anyone ever scratched a hire car having not paid the damage waiver?

…. Like me today? There are ominous numbers in the agreement about excesses.

If anyone has any positive experiences I would love to hear them

I had a car scratched car in Seville (avis).Went to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, when I came out someone had reversed into the car and left.
When I dropped it off they said nothing. I hoped they hadn’t noticed. I was wrong. 3 months later my credit card statement had a bill for 1800 Euros. I called to argue, they basically said see you in court, I knew they were right so paid it.

The wife had a hire car and didn’t pay the wavier, she hit a half dead fox in the road (it was soon fully dead after she hit it)as she was unable to swerve around it in the road.
Cracked front bumper that was body coloured, the excess was crazy high so we looked around for the best quote we could to do the work and it was just under £800, bugger that I though, so for the next couple of days she drove through any mud and dirty puddles she could and on a Friday afternoon took it back just before the office shut, and parked it tight to a wall.
The girl looked around it and said all looked good, and so the wife got her deposit back.
Come Monday afternoon we have a call saying the car has damage and the front bumper has a huge crack on it, I explained that the wife had returned the car on Friday and it had all been signed off as not damaged so why were they calling now, that was the last we heard about it.

Depends on the hire co, some charge some dont,one hire co i used, checked all the depths on tyres, and ran an ultra violet torch over parts on engine, as some peeps hired vehicles and swapped bits over.

Others are just gald to get vehicle back and be able to re rent it.

Well done luke. 🙄

Oh dear, nothing positive to report I’m afraid, I got humped for a bit of a scratch* no way they were backing down. I think they try to cover their loss form the vehicle bing in for repair too, so it may be worth a visit to your local bodyshop before taking it in.

*well, a bit of a dent if I’m honest, wasn’t as bad as they made out though

Have you got time to call Chips away (or similar franchise). Price for a snallish scratch is about £120

A friend damaged a van. Was cheaper to buy the van off the hire co than have them repair it. Used it for a bit then sold it on at a loss.

How bad is the scratch? Worth a go with t cut first. Certainly try and fix before you return it.

If hiring look for independent excess insurance. Usually a few quid a day rather than the crazy price the hire co charges.

Avis tried to take me for a blown tyre and wheel damage. It was the spare tyre, and like that before I took it (I didn’t inspect the spare, who does?). They argued for a bit but gave up after a couple of letters.

I hire cars a lot, sometimes you get away with it, sometimes you don’t. If the car was pristine, then your new scratch will stand out. If it was a bit of a shed anyway, you may get away with it.

I use annual CDW/ excess/ deductible insurance, it costs about £35 PA and, the only time I had to call on it, took the hassle right out of it (My insurers dealt directly with the hire people)

good luck.

Extend the hire for an additional day (easy call them say you are in London/long weekend etc).

Call local chipsaway ASAP.

If if Enterprise its £700 regardless of a long scratch or a rear end smash.

£100 for chipsaway is better.

Tried T-cut?

In London someone used a towbar to guage parking on my Enterprise 13plate Avensis. TCut (about an hours elbow grease and wax) got the scar to within their circumferance allowance measurement.

Can you post a pic?

Yes, unfortunately I had a similar experience: even if it’s 200 quids worth of damage they will charge you the full excess.

Yep. Although I didn’t do it.
I hired a car from Geneva airport, a golf 4wd because it was pretty snowy. Drove up to Morillon, did some skiing and that. Mid-week we went to the supermarket so I parked up in the car park, and in we went. Came out to watch a French guy in a tractor reverse into the car. I ran over as he started to drive off and shouted at him and he stopped. Massive dint in the wing.

He claimed to speak no English, my French is OK but he lost me most of the time. Something to do with being late and the price of petrol nowadays. He was an arse to be perfectly honest and short of me physically restraining him I had no way of stopping him leaving which he did. I noted his numberplate and went to the local police station who asked me what I wanted them to do about it. ‘Arrest him? hehawhehehaw?’ Really. ‘This is why you get insurance Mr’, was their parting shot.

I returned to geneva convinced they would charge me. The guy walked round with the clipboard, noted the big dint in the wing, carried on walking round. Bid me farewell and happy journey. No charge,

When you return it and it’s being checked over casually lean your surfboard bag over the scratched area… Worked for me.

The boyfriend managed to put a huge scratch across 2 side panels of our hire car in France last summer. Some t cut and elbow grease just about rendered it invisible. We then stopped for lunch on the way back to the airport and, when we finished eating, came out to find some idiot had driven into the car and made a sizeable dent in the rear bumper. When we returned the car, I leaned against the offending bumper, smiled alluringly at the guy checking over the car, and we got away with it…

got a nice sratch in a supermarket car park . popped into halford s for one of those paint pens.. parked up nice and tight when returning car, bloke walked round with clipboard and signed it off as okay.. fireproof.

allthepies – Member
Well done luke.

Perhaps, assuming the employee in question didn’t lose there job/pay some penalty because you chose to hide the damage you caused from her inspection of the vehicle.

tbh It’s a mugs game hiring a car and not getting all the insurances offered – yes, they often mean a serious price hike, but the alternative is a large charge to your credit card.

I’ve always taken them and never had a problem.

Just take out separate excess cover. Much cheaper than getting ripped off by the hire company, either via the waiver or for the repairs.

tbh It’s a mugs game hiring a car and not getting all the insurances offered – yes, they often mean a serious price hike, but the alternative is a large charge to your credit card.

Yeah this is my thoughts exactly, I’d rather pay £75 or £100 or whatever than possibly thousands.

Only ever had two issues when hiring, first was in Sardinia when I pulled over to park behind a car and somehow forgot there was another half of the car to my right – small scrape which polished out mainly, but the car was covered in scratches anyway so it wasn’t noticed. Started taking out the excess after that.

Second was in Sanremo, had a Modus and sat nav tried to take me on a shortcut through a village – unfortunately the shortcut wasn’t as wide as the car… No way I could reverse out and round the previous corner but a couple of locals helped me out thankfully or I’d probably still be stuck there, but scraped the bumper on a wall. £0 excess though so not really an issue!

Update: they’ve taken the full £850 without first providing an estimate, in breach of their Ts and Cs. Into the fight to get my money back now, and for them to provide actual costs…..

****. Got anymore details on the actual scratch?

Did you take a picture and measurements?

Its in T&Cs and you signed agreeing to them but you can fightfor a reduction on the grounds of them being reasonable. A small scratch isnt almost a grand. This’ d take months/involving head office

Which company?

A small scratch isnt almost a grand. This’ d take months/involving head office

Good call Hora, I guess this is why the [unnamed] company charges the max first. Most folks don’t want the hassle of negotiating something fairer.

Got away with returning a ruined focus in spain(we found a salt pan and had a couple of hours fun doing 90mph handbrake turns) and took it off roading to a secluded beach, pledge sorted out the minor scratches and then an hour on a dusty track hid the rest, obviously the fact it didnt drive right ir that the brakes were shot seemed to pass them by!

Also got a puncture in a mixes in Croatia which I got stung €250 for in return, simply called Visa card co and said it was an unjust amount and I wanted it cancelling and I never heard anything more.

Wife reversed a car into a bollard so returned it in finest tart attire, he missed it as she bent over to get something out of the car she forgot, somewhat distracting the youth tasked with checking it!

Just need a little initiative!

Are you sure they’ve actually taken the money, or just preauthorised, or whatever it’s called, the max amount on your card?

If it’s taken, that’s shit and needs to be addressed.

be methodical in your communications and complaints and then if that fails, http://www.choose.net/money/guide/features/chargeback-visa-mastercard.html

I put a big dent in the under door sill on a hire car in France (on a very high kerb in a petrol station 👿 )

Had to pay the excess (500 EUR) as I hadn’t paid for damage waiver (well, I’d never damaged a car in many years of driving…) but they charged me 800 EUR as they’d upgraded the car from what I’d booked to something bigger which had a bigger excess. My contract said 500 EUR though and in the end, I got Barclaycard to sort it out. Still expensive though but it was my fault…

You can get insurance to cover the excess externally to the hire care company. Check out moneysavingexpert for where/how etc. Makes sense, last time I hired they wanted £19/day just to remove the £900 excess!!

I hired a car from Hertz last time I was in the states… and got rear ended by a ford F150 in slow moving traffic on the freeway.

Got the girl’s details etc and called it in to Hertz as there’s no way they wouldn’t notice the scraped and creased rear bumper.

When I took it back a few days later the guy looked around, saw the damage, shrugged his shoulders and said ‘ah..er.. that’s not significant’ and signed it off.

Luck of the draw it seems

You can get insurance to cover the excess externally to the hire care company. Check out moneysavingexpert for where/how etc. Makes sense, last time I hired they wanted £19/day just to remove the £900 excess!!

+1 Stable door and all that but a mate of mine does this every time he hires a car for weekend bike trips and only pays about £8.00 a trip.

I never take out the damage waiver. It means with a cheeky request Enterprise always upgraded me to a nice car for just £40 long weekend hire.

Then they changed the terms- £700 charge PER incident. So you could park up in London and someone rubs one bumper, and another the other. I’ve not hired a car since.

Re the waiver cover- so how do you stop the hire company automatically debitting your card then you fighting/going round in circles for it back?

On van hire- I recommend Salford vanhire. They are in Leeds and Manchester. All their vans are battered (but very functional). Unlike alot of hire companies who give you a pristine/as new looking van.

That reminds me… I need to update my complaint to Holiday Autos/Firefly asking for the £25 they stole from me back.

If someone could offer an eithical car hire model where you don’t feel like you are getting mugged every time you do business with them I reckon it would be very sucessful.

+1 to the separate excess cover. Its so, so cheap for an annual policy there really is no reason not too!

Seperate card that I only ever use for car hire. If I think we’re going to have a problem, I report the card lost and they can’t charge it. Means that they HAVE to talk to me first. If it’s OK, I pay, if they’re dicks it takes a little longer to resolve.

another +1 for separate excess policy, £40 for an annual policy which covered me and my wife. That was a third of the price of the basic SIXT excess on a 2 week hire and it included tyres and glass which theirs didn’t, unless you added another £chunk on too. Absolute bargain for peace of mind, didn’t need it but glad We did, just in case. Even then I took photo’s of the car before and after the hire as proof, as I’ve heard far to many horror stories about hire companys.

sorry Op but it’s going to sting, just prey they don’t notice 😥

Lube up before you return it.

Personally I’d use a wet lube…

They took the money. Straight from my account. I’m waiting for them to tell me how much the repair actually is and I then get a refund apparently. Not good enough.

It’s enterprise.

I bent an alloy wheel on a hire car in Canada, running over a rock in the road.

The excess was extortionate so I just got it repaired.

Scratched a hire van once but it wasn’t much of a scratch so I just polished it out and then got the van dirty. They didn’t notice.

It’s enterprise.

They are the ones with pristine commercial vans. How the **** can you have pristine commercial vehicles?! I bet Enterprise make shedloads of excess charges on their commercial side. Say 1x£800 a week per van???

Most of their cars I’ve hired have been covered in scratches etc.

A Commercial vehicle though is DESIGNED for house moving, carrying rubbish, loading heavy stuff etc etc. ****.

Rant over.