Insane hire car fine from Enterprise Car Hire

Donal

Hi guys, I need a bit of advice here. I hired a car (Peugeot 307) a couple of weeks ago in Belfast, needed it for 2 hours, and when I tried to return it, I was told that Enterprise don't allow you to drop cars back after 5pm.

I took the car home and in the morning, found that someone had hit the car or dragged something along the side of it, creating a mobile phone-wide dent along the 2 car doors. The paint wasn't scratched, just dented.

I accepted this as my responsibility, if not my fault, and having not paid the insurance they offered through stupidity, I am now gobsmacked to receive this invoice from them.

Is this standard? It seems extraordinarily high, more than the cost of the car itself!

Donal


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duchy

You said it yourself you opted out of the insurance offered. Why should Enterprise be financially disadvantaged because of your choices ? They are a business not a charity.

In Belfast of all places why wouldn't you take out the insurance?
Expensive lesson I'm afraid.

jackieblack

So what are you disputing exactly?
The cost of the repair? The admin fee? Or the loss of use of vehicle?
Or the fact that these don't add up to £1000?

You must have realised you'd have been liable for the cost of repairing any potential damage when you chose not to take the insurance?

Double_V

I am afraid, you opted out of insurance and this happened. It is down to you now.
Sorry about that.

Donal

Oh yeah, I know this is totally on my head - it's the cost that seems incredibly high - over £800 to fix a dent in a car? I've never had a car so I'm unsure if that's a standard cost, but £800 for a dent that isn't even a scratch on the paintwork?

Stevie_Palimo

Donal wrote: »

Oh yeah, I know this is totally on my head - it's the cost that seems incredibly high - over £800 to fix a dent in a car? I've never had a car so I'm unsure if that's a standard cost, but £800 for a dent that isn't even a scratch on the paintwork?

What you need bear in mind is that they do not look for the cheapest repairers here and will likely have in-house ones or contracted that charge what they want, Whilst you may be shop around and get this fixed for a lower amount I would presume the t&c's state this is not allowed.


I rented a van from Ford before and dented the side without insurance and was given a choice of in-house repair or have it fixed myself which I took up and saved me around £200.00 at the time.

phatbear

Donal wrote: »

Oh yeah, I know this is totally on my head - it's the cost that seems incredibly high - over £800 to fix a dent in a car? I've never had a car so I'm unsure if that's a standard cost, but £800 for a dent that isn't even a scratch on the paintwork?

Its not just the dent they also have to factor in the fact the car may be off the road for a few days and therefore they are losing money on the possibility of renting it out to other people too

SW17

phatbear wrote: »

Its not just the dent they also have to factor in the fact the car may be off the road for a few days and therefore they are losing money on the possibility of renting it out to other people too

They've charged for that separately at GBP 168.91, the GBP 853.60 is given as the cost of the repair. I don't know if that is a reasonable charge or not for such a repair, I do observe that the combination of charges means that they can apply the maximum charge on the excess...perhaps just coincidence.

saverbuyer

duchy wrote: »

In Belfast of all places why wouldn't you take out the insurance?
Expensive lesson I'm afraid.

Not sure what you're getting at with that statement.

Stevie_Palimo

saverbuyer wrote: »

Not sure what you're getting at with that statement.

Neither did I, Many years ago maybe insurance was more expensive for obvious reasons but now there is little in it from NI to the mainland.

NFH

Donal wrote: »

I hired a car (Peugeot 307) a couple of weeks ago in Belfast, needed it for 2 hours, and when I tried to return it, I was told that Enterprise don't allow you to drop cars back after 5pm.

Were you informed before you entered into the contract that Enterprise doesn't allow you to return cars after 5pm? If not, you could argue that you had no safe place to keep the car overnight and that the consequent risk to the car overnight should be borne by Enterprise rather than by you.