Van Hire Company Keeping Deposit

Reeny27

Good morning

I wonder if anyone can give me some advice on how to proceed with this matter on behalf of a family member.

My cousin recently hired a van to move house, on picking up the vehicle they didn't do a walk round to show any damage etc and my cousin didn't check for damage either, being quite young she didn't think to check. On returning the van they are now saying that she has caused a dent to the vehicle and are keeping the deposit.

She is certain she didn't cause the damage. They showed her a picture on a mobile phone with no damage to the van, which is their 'proof' that the van had no dent prior to her hiring it. My cousin also took a picture from the same angle and funnily enough the dent can't be seen from that angle taken either. They are saying that the guy who hired her the van did a walk round and it's on CCTV, the CCTV doesn't show anything, it just shows her talking to the guy and then going around the van to get into the driver's side before driving off.

This situation has now escalated, not only are they keeping the £250 deposit but they now want £750 to fix the damage as it'll be out of action for a week so they will lose money on it.

On googling this company, it seems another person on this forum has had exactly the same issue with them so I'm wondering if it's a scam.

Thank you in advance

keyser666

looks that way, probably the photo they showed you was from way back when.

Get them to email you a copy of the photo, say somethnig like it is needed your cousins dad wants to see it then see what the exif data says about it, notably when it was taken. think you will have them by the short and curlies then. It wont help any future hirers though as then they will know about the exif data element which I dont think they would know about now if they are that shoddy.