Foreign Car Rental P**S Boiler!

[Polarbert]

Nickyboy said:

I never understand the problem with rental firms in Europe and the UK whether its big chains or independents, every mark is noted and charged accordingly. I've rented numerous cars in the US from various staes and not once have they checked for damage before or after the rental. One car had marks all over the rear bumper, we asked them to note it down and they just said they're not interested in scratches etc

Yeh I've done this too. They have so many rental cars available I think it just wouldn't be worth their time. Although my cousin did get stung for damages she didn't cause and they tried to charge her for loads of little things, like a new licence plate.

[Gruber]

I was diddled out of €390 by Budget in Sicily over the summer, so it's not just the smaller outfits. Really puts a downer on the end of a nice holiday.

The way in which they went about it left me in little doubt that the reps are on commission.

[Lordbenny]

Firstly Locauto is a big Italian rental firm and secondly I've contacted my credit card company and they wont 'chargeback' a car rental company....its in the small print!

[JMGS4]

Had similar when hiring from a "Europ"ean "car" hire company at Manchester. Had had them refuse to give me the paperwork on a previous flight out (I insisted they call the manager and get me the paperwork, they were annoyed)

I then found out why they didn't want to give anyone paperwork on a later visit.
Had to travel up to Edinburgh to bury my father and flew in via Manchester. hired a pre-booked and prepaid car with the said hire company. They said it's perfectly OK to drop it off in terminal 2 and just leave the keys in the office drop-off box (their desk is only in T1). I did so with a full tank and witnesses to the mileage and condition.

SURPRISE SURPRISE.... when the bill arrived about 2 months later there was an extra day, apparently I'd also driven another 300 miles and left it with an empty tank!!! Some scrote in the company had either rehired it or used it for his own amusement. Tried to fight it, had flight ticket stubs, petrol invoice and witnesses but CC coy refused to refute the bill, but at least the german travel company with whom I'd booked and prepaid the car, gave me a refund (and also stated off the record that it happened often with that company in Manchester!)
Needless to say I'll NEVER knowingly hire a car from those thieves again.

[SWH]

The Crack Fox said:

There are some very simple rules to avoid this in future:

1-never rent from some cheap local outfit, avis/sixt/hertz might be a bit pricier but have a HQ you can call who will help if needed.

2-pay the extra few euros to reduce insurance excess to zero.

3-always insist on a final invoice on returning the car, and get a copy of the return inspection sheet (carbon copy).

4-drive like you stole it. If you've done 1-3 above they won't charge you a penny when you return a smouldering wreck. I should know

Good luck in sorting this.

^^^^ Sound advice; I'd add paying by credit card as well, so if they do attempt to pull a fast one you can get the CC company to sort them out - recovered my deposit from one in Portugal last year via that route. Turned out they had rubbish admin and couldn't sort their lives out to issue a refund, but once I contacted the CC boys it ceased to be my problem.

[Doofus]

I hire cars abroad quite often, and I've probably been charged for pre-existing damage on three or four occasions over the years.

Phone them up, tell them the damage was there when you picked the car up, and get your money back. It works for me.

[lowdrag]

No brainer here. On taking possession of the vehicle I take photos from every angle with their employee in the photo. Any imperfection I take a close-up. They've tried it on several times but confronted with these photos they quickly back down. I always insist on a declaration that the car was returned in the condition I accepted it too. They don't like doing it, but I still have the keys at that point.

[Aphex]

Lordbenny said:

I've contacted my credit card company and they wont 'chargeback' a car rental company....its in the small print!

Thats not right. If you've not chip and pinned the second transaction then it's down to the retailer to prove the charge. Your Credit Card company will dispute it for you, who do you bank with?

[The Wookie]

LHD said:

Vixpy1 said:

I drove a Meganne Scenic hire car into a tree stump once and put a huge hole in the bumper. Took it back and the girl inspecting told me she would have to charge me 50 Euro's.

I was like.. er ok

That my friend, is a fking result.

I once managed to drive a rental Focus into the automatic gate mechanism at my parents gaff in France... usefully it had already been pranged and noted on that corner before we picked it up!... less usefully the gate mechanism cost about 300 quid to fix. And the old man got about 6 months worth of piss taking mileage out of it.

To be fair, they rarely check the cars properly at that place, more than once I've just been asked 'You have crash? No? OK, here ticket!'

[miln0039]

I rented from Locauto last Februaury from Bergamo (whichRyanair believe is Milan) and did loads of miles up into the South Tyrol to go skiing. I had no problems with them, and quite liked their pricing - especially when they forgot to charge me the young driver fee!

They were trying to be a bit too relaxed for my liking with the "oh it's up the road in the car park and we've already checked it for damage" line. So I went up the road and then made a point of calling one of their representatives (perhaps the only one actually..) up the road to look over the car with me and agree there was more damage. By this point I had also backed it out of the space and made a point of getting a lot of clear photographs beforehand.

On return, I did the same thing, and made sure I was doing it as their drop off representative approached me to check the car back in.

Unsurprisingly, I received no further charges. I know it's REALLY anal, and my girfriend was less than impressed, but for the sake of a cumulative 30-40 minutes of faffing I really think it's worth it. I had googled Locauto beforehand and seen horror stories of €900 bills after using them. You can't treat these guys like a premium brand (e.g. Avis) as they're simply not a premium brand. Give them and inch and they will take a mile. I'd happily use them again, but it's important you let them know you're not going to take any bullst from the start!

OP - did you use CarHire3000 to end up hooked up with Locauto? If so they have some very helpful people in their call centre who could probably help you out. They don't want to be included in the negative google reports which turn up!

[mrmr96]

I once had a brand new 11 plate Hyundai Santa Fe as a hire car. It had 11miles on the clock and had been taken to where I got it from by lorry. Me and the hire woman looked it over, and unsurprisingly there was not a SINGLE mark on it ANYWHERE. I was bricking it the whole time I was driving it, because I knew that any single thing that happened in my care would show up like a sore thumb. Fortunately I didn't have to go far in it, and actually returned it later that day.

[Lordbenny]

miln0039 said:

OP - did you use CarHire3000 to end up hooked up with Locauto?

Dont get me started....I always use CarHire3000 (Now called Rentalcars.com) and on this particular occasion I did...they used Europcar at Verona airport. Everything was fine until...they showed us the 'Golf Equivalent' car they had in store for us. It was a Lancia Musa 1.4 Diesel, the crappiest car I have EVER seen. They said that, yes, it was a Golf equivalent and it was all they had! We cancelled and ended up having to pay top dollar to get the VW Passat (remember we were doing 1500 miles in 3 days) from LocAuto that we ended up with. Im currently having a barny with them to for this 'cock up'!

[miln0039]

Lordbenny said:

Dont get me started....I always use CarHire3000 (Now called Rentalcars.com) and on this particular occasion I did...they used Europcar at Verona airport. Everything was fine until...they showed us the 'Golf Equivalent' car they had in store for us. It was a Lancia Musa 1.4 Diesel, the crappiest car I have EVER seen. They said that, yes, it was a Golf equivalent and it was all they had! We cancelled and ended up having to pay top dollar to get the VW Passat (remember we were doing 1500 miles in 3 days) from LocAuto that we ended up with. Im currently having a barny with them to for this 'cock up'!

I had a Lancia Musso 1.2 petrol!! Ski resorts and serpentines were a first gear affair!!!

[Gareth79]

Nickyboy said:

I never understand the problem with rental firms in Europe and the UK whether its big chains or independents, every mark is noted and charged accordingly. I've rented numerous cars in the US from various staes and not once have they checked for damage before or after the rental. One car had marks all over the rear bumper, we asked them to note it down and they just said they're not interested in scratches etc

I think the US companies keep their vehicles longer and they probably all either get refurbished or sold cheaply at the end of their rental life. The Jeep we got from Dollar last month had 47k on it, IIRC the UK companies only keep theirs for 12k or something and probably don't want to have to do much more than a quick valet before resale.

[Deva Link]

Gareth79 said:

Nickyboy said:

I never understand the problem with rental firms in Europe and the UK whether its big chains or independents, every mark is noted and charged accordingly. I've rented numerous cars in the US from various staes and not once have they checked for damage before or after the rental. One car had marks all over the rear bumper, we asked them to note it down and they just said they're not interested in scratches etc

I think the US companies keep their vehicles longer and they probably all either get refurbished or sold cheaply at the end of their rental life. The Jeep we got from Dollar last month had 47k on it, IIRC the UK companies only keep theirs for 12k or something and probably don't want to have to do much more than a quick valet before resale.

The difference in the US is you rent with zero excess - excesses are illegal in most US states. So they've nothing to gain by claiming random damage.

[B'stard Child]

Gareth79 said:

Nickyboy said:

I never understand the problem with rental firms in Europe and the UK whether its big chains or independents, every mark is noted and charged accordingly. I've rented numerous cars in the US from various staes and not once have they checked for damage before or after the rental. One car had marks all over the rear bumper, we asked them to note it down and they just said they're not interested in scratches etc

I think the US companies keep their vehicles longer and they probably all either get refurbished or sold cheaply at the end of their rental life. The Jeep we got from Dollar last month had 47k on it, IIRC the UK companies only keep theirs for 12k or something and probably don't want to have to do much more than a quick valet before resale.

I don't think that used to the case but again last month I had two hire cars from dollar (first one was 37K and a duff one so returned) and second one had 43K miles - both weren't in good condition and had numerous areas of damage and were 16-18 months old

Both cars had way more miles than I would normally expect - I've never had a rental from dollar in the USA with more than 10K and older than 6 months - I would say this is a sign of the recession biting in the USA

From memory Dollar don't own the vehicles but lease them from the major manufactures so they don't sell them when they are replaced

[Deva Link]

Aphex said:

Lordbenny said:

I've contacted my credit card company and they wont 'chargeback' a car rental company....its in the small print!

Thats not right. If you've not chip and pinned the second transaction then it's down to the retailer to prove the charge. Your Credit Card company will dispute it for you, who do you bank with?

It is right, because you'll have signed in the rental contract that you agree to pay for damage and fines.

[smileymikey]

I was advised before we went to Cuba on a driving holiday, that it was a national sport to spank you when you took the car back. When I went to collect our car, I took the guy to one side slipped him the equivalent of twenty quid ( a fortune out there) and told him I wanted a pile of ste with working air con that I wasn't going to have any hassle with when I brought it back. He winked led me past the rows of Audis and other new stuff to a Hyundai that looked like its previous owner had been the Taliban. It turns out to have been a very smart decision, as the Cuban driving style in Havana makes the Arch De Triumph roundabout in Paris during a Friday rush hour look like a Sunday morning drive in the country.

[Chrisgr31]

The rental companies will buy the cars new for less than you or I can buy them second hand! They used to actually make money on the difference between the purchase price and the price they achieved selling them 6 months later. I suspect they still do, or of course they never actually own the car having been offered a special deal by the manufacturer who needs cars registering.

Also of course lots of the big names re in fact franschises so if you have problems with a particular site try to find out if they are a franchise.

[surveyor]

Lordbenny said:

Dont get me started....I always use CarHire3000 (Now called Rentalcars.com) and on this particular occasion I did...they used Europcar at Verona airport. Everything was fine until...they showed us the 'Golf Equivalent' car they had in store for us. It was a Lancia Musa 1.4 Diesel, the crappiest car I have EVER seen. They said that, yes, it was a Golf equivalent and it was all they had! We cancelled and ended up having to pay top dollar to get the VW Passat (remember we were doing 1500 miles in 3 days) from LocAuto that we ended up with. Im currently having a barny with them to for this 'cock up'!

The hire car companies have odd ideas of equivalent. We booked an 'Espace or similar' through one of the firms and ended up with Hertz I think. At Lyon they tried to pass of a Zafira as equivalent. The language barrier was helpful, as I could say No, but could not understand an awful lot more. Ended up with a Grand Voyager.