help! hire car scam

[Haroldwilson]

I recently hired a car for a week in a European country.

I know I did two stupid things: I didn't get excess insurance and I didn't take pics of car on return.

They claim there was a scratch, it looks v small in picture.ok, I have no pics to disprove. Stupid me.

Now they've sent me a doc showing the repair to the scratch cost 15 euros, a claim for full damages as 2000 plus euros, a bill for full excess plus vat (over 1000 euros).

When this happens, do they somehow get to charge full excess, not just reasonable cost of repair? It seems like a complete scam.

Any advice? I know I need to pay something for my stupidity but not 1000 euros when it cost 15 to repair. Even with time off road etc that's mad.

Yes, they do. They tried the same with me once (I had separate excess insurance) but the videos I took at pick up and drop
off showed the damage was already there.

Thanks @AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti - so they are allowed to take full excess when damage is tiny?

What does the contract say?

they can claim for the time it couldn’t be rented and staff time taking it to be fixed, still a rip off but a €15 repair will incur extra costs

It seems to say it's limited to actual damage @Hoppinggreen - in badly translated English tho so unclear

Am I missing something about excesses, do they get claimed in full then reimbursed or something?

The entire week's car hire was 500, I can't see how off road cost and admin would be anything like over 2000

It's one of those awful portals where you can't actually enter any messages etc

What company is it?

Sixt

Can you ask them to send photos of the damage, and then check the date stamp on the photos?

You might find this Times Travel Doctor article helpful.

www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/sixt-charged-us-1265-for-hire-car-damage-but-the-pics-were-fake-7dkb6x8vj

Also, have you gone over the paperwork you were given when you picked the car up for any mention of damage?

They used an automated drive through thing that takes pictures. Not someone with a camera. The pic of the scratch doesn't show number plate. I was stupid not to take my own photos so prob can't dispute some damage.

Complicated as initially they gave us a dud car and then swapped over. So no actual paperwork, they just transferred over. I think I signed. By that point after a long day and two flights with two kids and transferring luggage from one car to another, I wasn't as alert as I could have been!

Apparently they do this a lot - claim full excess plus tax for a tiny scratch. Customer service is non existent. Recommendation: don't use sixt!

I booked online. When I turned up it was a load of flashy teens running it with a fancy office bit, I wouldn't have chosen them if I'd done enough research.

And the teens were driving the hire cars round the car park like boy racers.

Seems like this is something we all should be careful about.

https://consumerrescue.org/travel-troubles/ai-scanner-mistake-sixt-wrongly-billed-car-repairs/

I’ve swapped to hiring through Zest, which had zero excess included in the rental cost.

Did someone look at the car when you gave it back?