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Van Hire Company Trying to Stitch Me Up - Any experiences/advice?


Dead Mike

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I've done some digging around online elsewhere & am finding mixed reports. Basically, I helped a mate move house on Saturday. He hired a transit & I drove it. hence I signed all the paperwork etc. We were given a damage report of the van upon collection with several scratches/dents marked out around the vehicle. We took the van, moved him & I returned it to the rental company. Upon return I intended to inform them that there was some small scratches on the drivers side wing mirror & that when it had a full load in it the steering wheel started shaking like it needed the wheel balancing. The hire company closed at 1pm so, as instructed I parked the van up & returned the keys via the 'drop box' they had outside the building.

 

Monday morning I got a voicemail from the company saying they'd found damage that wasn't previously on the vehicle, namely a scratch. I absolutely know that we didn't do it. It was either on there before, happened in-between me dropping it off at 3.45pm on the Saturday afternoon & them opening up at 9.00am Monday or on the way to their garage where all the vehicles are supposedly inspected.

 

The company (probably) have my debit card details on file from when I used them 10 months ago (they already had my driving licence details on file). Can they legally take the

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I worked with car insurance clims for years, although it wasn't with 'driver' claims it was with damage done between factory and first point of rest dealership (pre-registered), and its a tricky one without the full agreement and details.

 

It depends what agreement you signed up for. Does it indicate in that, anything about droping off outside of working hours (and defining what those hours are)? Normaly the ownus is on the reciever to ensure that they check condition at point of handover (like with parcels in the post) BUT was it your decision to drop it off at that time? Could you have waited until the Monday morning? Or were you supposed to get it back before 1pm?

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Oh, and the above is realy more about the 'claim' side, and overall liability. The question if they can legaly just use your card details to take money, while tied into the liability issue, its a separate question that i'm not informed enough to answer.

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They closed at 1pm Saturday & opened again Monday morning. The van had to be returned by 9am Sunday morning but seeing as we'd finished with it I returned it late Saturday afternoon, and dropped the keys into the 'drop box' as instructed.

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Tricky one! I always make sure to walk round the vehicle with the guy agreeing on what scratches are already there before I drive it off the lot, but even that's no guarantee.

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Tricky one! I always make sure to walk round the vehicle with the guy agreeing on what scratches are already there before I drive it off the lot, but even that's no guarantee.

 

We did that, albeit briefly with the woman. The van was already heavily dented & scratched, the part of the van they're claiming has been damaged was already marked out on the form as having a scratch there but they're claiming another scratch has appeared.

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If that's the agreement, then I guess there is something about out of hours drops in the contract, as they knew you'd be droping if off unchecked/signed?

 

EDIT: If its a vehicle in bad condition to begin with, id take Photo's at point of collection. Sad thing is that companies will use damages as excuses to make a bit of money. If the end up with your money, I would go back in a month or so and see if the alleged damages had been fixed (ie they used your money for the reason they took it).

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