Flew back from Vietnam yesterday, and emirates flight was delayed from Dubai. Apparently fuel was leaking out the plane so fair enough. They manage to take off 2hr 58min delayed, just under the 3hr mark for compensation. We miss our coach by 45 mins. Next coach full and the next over 5 hours later. Train would cost £110 each so £220. Check the car rental companies and go with Thrifty as it was the cheapest. They're located in an airport hotel car park that you have to get to by a (free) bus. Get a little clio with about 17bhp. The service was terrible with the guy acting like we were asking for his own car for free, and the manager taking to him about shifts later in the week while he's talking to us at the reception desk. Anyway he sends us out and says that an alloy is scratched but nothing else is wrong and that's the only thing on the sheet. Doesn't come out with us to the car and we have to find it in the car park in the rain with luggage. Had a look round it and found the damage on the alloy and drive home. Drive straight home and then in the morning straight to the Bristol location. Turns out there's damage to both rear alloys and I missed the damage on the other side. My fault for not looking carefully enough. £85 to fix it and £27 admin fee. Still cheaper than the train as it was £51 for the car and £12 diesel. I'm gonna ask emirates for this £63 back, not sure if they will pay for it. Gutted about the £112 I just payed for someone else's damage though. I am 100% sure that I didn't do it cause I never even got close to a kerb and only parked twice, neither time near anything. Looked at reviews and thrifty has awful reviews with the complaint being bad service and fabricated/missed damage ending in lots of money being taken from deposits. Enterprise next time I think.
I used Enterprise the other month. The wife smashed the family wagon up 3 days before we were due to drive down to Cornwell for a weeks holiday. My daily driver is a 911 Turbo, which whilst a 4 seater just hasnt got the boot space to fit a family of 4`s gear for a week away, so only option was to hire a car. I went for Enterprise as local to me. Turned up and they gave me an brand new Insignia. There was damage to all 4 alloys which I pointed out, but they didnt really make a note of it so I was half expecting them to try and say it was me when I took it back. Did over 1000 miles in a week in it, scraping it down ridiculously narrow Cornish lanes. Got home and noticed a few scuffs on it as a result. Fortunately they all t-cut`d out. Dropped the car back, they checked around it, ticked all okay and gave me my deposit back a few days later no problems. All in all quite a good service. They did (as most of them do) try to get me to pay extra to protect the £1000 excess on their policy in case of any damage, but I didnt bother.
I tend to use enterprise. Their prices are average but the customer service seems good so far. I also save money with them as where they are in my town, it's a £5 plus tip taxi cab to get there and same again back, enterprise however will pick you up and return you home for no fee in the same town.
Yeah I finish by saying enterprise because I've used them before and they were just nicer to deal with and didn't try to find any tiny scratch to charge the customer for.
Used enterprise when a deer wrote our car off. Insurance paid for us to hire a car so we went off to collect, shortly before we took a trip we had scheduled. So they showed us what became mockingly known as "the mighty aygo". I would not allow the wife to refer to it by any other name. 3 cylinder, 1 litre engine. As far as I was concerned, it was a triumph speed triple with 2 extra wheels. I was revving it at other cars at lights and everything. It was comical.
Last July upon hiring and returning a hire car to Europcar the chap inspected the car all round with an electron microscope and then dropped to his knees at the offside front wheel. The cheeky scamp decided to check the underside of the sills, upon which he immediately discovered, lo and behold, a severerely damaged section just behind the offside wheel. The damage was extensive. After arguing for an eternity some time later whilst admiring the "check in" chap's attention to detail, I maintained that in order to be fair the return inspection should take place as the outgoing inspection - I.e with everyone stood up. Much faux posturing ensued before Europcar finally declared it had found the sheets from the previous rental and, lo and behold, the damage existed before my hire of the car. I often remember the chap who "checked in" the car rather fondly, such as today.
A colleague of my booked a car for the wrong date, his fault. Th car was delivered and then picked up without having been used. Bill comes in and my colleague has been charged for 14 litres of fuel. This is weird because a. he never used the car and b. the depot is about ten miles from his house. When challenged on the fuel, the rental company said, "You're dad must have driven it". His dad is nearly ninety and hasn't driven in years. Crooks.
Mentioned this to a bloke I share an office with he's having a similar issue now. He's demanded to see evidence on previous damage reports that the scuffs weren't there AND also proof that the damage has been repaired following taking his money
They are up there with all the others in my black book. Insurance is the big scam, CDW CDMV CUN... In Belfast Budget charged me 12 quid because I did not have my pink paper with my Licence (never been asked anywhere else) The other shaggers are the lease bastards, 250 to 750 every time dent here scratch here. This year they claimed I had lost a key "250 quid please" all on direct debit. I pulled out the paper work showing the 2 keys and the refunded me. No apology
Yeah man, I know my car and bike. Sometimes I fix cosmetic things, sometimes I don't. At least I can wait to buy something off here when I can afford it...
Europcar ‘overcharged half a million Brits by £30m for 'fraudulent' car hire repairs’ - The Sun https://apple.news/AaPTBZtQNT8WfWCILe8Lz_w
I've just hired a van. It's in the worst condition of any vehicle I've ever been behind the wheel of. It's done over 270k.... highest miles I've seen on a vehicle too. The steering wheel falling to bits, accelerator pedal is just a bent steel rod, no actual pedal... all panels dinged, plastic trim missing rear quarter, backs of both wing mirrors missing, rear door doesn't lock, side door doesn't open, suspension is shot, clutch worn....drivers seat stitched roughly with string, but it's only £45 a day unlimited mileage. If he tries to take my £200 deposit I'll be livid though. When he showed me to it me and my mate just started chuckling and he said referring to damage (thick mancunian accent): "I won't take you round it, we'll be here all day, just bring it back like this".....I suggested that the only way to bring it back in any other state would be to fix it. Goes alright though for a shit-box though.
Why not take a minute to walk round any hire car and photograph it in the parking slot where it has been left by the hire company; both sides, front, back, each wheel and each corner, 60 seconds; do the same thing on returning the car - in a different parking slot, providing a point of reference at collection and return should there be any dispute later. Last time I hired a car it was in Costa del Crime in May, the woman at check-out commented that our white car was unmarked. It was. On day 3, I came back to it to find a large American-type pickup parked up close, leaving about 6 inches for the driver's door to be opened. Muttering darkly, I went to the passenger door and shuffled across. When we got back to the hotel, my wife pointed out there was a black line round the wheel arch where the Ford Violator, or whatever it was called, had removed the paint down to the bare panel, in a graceful arch with his front tyre. Having opted for the 1200 Euro excess, I didn't want to return the car as it was, with the hire company having a blank cheque! I looked up Chips Away and Bingo! Spoke to 'Lance' - 'Bring it round' he helpfully suggested. I did. No sign of Lance, he'd been the franchisee, no sign of Chips Away either, just a shady-looking, scruffy body shop run by a yappy cockernee exile who sounded just like 'Lance', but was now calling himself 'Matt'. '100 Euros, but you'll need to leave it with us for the whole day, bring it in tomorrow morning, leave the keys' he helpfully suggested. I got the unshakeable feeling that, if I did, I'd never see the car again! So instead, I went back to the industrial estate that afternoon and found a Spanish body shop, the bloke said 'No problem, bring it back in the morning and we'll do it while you wait', 'OK, how much?' I asked with some trepidation. Then came the shocking reply, 'Charge for that? We can't charge you for that'!! They did a perfect job, I gave them enough for a good drink and they tried to refuse that as well! When I took it back to the airport drop-off, I walked round the car, took my photos and flew home without a care.
