van rental issue

mozeruk

Good Morning (or afternoon whereever in the world you may be),

Going to keep this brief, but if anyone requires clarification/more information please do ask.

Hired a van 04/03/2014 for a week at a cost of £580.40 (£100 of this was a refundable deposit)

Returned the van for them to spot some damage on the rear door

Reluctantly accepted damage (It was driven by differant people up and down the country and we accepted liability of the damage)

I had quotes to repair the damage at £180 from several idipendant garages, and a Mercedes garage (the van was a mercedes) I emailed the hire company to offer to re hire the vehicle and get it repaired during my hire period to a standard they agreed with. No reply.

We where then charged £850 by the hire company for the damage and lost the £100 deposit.

Now heres the interesting part - I have sicne seen the van dricing around and its still not bee repaired, 7 months after I paid them to repair it.

Ive raised the issue through the VISA chargeback scheme but they have advised me to resovle the matter with the merchant.

Ive spoke with the office of fair trading and they ahve advised me to contact the merchant to try and resolve, potentially holding them in breech of contract as they havnt repaired the van. Offer them the chance to repair the van and prove the cost is truely £950 or give me a refund.

Im here for some general advice on the above and maybe someone could draft me up a letter (willing to pay in gold coins or beer or wine or chocolate!)

Here is a copy of the rental agreement. *cant include links as im a new user*

Look forward to your repsonses.

Regards

burlington6

Forget the cost for a second (sounds high imo) but the fact they haven't done the paintwork shouldn't really be an issue (apart for price issues). You did the damage.

bod1467

Search this and the motoring forum - this scenario has come up several times recently. Hire companies taking a "fee" for repair and not actually repairing (until the vehicle has finished its hire life) is a common practice.

I guess all you can do is send them a letter before action to reclaim the balance between your quotes and what they have claimed, and then follow that up with small claims court action if they still don't play ball.

OlliesDad

As has already been said, it does not matter if they have not repaired the van - ultimately either they would have either paid out to repair it or as in this case they now have a van with a diminished value.

I would argue the amount though.

Jakg

If the repair takes a week - they loose out £500 over the repair process.

Because of this, it's much cheaper to repair them at the end of it's life with them - or just take the penalty on return if it's a lease van. This may well be the charge.

mozeruk

Jakg wrote: »

If the repair takes a week - they loose out £500 over the repair process.

Because of this, it's much cheaper to repair them at the end of it's life with them - or just take the penalty on return if it's a lease van. This may well be the charge.

Thanks for the replies guys, my concern is that their terms and conditions dont state a timeframe on the repairs, so im challenging them on a none existent point really.

Either way, im going to try and get a picture of the van still with the damage and use that as evidence then form a letter to them.

rustyboy21

Did you use their insurance or your own? Is there an excess on the insurance for the same amount you have been charged?

plumfin

As stated in previous posts, I work for a rental company so can only advise how we would handle this. We don't always repair damage to vehicles at the time of rental, sometimes due to them being leased, or the damage just isn't worth repairing until further damage is done - for instance, a scratch on a panel.

The excess is charged as compensation, so is generally not a direct recharge of costs involved the repair. Rental companies may choose to "pool" the compensation/excess and repair the vehicle at the end of life or sell it at with a slight hit on the residual value, due to the damage.

On the back of the paper copy of the Rental Agreement, there should be a clause that refers to "loss of use", which would cover the lost rental while the vehicle was being repaired. We wouldn't advise any of our sites to charge this if the vehicle is not repaired.

I don't think you have a contract with them to fix the vehicle, I am afraid, unless you have something specific in writing from the rental company. If you would like to PM me your agreement, I would happily take a look and advise how I would handle it if we were the company in question.

plumfin

Actually, that weekly charge was high - was it a luton van?

mozeruk

plumfin wrote: »

As stated in previous posts, I work for a rental company so can only advise how we would handle this. We don't always repair damage to vehicles at the time of rental, sometimes due to them being leased, or the damage just isn't worth repairing until further damage is done - for instance, a scratch on a panel.

The excess is charged as compensation, so is generally not a direct recharge of costs involved the repair. Rental companies may choose to "pool" the compensation/excess and repair the vehicle at the end of life or sell it at with a slight hit on the residual value, due to the damage.

On the back of the paper copy of the Rental Agreement, there should be a clause that refers to "loss of use", which would cover the lost rental while the vehicle was being repaired. We wouldn't advise any of our sites to charge this if the vehicle is not repaired.

I don't think you have a contract with them to fix the vehicle, I am afraid, unless you have something specific in writing from the rental company. If you would like to PM me your agreement, I would happily take a look and advise how I would handle it if we were the company in question.

Hi, I will PM you now (I know thats annoying for future viewers so will report back here how I get on)

plumfin

Ok, as you say, replying here til keep it public for all to see.

Clause 7f refers to the fact that you have to pay loss of use if the vehicle cannot be rented due to the need for repairs. I would say that means you need to get a copy of the quote and to ensure that this only states repairs, labour and potentially an admin fee. Ask for a copy of the repair estimate as the first step. However, if the vehicle is leased from the manufacturer, for instance, they may insist on the rental company using certain approved repairers or repair standards, such as hourly rates etc, which could well be higher than a local company. We find this quite often, but the work is sometimes rejected as not being up to scratch, although this is more common on cars with metallic type paints.

My feeling is that the weekly rate was high in the first place, not knowing where in the country you rented from - our average cost for an Extra Long Wheel Base would probably be closer to £350 per week.

Get the estimate and take it from there. You have contracted to pay damage, it sounds like there is no loss of use, but the estimate will tell you. What is the damage excess on the front of the agreement? £850 sounds high.