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Warning, before you hire a car

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:05pm
27 replies1123 views15 members subscribed
SheilaOD

Posts: 31

10 helpful points

Location: Villamartin

Joined: 30 Apr 2019

I rented a car through Ryanair website prior to travelling on 16th Sept.  Paid upfront for full insurance. At Alicante airport, took shuttle to the office off site, WIBER CAR RENTAL.  Went through the hire documentation, and the staff member wanted me to take out further excess insurance.   I had done this on another occasion, however having already paid with Ryanair, I declined.  After a few minutes of "trying to find you the best car...." I was given key to a Fiat Trivo ? Found the car, parked nearby.  Also then received my contract details and 27 photos of current damage.  Some patently obvious, some only the slightest of scratches.  I checked as best I could, and went off to Villamartin.  The last thing i spoke to staff about was coming back 9 days later.  As flight was at 1015, we wanted to drop off as near to 7am as poss.  He assured me that was fine, as they opened at 7. 

9 days later, we arrived, using the Satnav on our phone, to find the gates shut, with reduced opening hours due to Covid 19....having made our way 1/4 mile further along to Out of Hours drop off, we checked car back.  No problems, so I thought

Hand on heart, I treated the car with great care, driving it just over 150km in total, parking it insight of our apartment and keeping empty spaces on either side when parking elsewhere.

On arrival back at East Mids, I received email thanking me for my business, and stating (in Spanish) that there was a fresh scratch on pax front door....also, a charge for out of hours drop off.  Total, incl tax, €220.  I telephoned their main office when I got home;  absolutely no come back.  He wasn't at all bothered that I disputed the scratch, and told me to provide photographic evidence that it was there all the time.  He also said that I must be mistaken about their hours of operation, as the 9am opening time was not new. And then he directed me to Ryanair to claim back the cost of the damage (but not the out of hours charge).

Livid.  They obviously are NOT repairing the damage they claim for, otherwise I would not have had 27 photos of previous damage.  

Oh, by the way, my own small Peugeot was also damaged in the Short Stay 3 car park at East Mids; the bays are smaller than they were before lockdown.  No note.  No CCTV etc.  

Should have stayed at home 😪

gerardwilkie

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:14pm

gerardwilkie

Helpful member

Posts: 109

149 helpful points

Location: El Campello

Joined: 2 Jul 2020

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:14pm

I've had the exact same experience with Goldcar unfortunately. Currently in dispute with them and trying to get €320 back from my credit card company.

8102Mko

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:27pm

8102Mko

Helpful member

Posts: 329

210 helpful points

Location: Torrevieja

Joined: 30 May 2018

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:27pm

SheilaOD wrote on Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:05pm:

I rented a car through Ryanair website prior to travelling on 16th Sept.  Paid upfront for full insurance. At Alicante airport, took shuttle to the office off site, WIBER CAR RENTAL.  Went through the hire documentation, and the staff member wanted me to take out further excess insuranc...

...e.   I had done this on another occasion, however having already paid with Ryanair, I declined.  After a few minutes of "trying to find you the best car...." I was given key to a Fiat Trivo ? Found the car, parked nearby.  Also then received my contract details and 27 photos of current damage.  Some patently obvious, some only the slightest of scratches.  I checked as best I could, and went off to Villamartin.  The last thing i spoke to staff about was coming back 9 days later.  As flight was at 1015, we wanted to drop off as near to 7am as poss.  He assured me that was fine, as they opened at 7. 

9 days later, we arrived, using the Satnav on our phone, to find the gates shut, with reduced opening hours due to Covid 19....having made our way 1/4 mile further along to Out of Hours drop off, we checked car back.  No problems, so I thought

Hand on heart, I treated the car with great care, driving it just over 150km in total, parking it insight of our apartment and keeping empty spaces on either side when parking elsewhere.

On arrival back at East Mids, I received email thanking me for my business, and stating (in Spanish) that there was a fresh scratch on pax front door....also, a charge for out of hours drop off.  Total, incl tax, €220.  I telephoned their main office when I got home;  absolutely no come back.  He wasn't at all bothered that I disputed the scratch, and told me to provide photographic evidence that it was there all the time.  He also said that I must be mistaken about their hours of operation, as the 9am opening time was not new. And then he directed me to Ryanair to claim back the cost of the damage (but not the out of hours charge).

Livid.  They obviously are NOT repairing the damage they claim for, otherwise I would not have had 27 photos of previous damage.  

Oh, by the way, my own small Peugeot was also damaged in the Short Stay 3 car park at East Mids; the bays are smaller than they were before lockdown.  No note.  No CCTV etc.  

Should have stayed at home 😪

You’ve had bad luck in every way but hopefully the sunshine helped. Booking insurance with any agency other than the rental company themselves means nothing to them, they won’t acknowledge it and are only interested in selling their own insurance policy so you’ll still have to lodge a large credit card deposit to them on collection. This is like candy to a child, many of them can’t resist taking a piece. I think they must have targets and must be pushed to do this to up the profits. I’m beginning to think there’s also a pattern here though where knowing the customer can get back some money from their own insurer the rental company will often stick on a few hundred Euros charge for a spurious scratch or wheel scuff. They’re hoping that folk won’t fight too hard over €200/300 especially as they’re now back home or at worst they’ll have issue some dodgy quotation to the renter that they can try to get money back with. As you have said there were already 20+ scratches listed on it that went unrepaired so that car will have earned the company a lot of money already. There’s no doubt that your scratch if it is even there in the first place will remain there. I saw on another forum about 2 years ago where 2 ladies who rented from a different company to yours compared notes on charges similar to yours issued to them after they returned home. These ladies hadn’t taken our insurance from the renters either. Both were charged over €300 for the same scratch under the front bumper of the same car and these ladies reckoned that scratch was used many time over by that company. It’s a huge cash cow to them. The Spanish authorities have no interest in clamping down on this. Some said Wiber weren’t too bad before but they’re as bad as the others now and nearly all at it. With Covid obliterating most of their market this year they’re like animals in a drought circling an ever decreasing waterhole and hoping to snatch as much of a mouthful as they can. In this case I’m afraid it was you. Your best bet is to get whatever paperwork you can from them and submit it and hope for the best. 

8102Mko

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:11pm

8102Mko

Helpful member

Posts: 329

210 helpful points

Location: Torrevieja

Joined: 30 May 2018

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:11pm

This post that was quoted has been deleted.

The out of hours fee would be normal for a firm not open at the Airport itself. Most of them use Eco. Beniconnect would be a big loss in your instance. Without them the Taxi both ways would be around the same cost as a weeks rental. I returned from a weeks break at the start of this month. I’d mainly drive over leaving the car there for around 3 months at a time but on this occasion I didn’t as the trip was short and rented with Centauro at the Airport. I gave them €117 for the week including taking their excess cover insurance and a full to full on the tank. There are good deals out there. Car hire is cheaper now.

swcoulthurst

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:24pm

swcoulthurst

Very helpful member

Posts: 1148

915 helpful points

Location: Mutxamel

Joined: 11 Nov 2015

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:24pm

Can I recommend Wheels in Spain. They were recommended to me when I needed a car in a hurry. Good all inclusive price and no hassle. Les helped out and delivered a car within an hour. We had to extend by another week and again this was no trouble. 

Hope the details help people out. I've had the hassle too many times off the big names at the airport and the insurance scams.

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Kenbo

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:03am

Kenbo

Very helpful member

Posts: 999

799 helpful points

Location: La Florida

Joined: 6 Dec 2017

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:03am

In 18 years of owning a property in Spain I have had many rental cars at the airports, only Centauro at Alicante used these underhanded charges, a small scratch under the front bumper, the employee dropped straight to his knees to locate the scratch which he obviously knew was already there.

They know that if you have a flight to catch that you do not have the time to try to argue the toss, credit card was charged €220 but very easily claimed back through my annual car hire excess insurance, policy costs app £40 and is great value for money, Insuranceforcarhire.

Also had cars from Wiber and yes, some of them are pretty beat up, Centauro on the other hand usually have decent cars but it still doesn't stop them using the rope a dope trick, most of them at the airports do it at some time or other,  I was lucky in that I had to wait 18 years for my turn.

SheilaOD

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:23am

SheilaOD

Original Poster

Posts: 31

10 helpful points

Location: Villamartin

Joined: 30 Apr 2019

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:23am

Kenbo wrote on Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:03am:

In 18 years of owning a property in Spain I have had many rental cars at the airports, only Centauro at Alicante used these underhanded charges, a small scratch under the front bumper, the employee dropped straight to his knees to locate the scratch which he obviously knew was already there.

They know that if you have a flight to catch that you do not have the time to try to argue the toss, credit card was charged €220 but very easily claimed back through my annual car hire excess insurance, policy costs app £40 and is great value for money, Insuranceforcarhire....

...

Also had cars from Wiber and yes, some of them are pretty beat up, Centauro on the other hand usually have decent cars but it still doesn't stop them using the rope a dope trick, most of them at the airports do it at some time or other,  I was lucky in that I had to wait 18 years for my turn.

Rope a dope? Lol

I do have full insurance which covers it, through the booking with Ryanair.  And , ironically I also took out an excess cover policy with Chew last December, which I had forgotten about. That's still in play til this December, but I can't claim using that unless the Ryanair one doesn't work..

Strangely, the €700 deposit has not shown up on my credit card (yet), or the €480 after the damage charge was supposed to be refunded?? The fuel charge was made, on 16th, but that hasn't been refunded......

Currently sitting through self isolation with the time to sort it out, but can't do anything until the charge hits the card?

Kenbo

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:44am

Kenbo

Very helpful member

Posts: 999

799 helpful points

Location: La Florida

Joined: 6 Dec 2017

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:44am

It is strange that the charges haven't shown up yet, I suppose they will blame Covid and staff shortages like everyone else does for poor service.

I always book my cars through hirecarsinspain, an agent based in Lee on Solent, now these guys do offer good customer service and will chase up any company dragging their heels.

julietony

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 3:41pm

julietony

Helpful member

Posts: 290

146 helpful points

Location: Algorfa

Joined: 30 Mar 2018

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 3:41pm

swcoulthurst wrote on Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:24pm:

Can I recommend Wheels in Spain. They were recommended to me when I needed a car in a hurry. Good all inclusive price and no hassle. Les helped out and delivered a car within an hour. We had to extend by another week and again this was no trouble. 

[email protected]+34 635 732 01Hope the details help people out. I've had the hassle too many times off the big names at the airport and the insurance scams....

...

Definitely agree with this recommendation.  Les is great, we have used him several times and always perfect service and no hassles, at all .    

Janetmez

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:50pm

Posts: 11

2 helpful points

Location: Villamartin

Joined: 28 Nov 2019

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:50pm

My family and myself have had many occasions when the car hire company has charged me excess for the damage that I didnt do.They are all crooks  and its very difficult to prove that you didnt do damage.The only thing to do is to try and claim on your credit card that you paid with 

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interior building work
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Gentlevan Removals
Thy Will Be Done
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