Just been reading on another forum of a poor individual who damaged a rental van and subsequently has had a £1000 excess charge debited from his bank account (paid by debit card).
Apparantly the small print on the rental agreement he signed had this clause so he has no comeback....is this reasonable?
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Yes. It's a high amount granted but you sign an agreement without reading and you take your life in your hands.
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Adam
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If the vehicle is damaged yes.
The rental company has loss of income to take into account & the resale value of the vehicle could be lower as a result of the accident repair.
If he was not at fault in the accident then he can reclaim the excess against the other drivers insurance.
And if he had not checked the vehicle before he rented it & the damage was already done, then he can not blame anyone but himself, he signed to say it had no damage.
I use to work for a rental / lease company & all too often people are their own biggest enemy.
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>>I use to work for a rental / lease company & all too often people are their own biggest enemy.
Would agree with that,I worked for car/van rental firm once and it is surprising how many sign without checking the motor over/not reading the terms of hire.That should be read the other way round by the way :(
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Steve
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I noticed this when I hired a van for a day recently. I asked about the excess (they didn't volenteer the info) but once I'd asked they said basically if I did *any* damage to the van them they'd charge the whole £1000, as they also include loss of hire income while it's being fixed etc.
However they said for an extra £5 (but in the end turned out to be less than £3) the excess is reduced to £100. A 'no brainer' as they say, especially for one-off van hirer.
However I still had a row when I took it back as the windscreen had taken a hit - the fact that it had 4 others already seemed lost on them, but in the end they agreed to let it go.
One other point is that they actually took the £100 up front (so I assume they'd do the same if it was £1000?) and then credited it back.
It was great fun for a day though - I was amazed how fast the van (mid-roof Transit) was, and pretty economical too - my kids want to make it a regular thing!!
I caused much amusement in the van centre by asking if they had any with air conditioning (I know it's possible, a (remote) friend has one).
I guess the same thing could happen with garage courtesy cars - increasingly they seem to want you to use your own insurance. If you use their's then I've seen excesses of £1000.
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Yes I love vans. Fabulous to drive for a a laff. I always find an excuse to hire a van at least once a year.
The sprinters are very rapid but boy are they fragile and not at all nice!
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Another thing to ALWAYS check when hiring a van (or car) is the oil and water, in the small print you are responsible for all the daily checks. I always make sure they check it with me before signing the check sheet, as well as the tyres. Also note down EVERY single bump, scrape, dent and stone chip, even if they say it is too small to note. I have worked for hire companies and seen them take customers to the cleaners over the above mentioned items. I also used to hire alot in a previous job and had a few try to take me to the cleaners.
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Agree that if you hire a car/van, check it before and after! Photos on digital would not be OTT. Re excess clause: the issue is surely not as definite as stated: a minor ding for example, would mean that £1000 or even £100 "excess" was robbery. In fact Avis and others were caught out by CA last year. Unfair term in a contract covered by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations (UTCCRs) is not binding on you. Test of fairness: A term is unfair if: contrary to the requirement of good faith it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment of consumers. From Office of Fair Trading, BTW.
£1000 for a ding without quantification is otherwise known as profiteering. Chancers.
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If you select who you hire from by cheapest price - there usually is a reason why they are cheapest.
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I have rented many many times over the years, in the course of my job. Maybe 200+ rentals, not really sure. Many of these were overseas.
I have experienced a number of 'try ons'. Once a rental firm tried to charge me £200 for a cigarette burn on a door card (I've not touched a fag for over 30 years). Another time I had a set of wheeltrims stolen off an Astra and they wanted several hundred pounds excess!
Some years a colleage had a minor bump in a rental car in the US (on his way to the airport, returning home). The rental company (one of the 'majors') charged his credit card up to his credit limit (£5k I think) - he eventually got it reduced after many transatlantic phone calls.
When I dropped my rental car at Barcelona airport a few weeks back they gave it the most incredibly thorough inspection - looking for every little chip or scratch. It was obvious that they were trying to find something to charge an excess on. Fortunately I was in the clear because I'd got all the damage documented, but the guy who arrived just before me was very unhappy about something they'd found on his car.
The problem is they swipe your credit card and bascially you're signing to authorise them to take money up to the excess limit.
I have thought about taking digital photographs of the car before setting off - but their is the issue of 'time stamping' the pictures. The rental company might say that you'd taken the pictures after you'd damaged the car.
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>>>even if they say it is too small to note<<<
When you point out a scratch, no matter how bad, they are always very blase and usually say the same thing: "That's not through the paint!"
I wonder if they say the same thing when you return it?
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>>>even if they say it is too small to note<<< When you point out a scratch, no matter how bad, they are always very blase and usually say the same thing: "That's not through the paint!" I wonder if they say the same thing when you return it?
That's exactly what happened to me. I pointed out the (several) windscreen 'stars' and they said, 'it doesn't matter, we don't bother about windscreens'. I did make them note it though. Then I took it back with the new hit I'd received and this time the manager inspected the vehicle - he noted the new damage (how can they remember the condition of all their vehicles) and wanted me to pay. In the end they let it go.
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I've had lots of van rentals from the Leeds branch of Salford Van Hire over the past few years - and also a horrid base model Micra once.
Always had a good van, and never had any quibbling from them over stone chips, nor any attempts to fleece me out of the deposit.
I don't know what their other branches are like, but I recommend the Leeds one.
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A couple of weeks ago i rented a Hertz Renault Master in Figuras,Costa Brava for 2 days,the diagram of the van on the rental agreement had so much blue ink on it you could barely make it out.When i was shown around the van i just started laughing,every panel was dented,scraped or scratched including a big crack in the screen,no way would any additional damage have noticed.Inside was like new and it did the job required very well,being a Renault i was surprised that everything worked including the CD.
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Truckpoint near the Elephant and Castle don't worry about minor scrapes. Their vans all belong to them and they run them for several years. They are therefore in a position to ignore a bit of lost paint.
Guess where I rent vans from?
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Having rented the VW Shuttle that I wrote a review about a few weeks back, I then came across droves of them on my drive across Germany to the Czech Republic. Most were TDIs, and the full fat 174PS version at that judging by the way they went; bonkers to see the bluff fronted van in front still accelerating like billy-o at autobahn speeds.
As an example, on cruise control at 115MPH/185kph I came up on a Transporter driving at about 90MPH in the inside lane. Guessing he was about to overtake the car in front of him, I was about to kill the cruise control when not only did he pull out but accelerated like a train had run in to the back of him. I simply carried on at 115 MPH with the van now in front of me. When he pulled back in, purely for kicks I hit the loud pedal and surged past on a wave of torque up to 130MPH or so. When well past, I pulled back in and lifted off to drift back to my cruise controlled/GPS verified 115MPH/185kph. Blow me if a few seconds later the thing wasn't coming back past, maximum attack, driver's foot nailed to the floor!
I also followed one of the V6 petrol engined Transporters, fully laden from the suspension reaction and body lurching, with 130MPH on the clock for mile after mile. I wouldn't like to be paying the fuel bill for it though.
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Lol...makes you laugh when the bog standard Transit/Sprinter van over here is lucky to squeeze 80mph out of its 70-90 hp engine....
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