would evaluate the request and credit the taxi to our credit card. It has been 11 days and my account has still not been credited and customer service can only tell me that it is being investigated. When we called in the mechanical issue we were also told that we could trade out the car for an automatic at no cost since the original car broke down. When we picked up the replacement car they tried to charge us an additional 31EUR/day and ultimately charged us 16EUR/day extra (this is way above market ... when I book online the cost difference for an automatic is only 5 EUR - 10 EUR/day). We had already missed one pre-wedding event and didn't have the time to argue about not being reimbursed for the taxi and the upcharge for and automatic, so we took the car and decided to work through the issues with customer service. It took us 5 hours from the time we showed up to get the original car to the time we drove away in our replacement vehicle. To top things off, when we received the final invoice we noticed that they charged us in USD vs EUR and tacked on a 3.25% fee (our credit card uses a more favorable exchange rate and doesn't charge us foreign transaction fees ... I never asked to be charged in USD and wanted to be charged in EUR). There was no sense of accountability, urgency, or empathy throughout this entire ordeal. This is by far the worst car rental experience that we have ever had!

Very easy experience and an awesome rental. Will come back again thanks!

Car pick-up went pretty smooth, it took 20-30 minutes waiting in line, but that's OK for me. The office is situated in one place, the car pick-up is located a block away. When signing rental agreement you physically can't be at two different locations simultaneously. So the car was stated as "NO DAMAGE", when I asked a question about that - the staff told me that I can check everything for myself when I see the car. And yes - it had at least 4 damaged body parts! The guys at pick-up said "it's OK". Overall car condition was very good. The fun part began at the return point in Milan. The staff member was pointing finger at me, and shouting that I will pay for the damage that someone else did before me. So the decision to take pictures of damaged parts at pick-up was great idea. After a phone call to the Florence office the staff with a confused face closed the contract. And that's it. No apologies. It was my first experience with car rental and I'm still in a confused state. Should I try another rental company next time? Or was it pure "Italian" feature?

Check your car for every single dent, marks, scratches, etc before you start driving it. I’ve always trusted that the car rental company (mistake to asume trust) is capturing all issues before they give you the car but not the case with Europcar. I had the full coverage and did not have to pay but they sent the statement of return with a “2 cm scratch on the rear wing”… crazy. Not sure how that happened.

Easy pick up experience, the car pickup is at a garage across the street. The front desk person was helpful and the car was ready to go when we walked over. The only negative was there were a few dents and dings not listed on the contract which I went over with the guy at pickup to have them added. This is why it is important to take pictures and go over the vehicle at pickup so you won't get charged for damage someone else committed. Overall, smooth first experience picking up a rental car in a foreign country. If you choose to drive in Italy it is important to learn the road signs and locations of ZTL and autovelox along the routes you'll be taking. Also, Italian's have a far more aggressive driving style than Americans in general, you must be decisive and alert at all times on their roadways.