National Europcar Damage Scam
Discussion
Hi all, a few months ago I had an accident in my company car (Lex Autolease) and I was given a hire car from Europcar Dover.
It was a white Seat Leon Copa 1.2 like this one:
I had the car for around two months before returning the car in the same condition that I received it. A few days later I was contacted by Lex to tell me that Europcar were putting in a claim for the offside damage that I had made to the car! I was puzzled and bemused. I was confident that I had not damaged the car and told them to send me some photo evidence of the damage. I later decided to drive to Dover Europcar to see this damage for myself. When I got there the car was not there so I couldn't see it.
I thought this was an end to it; until yesterday! I received a further email from Lex autolease sending me the dated photos of the damage:
My initial thoughts were amusement, as the car in pic 1 is the car I hired, but the 2nd car is clearly not the same car or even the same model! It also looks like the dated portion of the photos was added later as the pixelation around the figures is different to the rest of the photo (I am a semi-pro photographer). I pointed this out to Lex and they backed down. I now feel a little concerned so I emailed Lex to say that I wanted to pursue this further with Europcar. I then received an out of office email saying that the Lex person I was corresponding with has now been seconded away for the foreseeable future!
So who is in on this scam? Is it Europcar or a joint venture with Lex?
Either way Guys, take photos on your mobile of all hire cars received and de-hired to cover yourselves.
!
It was a white Seat Leon Copa 1.2 like this one:
I had the car for around two months before returning the car in the same condition that I received it. A few days later I was contacted by Lex to tell me that Europcar were putting in a claim for the offside damage that I had made to the car! I was puzzled and bemused. I was confident that I had not damaged the car and told them to send me some photo evidence of the damage. I later decided to drive to Dover Europcar to see this damage for myself. When I got there the car was not there so I couldn't see it.
I thought this was an end to it; until yesterday! I received a further email from Lex autolease sending me the dated photos of the damage:
My initial thoughts were amusement, as the car in pic 1 is the car I hired, but the 2nd car is clearly not the same car or even the same model! It also looks like the dated portion of the photos was added later as the pixelation around the figures is different to the rest of the photo (I am a semi-pro photographer). I pointed this out to Lex and they backed down. I now feel a little concerned so I emailed Lex to say that I wanted to pursue this further with Europcar. I then received an out of office email saying that the Lex person I was corresponding with has now been seconded away for the foreseeable future!
So who is in on this scam? Is it Europcar or a joint venture with Lex?
Either way Guys, take photos on your mobile of all hire cars received and de-hired to cover yourselves.
!
Similar happened too me with a lease car. Not quite to the level of forging evidence but I was invoiced for 3 separate pieces of damage on an undamaged car.
I sent them a photo of every panel taken on the day of collection along with the collection documents in each shot - they soon backtracked!
'On this occasion we will not be pursuing the matter further sir'
I sent them a photo of every panel taken on the day of collection along with the collection documents in each shot - they soon backtracked!
'On this occasion we will not be pursuing the matter further sir'
Did you deal with the same peson at LEX every time? Judging by the way, the LEX person suddenly got "seconded", then I would guess he's the one trying it on.
If it's a company car, then I suggest you talk with whoever runs the scheme for you, as they should be able to escalate this as an issue within LEX.
If it's a company car, then I suggest you talk with whoever runs the scheme for you, as they should be able to escalate this as an issue within LEX.
Siscar said:
Good spot on the RegNo, quite possibly it's a screw up, white car, one letter different in the reg, incompetent employee....
Agreed, The reg number is different in the damaged photo and links to a silver C class merc, I think its just a keying error that all and nothing more.Well it does, my guess is that the RegNo for the second photo was entered wrong (big guess, that's not a photo of a C class) they then probably found that they didn't have a car with that number so some numpty entered it against the Seat possibly because it was white, so they guessed.
Some daft mixup like that, as I say the chance of europcar doing that deliberately as policy is around nil.
Some daft mixup like that, as I say the chance of europcar doing that deliberately as policy is around nil.
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