Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them?

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 15:26
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Ben Pipe

I recently hired a Peugeot 2008 for 3 days from Belfast airport, upon returning the car they found damage to the left wing mirror. I had not damaged this part during my hire term, but the damage wasn't noted on the car when I picked it up so I accept I'll have to pay for it.

To my amazement i received an invoice for £530 to replace the wing mirror, this was made up of £215 for the part, 3.5 hours of labour at £153, paint at £95.11, the remaining balance unaccounted for in their invoice.

Just wondered what everyone's advice was for this? I was expecting a bill of £150-£200 so pretty shocked by what they've sent.

Thanks

Ben

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 15:38
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - RobJP

I don't think you can dispute this - you've got absolutely no evidence that the car was NOT damaged whilst in your care.

You can ask them to pinpoint exactly where the remaining money is on the invoice, but that's about all.

Tip for the future : stuff the form that says no damage - your smartphone provides time-stamped HD picture-quality evidence of the condition of a vehicle at the time of collection. Walk around the vehicle, taking lots of pictures. Then sign for the vehicle "in the condition as photographed".

If they were thinking of trying it on, then they won't if you've got good proof of the condition at the time of collection.

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 18:48
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Ben Pipe

Thanks, the charges for labour (3.5 hours when it is surely a 1 hour jon) and paint (£95) still seem excessive to me so am going to try disputing them.

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 18:58
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - SLO76
Can't hurt to but let us know how you get on, it might help in future cases of the same.
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Sun 5 Mar 2017 15:39
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - SLO76
That's probably right enough if they have replaced the full item, the parts alone from Peugeot are over £200 including VAT but if it was so minor that you didn't notice it then it's likely they've just replaced the cowling or glass at a fraction of this cost and are doing what car hire firms are sadly all too well known for... fleecing you.

It's possible they won't even fix it. I've heard of the more dishonest firms using minor hard to spot faults like this to get money out of punters in exactly this way.

As a warning for the future, always pay extra for the damage waiver.
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Sun 5 Mar 2017 19:50
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - TedCrilly

Ring up the Belfast pug dealer, pretend to be a punter and ask how much they would charge to replace the mirror. It will give you an idea of the real cost.

I would be asking the hire company to justify the decision to replace the whole item, if its just a scuff the local SMART man in a van will easily repair it, going rate around here is £50ish for a mirror-back.

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 19:50
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Brit_in_Germany

You could request disclosure from them, requesting they supply all damage records for the car in question.

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 20:13
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Steveieb
If you paid the deposit on a credit card which is normally required you could put the charge in dispute and ask the credit card issuer to challenge the charge. The payment is refunded whilst the charge is challenged. The card company are jointly responsible for the hire.
By the way which company did you use and what was the extent of the damage?
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Sun 5 Mar 2017 20:52
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - gordonbennet

Loss of hire during repairs could be the unaccounted figure.

You really have to go to town on checking for damage before accepting a hire car, including checking underside edges as best you can for kerb strikes, and always but always check the front valance, plus make sure if it's supposed to have a spare that it has one and that it looks like it belongs to the car, in the early noughties i checked the underslung spare on a Fiesta defleeter and some rusty 12 or 13" wheel complete with flat and bald perished tyre circa 60's vintage dropped to the floor.

If you find damage whilst in your care its worth lifting the boot carpet to see if there's a label stuck to the boot floor, some rental cars have a silhouette of car shape label there which should show any damage already noted.

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Sun 5 Mar 2017 21:21
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Redcar01

Last time i had a hire card for work they picked it off and the driver and person who was picking him up spent 10 mins walking round the car looking for faults, nothing but con men, previous car hire i had to drop it off with a full tank of petrol which i did and when we got the final bill they had charged £20 to top up the car. I informed our people who hired the car for me and they said its a usual occurance and they have to challenge the bills quite often.

Personally i use hire cars twice a year for holidays and i all ways take out a excess insurance for the year for about £50

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Mon 6 Mar 2017 12:47
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - expat

The smaller hire companies can be very shonky but I have never had trouble with the big chains. Mind you I won't be hiring on my next visit to the UK. The combination of shonky hire companies, vehicles with electric park brakes and touch screen controls, and heading out into horrendous traffic and three lane roundabouts while unsure of where I am going, is not an attractive prospect. I can handle each of these things on its own given some time to work it out but having the whole lot together when I am just off a long haul flight is some thing I do not want. Add to that the fact that a car is nearly useless in big city centres, and parking being a constant hassle, and the trains look very attractive.

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Mon 6 Mar 2017 13:05
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Gibbo_Wirral

At least the labour isn't too bad, Peugeot charge £80+VAT per hour.

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Tue 7 Mar 2017 15:43
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Ben Pipe

It was hired from Europcar, and the wing mirror light was cracked - looked like something might have come up off the road and hit it so guess the whole unit did need replacing. Yeah was thinking of going to the card company and disputing the charge.

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Wed 22 Mar 2017 10:05
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - Ben Pipe

Quick update on this, I disputed the charges with Europcar and to their credit they looked into and came back with a new quote for damage of £60, and are refunding the difference between that figure and the original £530 quote.

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Wed 22 Mar 2017 10:21
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - SLO76
That's excellent news, just shows it always pays to question an unfair bill. Thanks for letting us know the outcome.
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Wed 22 Mar 2017 17:50
Peugeot 2008 - Hire Car Charges at Belfast - How to dispute them? - barney100

Contact a Peugeot dealer and ask for a quote to replace a wing mirror and paint it. If the cost is way under the Belfast bill you have some ammunition to dispute the company.

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