Hire car fuel rip off

SEE · 12 January 2008 at 2:19PM

I was recently given a hire car by the insurance company while mine was being repaired. The deal was it came with a full tank of petrol and must be returned with a full tank. I had no problem with this, but...

We used the car for a total of 58 miles and the petrol gauge dropped to show a quarter usage. Fair enough, the day before the car goes back I go to fill the tank up, but...

After putting in £45 worth of fuel it still wasn't reading a full tank:eek: Surely it doesn't cost £45 for a quarter tank for a titchy KIA? My friend suggested the hire company had a hidden tank:eek:

Tojo_Ralph · 12 January 2008 at 3:47PM

SEE wrote: »

My friend suggested the hire company had a hidden tank:eek:

What is your friends view on the 9/11 attacks, the assassination
of John F Kennedy and the death of Princess Diana?

SEE · 12 January 2008 at 4:26PM

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

What is your friends view on the 9/11 attacks, the assassination
of John F Kennedy and the death of Princess Diana?

To go further, they wanted me to leave the car keys in a place in my front garden, I refused in case they were stolen. The car was not in spectacular condition, and it makes me very suspicious. Do you know of any KIA's that take £45 of fuel to not even fill a quarter of the tank? You'd be looking at £200 from empty. Does that seem right to you?

MarkyMarkD · 12 January 2008 at 4:28PM

It's more likely that the gauge was simply faulty.

You can't prove that the fuel receipt was for filling up their hire car, so I don't think you've any real chance of recouping your money. But equally well, why did you put £45 worth in?

You should have put in what you believed to be a sensible amount, taken it back and told them that the gauge was faulty.

highguyuk · 12 January 2008 at 9:06PM

You have no chance of reclaiming the money and has been said - you probably put in over twice the amount you should have.

Crabman · 12 January 2008 at 9:40PM

Have you mentioned this to them? If so, what have they said? It would be surprising if you were the only one to fall foul to this.

333rocky333 · 12 January 2008 at 9:41PM

Never good idea to take it back with less fuel if you can possibly avoid it, when you Look in the hire agreement, at the price they charge per gallon to refuel it, when I last looked it was treble the pump price.

Usually the guage position is shown on your copy of the pre inspection that you sign. before you take it.
together with the mileage.
Compare that with the return sheet.

SEE · 13 January 2008 at 2:06AM

333rocky333 wrote: »

Never good idea to take it back with less fuel if you can possibly avoid it, when you Look in the hire agreement, at the price they charge per gallon to refuel it, when I last looked it was treble the pump price.

Usually the guage position is shown on your copy of the pre inspection that you sign. before you take it.
together with the mileage.
Compare that with the return sheet.

Tank gauge showed full, on receipt of car.

I put £45 in and left it at that.

balsingh · 13 January 2008 at 2:34AM

Here's a bit of advice a colleague gave me to use when hiring cars that supposedly come with a 'full' tank. Apparently, the hire companies never completely fill the cars. They put in enough to show full on the guage so the customer thinks the tank is full when they check it. Obvously, when returning the vehicle the customer will automatically completely the fill the tank so the hire company is quids in (even if only by a few quid or so) - multiply this by the number of cars and hires each days and its quite a moneyspinner!!

The advice I was given was when taking the car, go straight to the nearest petrol station and fill the car up. Make sure you get a receipt showing the address of the petrol station and the exact time and date you purchased the petrol. Then contact the hire company stating how much the car was underfilled by and state that you have a reciept to prove when and where the fuel was purchased (just in case they try and blag that you used that much fuel yourself). That way you can try and get back whatever the difference was.

Now I havent tried it myself but the colleague who told me about it has successfully managed to get the hire companies to pay up for the extra fuel 3 times.

ormus · 13 January 2008 at 2:37AM

we use salford van hire fairly often. (weekly/monthly).
whenever we take a van back we always fill up around the corner near strangeways prison.
if you dont, SVH charge about 10% above the cost of local garage diesel.

MarkyMarkD · 13 January 2008 at 10:08AM

balsingh wrote: »

The advice I was given was when taking the car, go straight to the nearest petrol station and fill the car up. Make sure you get a receipt showing the address of the petrol station and the exact time and date you purchased the petrol. Then contact the hire company stating how much the car was underfilled by and state that you have a reciept to prove when and where the fuel was purchased (just in case they try and blag that you used that much fuel yourself). That way you can try and get back whatever the difference was.

There's no proof from the receipt that it's actually the hire car that you filled up, so this is a risky strategy.

Given that you are asking the hire car company to admit defrauding all its customers when you do this, I wouldn't believe it's particularly likely they will accept your "evidence".

I accept that it has worked for your friend a few times, but if it doesn't work you are wasting a lot of effort.

Hire car fuel rip off

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