Car Hire Damages Racket

epah said:
Sounds more like it, Come pick me up in your hired car, I wanna join.
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Don't want to risk causing any damage. If I return it with no problems, we can down a case to celebrate. If I'm scammed, we can down it before I slash my wrists. I'll keep you in the loop.
 
Take your own photos of interior, exterior before renting, and when returning.
Then any damages can be disputed.

I did this when I rented a year or two ago. Zero issues with scummy rental companies if you do that.

Also a good thing to do when you rent property. Take pics before you move in.
 
We had a similar experience with a Budget years ago where they tried to claim we scratched the car and fixed it with tipex. Fortunately (much to my incredible annoyance at the time) my wife took photos of the whole vehicle while they where doing the pre check and you could just see the scratch in one of the pictures. .Now we record the guy doing his inspection when we take the car and we just make sure he notes on his paper that we did that.

The last scam I had with euro car is them trying to make me pay a R1000 speeding fine in one of their vehicles. The fine is for going 70ish in a 60 zone near paarden island so its a common place where they catch you, when I queried why it was so high it turns out they charge you penalties plus admin fees, ect. The refused to show me the fine at all, or anything of the sort.
They keep phoning me with threats, but I just keep telling them to fill my details in on the back of the fine and let me deal with it directly with the traffic department.
They also tried to claim I returned the car empty and tried to charge me for extra fuel. The petrol station is 30m from their office and we took km reading at both locations.
When we proved that it would be physically impossible to fit that much fuel into the vehicle they shut up about that tho.

Wont be dealing with Euro car again.
 
Maybe experience it yourself before creating threads based on hearsay.

People in the wrong will always do their utmost best to get away with it.

But always a good idea to take some photos when taking a hire car.
 
MrBigMistake said:
100% honest. I can even send you the images of the pre inspection sheet plus the detailed video. It's just concerning to read about people being charged thousands retrospectively for damage that wasn't spotted when they returned the vehicle.

But I'll also admit I'm generally an anxious person
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How can they charge you for something discovered after the final return inspection, once it’s out of your hands and they’ve accepted that the vehicle is in good order that should be final?

Anything else leaves things wide open to exploitation.

How do they recover these funds when they retroactively find “issues”, I’d just tell them to go fly kites?
 
airborne said:
How can they charge you for something discovered after the final return inspection, once it’s out of your hands and they’ve accepted the vehicle is as it should be that should be final?
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That's what I thought, but a lot of reviews on Hello Peter suggest this another revenue stream. Anyway, gonna take Epah and SauRonZa's advice and just wait and see what happens
 
Just found a small chip that I caused. Would Europcar notice if I had it repaired before I return the car? Thinking of heading to a panelbeater right now to get a quote
 
When handing the vehicle back insist on a inspection and have your take on inspection at hand.

Car hire companies are snakes and will rip you a new one without you knowing.

Read the covers and insurance very carefully before you accept. You'll find that with most car hire companies you are responsible for everything and expecially if there is no TP involved.

Always be aware
 
Fahrk Car hire companies. I needed to hire one, offered to pay cash, they refused if I dont give CC details. Fahrk them all.
 
Drifter said:
Fahrk Car hire companies. I needed to hire one, offered to pay cash, they refused if I dont give CC details. Fahrk them all.
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They want your CC so they can put unauthorized charges on it, it is safer for them but as a client you are fokked coz they will keep debiting your card whenever they feel like it.
 
Car hire companies don't really care about superficial damage like minor scratches etc. They cycle through way too many cars a day to worry about making sure every car is scratch free.

As long as there is no additional visible damage since you took ownership of the car, stop stressing about it.
 
Why is noone recommending the obvious solution? Just tick the box for the wheel rim and paint scratch protection when hiring. It's not that much more, and you get peace of mind either way. And the REASON car hire companies are so careful is because a lot of people treat rentals like something they can absolutely annihilate. There was an entire Top Gear episode where the guys did just that. So yeah ... get the insurance, use the car, benefit.
 
Drifter said:
Fahrk Car hire companies. I needed to hire one, offered to pay cash, they refused if I dont give CC details. Fahrk them all.
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Quite the opposite with me. Paid R1500 cash deposit, no questions
 
genetic said:
Car hire companies don't really care about superficial damage like minor scratches etc. They cycle through way too many cars a day to worry about making sure every car is scratch free.

As long as there is no additional visible damage since you took ownership of the car, stop stressing about it.
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The reviews on Hello Peter are mostly from people who claim the damage was close to invisible. But as per Epah's advice, I'm downing a few quarts of Black Label to calm my nerves. We'll see what happens when I return it
 
MrBigMistake said:
Just found a small chip that I caused. Would Europcar notice if I had it repaired before I return the car? Thinking of heading to a panelbeater right now to get a quote
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You are worrying way too much about nothing and wanting to piss away money for no logical reason whatsoever.

Odds are nobody even notices or cares. Rental companies to live in reality and know that cars suffer normal wear and tear. What they care about is if you actually went and scratched the car or scuffed it against something or were in a proper accident as that’s a liability issue for them.

In all my years of rental cars I have never had an issue returning a car from any brand of rental agency…at least the ones big enough to be at airports.

Unlikely you even caused that, it looks pretty old and that would be my argument if someone did highlight it.

Is this your first time renting a car? Is that the reason for the anxiety about all this?
 
genetic said:
Car hire companies don't really care about superficial damage like minor scratches etc. They cycle through way too many cars a day to worry about making sure every car is scratch free.

As long as there is no additional visible damage since you took ownership of the car, stop stressing about it.
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SauRoNZA said:
You are worrying way too much about nothing and wanting to piss away money for no logical reason whatsoever.

Odds are nobody even notices or cares. Rental companies to live in reality and know that cars suffer normal wear and tear. What they care about is if you actually went and scratched the car or scuffed it against something or were in a proper accident as that’s a liability issue for them.

In all my years of rental cars I have never had an issue returning a car from any brand of rental agency…at least the ones big enough to be at airports.

Unlikely you even caused that, it looks pretty old and that would be my argument if someone did highlight it.

Is this your first time renting a car? Is that the reason for the anxiety about all this?
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First time hiring a car, but that's not why I'm worried. It's the horror stories on Twitter and Hello Peter that are worrying me.
 
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