Car hire - beware!

[JockStalk]

Been hiring cars for 40 odd years and have always taken great care checking vehicles on hire and off hire to avoid the usual scamming barstewards.

Rented a car from Sixt at Heathrow last week. The car is scanned out and scanned in, automatically checked by AI to look for my damage between outbound and return. Hmmmm.

Did my own checks as usual. No issue, no prangs, simple couple of days uneventful use.

So imagine my surprise when a couple days after the hire I get a series of emails showing an alleged 10cm superficial scratch (their description) to the front passenger side under skirt which is black plastic. Then a follow up bill supported by an engineers report who hasn’t seen the vehicle building up to just over £800.

Naturally they have been told to poke it. I have rental insurance of my own so am covered, but that’s not the point.

But really. Highwaymen are less obvious about their trade.

 

[2Ll’s]

Had the same with Enterprise, left the car at the place that repaired my car as told by Enterprise.
Had a letter 3 months later requiring payment for a damaged tyre, after a lot of back and forth with my final e,mail saying I wanted their accounts address so I could send them an invoice for the time it had taken me to respond to their BS claim, they responded and said the case was closed. Cannot trust any of them.

 

[Mountain Bug]

Don't trust anyone to determine whether you owe them more money than previously agreed on. Always photo or video every angle of a rental before driving from the lot.
I believe the rental market is suffering competition from Uber and Lyft and are scrapping for every last dollar now.

Scott

 

[Donkey Basher]

Got caught some years ago in the Channel Islands - dry dropped the car on return as no-one there to take it & had a plane to catch. All had been paid on credit card, when next statement came through there was a charge from hire company so queried it & told it had been picked up by them in my presence when they checked the car over. I told them they were lying as no-one was there to check it & I’d be reporting as fraud as they’d already taken money on my card. Called card company to report fraud immediately after. Next day got a call from hire company saying money had been refunded & could I please advise credit card company of no fraud… They’ve been at it for years & ain’t going to change - Leopards & spots springs to mind!

 

[JockStalk]

The thing that seems to have changed is the use of camera and AI tech, added to that a third party (Connexus in this case) estimating a job based on a photo.
It all adds up to a pile of so called evidence that’s not worth a hoot but that most folk would take at face value.

 

[FISH BOY]

Same in SA.

Hire company tried fleecing my parents last year for a damaged front bumper and light surround - thankfully I had inspected and date stamped photographed all angles at collection - case dropped.

Thankfully they didn’t check the underbody of my car after 16 days in Kruger.

 

[Jamouk]

Hired a small van from enterprise a few years back , drove it 4 miles home to notice coolant dripping out of it on arrival ( on my brand new drive ) rang them straight away and luckily the guy text me back as he was with a customer and couldn't answer to bring it straight back and they would swap it which I promptly did , imagine my surprise 2 months later when I received a bill for £5850 to repair damage to it as I had knowingly driven it with a fault ! , luckily still had the text !

 

[Rasputin]

Ah yes this old chestnut. Absolute scammers had the same with enterprise at Liverpool airport. Picked a car up in the rain and it had an indentation in it no bigger than a 5p. Billed me £1500. I

 

[Mountain Bug]

Several years ago, my brother and I hired a car from Inverness for a hunting trip in the North. Cheapest thing available was a Mercedes sedan, so here we are looking like rich arabs clad in camo. Ended up running over a wheel weight that flattened a tire up near Wick. After calling the agency and relaying our position to them, we were essentially told to get bent. A new tire was found in Wick and back on our way. Upon returning said car they tried to charge us for the new tire we had just purchased. We got things straightened out but were later charged a 300gbp cleaning fee. I must admit that they were rightfully owed a cleaning fee as we had used the car as if it were a 4x4 hunting rig. Blood and feathers in the trunk and I can only imagine how long it took to clean the undercarriage.


Scott

 

[Husky]

I've used a family owned firm in Stirling a few times, they don't bother about small scratches and when I hired a Ranger and returned it covered in mud with some blood in the back they just said that's what pressure washers are for

 

[long_range_rob]

Thrifty van hire for work. Booked it for one day but garage cocked up so I didn’t even take possession of the keys. 8 weeks later it had been damaged by me even their own paperwork showed the mileage out and mileage in were identical. Jog on Thrifty!

 

[Pedro]

A family owned firm and some personal knowledge. The way forward. A dodgy bill or two from someone like Enterprise isn't going to trash their reputation (so much) but with local family firms it's different and their good standing can quickly go down the pan.

 

[carlisleredneck]

On a bit of a different note!
Enterprise car rental again. Flew into Manchester airport a few weeks ago after being away for work, 3 of us had a train booked home but it had been cancelled due to weather. Went to the car rental village to hire a car to get us back home, lad on the desk says “oh that will be £300 as it’s a one way hire and tomorrow is Sunday.”
We say “but the same hire online is £170”.
The lad on the desk wouldn’t budge so we went outside and booked online.
Went back inside to the desk with our reservation just to be told “we don’t have to give you that car as it’s a last minute reservation and priority goes to walk in customers booking at the desk, you’ll have to wait 3 hours.”
We said we have a reservation you have to honour it!
Another person behind the counter chimed in, “it’s in the small print, we don’t have to give you the car at the booked time, it’s at our discretion and we say you have to wait 3 hours”.
In disbelief we say “so you’ve got the car, but you’re going to make us wait 3 hours just because you can?”
Yep and all the other car rental places are the same apparently.
Went to the desk next door and got a car straight away, paid a bit more but worth it to get home.
Wouldn’t give enterprise a bean ever again.

 

[slider]

Had hire cars almost weekly through work before I retired. had one spurious claim 6 or 7 years ago regarding a supposed damaged alloy. Ever since then i got into the habit of taking a series of photos/video's when going off hire. Used these twice to knock back false claims.

 

[Jamouk]

Yes I video the whole car now before driving away !

 

[Border]

Yes I video the whole car now before driving away !

Been a few years since I hired last but it used to drive my mrs crazy me taking photos from all angles when she is chomping at the bit waiting to get going

 

[JockStalk]

In this case the car went through the photo gate on the way out of the rental yard and on return.

The prehire agreement listed 35 items of damage on the car, 6 of them on the passenger side wing.

After repeatedly asking them for the outbound photo of the wing, not just the inbound, and to prove that the damage was different than that already listed, and after a couple of rounds of emails threatened to bill them for my time and hand it to my lawyers they have decided not to pursue their claim for damage.

Just to restate, I’ve hired cars for decades and always do the onhire walk round, photo the car, check the spare is present and all the other dodges. And I had my own rental insurance, so I could have just paid and claimed it.

But a bit of persistence paid off.

Be careful when renting - they are still “at it” and using technology now to drown you with BS. Don’t just settle it because you are insured, if they are at it, fight them.