Hire Car Dispute - Green Motion

Hire Car Dispute - Green Motion

Author
Discussion

jinkster

Original Poster:

2,235 posts

155 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
A couple of weeks ago I hired a car from Green Motion at Manchester Airport.

On returning the vehicle they noticed a scratch. I have not caused any damage to the car. The checkin agent used his shoes to remove the dirt on the car to uncover the damage. I have been e-mailing customer services regarding the charge £224.40 and this is part of the reply.....

[i]From the documentation provided to us we are confident that the damage in question was not present prior to your rental. We have reviewed the previous 6 vehicle condition reports, as well as the report you signed at the start of the rental period. Whilst we have no doubt that you may not have caused the damage and were certainly not aware of it during your rental, it did occur during the period for which you were responsible.

The charges applied to this damage were taken from the approved damage matrix, and as such are a fair and reasonable reflection of the cost to the business, of returning the vehicle to its pre-rental condition.

The damage matrix is devised to compensate for the costs to the company of damage repair, loss of use, administration and any other associated costs.

In order to mitigate losses and keep costs (which would be chargeable to the customer) as low as possible, the matrix takes average costs for the damage identified rather than take the vehicle off the road at that point and the vehicle may not be repaired until the end of life. This policy and the repair matrix is approved by Trading Standards.

Therefore we find that the charges applied are appropriate and must stand[/i][url]

This seems very unfair.


|https://thumbsnap.com/h7RsTu7F[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/33zZqvel[/url]

OverSteery

3,586 posts

230 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
Unfair in what way? Are you saying it was there before? I assume the car was clean when you collected it?

I assume you chose not to insure yourself for damage caused that wasn't your fault?

Sk00p

3,961 posts

226 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
jinkster said:
On returning the vehicle they noticed a scratch. I have not caused any damage to the car. The checkin agent used his shoes to remove the dirt on the car to uncover the damage.
Could you see the mark with the dirt there? If not how did the agent know about it?

InitialDave

11,854 posts

118 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
I have used my local Greenmotion for van hire a couple of times, and they seem pretty good, but the company does seem to have something of a reputation for pushing it with damage charges.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/28/gree...

Interestingly, when buying excess cover, I found at least one company won't cover rentals from them.

blueg33

35,578 posts

223 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
Did you inspect the car properly when you picked it up? I assume you did and that the scratch wasn't there, because if it was you would have made tem note it on the paperwork.

So its gone from no scratch to scratch whilst in your care. How can anyone else be liable? Car hire terms always make this the hirers liability. You can pay extra to transfer the liability to an insurer (code for car hire co makes more and wont bother to fix any scratches)

XDA

2,141 posts

184 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
jinkster said:
The checkin agent used his shoes to remove the dirt on the car to uncover the damage.
So the agent picked a corner of the car and found damage underneath the dirt? scratchchin

Why would he do that unless he knew there was previous damage?

That's probably the same damage they've been charging every customer for.

Riley Blue

20,915 posts

225 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
XDA said:
That's probably the same damage they've been charging every customer for.
You'd have thought at least one of them would have spotted it prior to driving the car away.

dave_s13

13,813 posts

268 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
That would just buff out by the look of it. Or not even bother 99% of people.

I'd be hugely pissed off as well.

I'd be writing back to them expressing concern over the methods use by the chap to uncover the damage. How did he know to use his shoe!!? to clear of the grime in that spot. The car was dirty from normal use at this time of year so did he already know this scuff existed? Also ask them why, in order to mitigate losses, it can't be dealt with by a PDR repair that would be a fraction of the cost they are quoting.

Good luck.

HantsRat

2,368 posts

107 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
Whenever I hire a car, I simply record a 360 video of the car on my phone to counter act scams like these.

bodhi808

211 posts

178 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
I work in the same building, upstairs from these clowns and this is a very common story I keep hearing about them. I've never crawled around on the floor before and inspected the bottom of a hire car's bumper before but I suspect many cars have similar scuffs and this seems a bit of shady call on their part looking at the picture. They have a couple of high kerbs in their car park too and also a bushes next to spaces which I managed to scrape my bumper on before they came along and took that car park. Nothing 2 minutes with some t-cut couldn't fix.

The guys who deal with the cars can be pretty obnoxious, parking them in our visitors spaces and throwing fag ends all over the place, generally pretty arrogant. It would be worth asking if there are damage reports done from when their guys take the cars out to get lunch in Heald Green. One of them walked out of Tesco just behind me the other day and then jumped in one of their cars and tore off like a right knobber out of the junction. He could easily have kerbed the bumper and I expect that wouldn't feature on any of their inspections!

4rephill

5,040 posts

177 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
I hired a Ford Mondeo from a well known rental company a couple of years back, and the guy from the front desk came out, "inspected" the car (i.e had a quick disinterested glance around the car), and made a note saying that it was undamaged.

I pointed out to him that there was a fairly large stone chip in the bonnet, to which he said: "We don't count that because it's under a certain size".

I asked him to make a note on the vehicle inspection sheet any way just in case, which he did (still telling Me it wasn't really necessary though).

When I returned the car the next day, another guy from the front desk went out to inspect the car and came back in saying: "Oh dear, you've picked up a nasty looking stone chip on the bonnet, we'll have to charge you for that to be repaired!"

I said straight away:"That stone chip was on the car when I collected it yesterday, and I was told as it was below a certain size, it wouldn't matter anyway!"

"I highly doubt that we would send a car out with that sort of damage on it! - It must have happened during your rental, so you will have to pay for the repair!" was the snooty response I got, so I replied:

"Really?......Well this inspection sheet from yesterday says otherwise!"

He looked at the sheet and then went to get his colleague, who came out and confirmed that the stone chip was already there, and that it was below the size required to be noted for attention, so there were no repair costs to be paid by Me.

I left wondering just how many people had been caught out by that nice little money earner, and haven't used that company since.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
i find if you give it a clean before handing back saves a lot of agro.

PorkInsider

5,877 posts

140 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
The Spruce goose said:
i find if you give it a clean...
With a shoe?

Rude-boy

22,227 posts

232 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
The Spruce goose said:
i find if you give it a clean before handing back saves a lot of agro.
I find that paying a few extra pounds for the full insurance cover save even more agro.

I will never understand that constant need for people to save a few £'s at the risk to costing them many 100's £'s.

I really do wonder when people hire a car for £19per day or similar how they think that the shiny suited 'customer assistant', yard and stock are paid for...

JQ

5,691 posts

178 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
Rude-boy said:
I find that paying a few extra pounds for the full insurance cover save even more agro.
and if you're likely to do a few rentals a year a 3rd party policy makes sense. I pay around £40 per annum for my policy.

Jez m

811 posts

194 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
fkers. Are they on commission for every customer that pays up for these 'damage' claims?

XDA

2,141 posts

184 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
XDA said:
That's probably the same damage they've been charging every customer for.
You'd have thought at least one of them would have spotted it prior to driving the car away.
Depends how much attention the previous hirers have taken when checking the car over prior to driving it off.

Looks like it could easily be missed in poor light or if vehicle was wet.

Tomo1971

1,127 posts

156 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
I have hired off GM (several locations) for 4 or 5 months now, every week and never had a problem.

I do have car hire excess insurance of my own just in case though as I do realise they have terrible reviews for exactly this type of thing, I also make it clear to them that I will only ever allow them to take the piss once, ill be off to other companies if they do, otherwise they have my custom as long as I need a hire car.

Others are right in that you should inspect the car before signing for it and preferably, like I do, take a 360 video - take me 2 or 3 minutes generally.

I have witnessed others arguing with the staff over damage that 'they didn't cause' but admitted in front of me once the staff member was out of earshot - I am sure that they hear every story in the book.

However, for the agent to remove dirt in an exact spot, they knew the damage was there - your only hope I guess is for you to play on this - it would be tantamount to fraud if you were to take them to and win at court.

Chucklehead

2,729 posts

207 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
InitialDave said:
I have used my local Greenmotion for van hire a couple of times, and they seem pretty good, but the company does seem to have something of a reputation for pushing it with damage charges.
You can google *insert name of rental company here* unfair damage charges, and you'll get many, many hits for any company you choose.

Similarly, many people will have their own versions of these stories they like to recount on threads.

What you signed at the start of the rental agreement was a contract, so you should've been damn sure you knew what you were signing for. At the end of the rental, any change in condition is your responsibility.

The rental company did you the service of checking to see that it hadn't been documented before, and checked it hadn't been noted on the last 6 rentals. There's not much else to say.

You didn't spot it when it was clean (if it was there) and they spotted it when it was dirty.

The only argument there is from here is how much you should pay for repair, though they don't need to repair it, they can attribute it to devaluation.

It sucks, and I do feel for you, but having worked in the industry for years, you become numb to the same stories where people can't believe that damage could possibly have happened under their care, eventually threatening legal/social media/sausages etc.

Take a look round your own car in the same detail that these people are trained to do you'd be surprised how many scuffs and scratches can't be explained.

fido

16,752 posts

254 months

Friday 15th December 2017
quotequote all
I'd cause them as much aggro as possible - print out a list of recent 'reviews' and ask them if it's part of their business plan to dupe customers. Most decent hire companies wouldn't quibble over a minor scratch like that. Just returned a brand new 320d to SIXT and dropped the keys off in a box. No issues - though I took pictures and a fuel receipt just in case.

Edited by fido on Friday 15th December 21:08