Help! Any garage mechanics around - horrific bill for hire car damage. Pics included.

[WSID44]

Back in the summer I damaged a hire car when on holiday in Germany. Not massively, I reversed into a wooden post when trying to get out of someone's way, and scratched the paintwork. I was perfectly honest about it when I returned the car and heard no more. Until now. They have just sent me a bill for nearly 3k euro to mend it 😱Could anyone take a look at the pics and tell me how it can possibly have cost this much?? Thanks!

On no. That's rubbish. It's probably because the damage is on two panels which means each scratched/dented area being repaired/filled and then two whole panels being re sprayed.

Would this not be covered by your insurance?

Presumably it's not just the damage though. The cost they're claiming from you would probably also include loss of earnings when the car can't be hired out during the days it's in the paint shop. Did you not take out insurance to cover damage and excesses etc?

Because the hire car company is not going to find the cheapest quote they are going to go to whoever their company has a contract with. The repair company know that their client (the hire car company) isnt paying themselves so have no reason to give a competitive price its win win for them and lose lose for you unfortunately.

Surely insurance would cover it.

New bumper + paint is about £1k, then £300 for the small fill and paint on the wheel arch ... are they also adding on alloy and tyre as that could add £800 if so. I work in the trade so that's an estimate at insurance rates if that is of any help

Yeah two panels and the rear one looks like it has parking sensors in

Actually, is the scratch on the door aswell?

Bodywork can be very, very expensive.
I was rearended last year, and the bill was £5.5K, most of which was bodywork.

I think it hinges on the insurance you too, out plus the excess
so if you had 3rd party with a large excess then this is going to cost you. Have you checked?

and as pp have said, there is no benefit to the company to get a cheaper quote. Sounds unfair though

Oh, come on, if that's just a scratch, as opposed to dents/distortion of the panel, it's not a new bumper, that's ridiculous. And why on earth would they be replacing the wheel and tyre? Total scam. Hire car companies generally don't bother even repairing cars, because chances are someone else will scratch the same bit multiple times before the car is sold.

OP did you take any insurance and did you pay by credit card?

They're just hoping you'll happily send them 3k without blinking. Don't fall for it.

It's a big lesson learnt for me. When I checked the insurance, all seemed fine. When I rang them to start a claim, it was not fine. When I returned to the policy details I realised I had misunderstood a key bit and I was not covered.

I am so sorry, it is really rubbish bad luck.

Can you ask them for a breakdown of parts and labour so you have more clarity of exactly what they are repairing and replacing? If they're billing you for the whole repair you're entitled to see that at the very least

How confident are you it is genuine. My sister had a mechanical failure of a hire car and was subsequently targeted by fraudsters asking her to send a large sum.
£3k is far more than the typical excess on a hire car. If they have asked you to remit funds to a bank account rather than just deducting it from whatever credit card you used for the booking I’d be highly cautious/suspicious.

@UpsideDownTurtle Yes they did send me a breakdown. Apparently the labour costs were 196 euro an hour. Is that usual for a German garage? I do feel a bit ripped off.

@Galliano I took out my own insurance and they aren't paying.

I damaged 2 panels on my car and the insurance sent me a copy of the bill. Well over £2.5k
I think that sounds about right. Sorry

Have they shown you a quote or an invoice for actual repair work done?

Labours comparable here. It’s an expensive country to hire people in.

Looks like it creased the rear quarter too, took the paint off to bare metal on two panels. Paintwork quite often involves blending in a huge area to get a small amount repaired & it takes time. They uv cure it too which adds to it.

Id be gutted too.

That is probably about right for a fault rate repair. I know our local Mercedes dealer charge £140 an hour (UK non London rate) so I wouldn't be surprised at a 200 euro rate in Germany :(

What was the excess on the car hire policy? Even if you had your own, separate insurance the car hire company exes shouldn’t be £3k.

We damaged a hire car wheel and they charged us the entire excess, even though the damage was probably less than the excess (Avis are bastards). We had no choice but to suck it up, they won’t be popping down the local garage to get it fixed.

How come the insurance isn't paying? Who is the company you rented through? You will only need to pay the excess so find out what that is.

Are you happy the ‘bill’ is genuinely from the car hire company? My sister was targeted by fraudsters who knew about the incident. I assume either had access to information at hertz or information from the garage that repairs the car. It was a very convincing fraud but one of the giveaways was the bill they sent was just slightly in excess of the car hire excess from that particular company. The fact you had insured the excess separately would be irrelevant if the bill isn’t actually from the car hire company. My sister was very upset and on the verge of sending the money (to an overseas bank account) before I reviewed what she’d been sent and realised it wasn’t genuine.

She received a broken down garage bill as part of the fraud plus paperwork related to the incident

It's in Germany. You're (presumably) not.
What would happen if you don't pay it?