SIXT Car Rental £911 windscreen NIGHTMARE!

ram38

Every year for the past 5 years I have travelled to the UK at least twice a year.
Each time I always hire a car from various car hire companies.

for the very 1st time - I chose SIXT car hire in Dec 2012.. so the saga begins:

when i picked up the car, SIXT Car rental told me that it was a brand new car - as of yet un-driven.

Within the day - the screen cracked from the top to bottom of the windscreen, i informed Sixt car rental that there was a fault with the windscreen as the car had not yet hardly even been driven.

I was informed by the sixt car rental call center that they would send out a windscreen repair man.

Then a day later Sixt called again to say that the car would be 'replaced' and that they would NOT be coming out to replace the windscreen as the car was brand new and they do not have those windscreens.

I was then asked by the sixt car call centre to drive 100 miles (with a crack in the windscreen from top to bottom) to there car centre in Manchester which was over 100 miles away from where i was staying in the uk to drop off the car and pick up another one.

I out of good faith did this.

when I dropped off the car the inspector checked the windscreen and said it was a brand new car and their seemed to be a fault with the windscreen which may have been exasperated by the very cold weather. they then gave me a smaller car to use during the rest of my hire.

this was in January 2013.

I received no correspondence at my address here in dubai since this happened, I do not have an address in the UK as i live in Dubai.

the 1st i knew of this issue was when £911 was taken out of my Dubai based debit bank account in June 2013!!! 6 months later!

I find this totally incomprehensible.

i am upset with Sixt car rental and i am also upset with my bank for allowing such a large amount of money to be taken out of my current account 6 months after a car hire (i used by debit card), even when the hold on my account by sixt for deposit purposes had been released back in January when i had returned the car at the end of the hire agreement.

I want to take this further, does anyone have advice on what i can do?

:mad:

Strider590

Replace a £300 windscreen and charge £911, who ever said money didn't grow on trees?

fivetide

Depends on your contract I'd think. Certianly worth fighting if, as you say, nothing hit the screen at all.

I assume you didn't take out the damage waiver etc?

ram38

fivetide wrote: »

Depends on your contract I'd think. Certianly worth fighting if, as you say, nothing hit the screen at all.

I assume you didn't take out the damage waiver etc?

I think i did take out the damage waiver but i can't remember for sure if i did or not, but surely this is a car warranty issue and not damage related?

i will definitely try and fight it and put it out there online too..

fivetide

It certianyl sounds like a failure - inspecting the screen would have done that.

The damage question is really about proceedure. If they've tried to take money they shouldn't have, you might well be able to ask your bank for the moeny back.

I know someone else who did this recently. The hire firm took a large amount for damage which he admitted causing. However, they only had permission to take money for the hire, not for the damage. Whilst he was liable for the damage, he'd have paid in a different way (credit card) and as the hire firm didn't contact him in advance or have permissionto use the account his bank reversed the charge.

No idea how that works with you being in Dubai though. Check out the BVRLA who most of the big firms are signed up with. If they have broken their rules then you might have them....

ram38

fivetide wrote: »

It certianyl sounds like a failure - inspecting the screen would have done that.

The damage question is really about proceedure. If they've tried to take money they shouldn't have, you might well be able to ask your bank for the moeny back.

I know someone else who did this recently. The hire firm took a large amount for damage which he admitted causing. However, they only had permission to take money for the hire, not for the damage. Whilst he was liable for the damage, he'd have paid in a different way (credit card) and as the hire firm didn't contact him in advance or have permissionto use the account his bank reversed the charge.

No idea how that works with you being in Dubai though. Check out the BVRLA who most of the big firms are signed up with. If they have broken their rules then you might have them....

fivetide - THANKS ALOT for your advice there, I will definitely take up the steps you have mentioned, have a great day. Bless You!

Weird_Nev

I would certainly raise this with the bank, they may well have some kind of protection to take this up with Sixt.
This sounds like very sharp practice. Outrageous, in fact. I would expect any issues/charges to be discussed and clarified at the end of the hire period, not 6 months later.

plane_boy2000

Silly question, but have you actually just picked up the phone and spoken to Sixt ?

I used to be forced to use them through a corporate contract and never had any issues.

andygb

If you Google "Sixt car rental problems", it would appear that a lot of people have problems with overcharging at a later date - cleaning, fuelling, alleged damage despite nothing said at the time of collection.
Are there any trustworthy car rental companies out there?

agrinnall

Does anyone recommending getting the money refunded by the OP's bank have any idea what the banking rules are in Dubai? I very much doubt if they are the same as in the UK (and EU) so while it's certainly worth trying them first a back up plan is probably a good idea in case that fails.

ram38

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

Silly question, but have you actually just picked up the phone and spoken to Sixt ?

I used to be forced to use them through a corporate contract and never had any issues.

I have got it touch, SIXT have forwarded my case to an Admin Assistant - Samantha Pettinger.

The Dubai Bank (Emirates NBD) are also chasing VISA and SIXT.

Hopefully will have some conclusion to this soon.

the 6 month gap is what gets me. How can Sixt get access to take £911 out of my account 6 months after a hire... and from my personal debit account at that,