Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Charged £125 damage fee for 3mm scratch on rental car

T & P

T & P

|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
As the title thread says. I guess contractually I'm fucked, but I still find the amount charged fucking exhorbitant. Not to mention the fact that we did not think we needed a microscope when we inspected it on collection. I certainly did not scratch it and I very much doubt somebody else did. The car was backed up against a wall when we collected it and for all I know the scratch was there.

Anything I can do? Has anyone got any experience in contesting such charges or at least reducing the amount to something less eye watering? The rental company involved is one of the big ones- probably the biggest.

PS For what is worth the card I used for the rental is currently maxed up so they will have been unable to take any money yet.
 
Had that once with a van I hired, fucker was pointing out every little scratch every previous person had put on the thing. Made me feel a lot better about the the really big fuck off dent and scrape I'd put in the side that I left furthest from his office when I returned. He went mental, to which I replied "I suppose that means I've lost my deposit" and walked away
 
Oh they are c*nts, we used to go over the interior of the hire car with sellotape if we'd transported the dog in there, we were charged £50 for valeting for one fucking dog hair and at that point we decided it was time to buy our own car.
 
Don't they have to prove the scratch wasn't there prior to you hiring it? Them just saying 'it wasn't there' doesn't mean shit. Unless you inspected the car and signed something yourself to say it was in perfect nick.... In the meantime, be sure to let everyone know of their business practices on trip advisor etc.
 
Righto, I worked in car rental for years and its a major issue. When I checked the vehicles back in and found damage my heart used to sink as I knew an awful conversation was coming up.

Firstly, whilst its a bit late now, you should always check the car very closly before taking it, if its dark or wet mark it on the check sheet. Assuming you've signed the check sheet then there isnt much you can do except try and get the cost reduced. A 3mm scratch should be a simple touch-up job performed on site in an hour by a company called Pro-Finish, the cost 10 years ago was between £50 and £75 I can't imagine its gone up that much. Insist on seeing a quote and invoice for the damage. The problem is they are in within their rights to charge you for lost rental which in this case will be 24 hours so a no more then around £125 seems fair to me.

Its a common misconception that rental companies should just accept damage to their cars as part and parcel of the business, all damage is either repaired or impacts upon the resale value of the car which is really where the companies make a lot of their money. Which rental company was this? You say the biggest but that could apply to a lot of them for different reasons?
 
Citizen66 said:
Don't they have to prove the scratch wasn't there prior to you hiring it? Them just saying 'it wasn't there' doesn't mean shit. Unless you inspected the car and signed something yourself to say it was in perfect nick.... In the meantime, be sure to let everyone know of their business practices on trip advisor etc.
Click to expand...

Ultimatly its the renters job to inspect the vehicle before they sign for it? For all we know that damage was caused during the rental (just because the OP hasnt caused the damage, doesnt mean it wasnt caused during the rental). Slagging of a company seems a bit much when we don't know much about how the damage came about.

I'd say about 75% of damage caused on rentals happens (apparently) without the renter's knowledge and of the 25% who do own up, most think they shouldnt have to pay anything because its a rental car. Its the worst part for the industry but you can't just allow hundreds of pounds worth of damage to be done on rentals which can cost as little as £10 a day.
 
two sheds said:
Fair play, but can't the rental company schedule the repair so it doesn't lose a day's rental?
Click to expand...

Theoritically the car should not be re-rented until it is repaired as it is subrogatable (sp?) damage. If the vehicle is re-rented and then repaired the OP (or whoever is paying for the repair) could turn around and say that further damaged was subsequently caused on the next rental therefore I should only pay 50% of the repair fee or something. Its a legal minefield, but in reality the cars are often re-rented.

Thats a thought actually OP, ask if you can see the car again, if they have re-rented it I can give you a few tips on trying to catch them out on a legal technicality.
 
Take pictures of every panel, and point out and mark down every bit of damage before you take charge of the car.

You could theoretically file a dispute with your credit card company, business's i've dealt with seem to not like these and eventually come to a compromise.....

Thrash them on social media as well,they are all well touchy
 
If the diagram of the car before you've rented it shows dents or scratches in the paintwork you could presumably claim (as teaboy notes above) that you only have to pay, say, half
 
I use zipvans and the first time I picked one up spent forty mins cataloguing all the dings and scrapes. There were dozens - I don't think zipvans ever get repaired. Anyway, I phoned through to them, as you're supposed to if you spot any new damage, because I couldn't tell what was new and what wasn't because of the vague descriptions other customers had left in the log. The girl said she couldn't log it all, and I should take photos on my phone because I'd be able to prove I took them before the rental time started. No idea if that's true or not, but I do take photos every time now.
 
spanglechick said:
I use zipvans and the first time I picked one up spent forty mins cataloguing all the dings and scrapes. There were dozens - I don't think zipvans ever get repaired. Anyway, I phoned through to them, as you're supposed to if you spot any new damage, because I couldn't tell what was new and what wasn't because of the vague descriptions other customers had left in the log. The girl said she couldn't log it all, and I should take photos on my phone because I'd be able to prove I took them before the rental time started. No idea if that's true or not, but I do take photos every time now.
Click to expand...
You can always claim they happened after you returned it. Say you saw some kids thrashing it with a branch :)
 
Yeah the zip car / street car style of rental is very different to the traditional way. I don't know their business model and how profitable / sustainable it is but they must offset the vastly increased cost of damage against the reduced cost of not having branches and having to staff them. Also renting cars by the hour potentially brings in more per day, but I'd say they must get hammered by insurance companies.
 
Citizen66 said:
If a vehicle I picked up wad riddled with knocks and scratches I'd be well dubious as to whether they actually bothered repairing previous damage that they'd charged people for.
Click to expand...

Well quite, which is why I suggested you should always see quotes etc and find out whether the are re-renting the car.

Claiming money from a 3rd party when you have no intention of repairing the damage is very bad practice and whilst they could argue devaluation of the car it is very hard to put a definative cost figure on that. Rental companies shouldnt rent scratched and damaged cars, ok if its a zip car thing when they never see it, or a rent-a-wreck thing then fair enough but companies that rent new cars like Hertz and Avis etc should never rent damaged cars, it either means they don't check their cars properly or are charging people for repairs they are not doing.
 
Yep I rented a Transit from Thrifty once that was given to me with a shattered wing mirror. Wasn't happy but they didn't have any other vans so I couldn't really do much.

Never been charged for rental damage though. I guess I've been lucky.
 
Thanks for all the input. The company is Avis. The scratch is at the bottom of the back bumper. There were a couple of scratches noted in the condition report when we took the car; not on the bumper, but somewhere else at the back of the car.

I signed the report so I hardly have anything to fight with from the legal point of view. I'm just astounded that they have to be so fucking petty about what is basically an incredibly minor nick near the bottom of the car, and that they want to charge so much for it.
 
Teaboy said:
Yeah the zip car / street car style of rental is very different to the traditional way. I don't know their business model and how profitable / sustainable it is but they must offset the vastly increased cost of damage against the reduced cost of not having branches and having to staff them. Also renting cars by the hour potentially brings in more per day, but I'd say they must get hammered by insurance companies.
Click to expand...
I don't think they've turned a profit yet but given Avis have just bought them I'd say the potential is there.
 
According to them it has penetrated the surface. you could see something white in colour, so I guess it was more than just merely paint-deep.
 
Theres probably not much you can do. The charge seems consistent with the cost of repair and you did sign to say you had inspected the vehicle, you may just have to chalk this one down to experience.

As I said earlier you could try and go down the route of asking to see quotes and / or the invoice cost of the repair, if you push for this it should happen that may give you the chance to get a reduction of the bill or if they can't produce an invoice then the likelhood is they've not repaired it in which case you could kick off there and hope they back down. Depends how much time you have and how much £125 means to you.

Avis arnt a particuarly tight run ship in the UK, bit like most of them, and they struggle to turn a profit so if you push it or ignore it then it may just go away. Actually the ignore option may be best because they'll never take you to court over that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

story
Has anyone tried Turo.com for renting a car?
Replies
3
Views
226
Winot
Winot
ska invita
Car diagnostic computer scanners
Replies
8
Views
324
mauvais
mauvais
A
First car / how do people afford cars when in low paid work?
2
Replies
56
Views
964
sojourner
S
kebabking
Car buying websites?
2
Replies
38
Views
1K
colacubes
colacubes
Aladdin
Best petrol only car available in a hybrid world
2 3
Replies
63
Views
2K
Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman
Back
Top Bottom