Reply to: Van hire

[bobhope]

Small claims court - always concentrates the other side's mind a bit.

[Cliphead]

what does 'pommyberstad' mean ?

[EternalOptimist]

Arrived in Perth WA a few years ago for a long trek but couldnt hire a thing because it was a holiday period coming up.
So I found a local 'city cab' outfit , run by a con-man called Murry. I paid him cash up front, left a copy of an old DL with an old address and set off across the outback for 4 weeks.

He was expecting me to do 100 miles, get a dint and then rip me off. Instead, I did 7,500 miles and dropped it off a day early. His jaw hit the ground when I turned up and his mates wern't there to work me over. heh heh.

what does 'pommyberstad' mean ?

[Cliphead]

Hired a car 2 weeks ago in Spain, somebody clipped the wing mirror and damaged it but they only charged 28 euros.

[BrilloPad]

Are you seven feet tall and built like a brick outhouse?

You are thinking of churchill. I dropped it off at 6am : expected an email. Nothing. I was amazed.....

[suityou01]

I managed to dent a hire car in Spain twice in first 3 days. First time 35 miles on clock : second time 76 miles! They never complained......

Are you seven feet tall and built like a brick outhouse?

[BrilloPad]

I managed to dent a hire car in Spain twice in first 3 days. First time 35 miles on clock : second time 76 miles! They never complained......

[suityou01]

Always a ****er when you're in a rush.

Avis tried to **** us over when we went to the world cup in Germany. We picked the car up in the middle of the night after our flight was delayed and didn't notice the tiny scratch (<15mm) on the wheel arch. They tried to bill us for it, but my mate toughed it out and told them to go f themselves. Worked in the end.

And no, you don't have any rights to see anything. They won't get it fixed anyway, what's the point?

I plan to tough this one out. If they are going to take me for a few hundred quid I will make them work for it. I shall start with a few legal letters asking for evidence, querying the t's and c's etc etc. They'll soon get fed up with me.

[DSW]

I once hired an old astra van (tall one) from a place called quality vehicle hire, whilst it definitely wasn't quality, it was an experience and did the run from Swansea to Leicester and back on about 1/2 a tank. You could turn the wheel about 15 degrees each way before it even though about doing anything!

Occaisonally used rent-a-car in Swansea and always seemed to get brand new (delivery miles) meganes and golfs. bizarrely I actually treated the cars nicely as well...

Also drove a sprinter Van all the way across Spain with my dad in the middle of summer, lack of air conditioning was an experience!

Finally we looked at hiring a car to drive across Europe and in the end it working out at a similar price to buy one instead.

[Moscow Mule]

<snip>

I wonder if I have any right to see the bodyshop report and finished repair if I am paying for it?

Always a ****er when you're in a rush.

Avis tried to **** us over when we went to the world cup in Germany. We picked the car up in the middle of the night after our flight was delayed and didn't notice the tiny scratch (<15mm) on the wheel arch. They tried to bill us for it, but my mate toughed it out and told them to go f themselves. Worked in the end.

And no, you don't have any rights to see anything. They won't get it fixed anyway, what's the point?

[scaramanga]

Small claims court - see if they have the resources/will to fight it.

[suityou01]

1) Take pictures of any dents in the van prior to taking delivery.
2) Actually write down anything you find on the sheet they give you expressly for the purpose.
3) If you can't be arsed to do 1 & 2, pay up.

The hire firm should have been based in Luton. Luton address on web site, luton telephone number etc etc. I arranged to hire the Van and there seemed to be no problem. Until on Saturday morning when I went to collect the Van. The luton address burnt down a year ago and they have traded out of a Stevenage address. Being shafted and having 6-8 family members all at my house all waiting to help us move I quickly went to collect the van. I walked round the van pointing out all the dents and scuffs. The man with the clipboard noted them all down. Then I signed the paperwork and was off to Luton.

I returned the van on Sunday as the missus could not bring herself to drive a long wheelbase van all that way (fair enough IMO)

So I drove the van to the depot and left it there. The missus drove over there this morning and dropped the keys off. They pointed out a dent and said it was not on the paperwork so we are stuffed.

There were so many dents and scuffs I pointed out that the diagram the numpty man annoted was so busy it was hard to make out what was what. I signed the paperwork and was off in a hurry.

The thing is, if we had rung the luton number and it was unobtainable we would have called another firm. The fact that they answered it and booked the van without warning us that they were not local has contributed to this mess.

The really annoying thing is that they will take my money, not repair the dent and hire the van out again.

I wonder if I have any right to see the bodyshop report and finished repair if I am paying for it?

[Platypus]

refers to the filth as pigs

LOL that one!!!

[cailin maith]

I've used Enterprise a few times and they have been brilliant - never had any problem with them trying to rip me off.

[RichardCranium]

Budget shafted me once for an extra day's hire and a tank of petrol plus £10 filling fee despite me returning the van with a full tank of petrol. I only found out when I got my Access statement. They won that one: "Prove it".


A firm in West London on the A40, who have since gone out of business, let me off broken bumpers. It was a new Renault 25 which got taken away by those nice parking people in Westminster. When I collected the car next morning both bumpers were broken in two places. I took it in to the hire people, the boss glanced at it and said "Fair enough, you were taken by the parking people on a low loader. All our cars end up with broken bumpers because of that". The nice man at the Police pound said "What you gonna do? Take the Met to court? Ha, ha! Now, eff off to work." (One of the reasons why I, a white, middle class, professional person who was brought up nicely refers to the filth as pigs.)