Car Hire Tyre Damage Dispute

roadhog99

Hi

I'm looking for some advice/help regarding disputing supposed damage to a tyre on a hire car.

Briefly here's a description of the situation:-

In September, we were provided a hire car by BMW assistance to get us from home to Gatwick airport to go on holiday after our car broke down the night before. The hire company is a well known company (they promise "US customer service"!)

The car was picked up by us from the hire co's depot in Hanworth, West London (about 10 mins from our home)

It was then driven directly home, we parked the car on our driveway, loaded the cases, then drove straight to Gatwick and dropped the car off at the hire co's Gatwick depot. The total trip time was around 40 mins.

On arrival at Gatwick, I was advised that there was a small cut in the sidewall of the tyre (approx. 1cm), and that this hadn't been noted when I'd picked the car up.

I was then told I had to sign a "change of condition" form. I disputed that the damage could have been caused in the short period I had driven the car as it hadn't been driven/parked anywhere remotely near a kerb or anything else that could have caused the damage.

I was told the form did not constitute an admission of responsibility, so I signed the form and wrote a statement stating I could not see how the damage had been caused during my hire period.

I then heard nothing more, until today, I have received a very brief letter stating they will be taking £250 from my credit card within 14 days as the car had been damaged during my hire of it.

So, I'd like to know if there's anything realistically I can do about it?

I'm clearly pretty angry about it. If the card had suffered a puncture, I'd have got it fixed at my own cost, and thought nothing more of it, but I just cant see how this can have happened in the short time I had the car!

I was not told verbally that I needed to inspect the tyres when I picked up the car, so would not have even thought to check. To be honest though, even if I had, it was such a small nick, I could have easily missed it!

It therefore seems that this is down to their word against mine, clearly the technician is not going to admit to missing it.

I've also since heard of other similar stories about the same company. It occurred to me that this is a very simple way of them being able to replace tyres on cars "for free".

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks....

Paradigm

A 1cm nick in the sidewall is perfectly ok & legal as long as it isn't deep enough to expose the ply underneath.


How deep was it?

barnaclebill

About 2 years ago I had a broken shoulder and was hiring auto cars as mine was manual, checked on the internet and the best price for a Merc was with that company. When I went to collect it at the airport (nearest place to me) there was a guy arguing about some damage to a Merc C class he was returning, when I got to the counter the manager said that C class was the one for you if you want you can take it as is or I have an S class that I will do you for a special price so I took the S class.
Drove it home, took my wife to the shops and returned home, next day went out to the car and found the from tyre offside almost flat, it was Saturday so I phoned and they said take it to our preferred tyre place, I explained I was not happy to drive it like that but no other option offered.
I had an electric pump so I started to blow up the tyre and found a large bulge growing on the side wall.
I drove slowly to the tyre place to find out these are special tyres that they had to order in. after an hour the car company turned up with a BMW and I carried on.
When I returned the car they said the tyre place said I must have damaged the tyre in a deep hole or hitting a curb at speed which I disputed but no chance, I had taken their excess but because it was an expensive car the excess I had to pay was I think £250 and the tyre was £400 or £500 I am not sure now but I had to pay the difference, I have been driving for over 40 years and never damaged a tyre like that and it still makes me mad. I am sure someone before me had hit a hole or curb that did not show up and the weakened sidewall failed later when I was driving.
I checked st the time and found there was no way to prove it was not me that caused the damage so I had to bite the bullet and pay up, I never used them again

Marktheshark

Call the credit card company and report it as an unauthorised transaction and demand it is blocked.
Then tell BMW to sue you in court if they think they can prove the tyre was not damaged before.

Casey_Ryback

Call credit card company and tell that you have lost your card. As card number changes the hire company can not charge you. Blocking transaction not always successful

All hire companies are scam!
Always hire with full damage waver option

loskie

a tyre for bmw costs 250? Dispute that as well.

neilmcl

loskie wrote: »

a tyre for bmw costs 250? Dispute that as well.

The £250 will likely be the agreed excess amount rather than the actual cost of the tyre.

zappahey

Casey_Ryback wrote: »

Always hire with full damage waver option

That's the biggest scam of all. Never take their excess waiver, buy your own.

bigjl

Tyres for BMW's can be expensive. Especially if they have larger than average diameter wheels, such as those fitted to an M3 for example.

roadhog99

Many thanks for the replies,

I called the credit card co yesterday. I told them the story, and they advised they cant "block" the payment, but that once it goes out I can register it as a dispute, and they'll recover the money.

Is it worth me also complaining to the hire car co though? Ie letter/email to the chief exec etc, or am I wasting my time?

Re the cost of tyres, the tyres are run flat on BMW, so would be expensive (although probably not as much as £250).

The problem with arguing will be that its basically my word against theirs and as two months have gone by, there's no way of validating the damage to the tyre now, as its probably long gone.

I want to complain, but want to build a solid case before I start firing emails etc off!

Thanks again...

BeenThroughItAll

roadhog99 wrote: »

I want to complain, but want to build a solid case before I start firing emails etc off!

Thanks again...

If you want to complain properly, then stop writing emails and start writing letters.

It's old fashioned, maybe, but it gets results.