Nationwide Hire UK van damage dispute

Simeon54

Hello all, 
I recently hired a vehicle from Nationwide Hire UK. They offer a delivery and pickup service, so it took before and after photo's, as they advised, of the entire vehicle. These images are timestamped. The hire took place on June 12th, start time 08:30, pickup 08:30 June 13th. I did the journey on the 12th and did not damage the vehicle. I photographed it at 17:18 on June 12th, after I got home (I realise this was a mistake, as I should have taken the photo's the following morning when the pick up guy arrived. The vehicle was left outside my property over night, so could feasibly have been damaged then. I know that it wasn't damaged, but cannot prove that.

However, i was contacted by their damage team yesterday (June 28th), with a claim it was damaged on return, with a photo they took showing the damage, which was timestamped for the same day, June 28th, a full 2 weeks after the return of the vehicle. 

It's clear it's been damaged by someone else in the interim. I am at a loss. My photo shows the damage is not present, at 17:18 on June 12th, they claim it's there on June 28th.

Seems like a scam, but i can see there is that window between 17:18 June 12th and 08:30 June 13th.

Anyone got any ideas on who I can approach?
I've replied to their claim with my images, but got no reply.

Thanks in advance!

Herzlos

Did the guy who collected the car do any checks or give you any paperwork?

Simeon54

He pulled out a doc that detailed roughly were previous damage was. We went around the vehicle together, checking all those points. He found no extra damage. But he didn't give me any paper work, no.

HillStreetBlues

I did read an Ombudsman's decision regarding damage to a vehicle (was a section 75 issue)
The damaged was  noted down and informed about 24 hours of the return, the customer didn't have any photos.
The appeal wasn't upheld as customer had vehicle for two weeks,  so on balance any damage was more likely to have happened while the customer had it.

You're case is the total opposite.
You have photos showing no damage just over 15 hours before return (and the company had a walk round on collection).

Nationwide has photos taken about 360 hours after return.

So I can't see how it can be more likely  you caused the damage, and doubt the Ombudsman or anyone else would either.


Hopefully you paid via a credit card and was over £100.
 
 

Simeon54

They're now claiming that the photo was taken by the guy that picked it up, and that it's timestamped as such. i may have made a mistake on the original timestamp of their image, so will need to wait to see proof from them.

HillStreetBlues

Simeon54 said:

They're now claiming that the photo was taken by the guy that picked it up, and that it's timestamped as such. i may have made a mistake on the original timestamp of their image, so will need to wait to see proof from them.

Did they send you a photo of the damage?

Simeon54

Yes they did, they claim it was taken by the guy when he picked up the vehicle. I can't see the timestamp of this image.
I thought it was yesterday, but that is just the date the image was 'created' when I downloaded it.

HillStreetBlues

Try a site like https://jimpl.com/
Upload a photo and hopefully will tell you date and time taken

Simeon54

HillStreetBlues said:

Try a site like 
Upload a photo and hopefully will tell you date and time taken

Thanks, that shows FileAccessdate and FileChangedate all as yesterday around 14:45, and they emailed me around 16:00. There doesn't seem to be a creation date in the metadata 

HillStreetBlues

Simeon54 said:

Thanks, that shows FileAccessdate and FileChangedate all as yesterday around 14:45, and they emailed me around 16:00. There doesn't seem to be a creation date in the metadata 

At a guess, they will know this can be done  so either remove or make sure that info isn't recorded.


EDIT
Does the photos you took have that info?

Ectophile

A lot of useful information is saved by the camera when a photo is taken.  If you can save the photo to a folder in Windows, then right click on it, select Properties and then the Details tab.

My Android phone will also show the details of a photo that's open in the picture viewer.