Hertz hire car damage
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Alex_Ireland
Posts: 1 Newbie
in Motoring
Hi All,
I have a query that I am hoping you will be able to help me with......
I rented a car from Hertz in Germany for 1 day to drive from Leipzig to Berlin airport. I had the minimum basic insurance which means i am liable for any damage claim up to 900 euros, and the cdw covers anything over 900 euro. On arrival to Berlin I parked the car at the Hertz return car parking. The office was closed and there was no one to do the incoming inspection at 6 o'clock in the morning. I dropped the key and papers into the return box outside of the Hertz office. Ten weeks later I have received a letter claiming I have damaged the roof of the car and they require payment of 880 euros. The photos attached to the letter are of very poor quality and it is not possible to make out the claimed damage, also the photos were made not at the parking where I left the car but near the office so the car had been moved. I did not damage the car, I may have missed the damage on inspection in Leipzig but I am sure I did not damage the car. Unfortunately I did not take any photos or videos of the car when i returned it.
Do I have any grounds to defend my case?
The 880 they are claiming is listed as an estimate of work and not a receipt for what has been carried out.
Also due to the fact they haven't taken the money automatically from what was reserved on my credit card, do they have any true claim to make from me, especially as this was the first correspondence about it, 10 weeks after the rental.
I have a query that I am hoping you will be able to help me with......
I rented a car from Hertz in Germany for 1 day to drive from Leipzig to Berlin airport. I had the minimum basic insurance which means i am liable for any damage claim up to 900 euros, and the cdw covers anything over 900 euro. On arrival to Berlin I parked the car at the Hertz return car parking. The office was closed and there was no one to do the incoming inspection at 6 o'clock in the morning. I dropped the key and papers into the return box outside of the Hertz office. Ten weeks later I have received a letter claiming I have damaged the roof of the car and they require payment of 880 euros. The photos attached to the letter are of very poor quality and it is not possible to make out the claimed damage, also the photos were made not at the parking where I left the car but near the office so the car had been moved. I did not damage the car, I may have missed the damage on inspection in Leipzig but I am sure I did not damage the car. Unfortunately I did not take any photos or videos of the car when i returned it.
Do I have any grounds to defend my case?
The 880 they are claiming is listed as an estimate of work and not a receipt for what has been carried out.
Also due to the fact they haven't taken the money automatically from what was reserved on my credit card, do they have any true claim to make from me, especially as this was the first correspondence about it, 10 weeks after the rental.
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Comments
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"The 880 they are claiming"
That's remarkably and amazingly close to the threshold of the CDW past which, one suspects, they have more paperwork to do internally.
The reservation and the authorisation on your credit card will have lapsed, so they probably can't take the money automatically. You could (presuming you are now in England) tell them to get stuffed, as practically there is no way for them to recover the money from you at any reasonable expense, but that would be risky: you might yourself embroiled in some complex legal mess if you went back to Germany again. I'd write back, with a copy to Hertz Germany, saying you do not accept their claim on the evidence presented, which is unreasonably late in arriving, that you do not intend to pay, and see what they do next.0 -
I'd write back pointing out what a coincidence it is that the "damage" comes in just under the CDW limit and that the car was undamaged when you left it in the car park. Point out that they have moved the car before taking pictures and the damage was obviously done during this move.
You're in a strong position as they haven't got your money and will now need to prove on a balance of proababilities that you damaged the car. I suspect they won't bother if you stick to your guns, but don't expect to hire from hertz again.
There really should be an Investigation into the scams hire firms use to extract money from innocent motorists. It always seems like a lottery when you hire a car.0 -
Nobbie1967 wrote: »I'd write back pointing out what a coincidence it is that the "damage" comes in just under the CDW limit and that the car was undamaged when you left it in the car park. Point out that they have moved the car before taking pictures and the damage was obviously done during this move.
You're in a strong position as they haven't got your money and will now need to prove on a balance of proababilities that you damaged the car. I suspect they won't bother if you stick to your guns, but don't expect to hire from hertz again.
There really should be an Investigation into the scams hire firms use to extract money from innocent motorists. It always seems like a lottery when you hire a car.
Or simply take it from his credit card.0 -
Call their bluff - they wouldn't need to demand payment from you for the damage to the car if they still had authorisation to charge your credit card."You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"0
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