It was recommended to us NOT to rent a car unless you REALLY needed it while IN London. And that was SO true! London's Public transportation is JOLLY GOOD! But to really take in England, us Yanks had to brave the left side driving and get out on the road to enjoy the rest of what the country offers. So we decided to rent from this local Europcar Car Rental (affiliated with Alamo). I got there 15 minutes after opening (8:15am) and the party before me had some paperwork issues, so I was essentially first. The staff was on the morning cranky side, but apparently my accent screams "foreigner!" and I flashed the pearly whites and fired up the good 'ole Yankee charm. Things went smoothly for paperwork and that only took 10 minutes. Even got them to smile. So 8:30am I start the wait for my car. I didn't get out of there until 9:45am!!! Bloody hell!!! The party with the paperwork issues gets out before me and two additional parties also departed before me. So much for Yankee charm.
Apparently, garage and car parking organization within the compound, limit the order to when cars can leave. Doesn't matter if you're served first, you may not get your vehicle first. And they don't really tell you what's going on and there was no apologies for my extended wait. I had to ask a few times for updates. What added to my irritation was when I finally got access to my car, it was parked illegally, blocking somebody's driveway AND faced opposite the exit way. Then they ASK ME, the foreigner, to move the car and maneuver out of this TIGHT cul-de-sac. All the while, someone's honking at me while I'm trying to get out so they could access their driveway. Ugh! And for icing on the cake, the car was FILTHY outside. Caked dirt and white bird droppings ALL OVER. ALL OVER. I asked if this is normal for cars to be presented like this and the answer was, "We didn't have time to clean it." What?!?! REALLY?!?! Horrible first experience. Thankfully, our biodiesel Ford ran smoothly throughout our adventures and our drop-off at Heathrow Internat'l was smooth as silk. Hopefully, this rental car pick-up was a fluke experience read more