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.


When it was delivered, the guy started checking it over but 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, but I insisted that it was noted. Which he seemed to note down.



I then set about taking photos of every square inch. I was thinking I was being a bit over the top at this point.



Fast forward 7 days and the collection lady showed up early oe morning after a delay in them making a collection. We were very quickly informed that there was new damage on the car.


Where I asked?


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.


She said I can forward them to the office.

"You are going nowhere till this is sorted" I replied.



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!

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 and revelled in it.


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


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?

motorguy

CashStrapped wrote: »

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


When it was delivered, the guy started checking it over but 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, but I insisted that it was noted. Which he seemed to note down.



I then set about taking photos of every square inch. I was thinking I was being a bit over the top at this point.



Fast forward 7 days and the collection lady showed up early oe morning after a delay in them making a collection. We were very quickly informed that there was new damage on the car.


Where I asked?


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.


She said I can forward them to the office.

"You are going nowhere till this is sorted" I replied.



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!

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 and revelled in it.


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


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?

Like you i take pics of any hire car i pick up - particularly holiday ones.

Whats interesting is she marked it returned with no damage? Therefore its now back on the system as no damage, and go back out as no damage, then some other shmuck will get challenged on it.

CashStrapped

motorguy wrote: »

Like you i take pics of any hire car i pick up - particularly holiday ones.

Whats interesting is she marked it returned with no damage? Therefore its now back on the system as no damage, and go back out as no damage, then some other shmuck will get challenged on it.

Actually, correction.



She marked that it was returned and that damage to the wheel was pre-existing. Whether this paper copy will get copied across to their system is another matter.


Actually, thinking about it, she also logged the return via their (I assume internal) mobile app. I'm pretty sure she pressed the no damage tab.


So who knows. They seem very disorganised.


---


It's good that many people take photos. The issue in this case is that most people's photos would probably not have been good enough.


edit: the fact she did not seem to have a digital copy of the document signed by the person who dropped the car off suggests that the paper copies are not always scanned to digital form.

Crabman

They're not disorganised, this is how they operate:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/4083975/europcar-accused-of-paying-staff-extra-for-reporting-damage-on-hire-cars-even-if-a-repair-isnt-needed/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40630238

CashStrapped

Oh yeh, I know how they operate.



Disorganised was an understatement indeed.



But, depsite my caution ,I was still nearly caught out.



The key is



1) To be anal as possible in noting down damage.


2) To ensure the "drop off" actually notes this down on both copies! And signs it! It seems that Europcar have not heard of carbon paper, so the staff have to manually do both. It seems some can't be bothered.

stator

Well in her defence you clearly do park on the kerb, so I would have looked for kerb damage too

CashStrapped

stator wrote: »

Well in her defence you clearly do park on the kerb, so I would have looked for kerb damage too

Lol, that was actually the drop off guy! I did not want to do anything until I had photographed it.



My parking is perfect

cubegame

CashStrapped wrote: »

Oh yeh, I know how they operate.



Disorganised was an understatement indeed.



But, depsite my caution ,I was still nearly caught out.



The key is



1) To be anal as possible in noting down damage.


2) To ensure the "drop off" actually notes this down on both copies! And signs it! It seems that Europcar have not heard of carbon paper, so the staff have to manually do both. It seems some can't be bothered.

The key is to have excess insurance so you don't have to bother with the stress.

CashStrapped

While that is desirable and in this instance I am not sure what I would have been charged (if I accepted the damage) or how it would have been dealt with by the insurance company. But, in the vast majority of cases I would assume most would have some excess based on a claim.


But that is largely beside the point. You would most likly have to bay a bit more of a premium for that "peace of mind coverage". The point here is that they were trying to claim for damage they probably knew already existed.



Whether the staff get incentives to look for damage on collection, I do not know.



The dropper did not care to look much and was not worried. The collector was "doing her job to the best of her ability".



Coincidence? I think not.

cubegame

CashStrapped wrote: »

While that is desirable and in this instance I am not sure what I would have been charged (if I accepted the damage) or how it would have been dealt with by the insurance company. But, in the vast majority of cases I would assume most would have some excess based on a claim.


But that is largely beside the point. You would most likly have to bay a bit more of a premium for that "peace of mind coverage". The point here is that they were trying to claim for damage they probably knew already existed.



Whether the staff get incentives to look for damage on collection, I do not know.



The dropper did not care to look much and was not worried. The collector was "doing her job to the best of her ability".



Coincidence? I think not.

It isn't coincidence. It's part of the business model.

Make little to no money on hire rates and make the money on selling overpriced excess insurance.

You can choose to very cheaply insure yourself with an annual policy which will pay excess amounts in full.

Yes, it's a scam but it allows the more savvy to benefit from cheaper hire cars which someone else is paying for.

The strategy of going over every inch of the car with a fine tooth comb is all very well and good but I would generally prefer to let them charge me for any real or imaginary damage and then get it back within a few days from my excess policy. The large company I work for also advises us not to bother wasting time looking for damage on hire cars.

CashStrapped

I can imagine if you hire cars a lot, or it is provided via a larger company as you say, that is certainly something worth doing.



Meanwhile those who do not hire often, or get a car provided as a one off via insurance may not be as aware or savvy.



Luckily this time, the fine tooth comb method worked.