I have always loved traveling to Cancun, but for those planning to rent a car here I have a cautionary tale.
I arrived at the Cancun airport location of Europcar with my quote for $254 in hand for a 14 day rental, and my letter of CDW coverage from Mastercard, backed by AIG - one of the largest insurance companies in North America. When I make it through the line to an agent, he shows me the insurance offerings on the car, the cheapest of which was about $700 for my $254 rental. But no worries because I have my CDW letter and don't need to buy their overpriced policies. So the agent takes my letter, and reviews it against a list of "acceptable" CDW. Lo and behold, my insurance (PART OF MASTERCARD'S global coverage) isn't on the approved list. So I am told, I can't rent the car without paying an additional $700 for insurance for CDW which was not listed as being mandatory on my quote.
After a loud discussion and my returning to the Europcar van demanding a ride back to the airport, a manager approaches me and states that I can rent the car without the CDW if I place a deposit for the entire value of the car ($13K USD), and pay an additional $105 as a fee for declining the insurance. Mind you my quote for $254 was without any insurance coverage, so it is unclear to me why the penalty fee was not included in my quote. Seems like a dishonest way to do business all the way around. But without other good options, and fortunately having a sufficient credit line I agreed to pay this extra ransom as opposed to being a stuck at the Europcar location (our destination was a 4 hour drive away) without any transportation.
So they send me off to the car, a beat up Chevy Aveo with lots of dents, no cruise control, no Bluetooth, but OK. We used the car for two weeks without issue.
Then came the return to the Europcar location.
The Europcar representative spent an inordinate amount of time on the car and was messing with the trunk. After about 20 minutes, I approached him to find out what the hell was going on.
Europcar claims that there is a broken trunk lock and a stolen spare tire.
I absolutely deny that the trunk lock was broken at the time I returned the vehicle. We had the vehicle for two weeks and made several stops throughout the Yucatan peninsula. We frequently used the trunk, and the lock was never an issue - including driving back to the Europcar location with our possessions in the trunk, successfully opening the trunk, and removing our items - which would not have been in the trunk if we were having trouble with the lock. As to the stolen spare tire, I can attest that the tire compartment is hidden below the trunk. There was no walk through beforehand to show me a spare was present in that compartment. There was no request from Europcar for me to open the compartment and verify a tire was present. I can also verify that due to the cold weather at home, but warm weather in Mexico - we had coats which remained in the trunk for our entire trip. And we often had other items in the trunk. None of these were ever disturbed. The interior of the car was never disturbed. For Europcar's claim to be true, the thief would have had to bypass the tires easily available on the exterior of the car, break into the trunk without knowing if anything was in it, remove my items, steal the tire (but none of my items), then neatly replace the cover and return my items back to their place in the trunk. All of this without bothering to break into the interior of the car to check the interior or glove box for any valuables.
I told the Europcar rep that he was full of crap and explained our situation and refused to sign a statement of responsibility for the "damage". They then refused to transport us back to the airport because I wouldn't agree.
If you don't believe that it is possible that someone broke into the car under the above circumstances. This leads you to one of two possible conclusions:
1) This was an honest mistake where Europcar sincerely believes that a spare tire was present, and the trunk lock just happened to break between the time I handed the keys over and the Europcar rep inspected the car.
2) Or did Europcar set me up knowing that I did not have the insurance through them, and figure that I would not know to open the hidden compartment in the trunk and have photo evidence that no spare was present? Did they intentionally compromise my safety by sending me out in a car with no spare tire, then again compromise my safety by refusing to give me transportation back to the airport? We mapped the walk to our terminal, which was noted as a 17 minute walk down an airport road while lugging bags.
So what should it cost for to repair a trunk lock and replace a spare tire on a beat up Chevy Aveo? In Mexico? With no approval from me Europcar billed my credit card $870.85.
After letters to Europcar's customer service and contesting this charge with my credit card company I'm still fighting this. read more
