Naxos Rent a Car by Matha Rent - Leof. Naxou Eggaron

I would like to share with you my deep anger about my latest rental with Europcar's local partner "MATHA" on the island of Naxos in Greece.

I have been a loyal EUROPCAR customer for my travels outside Paris for more than 10 years and this is the first time that I have been confronted with such a situation and with people of such bad faith.

I have booked a vehicle (Nissan Micra) for the week of August 13 on the island of Naxos in Greece. To my great surprise, I was asked for a cash deposit of €868 with my credit card, whereas on my reservation contract, it was explicitly mentioned that this amount would be limited to €233.

The person at the reception explained to me that this amount corresponded to the amount of the maximum coverage in the event of damage and that I had no choice if I wanted to recover my vehicle. It seems inconceivable to me and moreover scandalous that once on site this partner did not respect the contract that I had previously validated with EUROPCAR when I made my reservation. The MATHA company decided unilaterally to modify the terms of my contract without informing me of it before my arrival and by putting in front of the fait accompli.

I would point out that I had made a similar rental a week earlier with EUROPCAR on the neighboring island of Paros and that I had never been asked for such a sum for this pre-authorization. So I accepted this request in spite of myself, knowing that my wife and children were waiting for me in the oppressive heat at the port of Naxos.

At the time of check-in, I was surprised by the zeal of the employee who took pictures of the vehicle from all possible angles for a good 10 minutes. In normal times, rental companies obviously do a full tour of the car, mentioning the few bumps or scratches if they exist, but it never lasts more than 2 minutes.

During this rental week I suffered a hitch on the rear bumper of my vehicle in a parking lot in our absence. I had not even noticed this minor impact until the vehicle was handed over and the MATHA employees carefully inspected it.

During the restitution at MATHA on August 20, this slight scratch was obviously noted and I was debited in the wake of an exorbitant amount, without even being able to oppose it (706€).

I asked for explanations from the manager who told me that this price was that of replacing the entire bumper.

At first I thought it was a bad joke: how could he justify the change of an entire part for a simple scratch on a bumper, and which moreover was not my doing?

I am convinced that this bumper will never be replaced and that this is a pure and simple abuse of this agency to inflate its turnover!

Clearly the policy of MATHA (which acts under the name of EUROPCAR) is to force customers to pay a maximum deposit on the day of delivery of the vehicle. And at the slightest hitch during its return, it pretends to have to completely change the parts by charging the high price by hiding behind their "DAT" application which supposedly assesses the price of the damage.

It's simply outrageous as a process!

So I spent for this week's rental nearly €1300 in total for a Nissan Micra (€583 for the rental + €706 to change this bumper), it's INADMISSIBLE!

In conclusion, I find this situation simply shameful and strongly advise you to AVOID THIS AGENCY!!

Julien BREGOLATO