EUROPCAR tried it on ....and FAILED! Warning to others!

CashStrapped

I had a hire car for 7 days via my insurance due to some repair work. It was supplied via Europcar .


Delivery


When it was delivered, their guy started checking it over but declared was happy there was no existing damage. I, being quite conscientious, looked over it very carefully. I pointed out a hairline scratch which he was not concerned about. I insisted that it was noted, and he agreed and seemed to note down.

I then set about taking photos of the car from every angle. I was thinking I was being a bit over the top at this point (considering what happened next, I am very glad I did).


The Collection



Fast forward 7 days and the collection lady showed up early one morning after a delay in them making a collection (a complaint in itself). We were very quickly informed that there was new damage on the car. It was spotted within minutes of the collectors arrival and she wanted to make her excuses and leave immediately (I was not the first one to meet her).


When I got there, I asked where the damage was.


Here, she said. And led me over to the wheel, where she pointed out very hard to see damage to the very edge of the rim of one rear wheel. It was about 20CM in length, did not look new (no shiny metal) and there was no corresponding tyre scuff.

I was fuming, and not having it.

Furthermore, when looking at my customer copy, the person dropping off the car had conveniently not filled anything out on the form. Not his name, nor the damage I had pointed out!

"I have pictures" I said. She looked like she had heard this one before.


"you can forward them to the office and sort this at a later time if you wish"

"You are going nowhere till this is sorted" I replied. I knew that if she left, this could take months to sort out.

She looked a bit more concerned. (I did not say it too menacingly).

I retrieved my pictures. She was clearly unprepared for the quality I was about to unleash.

Due to the fact I took them with a DSLR at high resolution RAW quality, I was able to zoom in to reveal the damage to the rims was already there! The software I use also displays the time/date of capture, which matched her details.

After considerable back peddling from the Europcar employee. She conceded the damage was pre-existing. She also started making excuses and bemoaning her inefficient colleagues. I now had the upper hand.

She apologised profusely. And logged the car as returned with no damage. This time giving me a copy with something written on.

My Conclusion


So..

1) The person dropping off the car failed to fill in a customer copy, even noting the damage I spotted, his name etc


2) He did not even notice, nor I for that matter, the tiny amount of rim damage. So the form would have been useless anyway.


3)The collector magically spots this near invisible damage within 5mins of turning up.


4)It was only my high resolution images that saved me.


5) She admitted that if she had left it would not have been something that would have been resolved quickly.

Seems to me they were trying it on.Smelled like a set-up.

So note to anyone else.

1) Make sure they fill out the customer copy! Noting all damage, no matter how small!

2) Take lots of high quality photos. Crappy blurred phone pictures would not have been enough in this instance.

For those of you wondering:

This is the wheel that was damaged





Obvious isn't it!.....No ? OK I'll zoom for you





Yes, that is the damage that I missed on drop off and the collector noticed within minutes of arriving and was going to presumably charge me or my insurance company for.


So, I was so lucky that


1) I actually took photos
2) My photos were of high enough quality, because a compact or phone camera would NOT have picked that up.

Thoughts?

Westin

And now that Europcar have been made aware of the damage to that particular car do you think that the damage will be noted for other renters of that same vehicle? I suspect not.

Well done for being so diligent.

Shame that there is not a website where renters can upload details of -::- damage -::- and the dates of their rentals to particular car registration plates. Would be a handy backup for claims by rental companies of new damage.

Raymondo111

Westin wrote: »

And now that Europcar have been made aware of the damage to that particular car do you think that the damage will be noted for other renters of that same vehicle? I suspect not.

Well done for being so diligent.

Shame that there is not a website where renters can upload details of -::- damage -::- and the dates of their rentals to particular car registration plates. Would be a handy backup for claims by rental companies of new damage.

That's a brilliant idea, all we need now is somebody to set up a website to do just this, if this did happen it would end all the scams that the unscrupulous rental companies get up to.

Gloomendoom

The website would be a lot of work but a superb idea. I've also managed to get damage charges dropped on producing photos. Windscreen damage in particular. On of my pet peeves is paying for damgage to hired vans only to get the same van six months later with the damage still there and I repaired.