Need help and advice to syop a company from ripping off my mum!!

Waynedear33

My mum recently had a lorry reverse into her pride and joy an old ford escort, as it was old the insurance said it would probably be a right off, but my mum argued so they gave her a ford mondeo as a courtesy car until they sorted out the problem.

Whilst my mum had the mondeo someone stole the petrol cap which was just a metal screw in one, she had the car a few weeks until recently when the company came to pick the car up.

My mum informed them the cap was stolen, they took the car away and that was that, the other day my mum got a bill thorugh the post for £120, this is for the petrol cap and the the wheel trim that was missing??? (what wheel trim).

I think the company are trying to pull a fast one, my mum recently lost her job and is on her !!!! at the moment financially, they have her bank account number and have told her they will take the money out asap, she is concerned as she doesnt have enough in her account to cover the cost and she will end up with bank charges if they try and take the money.

This has really wound me up and I would just like to know if anyone has any advice that they could give me, I hate it when companys do this sort of thing....

LittleVoice

Simply having her bank account details is not enough - they would also need to have a direct debit mandate signed by her too. If she has signed one, she can still write to her bank and cancel it so that they can't action it for this amount.

Clive_Woody

Can't help much, but when your mum handed back the car they should have inspected it with her and noted any items that were missing or damaged. If they did not mention a missing wheel trim at this point, then they cannot claim payment from your mother. They cannot prove that the wheel trim was not lost subsequently and therefore was not your mothers responsibility. Also if they did not get her to sign anything saying the petrol cap was missing then they have no proof the car was not returned intact.

When I have had a hire care before after an accident they always did an inspection before giving me the car and got me to sign to say it was okay, then when I returned it they inspected it again and we both signed to say it was still okay.

They can't take payment from your mothers account without her permission or a court order.