Need Help! Budget Car Rental are Trying to Scam Me

jackllanberis

We recently returned our rental car to Budget in Bergen, Norway after an incident free week of hire. A month later we received a letter claiming that damage had been made to the front bumper, asking for further details of the 'damage incident'. We told them, truthfully, that the car was returned in the same condition as it was received.

A month later again we had response to our email which included a photo of the claimed damage and a scan of our damage check at the start of the rental, which we signed off as undamaged, having not spotted anything.

The photo shows a small scuff to the underside of the body coloured bumper; the photo was taken from ground level. As such, it isn’t reasonable for us to have spotted this when checking the vehicle, as it can’t be seen unless you get down on your hands and knees.

Another two weeks on and they have sent us a letter stating charges of £800 for this! (the maximum they can charge! i.e. the excess of the rental agreement). I wish I could upload the photo to here to show you just how minor this was – a bit of turtle wax would rub it out in 20 mins.

We have cancelled the credit card so they can't take the money directly, but we are rather concerned that they will involve debt collectors.

Budget are clearly acting unreasonably and quite probably fraudulently here, but we are unsure of what our rights are, how we should respond and what the consequences of inaction could be.

We really would appreciate some informed advice about this.

Many Thanks

Jack

patchman

they will still charge your 'cancelled' credit card, in fact they may well have done so already, contact the card company to find out- there's nothing you can do to stop them from doing this

BelindaArch

Have you tried sending a letter to their CEO (in UK?) explaining all this and how unreasonable they are? Perhaps give this a try and reply to their CS dept with a copy of your letter to the CEO.

For future ref to you and others, I always try to take a photo or the rental car from each angle on a time-stamped digi photo in case such an issue arises.

jackllanberis

patchman wrote: »

they will still charge your 'cancelled' credit card, in fact they may well have done so already, contact the card company to find out- there's nothing you can do to stop them from doing this

Yep it's been charged £802 for some barely visible scratches on the underside of a bumper - now having to go through the Mastercard dispute process.

carhireguru

Jack, you are doing the right thing. I would ask Budget Rent A Car to provide the damage reports on maybe 5 previous rentals, as if your sure the damage was not caused by you then it will make them look further into this. I would also involve your credit card firm to dispute the charges under section 75 please see MSE website link for more info on this. I would also write to Budget car rental in the uk they are now owned by Avis car rental Zodiac Europe Ltd (a subsidiary of Avis Budget EMEA Ltd)
Registered Office: Avis House, Park Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 2EW. I know this piece of advice is probably too late but do a search for car rental excess reimbursement insurance next time you rent a car as there are loads of firms out there that offer this for a little as £1.99 per day up to £40 for a whole year, and if you need to claim you can at least get your money back. Anyhow hope this helps and feel free to contact me if you need any further help.

lukey105

Good luck......I just got stiffed by Zipcar for £450 in a similar way--I just did'nt have the energy to fight it and go through small claims or have debt collection agencies on at me.......but good luck with your appeal !