Any recourse on a hire van?

Experience_day

My dad hired a van for a day to pick some stuff up from IKEA. Banger of a van (3 years old, 100k+ scratches and dents all over). Lad said to him it was a wreck of a van and that already covered in red marks all over on his laptop.


Returned it today and they're now insisting that a scratch on the side of the van was caused by him. Talking of taking van of road, heavy heavy costs etc.


I know he should have done the walk around and not trusted them, but it seems like it's going to be an extremely expensive outing. He is currently arguing with them now?


Does he have any recourse?


This is with Enterprise........disappointed with them myself, as I've rented for years with them without any hassle. Never again after this, its not cool how much stress they're putting him under.

mickdw

Experience_day wrote: »

My dad hired a van for a day to pick some stuff up from IKEA. Banger of a van (3 years old, 100k+ scratches and dents all over). Lad said to him it was a wreck of a van and that already covered in red marks all over on his laptop.


Returned it today and they're now insisting that a scratch on the side of the van was caused by him. Talking of taking van of road, heavy heavy costs etc.


I know he should have done the walk around and not trusted them, but it seems like it's going to be an extremely expensive outing. He is currently arguing with them now?


Does he have any recourse?


This is with Enterprise........disappointed with them myself, as I've rented for years with them without any hassle. Never again after this, its not cool how much stress they're putting him under.

Clearly a scam if its a dent covered van.
Id go to the ends of the earth to challenge that.
I dont know what best way forward is but id likely go straight for solicitor and put it in no uncertain terms that it will be challenged and highlighting the condition of the van day 1.

9935452

Did he go for the basic hire or pay for the extra insurance on it

road_high

That’s shocking carry on. Has he the original handover form check over?

road_high

Can he cancel his credit card to stop then taking any payments off it ?

road_high

I had a long term business hire car with them lately and whilst nothing went wrong I found them pretty amateur to deal with- nothing but fairly clueless graduate program kids. Had to repeatedly ask for monthly invoices

Experience_day

Unfortunately he only opted for basic cover.....

He raised a fuss with manager who dropped the excess from 2500 to 1250 but wouldnt go lower than that. Big financial blow for him.

punisher5112

Does he still have the form with all the marks stated?

Ask for documented proof of damage and a before and after photo....

Did he look at all himself or take photos?

I done this when I got a van and made it very obvious I was and showed where I seen any damages...

Inside they said did t matter but I still stated damage inside which he put down as I wouldn't sign otherwise.

road_high

Experience_day wrote: »

Unfortunately he only opted for basic cover.....

He raised a fuss with manager who dropped the excess from 2500 to 1250 but wouldnt go lower than that. Big financial blow for him.

Did he agree to pay it? I’d certainly be escalating things higher.

colm_mcm

Go back and get the, to being up the record he saw on the laptop.

Experience_day

road_high wrote: »

Did he agree to pay it? I’d certainly be escalating things higher.

He did not agree to pay it (I rang him and told him to accept no liability). They made him sign a form saying that the damage was there but he contested that he did it was written on it.


Bit of an impasse really. Like I could understand them being fussy over a 192 top of the range van, but this van was knackered. I helped him pick some stuff up in IKEA and didn't see anything out of the ordinary myself. Looks like he said/she said sort of situation.


The bit that is getting my goat is that the man CLEARLY (and I don't think they denied it at the branch) told him not to bother with the walkaround (which he would usually do).


Pretty disappointed all in all to be honest, as I said before I've been using them for years and years and never had a situation like it.

DaveyDave

Is there any other damage where this scratch is? If there's other damage on the same panel they can't realistically charge for a repair when there's existing damage.

Makes you think are they charging other people for damage and just not fixing it, as it's clearly in rag order already.

road_high

DaveyDave wrote: »

Is there any other damage where this scratch is? If there's other damage on the same panel they can't realistically charge for a repair when there's existing damage.

Makes you think are they charging other people for damage and just not fixing it, as it's clearly in rag order already.

Really wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a nice little bonus system in place for this carry on.

markpb

road_high wrote: »

Can he cancel his credit card to stop then taking any payments off it ?

No.

FishOnABike

colm_mcm wrote: »

Go back and get the, to being up the record he saw on the laptop.

?????

pippip

If its badly covered in marks I don't think it would hold up in court unless they had photo evidence of what was there before hand and what's there now.

Different if van was immaculate.

biko

Goes to show you cannot trust these renters. Enterprise shafted me too, but on something else. Hope it's not a business model.

Always go around with camera and point out every single thing you see, inside too.

punisher5112

biko wrote: »

Goes to show you cannot trust these renters. Enterprise shafted me too, but on something else. Hope it's not a business model.

Always go around with camera and point out every single thing you see, inside too.

Exactly what I done.... I kept your man longer then he wanted to be there....

I photo everything inside and out....

spurious

Well worth the money to see a solicitor. Make sure they can't get anything out of his card.

road_high

markpb wrote: »

No.

Why can’t he cancel his card that’s been used for the payment? They can’t take money off him unless he agrees then

R.O.R

road_high wrote: »

Why can’t he cancel his card that’s been used for the payment? They can’t take money off him unless he agrees then

He's probably already agreed they can take the money and canceling the card won't stop that.

If the OPs dad signed to say there was no damage on the panel when he collected and there is damage on the panel, I'm afraid he doesn't have a leg to stand on and the rental company are within their legal rights to charge for the damage.

road_high

R.O.R wrote: »

He's probably already agreed they can take the money and canceling the card won't stop that.

If the OPs dad signed to say there was no damage on the panel when he collected and there is damage on the panel, I'm afraid he doesn't have a leg to stand on and the rental company are within their legal rights to charge for the damage.

But if the card is cancelled how can they take the money? Leaving aside the legality if they can’t physically take it !? They can chase him for payment of course but will have a battle to get it

colm_mcm

They may have preauthorised payment.

9935452

colm_mcm wrote: »

They may have preauthorised payment.

That's the way enterprise work.

If you take the basic rate it's the first 1500 afaik that you are liable for.
If you take the extra insurance which costs 23 a day it's the first 250 you are liable for.
Its pre authorized on your card and is given back after they are happy with the inspection on the van .

punisher5112

I do love driving the guts out of them and do a bit of off roading...

Last one I had it looked like it was driven through a field....

Well it was and nothing said...

Markcheese

Can you go back tomorrow, ask them to point out all the bumps and marks and dents on the van, and explain each one, and match each dent to their form... Record the lot, bring a washable marker with you too to cross off each dent as you go... And then get them to explain any that don't show up on their sheet...

mickdw

Be some Craic if through boards, a previous renter of the beat up van was found and they happened to be the type who took photos from all angles.

pippip

Markcheese wrote: »

Can you go back tomorrow, ask them to point out all the bumps and marks and dents on the van, and explain each one, and match each dent to their form... Record the lot, bring a washable marker with you too to cross off each dent as you go... And then get them to explain any that don't show up on their sheet...

I was thinking that but it could back fire sensationally if you think about it

john9876

Talk to the credit card company.
Something similar happened to me in the UK, though it was a smaller amount, and the credit card company eventually refunded the money to me.

DaveyDave

This is why it's important to always check it over no matter what. Doesn't matter if it looks clean, is already damaged, you're tired or you've had no issues with the company in the past.

After a long 8 hour flight to Toronto, Alamo/Enterprise had no standard class cars for me, after waiting 20-30 minutes they finally gave me an upgrade which had just 200km on it. I was hoping to get out quickly to beat rush hour traffic into the city but still gave it a good looking over.

Would they have records of previous damage to backup their claim this scratch is new?

discodaveirl

Has OP got the condition report from Enterprise?

Experience_day

Apologies for delay in replying. I'll be chasing up again with them today. They emailed when he booked a statement of what was ordered which looked like it had some damage reported, but only a few things here and there (that or the list was too long to print as it had 5+ things on it), nothing conclusive...

Really not sure where to stand on this. It's causing my dad some worry. As if life wasn't stressful enough!

Experience_day

Oh and they have already taken the cash from the credit card.

road_high

Defo wouldn’t it lie, it’s a lot of money. Is there any consumer advice the op can get? Seems a well worn path with these hire companies, notorious for this carry on