Foreign Car Rental P**S Boiler!

[Lordbenny]

So after a lot of e-mail ping pong.....Basically when we dropped the car of we wernt given out copy of the paperwork. We signed it, they kept our half and filled the damage in afterwards making it look like we'd signed for the damage!

My last e-mail to them was:

Dear ****

I have looked at the check in sheet.
We were NOT given a copy of this sheet!
The damage has been added to the after we had signed it!
We will be contacting International Trading Standards, EVERY motoring website has already been contacted and we are currently considering contacting the police in relation to this.
You’re company if committing a serious offence by doing this.
We want our money refunded immediately.


Just received this:

Dear Customer

We have discuss again your case with our office manager , as a commercial gesture Locauto will assume the 50% of the cost of the damage caused during your rental and we offer a refund of € 122.76.
We will charge back the amount on your credit card and as soon as possible we will send the receive of charge back.
Regards


Should I:

a)Except their 'kind' offer? I'll be honest with you, I never thought I'd get a bean back!

or

b)Go for the other 50% as they have accepted responsibility?

[miln0039]

Lordbenny said:

So after a lot of e-mail ping pong.....Basically when we dropped the car of we wernt given out copy of the paperwork. We signed it, they kept our half and filled the damage in afterwards making it look like we'd signed for the damage!

My last e-mail to them was:

Dear ****

I have looked at the check in sheet.
We were NOT given a copy of this sheet!
The damage has been added to the after we had signed it!
We will be contacting International Trading Standards, EVERY motoring website has already been contacted and we are currently considering contacting the police in relation to this.
You’re company if committing a serious offence by doing this.
We want our money refunded immediately.


Just received this:

Dear Customer

We have discuss again your case with our office manager , as a commercial gesture Locauto will assume the 50% of the cost of the damage caused during your rental and we offer a refund of € 122.76.
We will charge back the amount on your credit card and as soon as possible we will send the receive of charge back.
Regards


Should I:

a)Except their 'kind' offer? I'll be honest with you, I never thought I'd get a bean back!

or

b)Go for the other 50% as they have accepted responsibility?

If you honestly didn't do the damage and then I think the answer is pretty simple...

[Polarbert]

Keep going mate. If they have given up 50 per cent chances are they are going to be willing to give up the rest. It should only be a matter of time.

[M001]

Isn't a simple way round this is to take out full damage waiver insurance when you collect the car, depending on cost obviously?

The last time i hired a car in Ibiza it cost an extra £16 for 3 days so no matter what state i returned it in there was no charge.

On another note, i recently had a dispute with Europcar regarding single way hire of a car from Stanstead to Birmingham. On collection i was told it was £86 for hire and full insurance. I returned it with the tank on 3/4 (collected with full) and was later billed for £130, which i assumed was the fuel charge. After a quick phone call i was informed that £15 was for extra insurance and the rest was fuel. This worked out at £2.30 a litre for them to fill it up with 16 litres!!

As the tank only holds 45 litres, i said there must be a hole in it if a 1/4 of 45 equals 16. I also was not informed of the extra insurance and fuel surcharge at the time of hiring.

The result was that they are refunding the full difference between £130 and £86.

[DJFish]

Gruber said:

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.

I'm off to Palermo this week and have hired a car 'on a budget' and would be very interested to hear about your experiences.....
Could you drop me an email if you don't want to name & shame?

Cheers,
Dave

[GreatGranny]

Do not take the damage waiver insurance with the hire company. There are 3rd party companies that do this and you can pay for a year at a time, much, much cheaper to do this.

[littlebasher]

Stupid iPhone

[Lordbenny]

Polarbert said:

Keep going mate. If they have given up 50 per cent chances are they are going to be willing to give up the rest. It should only be a matter of time.

Contacted Santander and demanded that they got our money back (Chargeback).....they did, full refund! Result!

[SuperNiceBig]

Hired a VW 7 seater in Spain a couple of years ago. Only noticed on the second day some heavy dents on the passenger sill. It wasn't me honest! Cancelled the credit card I used ASAP.

[LuS1fer]

SuperNiceBig said:

Hired a VW 7 seater in Spain a couple of years ago. Only noticed on the second day some heavy dents on the passenger sill. It wasn't me honest! Cancelled the credit card I used ASAP.

I always photograph round the car on pick-up so when you notice the scratches and dents later, you can zoom in and check they're not you. I did that with a Focus when I discovered some scratches on the bumper but a quick check showed they were already there. I had a Vito and about halfway through, noticed a dent in the rear door and panicked but luckily the docs with the vehicle had a previously declared collision that had caused it so I photographed that too, just in case.

It's important because the car can get damaged while you're away from it and it's parked. I've seen too many Spanish "shunters" to not take great care where I park.