Well some nice member of the public decided to do some free panel beating on my rental car and then selflessly left the scene before I was able to thank them.
So I'm preparing for the inevitable a$$ rapeing at the hands of the nice people at Budget car rentals.
What would be the best way to handle/lubricate the inevitable ramming that is in my not so distant future?
Report incident to police?
Preemptive quote from Smash Repair?
Report car stolen(hypothetically)?

Tell me you had excess reduction.

report to the cops, get a record for it and head to the rental co via the chemist

you should have signed to waver the excess, if not you'll be up for $5k and a little more.

I used to run a Budget agent in a former life and the young ones would not want to spend the extra to waver the excess. They ended up paying the max of $5k when they seriously damaged the vehicle or paid for the repairs, that was even all they paid when the wrote my car off.. I would say "hey don't drive to gnarloo. the track is ****e and dangerous (back in the day)" But nooooo, they would drive up there and roll my small 4x4's. $5k is pretty cheep for them.

good luck

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myusernam said...
Tell me you had excess reduction.

Nar that $hit is for sucker
$2500 excess and I'm guessing $1000 repair.

Check your credit card conditions, some will cover the excess on car rentals if you used it to pay for the rental.

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vpar said...
head to the rental co via the chemist

Chemist?

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riverider said...
Check your credit card conditions, some will cover the excess on car rentals if you used it to pay for the rental.

Never owned a CC

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Capt Loopy said..

vpar said...
head to the rental co via the chemist

Chemist?

Stock up on lube I'm guessing

If you have time see if you can get the car fixed before handing it back to budget. Suss out a local panel beater. Ask them how much to fix it for cash and if they could do it soon, real soon.

The repairers eyes should light up when you offer cash. They would welcome doing a job and getting paid for it straight away. It would be a rare event for them. They will be avoiding 'the process' - the quotes, the back and forth paperwork between insurance and rental car company, and the 30 or 60 day delay in payment.

The repair could cost you less than half. Just keep in mind there will be no guarantee.

But who cares. You'll be up the coast surfing and drinking Jacks and coke with the money you saved!

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vpar said..
report to the cops, get a record for it and head to the rental co via the chemist

you should have signed to waver the excess, if not you'll be up for $5k and a little more.

I used to run a Budget agent in a former life and the young ones would not want to spend the extra to waver the excess. They ended up paying the max of $5k when they seriously damaged the vehicle or paid for the repairs, that was even all they paid when the wrote my car off.. I would say "hey don't drive to gnarloo. the track is ****e and dangerous (back in the day)" But nooooo, they would drive up there and roll my small 4x4's. $5k is pretty cheep for them.

good luck

Since you used to be in the game, I've got a question for you.
Isn't this whole excess charge just an industry rorting the customer ?
It's like the excess is say $3000 but if you pay us $25 per day then we'll reduce the excess to say $500.
It's just a way of getting a higher daily rate out of the customer.
What excess do you think the insurance company would charge the car hire company ?

Check where the car was bashed and see if there was any video surveillance to find the bashes and bash em

Every time I've rented a car I've had to use a credit card.

How did you manage to get away without one ?

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Sandfoot said...
Check where the car was bashed and see if there was any video surveillance to find the bashes and bash em

Remote car park in Coffin Bay. Vaguely remember a yahoo in a 4x4 next to me before leaving the car and going 4 a swim

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patsken said...
Every time I've rented a car I've had to use a credit card.
How did you manage to get away without one ?

Debit card. I'm not going to help the banks get richer.

Change your name to Ben Dover and take it like a man.

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echunda said...
Change your name to Ben Dover and take it like a man.

What he said!

Attempting to repair rented property seems to have a high risk of going pear-shaped!

Read the rental agreement. You probably signed up to notifying company in event of damage...

Since you somehow got away with hiring the car without a credit card I suggest you Move the funds out of your debit bank account as a starter. It's easier to negotiate when your holding onto the cash.

I feel for you capt loopy but your right it will cost you. It's pretty simple you hire a car you are responsible for any damage done to it.
If you have only done $1000 damage that should be all you pay but show some respect and tell them about the damage straight away or you might also have to pay for loss of hire.
Vpar is spot on and I have also had major damage done on the gnaraloo road but thats another story.
Newscotty The bigger companies are probably self insured but for a smaller rental company the minimum excess they can get is $3500 so no scam there.
The best way is to get travel insurance or use a gold or platinum cc.
And lortap we have had 1 customer with your attitude in 9 years what a f#$%$#$ coc* he was. Figured because he didn't do the damage (vandalism) he wasn't responsible.

^^^ why should he be? I fail to see why damage that is not your fault should affect you financially ... especially vandalism that is obviously not the hirer who did it (bit different to crash damage). That is what insurance is for, and should be the risk hire companies accept.

The risk of it being damaged in the carpark you were in, is the same as the risk when it is parked in their yard waiting to be rented. What would they do for hail, flood, fire, or any manner of other unforseen eventualities... yup, claim on insurance...... or write it off on tax as a loss.

If you hire an appliance from radio rentals and your house burns down do u pay? I bloody well doubt it.
If you rent a car and a hail storm damages every car in the city do they charge you? I really hope not...........


Tell them to nick off, if they don't like it then fly the single finger as you walk out and tell them to suck a fat one. To charge you for the ****ups of another is so wrong

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Mark _australia said..
^^^ why should he be? I fail to see why damage that is not your fault should affect you financially ... especially vandalism that is obviously not the hirer who did it (bit different to crash damage). That is what insurance is for, and should be the risk hire companies accept.

The risk of it being damaged in the carpark you were in, is the same as the risk when it is parked in their yard waiting to be rented. What would they do for hail, flood, fire, or any manner of other unforseen eventualities... yup, claim on insurance...... or write it off on tax as a loss.

If you hire an appliance from radio rentals and your house burns down do u pay? I bloody well doubt it.
If you rent a car and a hail storm damages every car in the city do they charge you? I really hope not...........


Tell them to nick off, if they don't like it then fly the single finger as you walk out and tell them to suck a fat one. To charge you for the ****ups of another is so wrong

So you enter an agreement that you've read, agreed with every statement and placed your signature on the contract confirming the agreement.

Something goes wrong and you think, nope I'm not paying even though it clearly states in the contract the excess owed if the vehicle is returned damaged (regardless of circumstance)

How is that justified?

You signed the contract, you take the penalty.

Treat it as a life lesson.

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GalahOnTheBay said..

Capt Loopy said..

vpar said...
head to the rental co via the chemist

Chemist?

Stock up on lube I'm guessing

correct

To stand a chance, at the end of the day it all comes down to proving that someone gave a "free panel beating on my rental car" (making a police report will help a little). Beyond that its up to the leaser to prove that they did not act outside the terms of the renatal agreement.

The way im reading this is your up for the excess $$$ reguardless of how cheap or how expensive to repair, so strip the car of all parts that you can easy flog off,
Hell pull the motor and gear box out, boot, bonnet, glass, seats, wheels the report it stolen and leave it on bricks.

Then steel a line from Sergeant Shultz


Or just go rent the same kind of car, pay the $$$$ for the excess protection and swap plates then return it to the first place..

Then steel a line from Sergeant Shultz

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Mark _australia said..
^^^ why should he be? I fail to see why damage that is not your fault should affect you financially ... especially vandalism that is obviously not the hirer who did it (bit different to crash damage). That is what insurance is for, and should be the risk hire companies accept.

The risk of it being damaged in the carpark you were in, is the same as the risk when it is parked in their yard waiting to be rented. What would they do for hail, flood, fire, or any manner of other unforseen eventualities... yup, claim on insurance...... or write it off on tax as a loss.

If you hire an appliance from radio rentals and your house burns down do u pay? I bloody well doubt it.
If you rent a car and a hail storm damages every car in the city do they charge you? I really hope not...........


Tell them to nick off, if they don't like it then fly the single finger as you walk out and tell them to suck a fat one. To charge you for the ****ups of another is so wrong

so if someone did that to your car do you think the insurance company would fix it without charging you any excess
as for radio rentals you would pay the excess on your house insurance and the insurance company would pay radio rentals for any items lost.

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CrossStep said..
To stand a chance, at the end of the day it all comes down to proving that someone gave a "free panel beating on my rental car" (making a police report will help a little). Beyond that its up to the leaser to prove that they did not act outside the terms of the renatal agreement.

It doesn't matter how it happened he is responsible for the car as if it was his own. If he has done something outside the rental agreement then they may charge him the full bond otherwise it will be the value of the damage up to the excess.

I know he signed the conditions - still think it is bullcrap that you pay for something outside your control.
Turtle, if it happened to my car there would be no out of pocket expense for me at all as it is recovered form the at fault party......... and even if paying excess, $150 to $50 is nothing like a few grand.

I had to pay an excess of around $2300 after running a hire van into a pole in a drive-through.

Lucky for me I still had an annual travel insurance policy that covered it, and all I had to pay was $100.

If I had had the time to do it, I might have tried getting it repaired privately, but as luck had it, the travel insurance covered it.

rental companies, banks, insurance etc are all the same. they'll screw you in the end and bleed you dry

Mark your right it's bullcrap when someone vandalises your property but a insurance company will still charge you excess unless they can recover that from an at fault party.It's fine if someone is insured and hits your car with theirs (it would be cost free in a hire car as well) but with vandalism good luck getting the vandals insurance to pay.
As for the high excess it's simple just get travel insurance.

what about all those snowboard videos etc where they trash the hire car?! I think you can pay for $0 excess with hertz.
It was the fashion for a while with those videos to jump the hirecar and completely trash

Insurance is a scam and a waste of money. Until you need it.

The excess hire car companies charges in the event of damage are ridiculous but they tell you that before you drive away. Then they offer you an alternative to give you insurance on the excess for a nominal daily fee.

if you're hiring a car take photos, check the car for damage and note it on the vehicle condition report, you're even going to be held liable for damage done before you get the car if it's not noted in the paperwork for your rental.

And dont one bother cancelling your debit or credit card so they can't take the excess off it, a good friend found out the hard way they just engage debt collectors. Hire companies are experts at extracting their money out of you, way better then the average punter is at avoiding them. Best just go buy that big pot of lube and limber up.

If you tried to save a buck and didn't get full excess reduction then the blame comes back to you.

Also no credit card in the year 2015? can I ask what the logic is in this? I mean only people that can't manage their financial affairs responsibly would adopt this principal given today's competitive market and debit master/Visa card options.

We hired a motor home in Tassie last year. The last night of our holiday, we where at a beach front caravan park, adjacent to a golf course. Just as we were packing to leave, a golf ball smashed the front passenger quarter mirror, leaving it all crazed. We departed the camping area, and I drove into the tiny golf club car park, which only had about 4 cars in it. I went into the club house, told the club manager what had happened, and gave her the offending golf ball. "That will definitely be Joe.", she said. She was very nice about it, I filled out some paper work for them, and they said they would settle it directly with the car rental place.

The car parked to my left was poorly parked, about a meter forward out of it's parking space. I could not see it in the mirror because of the crazed window. As I drove forward, and turned out left, I wiped out the front corner of the car. I went back into the club, and told them I'd wiped out a maroon Commodore. "Joe's car!!" she exclaimed.
Karma. (Yes, I had paid for the waiver.)