Car hire dents con?

A snowHead

I've been charged occasionally over the years for the odd scratch or bump when returning a hire car. Yet, when I pick cars up, they invariably still have several scratches or bumps on them.

The implication seems to be that the hire companies charge hirers for repairs, yet having taken our money, don't actually have the damaged fixed.

Is this a con, I wonder?

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

As most hire companies apparently sell their cars at auction when they reach about 9 - 12 months old, my guess it that they probably never have the dents fixed, but just pocket the extra payments for damage and / or extra insurance premiums that they charge to you and I.

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I hired a high top transit to move from Co. Waterford to Co Clare a few years back I picked up a pretty much perfect van from Waterford city. Whilst doing the inspection i pointed out a small dent about the size of a 10p piece, which had surface rust at the centre and said

'You wouldn't charge for something like that would you - anyway there's rust in the centre so it must have been done ages ago", the girl kindly made note.

Fast forward twenty hours of constant loading and driving backwards and forwards and a slep deprived driver trying to find the depot it Limerick City. The industrial estate was no problem but a slightly offset entrance had me pulling into the wrong unit. I quickly reversed out and as i entered the rental compound i noticed the magnificent heft of the nearly one foot diameter steel gateposts and marvelled at there rigidity as i misjudged my line by cutting the corner too tight and wedging the side of the van into it. The sound of the impact was enough to bring the mechanics out of the workshop, no doubt rubbing their hands in glee. Dejectedly i went into the office to drop off the keys.

"Let's have a look at the van then shall we" said the receptionist.

Slowly we went out and approached the van from the good side. A cursory check and all was well, but as we rounded, much sucking of teeth and an exclamation of " Wow, that's a huge dent!". Indeed it was, top to bottom, probably eight feet high, creasing the radius to both roof and floor and two long gouges in the paint about three feet long each, perhaps from the hinges.

"It's ok, it says dented panel here on the paperwork!" A quick signature and a copy of the paperwork and I was out of there faster that you could say CCTV footage. Razz

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rogg, Nice one! For those who hire its worth keeping an eye on your credit card as I spoke to my credit card administrator and he advised me that he has seen car hire companies bill upto 12 months post hire! I am a bit paranoid so i always take photos of the panels on collection- then there is no argument. I also insure myself with Protect My Bubble as its worth while if you hire more than twice a year. And watch out in Spain, where Goldcar ask you to return with an empty tank, which we all know is impossible when the car does 70mpg, but charge 90euros in advance for the refill, this really is a scam.

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I've hired a few cars in Italy that have been covered in scratches and bumps, (one was that bad I refused to take it) and always made sure everything was noted on the hire form. I now always go for the complete damage waiver option, a bit more expensive but gives peace of mind.

snowHead

After all it is free

I had a nasty feeling about one I hired at Lyon, there were so many scratches and dents I ended up noting most that I could and then very deliberately (so they could see) photographed all around it. No problem at all when I returned it.

A friend of mine,who shall remain nameless, hired a car at the airport on the way to Peyragudes. On the way home he clipped a kerb, blowing out one tyre and damaging two alloy rims. He changed the wheel and dropped the car back in the pound at the airport after office hours.He then immediately phoned his bank and cancelled the card which he had paid with. He received a bill in the UK a couple of weeks later which he ignored,and the same again after about 8 weeks.
He heard no more, but said that he was shi**ing himself the next time he flew in to the same airport. Seems he got away with it.
Bad man !

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Hired a car in Barcelona last weekend. It had a few dents and scratches already and these were pointed out to me when I picked the car up and signed the paperwork. They took a €100 deposit and returned it to me when I took the car back with no further damage. Surely that's how it should be?

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Only time I was charged was for huge sea gull scratches on the bonnet and roof. But it was a long term lease, parked outside right by the sea in Holland, so pretty much expected tbh. They won't fix it. They'll just pocket cash.

Then in French Guiana, we handed back a car with 1 windscreen cracked from top to bottom (from edge to edge), 1 broken wheel (car returned on the space saver), and they just made a note of repairs to be sorted by the mechanic. No questions asked.

And in Birmingham airport, they made a note of all the dents and scratches, but it was late at night, so difficult to check. Sussed out that half the dents were actually so tiny that you'd have to be on your knees and looking in just the right light to see them, and the other half were actually tide-mark smudges caused by dust and water (like when you get dirty sahara rain).

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Question: What is the best car for off road driving?
Answer: A hire car.

Until you have tried it it amazing just what an ordinary car will do off road. I remember driving my wife's Audi up a track between Aime and the Cormet de Roseland. It just kept going, Incidentally the pass at the top, the Cormet d' Areches is a fantastic place to start a walk. But you wouldn't think the track was drivable unless someone told you so. Incidently the car suffered no damage.

I always suspect that all the other new cars driving up there were hire cars.

You know it makes sense.

It's best to look round the car at time of hire and make sure the agent notes down any damage. Difficult when they're busy but I now insist on it, after once having to argue about minor damage I didn't actually do.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I hired a car in Bournemouth and returned it with a small hole in the plastic trim round the key hole in the drivers door. I imagine somebody had either drilled in or stuck a small screwdriver in it while trying to break into it. It was so small and neat it may well have been already there when I hired it. When I dropped the car off I pointed it out to the girl (she didn't notice it either). Of course she then went into the £250 damage excess speech. Fortunately for me she had already told me that the car was due to be sent for auction ASAP. I said to her that as I thought the repair would cost at the most a few quid that I wasn't prepared to pay the excess. I demanded that they send me a repair invoice, and I would pay that. I never did hear any more from them.

A snowHead

From what I can tell, the hire companies don't actually fix the dents and bumps, despite having presumably charged customers for them. If they did, there wouldn't be what is often a long list of scratches and scrapes to be checked and signed for each time when collecting the car. I just wonder how legal / moral that is?

A snowHead

stephen buck, but they do sell the cars on at the end of a year or two - and the price will be reduced at that point, so they need to cover that loss.
thus : no con.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We always hire cars in Greece and make a big point of photographing dings and dents. But also start engine and photograph fuel gauge. Thats where in Greece they try to make a bit of money. We hired a car that had half a tank full and we were told bring it back with the same, if not we will charge for the missing fuel and a re-fueling charge. Took the car back with half a tank full and they tried to tell us it was full when we took it, we dont get caught again.

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Returned a rental car today - no issue with ours, but the one that had been dropped off in the adjacent bay had a massive scrape down one side, and 4 fully deflated tyres. Wonder what the tab was for that?

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posted this on another forum re car hire so thought i'd copy it to here. THRIFTY are a rip off company and nothing else. had a bmw with them for 4 days last march and did the checks before driving from airport and found 15 marks which were not listed on the rental agreement. so in total there were 20+ marks on the car.went back to the rental desk and they said no problem as they wouldtake note but that there would not be a problem anyway. after our trip when we returned we asked for the car to be checked and the guy took 20min going over the car. we went back to the rental desk and they informed us that another scratch had been found on 1 of the alloys so they were keeping our 1000 eur deposit. we booked the car via autoeurope and reported this fraud to them and also the credit card company.
after much 2 and fro they reimbursed us approx 600 and kept 400. they also gave a photo of the alleged damage and I am honestly not exagerating when i say it was a tiny scratch about the size of my small finger nail and would not have been possible to pick up on our original inspection.
of course we should have refused the car after our initial inspection but as we have always dealt with avis and hertz and have never had a problem so we were not expecting this sort of gangster behaviour.
I have since done some research on this company and have found many similar cases some worse than ours. they have the cars with all the marks so it is not possible for anyone to find and list them all so on return of the vehicle BANG, there goes your 1000 euro deposit. autoeurope and visa were pretty useless and thankfully I had my own extra insurance with insurance4carhire.com who paid up fully after a bit of work. I fought the case as hard as possible as a matter of principle as I always knew the insurance would pay out but they got their money either way so please please please, nobody use these fraudulant f**king gansters. you have been warned. their prices are lower for a reason!! THRIFTY CAR HIRE FRAUDSTERS
was going to post this seperately but saw this forum so stuk it in here.

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Car hire companies, in my experience, include insurance but with an excess of approx. 1000 Euro. They usually offer extra insurance at the pick up point for 12-15 Euro a day. This extra insurance removes the excess.

It is best to purchase excess insurance protection in the UK before travelling as this costs around £15 for the entire rental period. The catch is that you pay for the damage up to your maximum excess and then claim the money back the from insurance company later.

.

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I'm amazed that people who have lurked for two years have come out and copy and pasted the rant they put up so long ago. Shocked

After all it is free

meh,

If I'd had to pay the money the Fitzwilliams were demanding from me I'd still be banging on about it. It's borderline legal at best.

im amazed that people on here dont check their facts(I posted the copied and pasted "rant" just last week) and post comments lents that have dam all to do with the subject.

Help!!

Car hire dents con?

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