Car rental experiences

I have an on-going issue with Avis rentals in relation to delivering a car back late (I didn't).
While I have photographic proof, it appears to me that if car rental companies don't get you on stealth charges, they get you other ways and it's up to you to prove otherwise.

What's your own experiences of car rental companies and what should you look out for?

coylemj

This topic gets way more coverage over in the Travel and United States forums.

coylemj

coylemj wrote: »

This topic gets way more coverage over in the Travel and United States forums.

Thanks. I didn't know where to go with this- it was Europe not USA so didn't think it appropriate in USA forum- maybe it's a more a consumer issue.
Mods, I'll leave it to yourselves to see where best to place this thread.

Thanks again.

Plenty.

Red Kev

Dropped a car back to Milan airport, got a bill for €1180 for damage done to a front wing. Had a video of the car as well as an inspection sheet but they weren't interested. It wasn't us who damaged it.

No luck, they deducted the money.

Sent a solicitors letter threatening to sue for fraud, followed this up with an email of a copy of the letter to Hertz Ireland as well as Hertz Italy saying I'd every intention of going to the media with my little sob story. Money was paid back within two weeks, cited as a 'computer error '.

Oddly enough the Hertz Italy person dealing it was in an office in Swords, seems to be some European HQ there.

Steve

Full insurance for a week cost me € 20 extra in the canaries recently, big dent in the door and a scrape, all not my fault, done while parked. Well worth it.

slave1

Dropped rental car back to airport in Tenerife a few years back, took photos.
Charged for damage done to back wheel arch, said nothing and asked when did they pick the car up from the airport, it was two days later so I sent my photo in and said it was their fault for not having an inspection/leaving it there for two days and had the photo on my side too. Money back within a week.

Florida, had a Budget Mini-Van where the battery died twice on me, they tried to charge me breakdown assistance, I told them they need to provide me a car in suitable condition and a car where the battery keeps dying was their responsibility, I drove to one of their locations and swapped for a different make/model, never heard another thing about it and never charged for the breakdown assistances.

My philosophy is polite and firm always.

V Eight

I had conditioned myself from experience that whatever I expected to pay for a car was going to be higher. Always felt the victim of extreme UP-SELL. I have since learned to say no. The last experience I literally had to say no ten times or more....however it works and now I always pay what I expect......

Caliden

I now photograph everything and make them inspect it before I leave when handing it back.

In some rental places there's nobody in the car park doing returns or they're cleaning cars so will only inspect later.
I also get car hire excess and I will keep a keen eye on my credit card for a month after the rental to make sure there's no stealth charges.

I got a 60 dollar charge before from Hertz for seemingly no reason and had to call up to sort it out. It was explained away as a mistake and was a 'currency conversion fee' that was applied in error.

166man

I had a car hire in Italy last week for three days, was for a 1800km round trip. Was a 2016 Golf estate 1.6 TDI. About 800km into the journey the ''low oil level'' warning light came on (through no fault of my own - I just drove it).

Car had about 40k km on it so was concerning! Dropped it back to Florence airport and got it changed.


Still though, delayed me by a good 2 hours due to the car not being in suitable condition. Thought it was really poor.


I despise car rental companies nearly as much as insurance companies.

coylemj

My last three experiences were in Europe with Hertz and Europcar, I booked and paid online in advance. In all three cases I arrived at the desk in the airport, was asked if I would like to purchase additional insurance, I declined and they handed me the keys. In all cases I handed back the car with a full tank and never heard another word so what I paid online before I travelled was what I paid - end of story.

Yes, I did take photos, including of the dashboard with the fuel gauge on full but they were not required. Moral of the story - stick to the big firms, the small guys will attract you with big discounts but you will eventually get screwed.

Donutz

I rented a cars off enterprise a few times. Only ever for driving round Ireland though.

They never tried any stealth charges on me. Any time I dropped cars back to them they did an inspection and any deposit I had paid to them was refunded to my card immediately.

Red Kev

My only advice is to take a video of the car, interior and exterior, both on picking it up and returning. Have the radio switched on to a major news station so they can't claim the time of the video has been manipulated. Also make sure you get the tachometer and fuel gauge into the picture.

If they do try to overcharge and refuse to refund after two emails then get a solicitors letter and Bill them for that as well.

ION08

Rented a Camaro SS 6.2L V8 in Los Angeles last year

It had 7k miles on it and long story short I ended up blowing the engine on the highway (my guess is that oil pump failed)

Called the Rental company up, they came to collect it on a flat bed and replaced it with a Brand New Mercedes E350 (5 miles on the clock, on dealer plates and everything still wrapped in plastic)

I complained that I wanted a Muscle car not a European Luxury Sedan, they tried to get me a Corvette but weren't able to get their hands on it so gave me the Merc, a discount and 200 free miles

Great bunch of lads!

BuffyBot

Never had a problem with my rentals - used Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Sixt and various others.

Sixt contacted me about a scratched bumper on return which I flagged up to them at the time, but were satisfied it wasn't my fault and nothing more came of it.

At the end of the day, they rent to many many people day-in, day out and the majority of the transactions will be free of hassle and we hear nothing of them. It's unfair to suggest they're bad in general, or adding stealth charges willy nilly. Half the complaints you hear about only contain 50% of the facts - much the same as any other industry.

Cookie_Monster

Hertz Ireland have screwed me over several times, deciding on extra fees for being under 30 and so forth despite no mention of it at any stage during the process. Even refused to give me a car on one trip.

Never had an issue anywhere else or with anyone else.

gk5000

It's worth getting Car Hire Excess Insurance if you rent frequently or for more than one week.
It costs about €50 per year.

Normally the rental policy covers you fully EXCEPT the excess which is normaly €1000 to €2000. It is this that the rental companies charge you insurance for - upto €10 per day. Everything else is already covered. It's a bit of a scam.

I took excess insurance online with AIG for Europe, cost €50 for me and wife for a year - as long as each rental is less than 30 days. There is probably a USA or worldwide package also.

I never claimed on it but it was great peace of mind, and then did not have to pay the extras.

The other thing is always book your care with arguscarhire.ie or rentalcars.com : then you get the cheapest car from all the car hire companies. But it can be expensive to have a second driver.

Harcrid

The one thing about the excess insurance is that the hire company will still take the excess from you, and you have to later claim it back from your insurance company. So you are still down a large amount of money, at least temporarily. That's why I tend to take the hire companies own excess cover as I can dump the keys back on the desk with no worries. Costs a bit more but I dont rent that often,

9935452

I hired a car off hertz for a wedding 2 years ago.
They emailed me an inspection sheet with pictures which showed all the damage on the car circled in red.
I collected the car at night . the following morning i found a lot of damage on the passenger side of the front bumper. I checked the inspection sheets which showed nothing circled on the front bumper.
I couldnt understand how i could have done the damage, then i looked closer at the pictures. i could see the damage in the pics but they never bothered to mark it up.
I brought it up when dropping the car back and they took a note of it and i heard nothing back from them

Damien360

I have rented plenty of times in Europe and once in US, all with Avis. I make a point of reversing out of the parking space, getting out and photographing as many panels as possible. This has saved me on a few occasions on return including a 520 in Zurich with more scratches than a cat basket. As soon as I take out my phone and show the number of pics, the arguing ends and they sign as perfect return.

I try to avoid the key drop returns as a colleague got ripped off on one of those for a tiny scratch.

cml387

To take another perspective...

...we had some young Swedish guys over some years ago to install some equipment and they hired a Micra from Cork Airport.

When the Gardai could actually catch them they were warned about testing the car up and down the M8.

Steve

Steve wrote: »

Full insurance for a week cost me € 20 extra in the canaries recently, big dent in the door and a scrape, all not my fault, done while parked. Well worth it.

I purchased the excess insurance separately for a year for 50 euro. peace of mind without the high costs. made my money back in one rental so my next rental will be free excess insurance.

Damien360

Damien360 wrote: »

I try to avoid the key drop returns as a colleague got ripped off on one of those for a tiny scratch.

well i've learned my lesson on that. it wasn't much but still i hate them for it.

BuffyBot

BuffyBot wrote: »

Never had a problem with my rentals - used Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Sixt and various others.

Sixt contacted me about a scratched bumper on return which I flagged up to them at the time, but were satisfied it wasn't my fault and nothing more came of it.

At the end of the day, they rent to many many people day-in, day out and the majority of the transactions will be free of hassle and we hear nothing of them. It's unfair to suggest they're bad in general, or adding stealth charges willy nilly. Half the complaints you hear about only contain 50% of the facts - much the same as any other industry.

Well, I'm 100% sure Avis screwed me over royally

ianobrien

9935452 wrote: »

I hired a car off hertz for a wedding 2 years ago.
They emailed me an inspection sheet with pictures which showed all the damage on the car circled in red.
I collected the car at night . the following morning i found a lot of damage on the passenger side of the front bumper. I checked the inspection sheets which showed nothing circled on the front bumper.
I couldnt understand how i could have done the damage, then i looked closer at the pictures. i could see the damage in the pics but they never bothered to mark it up.
I brought it up when dropping the car back and they took a note of it and i heard nothing back from them

That reminds me a time when I was collecting a van I had rented (from a household name). They had the damage sheet ready and before I signed anything, I asked to see the van. The rep had an iPad to photo and document the process, and had the pre-collection "inspection" complete. I added another few items that were missed, and then took my own photos. There was some small items like scratches that were missed, but also a nice gouge on a side panel and a missing jack and wheelbrace. I think I added another 15 items to his list before I collected it.

Couldn't fault Avis..... although they gave me a Prius last year in Texas a month later the guy in that office upgraded me to a X5 35i for tiny money.
Got an Audi A1 on a recent trip to the Algarve and again found them excellent. I generally book through BA who I have a frequent flyer with. Perhaps Avis less likely to mess about in that situation.

Picking up from them in Germany tomorrow evening so fingers crossed my good experience continues.

Steve

Deleted User wrote: »

I purchased the excess insurance separately for a year for 50 euro. peace of mind without the high costs. made my money back in one rental so my next rental will be free excess insurance.

Just be careful as to what this covers. It does not give you fully comp.

oscar2

Have hired US and Europe for years caught only in Ireland.

Hired a van off well known company for 1 day. Quick check but missed one tiny dent on bottom sill under sliding side door. On handing back agent went straight to dent and caught me for €200. Now I know to get on my hands and knees and crawl around a vehicle plus photograph.

Voodoomelon

I love renting cars, but bloody hate rental companies. All the hidden charges and terms and conditions are deliberately ambiguous and confusing.

The most recent incident was with Avis, who charged my business partner €480 for damaging a BMW X3 alloy, because he allegedly kerbed it, which he didn't.

Aside from the fact that he didn't do it and the damage was obviously very old, they wanted the money for a new wheel which was ludicrous. Took about a month to get the money back. Have rented several times with full insurance since and no issues. The best thing about full insurance is no damage sheet; you can bring it back with the doors hanging off and just toss the keys over the counter. Adios amigos.

The Veteran

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I love renting cars, but bloody hate rental companies. All the hidden charges and terms and conditions are deliberately ambiguous and confusing.

The most recent incident was with Avis, who charged my business partner €480 for damaging a BMW X3 alloy, because he allegedly kerbed it, which he didn't.

Aside from the fact that he didn't do it and the damage was obviously very old, they wanted the money for a new wheel which was ludicrous. Took about a month to get the money back. Have rented several times with full insurance since and no issues. The best thing about full insurance is no damage sheet; you can bring it back with the doors hanging off and just toss the keys over the counter. Adios amigos.

Rented in Ireland; US; South Africa and Canaries\Spain and Portugal as well as UK. Mainly Enterprise in Ireland\UK - no hassles and take debit cards. Never any hassles but spend time inspecting and pay for "full" insurance just to be sure.

alanceltic

Theres nothing worse that grinds my gears than a car rental desk. Too many bad experiences to recollect and i find that the majority working in this industry would sell their own granny to hit a sales target. America is without doubt the worst, a few years ago i rented with dollar, i had a prepaid voucher with full insurance and told the agent i had no interest in any extras or insurance upgrades, after a long flight and signing a digi screen i realised when i got to my hotel that there was $600 in extras incl sat nav & toll tags which i clearly didnt have and the obligatory insurance "upgrade". Was my own fault for not double checking the paperwork at the desk so i had to drive back to the rental desk to get it all taken off. This year i rented with fox rental and after 90mins queuing and watching them play every trick in the book i couldn't help but be annoyed before he even started into his sales pitch, once again i had an all inclusive voucher and after 15mins of arguing he insisted that it would be illegal for me to take the car without the insurance policy he was trying to offload. It took for me to ask if he was not prepared to give me the keys to the car and complete the paperwork without the policy and i reminded him that i had a legal contract that he would be refusing to honour. I took out my phone and told him i was going to record the rest of the conversation and he finally relented. I watched him scam 4 other tourists in front of me all in similar circumstances and he just wouldnt let it go and kept saying "i cant believe you are prepared to take a risk like this" he then cranked it up by saying the police would impound the car, i finally cracked and told him i didnt give a f*** as it wasnt my car so i turned around to the rest of the people in the queue and told them that this guy had scammed 4 people in front of me into taking out policies they didnt need and not to buy his sales pitch, i wished him a "have a nice day and good luck with your commission" followed up with a rage fuelled barrell of expletives.

As people have commented, camera phones are your friend. As most rentals are on a full tank out/return i would recommend filling up close to the airport and putting the fuel receipt beside the speedo (with ignition on) start a video here and it covers most spikey situations

nice_guy80

Have rented in Spain, USA, Greece, Canada, NZ, Aus and Ireland

Worst experience was with the Irish rental.

kindalen

Have to be very careful when renting. Always video/photo on collection and return. Check has car actually tax and insurance and is in road worthy condition.

Worst for me was when i spent an evening driving dark bendy back roads in a rental only to arrive after many hours drive to discover none of my rear lights were working!

chicorytip

The Veteran wrote: »

Rented in Ireland; US; South Africa and Canaries\Spain and Portugal as well as UK. Mainly Enterprise in Ireland\UK - no hassles and take debit cards. Never any hassles but spend time inspecting and pay for "full" insurance just to be sure.

When did you last hire from Enterprise Ireland? I was recently informed that they no longer accept debit cards as a form of payment.

ted1

Harcrid wrote: »

The one thing about the excess insurance is that the hire company will still take the excess from you, and you have to later claim it back from your insurance company. So you are still down a large amount of money, at least temporarily. That's why I tend to take the hire companies own excess cover as I can dump the keys back on the desk with no worries. Costs a bit more but I dont rent that often,

Trying to claim if my axa zero excess policy at the moment and it's like trying to get blood from stone. Looks like I'll end up taking them
To the small claims court

ted1

The Veteran wrote: »

Rented in Ireland; US; South Africa and Canaries\Spain and Portugal as well as UK. Mainly Enterprise in Ireland\UK - no hassles and take debit cards. Never any hassles but spend time inspecting and pay for "full" insurance just to be sure.

Never any hassles , your paying a premium for their insurance, that's a hassle.

ted1

Steve wrote: »

Just be careful as to what this covers. It does not give you fully comp.

No it's an excess policy. It covers the first 2or3k. It's not sold as fully comp.

J.pilkington

coylemj wrote: »

My last three experiences were in Europe with Hertz and Europcar, I booked and paid online in advance. In all three cases I arrived at the desk in the airport, was asked if I would like to purchase additional insurance, I declined and they handed me the keys. In all cases I handed back the car with a full tank and never heard another word so what I paid online before I travelled was what I paid - end of story.

Yes, I did take photos, including of the dashboard with the fuel gauge on full but they were not required. Moral of the story - stick to the big firms, the small guys will attract you with big discounts but you will eventually get screwed.

It's not as black and white as that. Did you even read the posts above you? Plenty of people with issues with "the big firms"!

ted1

ted1 wrote: »

Trying to claim if my axa zero excess policy at the moment and it's like trying to get blood from stone. Looks like I'll end up taking them
To the small claims court

Tell us more please if you can. I only took out one of those policies this year so would be very interested in what problems you're experiencing

ted1

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Tell us more please if you can. I only took out one of those policies this year so would be very interested in what problems you're experiencing

They look for every bit of paper work and hertz took back the original copy of the rental agreement for when we rented the car. We have all the invoices , the signed agreement from when we returned the car, the damage report etc. I'm trying to get Hertz to give me a copy of the original rental agreement but they are not playing ball.

9935452

chicorytip wrote: »

When did you last hire from Enterprise Ireland? I was recently informed that they no longer accept debit cards as a form of payment.

When did they start not taking debit cards. I rented back in july and they had no problem with it

ted1

ted1 wrote: »

They look for every bit of paper work and hertz took back the original copy of the rental agreement for when we rented the car. We have all the invoices , the signed agreement from when we returned the car, the damage report etc. I'm trying to get Hertz to give me a copy of the original rental agreement but they are not playing ball.

I guess nothing is ever easy when it comes to making a claim. Hope it gets sorted soon. I'll make a point of photographing everything i sign in future and retaining any copies i get.

J.pilkington

No guarantee they will accept photos as from their perspective they as easily editable and could have been taken at anytime so to improve your chances at least take the photos with a recognisable background at the drop off point

dudara

I use Hertz pretty much exclusively and have Gold Star status with them. At the big lots, the car will be ready and waiting for me, no credit card or paperwork required. Everything is emailed to me. And if I don't like it, I pick another one. Hertz in the US is superb.

I find it's worth going with the big names as they tend to be more transparent.

Diemos

I rent 5 to 6 times per year, have rented from nearly every company out there by now.

I have one rule which I always go to when renting. Never use Goldcar. Ever.

Taking out your own excess is grand but you need to have €1700 free on your credit card these days, not everyone can do that.
Also getting your excess back off the company ain't easy.

If you want hastle free renting, Enterprise have been the best people I have rented with.

For those of you struggling with your rental company, you have an alternative option, your credit card company.
Sixt in Spain tried to charge me extra because they said I left the car back a day late. I only had the car for 14 hours.
They ignored all my complaints until I told them I was going to cancel the entire transaction on my card.
I was promptly refunded.

Diemos

J.pilkington wrote: »

No guarantee they will accept photos as from their perspective they as easily editable and could have been taken at anytime so to improve your chances at least take the photos with a recognisable background at the drop off point

Film it, and get the staff in the footage. Problem solved.

J.pilkington

Diemos wrote: »

Film it, and get the staff in the footage. Problem solved.

Plenty of cars dropped off to manless stations

breakemall

I rented a car in Madrid recently and got the usual hard sell from FireFly to buy their excess insurance even though I had bought it already through CarTrawler when I booked the rental.

The first car had no coolant and even though they said it was ok to drive I refused it and so got a complimentary upgrade. When I checked my statement I was charged an additional €245 so I queried it and the hire company invoice said the wrong fuel was used (thankfully had receipt for the fuel) and then FireFly said it was for cleaning the car as there was dust in three of the four footwells. Imagine that, dust from our shoes after 8 days in central Spain in summer. They had photos of course (but from what car?) and I guess it took all of 60 seconds with a hoover at most.

Fighting my corner at present for the money back, watch this space.

The only other time I hired from FireFly (in Italy) I had a similar experience of additional charges but this time for them having to supposedly give my details to the authorities for an alleged driving offence that never materialised. They will not get a third bite at this cherry!!!

Hertz tried it on once for fuel in the UK, again having the receipts did the trick.

I think that upselling is the name of the game, get you in with a good rate and then see what they can generate?

oscar2

Firefly:eek: are actually a subsidiary of Hertz and were known as Advantage. My experience with them was with a battered old model Panda 65000km on the clock with windscreen wipers held with insulating tape.
I had booked a larger car but was told that was all that was available.They tend to be located in industrial units away from the Airport terminals.
Great headline prices but they will gouge you for up to 6 months after the car has been returned for imaginary charges. I actually cancelled my credit card after dealing with them!

Google them and Advantage on Trip advisor.

Steve

It's either Hertz or Europcar, can't remember which, but they have a dent sheet hidden - normally in with the spare wheel / on the underside of the lid. It saved my deposit once as I could prove to the guy the damage was already there.

breakemall

oscar2 wrote: »

Firefly:eek: are actually a subsidiary of Hertz and were known as Advantage. My experience with them was with a battered old model Panda 65000km on the clock with windscreen wipers held with insulating tape.
I had booked a larger car but was told that was all that was available.They tend to be located in industrial units away from the Airport terminals.
Great headline prices but they will gouge you for up to 6 months after the car has been returned for imaginary charges. I actually cancelled my credit card after dealing with them!

Google them and Advantage on Trip advisor.

The car in Spain with no coolant was a VW Caddy passenger and was very fresh with I think about 10k on it and they gave me a Zafira with even less mileage as a replacement.

Italy was a junker alright.

They will not get a third chance!

JD1763

This is why i always loved the pre-paid Hertz packages - you could pick up a really nice car for 2 weeks for 800-900 euro with all of the insurance included. One year we were in Florida and I rented one of the large SUVs think it was a suburban or something similar, basically a huge white house on wheels and brand new less than 100 miles on it.

There were two gates at the entrance to the estate where we had a house - one for owners and the other for renters. We had an owners pass and I swiped to open the gate started to drive through when it began closing on me and it wasn't stopping. Maybe the sensors were busted. So I panicked, slammed on the brakes and threw it in reverse to back up before this huge gate crushed the bonnet. But the genius behind me had decided to tailgate me through and smash. Only a few scratches on the great white whale but busted up his baby carrier pretty good- radiator burst, etc. Luckily the pre-paid package had full cover and no deductibles - just phoned Hertz filed an incident report and got on with our holiday. Never heard another thing about it except when dropping the car back, attendant was not impressed I'd scratched up the back of a brand new car.

That was the day I vowed to always pay the extra no matter how many people told me I was being ripped off.

Another year managed to get my hands on a Shelby Mustang. Think it was the last one in Hertz Florida and right at the end of its life. Great car but it was in pretty poor condition and we were the last rental before they retired it and sent it for auction. Picked up a puncture from the hard shoulder after a cop pulled me over on I-4 - but that's another story - checked the boot but there was no spare, not even a space saver.

Hertz had an office down the road so brought it in on the soft - no way was I calling for a tow. They claimed they couldn't repair the puncture given its location on the tire wall and I'd have to swap it for another car. They only had crappy saloons at that site and I'd have to pay some ridiculous charge for the damaged tire. Weren't too happy about me driving on the soft but I wasn't impressed at not having a spare.

Hertz guy who worked on the lot outside just said take it to the independent garage next door and they'll fix it. Hey presto 30 dollars later back on the road no problems. Although they did say the tire was technically destroyed. But that guy saved me so much hassle and got me another week in that Shelby.