07 Oct 2017 11:22 AM:

Last April I traveled to Spain and rented a vehicle from InterRent. On arrival to Valencia Airport, the attendants at the office were professional but rather insistent that we should take the additional insurance and other services. I understand they’ve been trained and instructed to upsell on the pre-booked rental. Due to having had a bad experience (with a different and less reputable company), I refused to purchase this additional insurance.

The visit went well and at the end of the stay, on 5th May we returned the car at the correct time and left it in the same parking space as from where we had collected it on our arrival. Your employee mentioned I should have parked it in a different bay (within a few metres from where I had parked it, but said it didn’t matter as he would move it himself later on), he then checked it thoroughly inside and outside, above and below, wrote the mileage and verified I had filled the car up with fuel as agreed.

He told me everything was correct. I asked if I had to sign any paperwork or anything, and he replied ‘no, that’s fine’ and wished me a good flight back home. I was impressed by his professionalism and friendliness. He showed me he had written the mileage and ticked the 'tank full' box in his form. The accident/damage section was left empty as there was nothing to report and I didn't sign it because there was nothing to sign. 

I was therefore unpleasantly surprised when back in August, 4 months after I came back, I received a letter in which I’m accused of having inflicted damage to the car. Also enclosed with this letter where photographs of a car with some scuffs and scratches. These photographs show no date and could have been taken at any time.

In the copy of the form I had witnessed, someone had added 'scuffs and scratches' to the damages section, and 'the customer refused to sign accident form' in the 'comments' section. I was incensed!

All I know is that we had an uneventful driving experience and this damage wasn’t caused whilst your vehicle was under our care. They threatened to take hundreds of Euros from my credit card, as they had kept the details. They subsequently took that money, which was refunded back to me by my card provider and it's now on their hands to claim it back from these scammers. So the end of the story is still uncertain.

It has and still is causing me a great deal of worry and I'm very angry for them to have even tried to scam me in this way. Most disappointing and unprofessional.

I have researched on customer feedback/car hire forums online and there seems to be a lot of issues with car hire companies in Spain, things like members of staff being incentivised to ‘find’ scuffs and damage in cars, the same damaged being blamed on different customers, and a catalogue of fraudulent activities.

I now feel I can't trust any car hire company and will be taking lots of photos before and after hiring any car, specially in Spain.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice, other than contacting a solicitor and sending copies of my correspondence to the European Car Hire Regulator? 

Thank you - and be vigilant. 

Thread: Car rental scam -BEWARE

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