Irish Car rental firm wants to charge my partner A LOT of money for a cracked windscreen

TranceNRG

Hi everyone, I'm afer some advice regarding a difficult position my girlfriend is in. She last week went to Ireland to see her aunt who is very ill and hired a car (2024 Hyundai i20) from Eruopcar in Dublin for 6 days. I think it cost her about €50. She didn't take out insurance as she thought it was too expensive (about €150) - I know very silly.
Anyway the car was fine but she noticed a crack (about 30cm long) in the windscreen on the drivers side, in the morning of the day she was supposed to return the car. She is adamant that the crack wasn't there the day before (she would have noticed it) and nothing hit the the windscreen. She reckons there must have been a small chip in the windscreen and that it had expanded due to the frost.

She returned the car to Eruopcar and told them about the crack in the windscreen and flew back to London. Couple of days later she got an email from their damage department asking her to pay about €500 for a replacement windscreen. She replied back saying she didn't see anything hitting the windscreen and it must have cracked due to an existing small chip. She had offered to pay half of the money as she couldn't prove there was a chip in the windscreen (she has photos but you can't zoom in that much to see if there's a crack/it's not clear).
Today, she got a reply from Europcar saying the price for a replacement windows is actually €1200 as they can't get it from their normal supplier and they have to get it from the main dealer. They are gonig to charge her the full amount. Needless to say my girlfriend is very stressed/upset. I think  €1200 is way too much for a replacement window and my girlfriend is adamant she's not at fault (though she can't prove it).

 We are currently in a very difficult financial situation (mortgage and bills going and the fact that we are going through IVF) so the last thing is we need is a huge, unexpected bill like this. Just wondering if we have any options? Is it worth disputing this charge with the credit card customer?They had blocked  €1800 on her credit card when she hired the car so I guess they are going to charge her from that. If we cancel the credit card, would that stop them charging us? Then would she have a negative marker on her credit record? This is an Irish company and she lives in the UK (though she's an Irish citizen). 

Thanks in advance.

born_again

From card perspective. You can try disputing. But they can reject this. Worse still is they do not reject, they simply go down the legal route to recover the funds.
Cancelling the card can see Hire co requesting new card details from Visa/Mastercard as per card regulations. Or again they simply go legal to recover the funds.

Best bet is to dispute the charge with them & if not getting any joy then talk to this group, who will look at the case & then come up with a binding agreement for the Hire Co.

https://www.ecrcs.com/

Mildly_Miffed

As far as liability goes, the simple fact is that she collected a car with an intact windscreen with no chips noted, and returned it with one so broken as to need replacement.
She is liable, whether she noticed it or not, or whatever the theory as to why.

Remember, too, that the car is now not available for rental until the glass is replaced, and part of the bill will be recompense for that.

FWIW, I've had a lot of windscreens with chips in - and never once had one that's suddenly turned into anything remotely close to a 30cm crack overnight, even in temperatures down to -10 or so, and even using hot water to defrost them.

The card has already been pre-approved for the amount, so I don't think cancelling will stop it being charged. Nor would that get her off the debt - it would very likely not do, and I'm sure Europcar will simply chase her in the UK with additional debt collection charges.

TranceNRG

Thanks for the replies. So basically disputing the charge is the only option. We'll try what born again suggested.

My girlfriend is adamant nothing hit the windscreen and there was no crack the night before. Obviously I believe her. Windscreens don't crack like that unless there was a fault with it already and/or hit by a stone at high speeds. But we can't prove there was a fault with the windscreen.

€1200 they quoted is just for the replacement. This seems very excessive. Just googling a replacement windscreen for this car, it doesn't seem to be more than £500-£600. 

Unfortunately this is a very costly lesson (and at a very bad time for us). I would have never hired a car without insurance. 

TranceNRG

born_again said:

From card perspective. You can try disputing. But they can reject this. Worse still is they do not reject, they simply go down the legal route to recover the funds.
Cancelling the card can see Hire co requesting new card details from Visa/Mastercard as per card regulations. Or again they simply go legal to recover the funds.

Best bet is to dispute the charge with them & if not getting any joy then talk to this group, who will look at the case & then come up with a binding agreement for the Hire Co.

https://www.ecrcs.com/

Dispute the charge with the hire co or the credit card company? My partner has rung the credit card customer service and they've asked her to ring another department on Monday about disputing the charges is a possibility (apparently the customer service rep also though the charges were excessive). 
She's also replied to Europcar to say the new amount is excessive and she's willing to meet them half way on the initial amount they quoted. She's asked them to escalate to their manager. She reiterated that the crack only appeared in the morning and she didn't see a crack the day before when she was driving.

born_again

Start with Hire co, as you can't dispute with CC till the payment debits. 

 (apparently the customer service rep also though the charges were excessive). Means nothing at all. 

Bigwheels1111

A bit late now, but excess cover for car hire is available via mse for peanuts.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

£33-£38 for one years cover in Europe, limit to 31 days hire at a time.

Half way down the page.
There are other companies that supply these policies.
I took out cover for a curtesy car during an insurance claim. Their excess was £1500.
They wanted £20 a day, one I found online was £30 for the year.
It was during Covid in 2020, I had the hire car for 10 weeks.

TranceNRG

Thanks Bigwheels. That'll be really useful in the future. 

Grey_Critic

Read the Terms & Conditions - Tyres and windscrreens are excluded in most rental agreement.

Risteard

TranceNRG said:

Thanks for the replies. So basically disputing the charge is the only option. We'll try what born again suggested.

My girlfriend is adamant nothing hit the windscreen and there was no crack the night before. Obviously I believe her. Windscreens don't crack like that unless there was a fault with it already and/or hit by a stone at high speeds. But we can't prove there was a fault with the windscreen.

€1200 they quoted is just for the replacement. This seems very excessive. Just googling a replacement windscreen for this car, it doesn't seem to be more than £500-£600. 

Unfortunately this is a very costly lesson (and at a very bad time for us). I would have never hired a car without insurance. 

Ireland is much dearer than the UK. So the cost could be correct. Doesn't matter really. You'll just have to pay it.

RogerPensionGuy

The subject car doesn't have to be moving. 

A parked car can be hit by a stone or similar and damage can occur. 

Normally cracks can be slow, but can be fast as well. 

I like a previous post about liability insurance, a good idea. 

Good luck trying to reason with the rental company.