A while back now I remember seeing/reading about car hire companies that rip you off by charging you extortionate prices for damage that you don’t believe was your responsibility. I decided there and then that I would never let this happen to me. However, I hired a car from Europecar recently and here is the sad story. I thought it was worth trying to warn as many people as possible to try and avoid others from getting into this situation.

My partner and I decided to hire a car for 3 days whilst we were in Edinburgh for a wedding. I did some browsing on the internet and got the best deal through a company called 1st UK Car Rentals – £79.18 for a Clio/Micra type car, including insurance. The confirmation slip explained that I needed to go to the Europcar desk at the airport to collect my car (Europcar had not been mentioned at all prior to this).

When I arrived at the Europcar desk, I was informed that although insurance was included, I would still have to pay a £500 excess, but for an extra £6.50 per day I could reduce this to £100, or for an extra £8.50 per day there would be no excess. As we knew we were hardly doing any driving over the weekend (it was basically instead of taxis), we decided not to bother and just be very careful.

When we went to pick up the car, I remembered the warning about hire car companies ripping you off regarding pre-existing damage, so I carefully checked the Renault Clio against the paperwork they had given me stating that there was only one scratch on the car. This was wrong. I found a long shallow scratch on either side of the car, a dent on the driver’s side, lots of stone chips on the bonnet and a key scratch also on the driver’s door. I went back to the hire office and asked the man to add the extra damage to the paperwork. He was very reluctant saying that they would only charge for scratches that went through to the bodywork. Also the paperwork said that they did not charge for ‘stone chips to bodywork, minor scratches or wheel trim scuffs’. He reluctantly added the majority of the damage to the paperwork, but not the stone chips to the bonnet. I didn’t insist in the end, as he was making me feel like a pedantic customer who was being over fussy, and I believed he had captured the main additional areas of damage. BIG mistake!

We drove off and had a great weekend, purposely parking away from other cars in case they opened their car doors on us or anything. We arrived back at the hire office confident that we would not be charged anything – we were wrong! An extremely gruff man proceeded to check the car and mentioned additional damage, such as the dent I had pointed out to the first man! I explained in no uncertain terms that I had called the previous man back to include the pre-existing damage before we drove off, and only then did he ungraciously let me off one of the dents. He then told us that there was a stone chip on the bonnet. I pointed out that stone chips were not charged for according to their terms and conditions and he changed his mind - the stone chip became a dent AND a stone chip and therefore was chargeable. Of course we argued that this was not made explicitly clear in their paperwork (do you get stone chips without any denting?) and that he had definitely called it just a stone chip originally before we questioned him. I cannot be certain whether this stone chip was a new or an old one, but I really wish I had insisted on recording EVERY SINGLE mark on the car before we left just to be sure, and even questioned the definition of a stone chip.

To cut a very long argument short, he talked down to us and was quite rude, but would not give in. In the meantime the clock was ticking aways towards our flight time, and we had no choice but to sign the form or miss it. I did note my dissatisfaction and the fact that I did not agree with this charge to the comments section of the form. We were charged an additional £60 for this small mark. What makes it worse is that we know they do not even repair the cars they charge money for, as we could see from the pre-existing damage when we hired the car.

I will obviously be taking this further by writing a complaint to Europcar, 1st UK Car Rentals and any other organisation that can help me (any other suggestions?). I have lodged a dispute with my credit card over the payment made and they will investigate it. I will update the opinion if I get anywhere, but in the meantime, I hope this has served as a warning for anyone considering hiring a car, especially from Europcar. The so called cheap cost of hiring a car is off set by being charged for damage that may or may nor be your fault, and probably should not be charged for according to their own terms and conditions. Remember that even if I had taken out the extra insurance at £6.50 a day, I would still have been charged £60 for something they are not even going to fix!

Therefore my advice when hiring a car is either take out the full insurance so there is absolutely no excess, or check the car with a fine toothcomb before leaving, insisting that EVERY SINGLE mark is noted on the paper work. Don’t be put off by men trying to make you feel fussy, pedantic or a pain. It will be the only way to make sure you are not charged for something you were not responsible for. Agree definitions of ‘stone chips ‘and ‘minor damage’ BEFORE you leave and get them to confirm it in writing if necessary.

Good luck!

UPDATE 29/5/03
I received an e-mail from 1st UK Car Rentals today saying they they had been notified by Europcar that I was getting a refund of £70.50. It pays to complain! I have not received any response from Europcar.