Always Document Hire Car Damage to Avoid Scams - A Warning from Our Recent Experience

I’d recommend taking photos if your car breaks down and needs to be recovered as well.
A few years ago, my car suffered a catastrophic gearbox failure and cut out mid-journey. My partner recorded it being loaded on the low-loader, as he thought our daughter might be interested. Fast forward a couple of months, and it was returned to us with a huge scratch along the entire length of the car. Dealership claimed it arrived at theirs like that, and recovery firm denied causing it, and both tried to claim it was pre-existing damage. It was only because we had the video of it being loaded onto the recovery vehicle that we were able to prove that wasn’t the case. Still took weeks of the dealership and their recovery agents fighting it out, accusing one another of causing the damage, but at least neither was blaming us, and so eventually it got fixed free of charge.
 
We had a similar dreadful experience with Europcar too they deliberately misinform and rip you off and refuse to handle complaints properly- definitely a company to avoid
 
@jubilee I worked for Europcar in Heathrow and left because part of my script when trying to upgrade people (which is EXTREMELY pushed) was if someone is hiring a car for a funeral try and push a black elite for them to upgrade to as black is more respectful at a funeral 😳. The lies we had to say were gut wrenching, I felt awful after a days work trying to upgrade people which would be so much pressure otherwise you’d be threatened with dismissal if your sales weren’t high enough! Worst company ever!
 
I had a car from europcar in the UK as a courtesy car while mine was in the garage it was about 6/7 weeks as the garage were useless but they were paying for it. At the end of the hire a load of money left my account when I queried it they said it was for failed pick ups every week of the hire even though no one had asked them to pick up and they had never turned up to either myself or the garage to pick up.
 
I don't think it's limited to 1 hire company unfortunately.
We had a car included through Jet2 villas in Menorca.
They didn't try to do us for damage, although it was same, no one there for check out but full inspection on return. I had taken.l photos of all damage on pick up.
I said are.you happy with everything, guy grunted and got me to sign it - all in Spanish of course!
Then received a bill for almost a whole tank of fuel (was a big 4 track type thing so big tank).
I had filled it at nearest garage.before return so argued. They said no, there was only 1/8 of a tank in it.
I asked for copies of all their paperwork to be emailed to take to my 'solicitor'
I then translated all the paperwork and replied to say my 'solicitor' asked me to advise them that paperwork actually said 1/8 used (from garage to hire return) not 1/8 left and see if we could resolve before taking them to court.
Refund came back to my card after that.
To be honest even that 1/8 felt like a gip as the garage wasn't far from the place and it showed full when I switched it off.
 
Italy is one of those places with so many iconic sites there need not be any customer service, they can be rude and offensive and know it won’t affect the tourism trade.
 
Wow I've just cancelled car hire with green motion as read really bad reviews and a car hire excess insurance policy wouldn't cover them. Re booked with budget. This is in Croatia. But seems all companies are as bad. Will take loads of photos and videos ..
 
@timhparker they all seem to be bad. Budget also have really bad reviews and they cost £200 more!!! We are travelling with friends they've stuck with green motion and we'll see who comes out better! I've taken out a separate insurance policy for CDW and excess cover. Hopefully that would help if they try these tricks on us 🤷
 
@nlherman it really feels like such a lottery doesn’t it?! Gosh I hope the friends with Green Motion get on okay. Prebooked excess CDW cover gives a little peace of mind, but we found no company would cover Green Motion. Clearly they’ve had a lot of claims…
 
To add another caution - confirm if you need to clean the car before you return it. We found in Greece they needed us to clean inside and out so returning it in the same state as hired out. We luckily found a garage nearby which done this for 10 euros - the hire car company were going to charge us 250 euros for an unclean car.
 
The same thing happened to us with Green Motion in London. I was too tired to check the car properly, the car was parked in a super tight spot - but I’m certain I didn’t cause the scratch they accused us and made us pay £310 for.
 
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