ecovia.it Reviews 639

My wife and I, and her elderly parents, arrived at Lamezia Terme airport and went to the Ecovia booth at the car hire building with our booking. This was in my wife’s name.

The assistant told us that they could not accept my wife’s credit card for the deposit because it didn’t have her full name on the back. It had her initial and surname; i.e her full forename wasn't present. He then proceeded to tell us that our only option would be to pay an additional €60 per day for the car hire for full insurance. He stated that the terms and conditions specify that the credit card must include the ‘full name’ of the card holder.

We've yet to find any credit card, ours or others, which include the full name of the holder. Just the initial(s) and surname. Therefore, this must be quite a common occurrence.

My wife then logged into her credit card account on her phone, which displayed the card number and her full name. Still the man insisted that he could not accept the credit card and we’d have to pay the extra €60 per day, totalling €480. Of course, my wife also knew the PIN number of the card, so it really is virtually impossible (if not, then impossible) that the card belonged to anybody else.

The man provided us with a number to call. After several attempts to get through we established that we could cancel the car hire for a fee. It still isn't clear why he couldn't do all of that himself.

So, we went around the other providers in the same building to find an alternative, which we did, and we called back to cancel the Ecovia booking. No other car hire provider we spoke to demanded a credit card with my wife’s full name.

I would describe this practice as fraudulent. Given that my wife’s credit card had her name on it, and that she had other forms of ID (a passport and driving licence), that she knew the pin number of the card, and that she could access the account details of the card on her phone (which displayed her full name), there’s no viable reason that it wasn’t accepted by the Ecovia assistant, unless – of course – this is purely a scam to force weary travellers to pay extra exorbitant fees. Which I am sure many of them do.

Avoid Ecovia. Pay a little bit more and use a reputable provider. You'll save money that way.

Old cars with faults, appalling customer service.

We were given a massively dented, ancient Chinese-built car which would not lock and the headlights would not switch off, so quickly draining the battery. When we engaged the forecourt Ecovia representative he was rude, dismissive and told us to accept the car or "f*** off". Somewhat unprofessional !
Complained to counter staff, who did change the car, but shrugged shoulders regarding the behaviour of his forecourt colleague. We cancelled other upcoming bookings and re-booked with another rental company.

Avoid Ecovia and its sister company Autovia.

Worst service ever.
1h queue to get the hostess bargaining we were supposed to arrive 1h earlier and she could not garantee the rent. Well, we did 1h queue...Do the math. Oh, indeed!
To finally get my booking declined because the country of birth on my ID was not equal to the CITY written on my driving licence, despite that city being the capital of that same country.
COUNTRY vs CITY... basic early school knowledge.
FRANCE vs PARIS. Paris is the capital of France.
ITALY vs ROMA. Roma is the capital of Italy.
Absolute cheap ignorant. Not the hostess applying the policy but obviously the company. Epic Idiocraty
1 star as 0 is not available.

This is the worst possible company to rent a car in Italy. They have strict policy, we came with reservation and full insurance and we marked credit card although we had debit card. They can reserve funds on debit card also, its not a big deal especially if you pay full insurance in advance. About 85e for insurance and reservation. They left us in the middle of the night, the stuff didn’t want to collaborate, and didn’t return the money. Italy by car is better agency and you have full kasko with 35e a day. Never ever take this company in Italy.

Ecovia was the worst car rental company I have ever used. To begin with, when I arrived at Palermo airport in Sicily, I had to call them to arrange for the transfer to come and pick me up and take me to the pick-up location. Unfortunately, there was only one Italian number and this number did not have WhatsApp, which made things difficult since I came from another country. When I was returning the car, I was treated very badly. The guy was in a hurry and impatient and gave me a dirty and scratched car. When I mentioned how dirty it was, he ran away and said he was going to leave. When I returned the car, that was when we really got the 5-star treatment from the company. The guy who came to collect the vehicle kept looking for every scrap of the vehicle so they could make money off it. He mentioned the scratches that the car already had and that were marked, and luckily we had the photos. At that moment, he kept saying that he was right next to me... That was awesome! It was like he was trained to trick tourists. When he finally found a scratch on the rearview mirror, he immediately sent a message to his boss, who immediately got back to me saying that it would cost 212.00 euros for that. That's it, when he got what he wanted, he finished the inspection of the vehicle right away and he took out the contract and started forcing me to sign it. Anyway, it wasn't just about the price, but about the way everything was handled. Then he told me that if I didn't pay, the car reservation would be open and it would cost me more! Anyway, I paid 212.00 for the rearview mirror, which I'm sure the company won't replace. So be careful with ECOVIA, the company has the least concern for the customer and, in addition to treating you badly, they also play unfairly. Terrible experience, without a doubt the worst I've ever had. It's really bad to see that they're trying to cheat you at any cost and taking advantage of your lack of knowledge to do so. I ask myself: Where did that amount come from? What was the table showing, how did he reach that conclusion?! Why was he looking at the same risks that the car already had? Anyway, I think companies like these shouldn't exist.

We rent a new Nissan Q. car.The man who was in charge of drop off was professional and very kind.Thank you for the service we got.
Krisztián Buús from Hungary

Italy: they asked for a physical International License that no other company requires, and without that papel they didn't give the car. The office was a CAOS, everyone had the same problem. AVOID THIS RENTAL

Booked weeks before leaving Australia. Arrived in Rome the day before rental, as planned, but were delayed in getting our transport out to the airport the next day to pick up trhe car. Scheduled pickup 1030; got there 1230, and the booking had been cancelled and the car unavailable. Charged the full rental for 7 days because we were 2 hours overdue, and then charged us again at a higher rate to rent an alternative vehicle. No apology or recourse. Booked via Expedia: both Expedia and Ecovia protected from any discussion or reason by internet firewalls. Never again would I use Expedia or Ecovia

I am just confirming the experiences of the other reviewers.

Came to the airport after booking two cars via booking.com with insurance. Then they wanted more money for insurance. 220 euros. Since we only had an digital credit card they wanted 420 per car, a total of 840,-. The employee was aggressive and very impolite. We did not see any documentation of what the cost actually was for, just numbers he scribbled down. He then tried to pressure us, giving 20 minutes to decide or he would rent them out to someone else. After 10 minutes he said they were rented out, then that he would not rent cars to us. Before that he offered that we could pay 300 euros per car.

Just laughable, and we where stranded with so small children without cars. Stay away.

We had booked two cars from Catania airport Sicily. First we didnt get one of the cars because we ”only had a debit and not a credit card”, which has never been a problem at any other car rental. Second of all we tried to change the booking to our parents who were with us, because they hade a credit - which was impossible. So without any help and with a rude stuff, we were standing there without a car and with no way to get to our booked house. Our parents got their car BUT needed to pay 300 euros extra for a insurance they already had paid for. So we left the car rental without one of the cars (who we prepaid), with 300 euro extra on a scam-insurance and in a very bad mood because of the rude and non-understanding stuff. Watch out for this company!!

Never using Ecovia again!! Upon arrival they said they wouldn't let me take car unless I had my physical visa card. In the booking email it says booking has to be made in the card holders name and card details must be provided. I've booked on many occasions and they've accepted my phone to do this using NFC tag which has all my card details. Ecovia would not accept this and just left me stranded with my family at the airport!! Luckily OK mobility were kind enough to assist my needs and accepted my card details via mobile phone!

I arrived at the desk (Florence Airport) half an hour after i booked but than i had to wait at the desk for 75 minutes. When i finally got helped (after a big queue, only one assistent at the desk) they refused to give me the car since i was more than 1,5 hour after pick up time. NEVER RENT A CAR here. It’s a scam. She told me i had to pay an extra of 479 euro when i still wanted the car.

SCAM ALERT! We had a car rental from Palermo airport costing £210 and when we tried collecting the car, they asked for a charge of 432 Euros to use a debit rather than credit card! 100% of the customers that night were facing the same scam. This was after midnight and I had two young children (5 and 8), one of whom was unwell, both were crying. When we wouldnt pay, they closed up the business and left us in the dark, on the pavement, in the middle of no where to fend for ourselves. This is an absolute scam company DO NOT USE.

Scam company.
Trying to make us pay for damage which was present when we received the car despite photo evidence.
Rude and nasty unhelpful staff. Especially Reino at Pisa airport

would give 0 stars horrible company and staff they are a scam company DO NOT HIRE FROM HERE THEY SCAM YOU, had to pay their insurance because my husband didn't have a credit card in his full name scammed for an extra £150, car dangerous wing mirrors stuck on with glue tissue stuffed behind glass to hold in place dents all over disgusting

One of the worst experiences I've had so far. Tried renting from their companies twice (Ecovia, Autovia) only to end up having to rent from a different company. First time they argued the delay of 30 minutes meant they no longer had the car/any car of the same category and I'd thus have to pay double as much for another; second time they claimed I could only rent the car if I showed them a "credit card" (explained that my bank doesn't issue credit card, only debit). They were perfectly capable of blocking the required deposit, yet found issue enough in this to lose my full booking and send me away a second time (quite late in the evening). Feels more like a scam company that profits from taking money for the booking, then making sure their customers don't actually go through with the booking, as can be seen in various other reviews from other customers. Hopefully the issue will solve itself by them going broke eventually, if the word spreads around loud enough.

Really bad experience we arrived at the car hire 90 min late and they said they had no cars at the same size and we had to pay almost double the price to get a larger car.

Don't use Exovia

stars a big 0
I rented a car with one of their parterners ( doyouitaly),
The plane was late for mechanical reasons,
I was late about an hour and 20 minutes,
when I got too the counter to pick up my rental,
the worker behind the counter told me that I was late,
they give 1 hour , since I was late they canceled my car rental, even though I prepared 190 euros, which they kept.
the car rental agent offer me a car by paying an extra $400 euros, so for extra money they had a car for me.
what happened to customer service, in all the car rental section was empty, I was the only customer in the hole place, I would understand if other customers were there to rent a car.
They could have me talk to a manager maybe.

I usually do not write reviews,
I was very mad and tired from a long travelling and I get kind of service.

not using this company again.

Zero stars-like many other reviews it’s a scam and they won’t hold your reservation 1 hour past whatever the booking company put down! Even if your flight is delayed. Very rude desk agent. Do not use!!

Zero stars! Scam do not use them! They claim false damages even if you have shown them before you have taken the car and have picture proof! Having to claim back from the insurance.