Dukey1

What you should have received was the completed damage form which documents the lack of damage. I have always gotten one whenever I've rented an auto in Europe either through AutoEurope or direct from agencies including Hertz, Europcar, etc.

I agree with the recommendation that you deal solely with AutoEurope.

greenjohnman

“ Hertz in Austria fraud?? ”


I now know that this problem isn't mine alone! Others have experienced it.

We had a two day rental of a Kia from Vienna to Salzburg this summer. We returned the car, with a "walk around" by the local Salzburg agent. Our German friend walked with us. None of us found ANY damage and no reports were made nor forms signed to indicate any damage found.

Two weeks later I was charged $744 dollars and sent 3 pictures that showed no damage but supposedly showed damage to the rear bumper. VISA has kindly reversed the charged as it investigates and Hertz is in possession, now, of all the paperwork I received directly from the Vienna Hertz office that processed the claim.

As a Gold Club #1 member of Hertz, I'm confident that Hertz international will reverse this local agency claim...but I will report WHATEVER HAPPENS, in this forum, for others to be aware of.

In the meantime...ADVICE: take pictures of your rental car when you drop it off AND get a SIGNED form from the accepting agent that there is no damage! AND don't use a DEBIT card!

annhig

None of us found ANY damage and no reports were made nor forms signed to indicate any damage found.>>

I'm sure that you don't need me to tell you that you should ALWAYS get the form signed to say that there was no damage. did you just forget?

ChristopherUK

We hired a car from Hertz Vienna for the day. hertz wien innere stadt kärntner ring
(Aug 22nd 2012)

On signing for the car they told me there was some minor damage to the rear bumper and I signed to agree that this was prior to my hire period. With Hertz being such a large company, I never suspected it would come back to haunt me.

The car was parked on the street and I was told to return in there when we had finished.
There was no damage to the car when we returned the car the very same day, but 2 weeks later we have been billed £600, a £50 admin fee and received photos of a scratch on the rear of the bumper

We are now fighting the case as we didn’t take their insurance, but we do have an independent insurance. It's total fraud, as we only travelled a few miles and never at any point was the car involved in any form of scrape to cause any damage at all.

I will give you the Hertz UK Customer Relations email address which I initially struggled to find. [email protected]
Hertz UK advised this branch is a franshise and they need to take it up with Hertz Austria
I also called the local Hertz Store in Vienna but they would not help me

WARNING! – Always make sure when returning the car, the store sign to say it has no damage. Take photos with date and time stamp when returning your hire car and keep all paperwork.

Woyzeck

If you book through Auto Europe and have issues with the car rental company, allow Auto Europe to deal with the resolution. They have considerable clout on the continent and will almost certainly be able to resolve the matter in your favor.

bilboburgler

Always, use your digital camera, on the internal clock with the engine running and all around the exterior before you start and after you return the thing. It takes 2 minutes and you have them cold as long as your date and time is set correctly.

I've stopped three attempts in my life when companies have tried the old nonsense and I send them a one line email. "I took photos and I don't believe you, shall we start this conversation again?"

Dukey1

However I have rented cars in Europe before (Avis) and have returned the car without a formal checklist inspection and have never had a problem.

FIRST Mistake!

Why you need to take pictures when you get a signed document verifying there was no damage is beyond me. Pictures can be photoshopped and faked.

bilboburgler

Dukey you are right if you can trust the staff not to have a massive queue of other customer's and you are not late and the flight is on time. For some reason I often run out of time and I know this works.

Lola_2014

Hi there,

I am another victim of Hertz scams. I've rented a car in Nürnberg via Check 24 and returned to the Airport in Nürnberg in perfect conditions. After one month Hertz sent me a letter clamming a fake damage of "one" of the mirrors. The price of the reparation was exactly the sume for the "Selbstbeteiligung" deductible prices plus 50Euros porto for sending me the letter!




Is the police aware of these scams? Do you guys know how to proceed with these scams?


Any advise would be appreciated!


Another Ex-customer of Hertz

Lola_2014

Hi there,

I am another victim of Hertz. I've rented a car in Nürnberg via Check 24 and returned to the Airport in Nürnberg in perfect conditions. After one month Hertz sent me a letter clamming a fake damage of "one" of the mirrors. The price of the reparation was exactly the sume for the "Selbstbeteiligung" deductible prices plus 50Euros porto for sending me the letter!




Is the police aware of these scams? Do you guys know how to proceed with these scams?


Any advise would be appreciated!

Another Ex-customer of Hertz

Dukey1

Hertz sent you a letter or the Hertz franchisee sent you a letter? Big difference.

annhig

and of course the first thing to do is to notify your credit card company that you want to challenge this charge.

BTW, did you get the form signed to say that you were returning it with no damage?

sartoric

I think this type of situation is a common ploy amongst car rental companies.

My issue was with Hertz in Darwin Australia. The car I hired had obvious damage - missing the drivers side lock trim. This was on a black car, so the missing trim exposing bare metal was a dead give away. It was about 40 C in the open car park, with no Hertz representive (or any one for that matter) around.

I jumped in, turned the air on full blast and left. This is where I should have taken a photo of the existing damage. Hertz charged my credit card about AUD $4500 for the "damage" I caused.

It took about 4 months of wrangling with Hertz via email, but eventually I got every cent back. I kept harping on the fact that I didn't cause the damage, (I didn't buy their extra insurance) and eventually won by suggesting that the previous hirer who had caused the damage had likely bought the extra insurance.
They capitulated at that point.

annhig

sartoric - we had a different experience with our car hire co in Cairns - Avis I think. We noted some damage on the car which wasn't already noted on the form, so despite the heat, we insisted that the manager come and look at it. 'That's just wear and tear" he grinned at us, and said that he'd be on duty when we came back so there wouldn't be any problems. Well, he wasn't as it happened but they weren't bothered, they signed our form to say no damage, and off we went into the cool air-conditioned airport.

taking a photo of the damage if there is no-one around is a good idea. it's also a good idea to take photos if you have to drop it off and no-one is there to inspect it and sign the all important form.

sartoric

Yeah Ann, this was Darwin, no one around at pick up or drop off. I know better now, but just couldn't believe at the time that they would try to attribute damage to me, when it was clearly pre-existing.

They still don't know how fast that car went when pushed on the long flat sections of Northern Territory highway, I backed off at 190 kph......

Odin

<<Any advise would be appreciated!>>

When renting a car, check it beforehand for any signs of damage. If it is not already marked on the paperwork where existing damage is, then have someone from the rental company document it on the paperwork. Sometimes not all damage is on the paperwork, so I have them add it if I find something else. I have them mark everything apart from stone chips. I take photos of existing damage if it is significant as well. That someone would take a rental car with drivers side lock trim missing and not think to tell the rental company before driving off, is unfortunate as the rental company can only make the assumption that the last renter caused the damage. This is the likely cause of most disputes, because the renter didn't do their due diligence in checking the car over before driving off. Check things like wipers, fuel levels and interior damage too.

<<taking a photo of the damage if there is no-one around is a good idea.>> Why does it matter who is around? Sometimes I take photos of existing damage which is not on the damage report and go back to the rental office so they can record it, before I drive off. It saves time if the rental office is some way from the car, Hertz did this for me last time I rented from them.

<<it's also a good idea to take photos if you have to drop it off and no-one is there to inspect it and sign the all important form.>> It is very rare to have any one sign all important forms when you return a car. Most rental stations I have rented from do not have any process for car rental return, you just return the keys to the office or dropbox. In the US I do seem to get a receipt, but not elsewhere. You can't rely on that process as it depends on the rental station. In Cape Town, we were asked for fuel receipts.

RM67

When I rent (with Europcar) there is a usually a procedure which involves the agent walking round the car with you before you take charge of it and marking any damage on a plan, then same on the return. You both have copies and you both sign off. Did you not have anything like this?

vincenzo32951

The problem is, IME, there's a wide variation in how companies handle the pick-up and drop-off procedures, even among outlets for the same company, such as Hertz.

The variation is wider in Europe than in the US, especially at airports. Just about all the rental outlets at major airports in the US have a drive-up drop off where an attendant quickly checks the mileage, scans the code on a windshield sticker and send you on your way with a receipt. (Someone told me that often the attendants work for a contractor, but I don't know that that's true.) I've never signed a form in the US related to damage when dropping off a car.

In Europe, I've experienced just about every variation. On frequent occasions for pick-up, an office attendant has handed me the keys and told me where the car was. I usually walk around the car and have a look. If I note something, I'll go back to the office and mention it or ask the attendant to come out and see.

The last time I rented in Europe, I dropped the car at the Brindisi airport. There was a huge drop-off lot that serviced several companies and with no attendants -- causing lots of confusion among customers. We finally figured out that you just park the car and take the keys and paperwork to a building about 100 yards away. I did, was handed a receipt, and left. There was no paperwork verifying no damage.

The fact is, if a particular outlet is hell-bent on scamming you for phantom damages, there's almost no way to prevent them from trying. All you can do is contest it. The idea of taking pictures of the car, just in case, seems like a good one. And it might not be a bad idea to contact the company's corporate headquarters to let them know about the business practices of a particular outlet. HQ might even help you fight the claim.

NYCFoodSnob

<i><font color=#555555>"Why you need to take pictures when you get a signed document verifying there was no damage is beyond me. Pictures can be photoshopped and faked."</font></i>

I wish any amateur good luck Photoshopping an image of a car. Next to fabric grain, reflective surfaces are almost impossible to make perfect under exacting scrutiny.

People who think or suggest that Photoshopping an image is easy or undetectable have most likely never used the program and/or don't know what they are talking about. Pixels that have been moved or altered are more easy to detect than most people realize.

JPEG, the most widely used file format, offers the easiest detection of Photoshop retouching, because the file is compressed. <b>You'd have to be a stupid idiot</b> to submit a retouched JPEG in any legal inquiry. You might as well confess to damaging the car and trying to lie about it.

It is true that a RAW file offers the easiest truth. If your camera happens to shoot RAW, then take RAW photos of your rental car. RAW files cannot be retouched and then saved as RAW. If you submit a RAW file as proof of what your camera saw, there will be no question about the truth. But RAW is not necessary. Just make sure your camera's time/date stamp is correct.

Taking a photograph of your rental car, your god-awful hotel room, or the filthy bathroom in your rental apartment is always a good thing if you find yourself in the middle of a complaint. Don't hesitate to protect yourself with images.

annhig

In Cape Town, we were asked for fuel receipts.>>

in Amsterdam we were asked for a fuel receipt, though we had been given no warning when we collected the car that this would be required. When i queried this, I was told that it was to ensure that we'd put the right sort of fuel in. luckily i had the last receipt to hand as i had just filled up, but it didn't seem to occur to them that in the space of a week's rental we might have filled up more than once. Weird - and very rude people [unusual for Holland, IME]. Wouldn't use THEM again.

it seems to me that the ideal procedure is this : you collect car and have agent inspect it with you for any pre-existing damage which is noted on the form. [if there is no facility to do this, why not e-mail the company with your description or photograph thereof?] When you return it, agent inspects and signs form that it is AOK. you keep copy. if no-one around, you take photos of the state of the car, and e-mail to the company in the event of a dispute.

I'm sure that others can think of some refinements.