Budget hire car - dispute over damage

Need advice about this. Will try to be brief.

Returned a hire car in Dublin yesterday and was shown damage to the plastic cover of rear light fitting and wing mirror on same side. Damage to both is a crack along the plastic barely noticeable to the naked eye (although he made a bee line for it within 10 seconds) and I have no idea how it happened. I checked the paintwork carefully when collecting the car (along with a Budget staff member) but never crossed my mind to look at the lights. The man from Budget never said "oh the lights look fine too" or anything to that effect. I am not the expert here.

I had EUR 1300 blocked on my CC at time of booking (didn't opt for any additional insurance) and yesterday was told that my CC would now be charged the full 1300 whilst quotations were sought by head office to repair "damage". I was asked for my CC again but refused to hand it over and I also refused to sign the form detailing the damage to the lights. The whole things smells fishy to me. The payment went through regardless.

The man rang the airport to check the car's history (it is a 2012 model) but nothing came back about cracked plastic on light. The woman in the office called 3 separate garages asking for ballpark quotations to fix the lights but she could have speaking to the talking clock for all I know. She said that it seems the whole light fitting would have to be changed.

The man in the office said the car would not be roadworthy with a cracked light (!) but I doubt Budget will even repair it. In any case it will not an NCT for another 3 or 4 years. The whole episode made me really suspicious which is why I refused to sign anything. He couldn't explain a cracked rear light with absolutely no other damage to surrounding paintwork.

In addition, when I collected the car, it was I who pointed out two scratches which had not been noted.

I am now considering whether to ring my CC company and asking them to cancel the transaction because it was not authorised by me.

What do others think? I feel sick about the whole thing.

Thanks.
HMC

This is the reason i always take out 'super insurance' when i hire a car. Without it and one scratch to the car and you loose your excess.

There is no point in trying to cancel the credit card transaction. You wont be able to do this ass you did authorise the payment....when you signed your contract.

You should contact their head office on Monday and tell them that you are very unhappy with the manner in which this matter has been handled and ask for a Manager to check the car over when you are present.

Dear Sue Ellen,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post because I took your advice and it led to a series of crucial (unwitting) admissions by the manager which helped me to fight my case. With ease it seems (just a couple of phone calls and one email to HQ), because this morning I noticed a full refund on my credit card.

Avoid this company like the plague.

Thanks again.
HMC

I have a similar problem with Enterprise at the moment.

I damaged a fuel cap on a van and over 3 weeks later, I cannot get confirmation of the amount the repair will cost or when I will get a refund of the €1300 excess charged to my CC.

I've rang them, emailed them and called back into them without success.

To be fair, they seem to have accepted your side of things and issued the refund fairly promptly. I would say that in future be very vigilent when actually taking the hired car and take photographs. Last time I did I found a few things which could have been seen as damage and pointed them out on the form. On return I didn't have any problems.

edit - this in in relation to the OP.

Dear Romulan,

Do you know which garage(s) Enterprise uses? This is possible commercially sensitive information so it might not be freely available. While you are waiting for quotation(s), you should ring around some garages to get an idea of what this job is likely to cost. Then you will be able to challenge the (more than likely) inflated amount being charged by Enterprise's garage.

Another important thing: ask Enterprise to return the damaged fuel cap to YOU along with an original, detailed invoice. I requested the same in my dealings with Budget and it certainly didn't do any harm. It also helps to state you "have taken advice" on the matter.

Good luck.

Yes, they mentioned the garage and I plan on requesting an original detailed invoice seeing as I am paying for it.

I had not thought of asking for the actual fuel cap but it's a great idea.

I will ring around when I get the actual amount.

In my case, I freely admitted the problem even though it is not part of the pre or post checks. It may have been damaged by a previous renter but there is no way to tell.

Next Monday is 4 weeks since they debited the card.

HMC said:

Dear Sue Ellen,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post because I took your advice and it led to a series of crucial (unwitting) admissions by the manager which helped me to fight my case. With ease it seems (just a couple of phone calls and one email to HQ), because this morning I noticed a full refund on my credit card.

Avoid this company like the plague.

Thanks again.
HMC

Click to expand...

Hi,

Delighted to hear you got sorted.

elcato said:

I would say that in future be very vigilent when actually taking the hired car......

Click to expand...

To add to this, a car I hired was just out of the wash, walked round it with agent, looked fine so signed the form. Brought it back an hour later and got them to redo the form as when the car was dry there were many dents/scratches/marks which were not apparent when wet.

If I ever get a wet car again I will note it on the form before signing, stating dents/scratches/marks are not visible when wet.

Enterprise wanted to charge me for a small insignificant chip in the windscreen, It could have been there when I picked it up, all cars on Irish roads are susceptable to this damage which you have no control over. Fortunately I took out full insurance cover.

Best to take plenty of timed and dated photos when collecting a rental car.

I hire a lot of cars and use several companies. I noticed in recent years that there is extra fastidious attention to nicks which could be stone chips which inevitably end up in costing you.
1. You are usually wasting your time the charge as all the loop holes are covered in the original rental documents. However as you found if you make a fuss with HQ you can sometimes make progress if the issue is minor in their book.
2. I always take the extra insurance now, you can bring the car back in bits and you won't pay any extra. I used to only take out if city driving in Italy but now take it out everywhere because they have become sticklers.
3. You can risk not taking the extra insurance but remember any damage however minor and even if not your fault will cost you. Where I have not taken extra insurance in the past I always took photos of all sides of the car to cover me in the case of damage.

I choose the insurance now to same me hassle and stress, life is to short to argue with petty unfair appliance of rules.

So still getting nowhere with Enterprise 5 weeks later.
I am now chasing the MD in Ireland.

I contacted the garage that Enterprise used and happy to say they were very helpful and responded immediately. Van was repaired the day after I returned it, cost was < €100.

Bualadh bos to Finlays and if Mrs Romulan ever decides to change car, I'll be calling into Finlays. No connection with them and never dealt with them before but very impressed.

Romulan, well done! I'm impressed. Would be even better if the garage could provide you with a copy of their invoice. Then you should fax and/or email to Enterprise customer service (haha, what a joke) or the billing department and tell them you have confirmed work and price with the garage and that you want the remainder of your security deposit returned within 5 working days. Otherwise you will put the matter into the hands of your solicitor. Good luck.

Only downside is I'm sure their T&Cs will allow them charge you a fee for loss of earnings for the time the car was out of service and a hefty administration fee as well.

Clearly Budget's tactics are not limited to Ireland...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/11/02/bc-budgetrepairs.html

Its disgraceful and just hope that more people get to hear about it and take their business elsewhere along with taking many, many photos when receiving the car from whichever company they deal with.