Belgia

O

Ohad MeyerBelgium

What is the worst thing for a solo traveler? For me it is seeing extra money taken from my card in a place I do not really know and not knowing who can help me. I booked this car through QEEQ and when I was back in Singapore I checked my credit card bill. I saw a charge of 208.91 euros. It said it was for one extra rental day and fuel and some other fees. My mind just went blank and I thought this is really bad. My memory jumped back to the parking area at Brussels airport. I arrived around the afternoon of May 7. It was a bit after three. I pulled my luggage to the Europcar counter. There were quite a lot of people in the line. Next to the line there was a big glass window. Outside the sky was gray and the wind kept shaking the ads. When I did the paperwork the staff at the counter spoke quite fast. I was a bit nervous so I kept checking the time with him. He told me how to walk to the parking place to get the car. By the time I reached the car it was around three fifteen in the afternoon. I looked at my phone and felt ok with the timing. The real trouble started on the return day. I drove back to the airport on what should be May 8 in the afternoon. I tried to reach there again around three something. I stopped for fuel twice. One time around eleven something in the morning and the second time a bit after two in the afternoon. Both times the fuel nozzle clicked and stopped. The screen showed full. I tried to add more but it just stopped again. I took photos of the receipts and of the fuel gauge and told myself it should be fine. Close to the airport I followed the return directions that the rental staff gave me. They told me to go to a certain parking zone. I followed the sign and ended up at PARK1. When I drove in I realized it was a paid parking. The machine at the entrance used French and Dutch. I stared at it for a while before I understood it. I did not want to be late so I just drove in and parked. When I shut the door I felt annoyed. The wrong guidance was from them but I had to pay extra 12 euros for that parking. At the return area I parked the car and a staff member came to check. He looked at the fuel gauge and pointed at the dash. It seemed he meant it was not full. I quickly told him I had just filled the tank twice and the nozzle stopped by itself. I showed him the fuel receipts. He stared at the dash for a few seconds then looked at the car and said it was probably a display problem and they would treat it as full. I felt so relieved. I even took a photo of the fuel gauge at return with my phone. The time on the photo showed three fifteen in the afternoon. I remember that clearly. Some days after I got home I found the 208.91 euro charge on my card. I looked at the bill again and again and felt more angry each time. I knew I returned the car at three fifteen and I spent time to fill the tank twice. Now they said I used one more rental day and also had to pay extra fuel. I sat alone at my desk. The screen showed my photos of the airport parking. I just felt confused and weak. I first wrote an email to the local rental office. I sent all my photos and receipts and the time stamps. I wrote down what I told the staff at return. After some time they replied and said the charge was correct. It did not make sense to me. I then sent that email again but this time I copied in the support team and asked them to help. At the start I was a bit afraid they would just say I should talk to the rental company myself. The support staff did not do that. They read my photos and my notes carefully. They repeated my main points back to me in a clear way. They understood that I reached the car at three fifteen in the afternoon on pick up and the return photo was also three fifteen. They also understood that the wrong parking direction sent me to PARK1 and made me pay 12 euros. And they got the story about the fuel nozzles that stopped by themselves. I could feel they really listened. Over the next days I checked my email from time to time. Every time there was a reply from them I opened it right away. I could feel they were really following the case and not just sending a few standard lines. One time they told me they were still waiting for the rental company to answer and they wanted to confirm the extra day and the fuel part again. I was still a bit worried but it felt like someone was standing there with me. After some days they told me the rental company had agreed to refund the extra rental day. They accepted that this part was not right. When I read this line I felt something heavy fall off my chest. All the photos and receipts I kept suddenly felt worth it. The rental company said they did add five liters of fuel so they would not return the fuel charge. I was still not very happy about that but I remembered the gauge was a bit strange. I decided to accept it. At least they did not keep a full extra day of rental. What stayed in my mind most is the feeling during the whole thing. I never felt I was fighting alone. Every time I had a new doubt they tried to check it again for me. They were like someone on my side who helped me speak clearly. For a solo traveler this feeling is really important. In a country that is not mine things like language rules parking fuel and time can all go wrong so easily and you feel very small. Now when I think back I feel that without this kind of dedicated customer service I would already have given up against the foreign rental company. I might just accept the bill and stay angry in silence. Instead most of the extra cost was fixed and I finally understood what the different fees meant. When I look at my statement now I still remember the stress at the start but I also remember that someone actually followed my case all the way and did not leave me alone.

J

Jesse HochshteadtBelgium

"Please do not worry first. We can check every charge together." This line stayed in my mind the most. I had already gone through my credit card bill many times after I went back home and I still felt something was wrong with the fuel and the border fee. I booked the car on QEEQ and used it in Charleroi in Belgium. It started when I saw the final bill. I stared at the charges on my phone and kept thinking that the total looked higher than I expected. It was almost ninety something euros. The fuel part confused me the most. I was sure I filled up the tank before I returned the car. I stood in the cold wind at the gas station and took several photos of the fuel gauge because I was afraid of this exact situation. Then I saw a fuel charge on the bill and also a border fee and my mind just froze a bit. I felt pretty annoyed at the beginning. It felt like I was charged extra but I did not really understand all the papers from the rental counter. When I contacted customer service my speaking speed was fast and in my head I thought it would be some copy paste reply. The person who answered surprised me. They listened to my whole story and did not cut me off. They only stopped me to confirm some facts. After some messages I noticed that the same person was always following my case. They asked me if I had any new screenshots from my bank and they repeated the amounts they found on their side in a simple way so even someone like me who is not great at numbers could follow. They said the rental company showed a total charge of a bit more than ninety euros and they broke it down into the basic amount the border fee and the fuel charge. Then they asked me to check if my card had only one charge or two. If there was a second smaller one then it could be a double charge for the border part and they would go on with that. In my head I felt it was like someone checking the bill with me so the pressure on me was smaller. The fuel issue was the part I could not let go. I remember very clearly driving to a station not far from the highway before I returned the car. I filled the tank until the pump stopped and the gauge went up to the top. I took photos of the gauge when I picked up the car and when I brought it back. When I sent these photos to the customer service they did not just say it was my fault. They said they would ask the rental company how they judged the fuel level. During those days I kept thinking about this again and again on the metro or in my room. I kept asking myself if I would just lose that money. Every time I had a new question like when I checked the contract and saw a border fee printed there I would ask again if that meant I paid it twice. They explained again in simple words that the number on the paper was only a display and the real payment was what showed on the card. They did not make me feel stupid. I could feel that they were trying to stand with me and not only speak for the rental desk. One moment I remember is when they told me they had already checked with the rental company and the local staff said the fuel was not full and they went to add more fuel and they even said they had a receipt. My first thought was why they did not show that proof to me. I told this to the customer service and they passed this question back and asked for more proof. Later the rental company only gave an inspection sheet with my signature on it and it showed a fuel level as six out of eight or something like that. The numbers confused me and I only remembered that I had signed it in a rush when I was trying to catch my next plan. During the whole process I felt that no matter if the reply from the rental company was good or bad for me the customer service would first tell me the result in a calm tone and then explain step by step. Sometimes they also said honestly that some internal papers could not be shared with me and they had to explain with what they were allowed to see. I still felt a bit upset inside but I could understand how things worked. For someone like me a young person renting a car alone in Europe and trying to read many English documents this kind of problem is very stressful. Those days I often had class or work during the day and at night when I came back to my place I would open my phone and see that they had sent me a new update. Even when it was not the result I hoped for I still felt a bit safer because I knew someone was still following my case and I was not alone staring at a bill with strange numbers. Now when I look back I feel the hardest part of this rental was not driving the car. It was the confusion about the charges after I returned it. If I did not have this one to one follow up from customer service I think I would have given up the complaint much earlier and just swallowed the cost. Because they stayed with me through the whole thing I dared to ask every question and learned to check the documents and the fuel gauge more carefully next time and to take clear photos as proof. For me this experience was not perfect and I still have some regret about the fuel part but having someone stay on my side and walk through all these fee items with me made a big difference. As an ordinary student I was still able to understand what really happened and that part mattered a lot to me.

C

Carsten FortBelgium

"You are still working on this for me" This was my first reaction when I got the email that the compensation was confirmed. I really thought that after we came back from Belgium this whole thing would just become a bad memory and nothing more. I did not expect that they were still following up. I booked the car through QEEQ. I picked it up around the afternoon of December 29th 2025 in Brussels with my kids. I was quite excited at the start. When I got the first car I was confused. The tire pressure warning light was on. At first I thought it was just a small system issue. After a short drive I felt that one tire had almost no air. I did not dare to keep driving. The staff at the counter later confirmed it was a technical defect of the car and not my fault. At that moment I was nervous. I had to calm the kids and also think what to do next. I already had the contact of their support so I sent them the situation. For me this time felt different. It was not just one or two short replies. It felt like there was one person who really treated this problem like it was their own thing. After the change of car we got a BMW 4 Series cabriolet. But it was winter and the car had summer tires. When it started to snow I was actually scared. I cleaned the road around the car and in my mind I kept thinking this setup did not match the season at all. I was also worried if my kids were safe in that car. I told them about these worries too. They did not just say please talk to the rental counter. They asked step by step what happened where I was and what the rental company said. I could feel that the person who talked to me remembered every detail. The next day when they contacted me again they picked up from where we stopped before. I did not need to tell the whole story one more time. Later the rental company told me to drive to another nearby branch to change the car. When I got there they said there was no car for me. I wasted fuel and half a day. Our plan was totally broken and I was really upset that day. When I sent all this again I did not expect much. I thought maybe I would just get some polite words. They still kept going and argued with the rental company for me. They asked clearly if this was really called an upgrade when my real experience became worse. They also asked about the time we lost and the fuel cost and if there could be any payment for that. I could feel they were talking back and forth quite a lot because every now and then I would get a small update. The words were simple but I could hear they were really pushing it. When they told me that the rental side still did not give a fair answer and that they were ready to pay me some money first from their side I was quite surprised. For a parent who travels with kids those one or two bad days were very hard to forget. Having someone on my side who saw this mess and loss as something that matters was very important to me. The trip was not perfect but I will remember that during the whole thing there was always someone following my case instead of leaving me alone to fight with the rental company.

A

Arthur RileyBelgium

At first I felt pretty good about my rental in Antwerp. I booked the car through QEEQ. I picked it up around the morning of December 23rd 2025. It was a bit cold in Antwerp and the staff at the Enterprise counter gave me a Peugeot 5008. It was manual and had seven seats. The car looked quite new. I was thinking about my route and how many kilometers I would drive. I did not think there would be any trouble with the bill later. There was one bad moment during the trip. One day I locked the key inside the car by accident. I was just standing next to the car in the wind and my brain was totally blank. I kept thinking I was in big trouble and it would cost a lot of money. I called roadside help and they came and solved it. I was safe and the car was fine but in my mind there was a big question about how much this would cost me. The real problem started after I returned the car. I brought the car back around the morning of January 6th 2026. I parked it and the check was very fast. The counter staff did not say anything special. I thought it was all done and I just needed to wait for the deposit to be released. About one month later I checked my credit card and saw a big charge. The amount was much higher than what I remembered I had to pay. In that moment I got nervous and thought maybe they used my deposit or charged me extra. I contacted their support team and sent all the screenshots of my bill. To be honest I could not really understand all the English items and numbers at the start. I just felt the number was scary. One thing that surprised me was that the same person kept following my case and the tone was always calm and patient. It did not feel like I was talking to a cold system. When I was worried I felt a bit more relaxed because I knew someone was watching this for me. They checked with the rental company and then explained to me that part of the bill came from the time I locked the key in the car and called roadside help so there was a damage related fee. Another part came from extra mileage because this rental had a distance limit and I drove more than that. I have to say at first I did not want to accept the damage part. In my head I said the car was not broken so why is this called damage. They explained in simple words that this fee was how the company counted the roadside help. We talked several times. I asked many small questions. Sometimes I felt I was asking too much but the person kept checking every number for me. They helped me see which amount I should have paid at the desk and which amount came later. They also reminded me to see if the big charge I saw was the final amount and if the deposit was really taken or if the bank just still showed it as frozen. I felt like someone was taking care of me and guiding me through a mess of numbers. When all the amounts finally made sense I could look at the bill and not feel lost. I knew which part was for roadside help and which part was for extra kilometers and which part was normal payment at the counter. For me the main feeling was that someone stayed with me from the start until everything was clear. It was not just one standard reply and goodbye. I was alone in another country and I use English as a foreign language so a big bill like this really made me feel unsafe. They slowly removed that fear by explaining everything in a way I could follow. Even when I repeated some questions they still answered with details and did not rush me. As an overseas visitor that steady follow up and clear help made a big difference for me.