Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
I thought it was just me who was having problems with Easycar. I'm having the same deposit problems. It was never mentioned to me that I needed to complete a reclaim form to get the money back. This policy is pure deceit. While you are waiting the 30 days for your money to be returned, your reclaim time is expiring. My emails have been answered with those useless automatic responses, and it seems impossible to communicate with a human being. This company seems to have been set up to con and decieve and I don't know why they are allowed to get away with it.

DO NOT deal with Easycar!

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
It's only easy to use the website; everything after that risks turning into a Kafkaesque nightmare. Nothing easy about it at all, just tawdry, inflexible and bureaucratic. Use a proper car rental firm, it'll probably work out cheaper and you won't feel conned.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
Do not use Easycar. They are incompetant, inflexible and are impossible to contact once something (as frequently happens) goes wrong.
1) You can not pick the car up even 1 minute before the booking time. Despite having online access in their car collection office, they insist you can not change the booking there - you have to find an internet cafe.
2) You can not change the driver, use a different credit card or make any amendments to your booking at the office where you pick the car up - even though they have access to the same website as you would have to use in an internet cafe.
3) Changing the booking whilst you still have the car should be easy. It is not, I changed my booking online, the system said the booking had been changed, but I had a nasty shock the next day when I was told that the change had not registered on their system. I had to bring the car back IMMEDIATELY, pay £75 late return fee and forfeit my deposit. In order to keep the same car (ie extend my original booking) I had to make a new booking over the internet as the old one had been cancelled and could not under ANY circumstances be re-opened, then drive the car back to the Easycar collection point, close the old booking, let them photocopy all of the same documents as they had two days before, and then drive the SAME car back to where I was working.
Needless to say I am still waiting for my 2nd deposit to be refunded.
I would advise you not to use Easycar unless there will be absolutely NO changes to your circumstances, time of collection, driver, credit card etc. They were extremely unhelpful and unuser friendly.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
I rented two cars in Barcelona in August 2003, apart from the cars being dirty, dented and bits falling off, they were mechanically Ok and good value for money. The problems started (like many others) when one of the deposits was not returned. I tried the help service with the useless automatic response that everyone else gets. Like others I refuse to call a premium rate number as the £50 deposit would soon be used up.
As someone else said the quality of a company is not when things go right but hoiw they look after you when things go wrong, especially when it is their incompetence.

DO NOT USE EASY CAR !!!!!

22/12
I'd like to thank the person that gave out the "direct" phone number as I have spend quite a time badgering them about my unreturned deposit. They are still very sneaky and tell you that you have to phone the premium rate number but its best just to refuse and keep telling them to deal with it there and then. The other trick is to get the persons name and fax through any evidence immediately. I made the mistake 2 weeks ago of faxuiing through the visa statement showing their error and didn't chase it up (I assumed that they would be professional enough to deal with it). So last friday I called again and after they said they had no recoprd of a fax (even though I had the transmition report!!) I went balistic. I re-faxed immediately and called the person back and the customer rep had gone to lunchj AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH. So I phone an hour later, waited for 15 minutes listening to the crass message say "all our helpers are busy, but they know you are waiting". When I got through a miricle happened. they had the fax, admitted the error and said they would credit the visa account. I was so gob smacked that I forgot to ask about compensation for phone bills, wasted time, interest on the money they had of mine for 4 months.

I have to wait 7-10 days for the credit to go through, so the saga may not yet be at an end! keep at them

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
I had used Easycar a few times in the past with no problems, but my latest experience means I will never, ever use them again.

They failed to deal with a simple requirement - to make an alteration to an existing booking and pay with a different credit card (as the original one was now invalid). As a result of this they made a series of errors whih resulted in them charging me nearly £200 more than they should have.

And they are impossible to contact (I tried 12 phone calls - all unanswered, 6 e-mail trails - no response after 6 weeks, 1 letter to the customer service director - no response after 12 weeks). Completely anonymous, no sign of any action, no confidence that they have any decency or ethics at all.

I understand that all companies sometimes make mistakes. The good ones are the ones that can sort them out. It's called customer service. Easycar simply don't do it.

My advice is don't ever use this company unless you are 100% sure you will never change your plans,

The Small Claims Court is the only option left to me.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
Don´t be tempted to rent with Easy. I wish I would have read reviews and taken the advice before renting with Easy. I don´t have much to write other than my husband has gone to collect the car and the office is not open. There are at least 20 people waiting outside with him. The surrounding car rental places say they get at least half of their business from dissatisfied EASY customers (today they have no cars to rent becuase of the no show employees my husband is waiting for). What more can I say other than we had a great weekend planned for weeks and now we´ll be stuck at home, highly disappointed? Sad Feeling for us.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
Don't pay the ridiculous amount of 60p/minute!

Dial 0870 606 9900 - the call will cost the price of a regular national rate call and get you through to exactly the same place as the expensive number.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
EasyCar are impossible to contact if you have a complaint. Their extortionate phone line (60p per minute) will keep you on hold for anything up to an hour. The rarely reply to emails.

I have therefore set up my own website http//not.easy.to

You can post your complaints in a specific forum and read tips on how to complain

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
After renting a car in early August (when the conditions stated that deposits would be returned after 30 days) my stumbling across a revised condition that stated deposits would only be returned on completing a Deposit Reclaim Form within 3 days of return came as a complete surprise.

At no time did EasyCar attempt to inform me of the change in condition, which I notice has now been removed from their website.

EasyCar decibted the deposit twice from my account and after 6 weeks have still not refunded the duplicate transaction or refunded my deposit.

Queries posted via their 'Help' section are answered by automated responses that are largely irrelevant to the question asked.

I refuse to contact them via their 60p/min phone line.

My advice, for what its worth, it is avoid EasyCar AT ALL COSTS. They are not a company that I would ever want to do business with again - their deliberately devious policies are verging on the criminal.

I hope that EasyCar continues to lose money - perhaps Stelious and his yes men will one day realise that good customer service will gain you business, and that a company can gain a bad reputation very fast.

DarylB

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
Just over a month ago I rented a car from Easycar in London Docklands. I perfectly well understood the need for them to take a £50 deposit to be held against speeding/parking/congestion charge fines and was happy with the explanation that it would be refunded one month after the rental finished. At no point was I told that I would have to submit a claim for the refund - I now assume that I must have missed this requirement buried somewhere in the small print!

Having waited for my next credit card statement to see if the refund had been made I have, of course, now left it longer than the 30 days in which I can 'claim' my refund - so have forfeited my fifty quid!

I can find no details as to when this 'new policy' came into force - and I certainly don't intend to spend 60p per minute on a call that 'should not last longer than 15 minutes' to find out. I await a response to my e-mail to Easycar without much optimism. You live and learn!