Excessive charges for Green Motion hire car

Aylesbury_Duck

She had contacted the company just after she drove off regarding the error on the dashboard.

You said that she didn't get a response. Did no one answer the call? If that's the case, she didn't contact the company and having failed to get through, drove on anayway. I'm afraid I can't see a way of avoiding responsibility for the damaged tyre and the cost of the sealant kit. Whether that should amount to £800 is another matter.

Ectophile

If I understand this right, she called the hire company.

The hire company then called Mercedes breakdown, who then decided to use the gunk on the tyre.

So surely, any bill for the use of the gunk is between the hire company and Mercedes breakdown. She didn't use it - their appointed breakdown company did.

Johnmcl7

Ectophile wrote: »

If I understand this right, she called the hire company.

The hire company then called Mercedes breakdown, who then decided to use the gunk on the tyre.

So surely, any bill for the use of the gunk is between the hire company and Mercedes breakdown. She didn't use it - their appointed breakdown company did.

Yes, that's what happened and she's mentioned that to the hire company.

After initial discussions with the hire company they've gone ahead and taken £800 to cover the cost of the tyre and the sealant kit on top of the charges taken for the rental. She took a picture of the tyre and has priced up getting an identical tyre fitted which is around £110 so even if she accepted responsibility for the tyre, the charges are far in excess of what they should be.

At the moment I think she should be disputing the charges through her credit card company, I don't see what other options she has.

John

Ectophile

To me the obvious responses would be:

1. To dispute the charge with the card company.
2. To write a strongly-worded letter to the hire company disputing the claim.

Edit: Letters should be in writing, sent by first class post, and posted from a Post Office. Get a proof of postage from the Post Office.

JP1978

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

She had contacted the company just after she drove off regarding the error on the dashboard.



My daughter? Perhaps you should actually read the post because you're missing most of the crucial details, I wasn't looking for sympathy and perhaps if you'd actually read the post before desperately jumping into berating myself and my sister you wouldn't have wasted time on such a useless reply.

Yes, she should have driven straight back instead of only contacting the company but the car still had a fault when she hired it and even above all that, a replacement tyre and sealant kit costs £150, no £800+ as they are trying to charge her. The GM reviews do very much bolster her position as this company seems to do this on a regular basis, if they'd charged a reasonable price for the tyre and sealant she'd have likely just paid it but these charges are excessive even aside from the fact she's not responsible.

John

Apologies, sister, not daughter - I had been answering another post on another forum.

Anyway, your SISTER:

"Unfortunately she's not very experienced with cars and carried on, the tyre warning continued so she stopped and found the tyre was very low, she tried top it up but it was leaking air too quickly."

She carried on. Surely, she should have driven back?

And maybe you should read my post, I asked, what proof did you have that the tyre was damaged before hire and they inflated it before she left?

Such a snowflake society we live in where its always someone else's fault, no one wants to take any responsibility.

Excuse my harshness though, posts on behalf of sisters, daughters, friend down the pub are all too easy to see through, you cannot 100% say you have the facts and you are trying to relay her events of the event to us as facts.

brianposter

Worth remembering that the time of the phone call on the telephone bill is perfectly good evidence for when the tire failed. If that is close to the time when the car was hired your sister should obviously accept no responsibility.

Johnmcl7

brianposter wrote: »

Worth remembering that the time of the phone call on the telephone bill is perfectly good evidence for when the tire failed. If that is close to the time when the car was hired your sister should obviously accept no responsibility.

She has screencapped the call details and the e-mail as well, the hire company were disputing she had tried to contact them but have gone quiet on that after she provided the screenshots.

The current status is they've said since she is threatening legal action (trying to find what they mean by this as I don't think she has) it's been escalated to 'Green Motion International' and onto Head Office. There's still no sign of the promised £800 invoice although I'm guessing the next step will be legal threats and going to court.

In the worst case scenario if they took her to a small claims court and she lost, she would be due the £800, the court fees of around £50 and it looks like possibly a couple of hundred more (depending on experts) is that correct?

If the costs are limited and they start threatening her with court action she should continue to state her position and not be worried about going to court. I realise a lot of companies threaten court action to scare people but want to make sure I'm clear on the costs just in case the worst happens.

John