Hi all
Hired a van from Sixt. Got back to the depot and they said I'd scratched it. Maybe I had, the guy said there was 'paint dust' on the scratch, but it was very slight in any case, 10 cm long and no dent, just the superficial contact. So I signed the bit of paper to say that I agreed the damage, not realising what would come next.
Few days later got an email with a repair estimate and a request for me to pay them £599.80 by June 5th! The situation right now is that I have written back complaining about the extortionate cost of repair, and asking if I can get quotes for comparison. They have not replied.
My cousin is an actuary for a big insurance firm so I asked him about this, and he says these two things:
1) They are only entitled to receive the loss of value to the van due to the damage I caused. But they never repair their fleet after customer damage, so the panel concerned was already significantly scraped and scratched from previous hiring (much worse than I had done), and so the loss in value is zero. Cousin says they are entitled to that OR to the cost of repair IF LESS, which of course would be less than zero and so also negligible.
2) If they invoke some small print clause that says, effectively, they can charge what they like, or have the cost of a rub down and respray for the entire panel affected, I should tell Sixt that if we go to court I will ask the judge to agree that the contract clause is unfair, and have it struck from their contracts forever, so that they can't mug people any more. He thinks Sixt won't fancy that, just in case.
I'm thinking of offering them something like £100 in addition to citing the above when they get back to me saying that I must pay or go to court, so that it looks like I'm being reasonable. I'm really furious about this, because every single time someone scratches their van, they are charging to return whichever panel it is to brand new condition — even though they have no intention of ever repairing it! It's a really nasty little scam in my opinion.
Grateful for any advice, esp if you think my cousin has got it right.
Thanks in advance,
Minxi.
Hired a van from Sixt. Got back to the depot and they said I'd scratched it. Maybe I had, the guy said there was 'paint dust' on the scratch, but it was very slight in any case, 10 cm long and no dent, just the superficial contact. So I signed the bit of paper to say that I agreed the damage, not realising what would come next.
Few days later got an email with a repair estimate and a request for me to pay them £599.80 by June 5th! The situation right now is that I have written back complaining about the extortionate cost of repair, and asking if I can get quotes for comparison. They have not replied.
My cousin is an actuary for a big insurance firm so I asked him about this, and he says these two things:
1) They are only entitled to receive the loss of value to the van due to the damage I caused. But they never repair their fleet after customer damage, so the panel concerned was already significantly scraped and scratched from previous hiring (much worse than I had done), and so the loss in value is zero. Cousin says they are entitled to that OR to the cost of repair IF LESS, which of course would be less than zero and so also negligible.
2) If they invoke some small print clause that says, effectively, they can charge what they like, or have the cost of a rub down and respray for the entire panel affected, I should tell Sixt that if we go to court I will ask the judge to agree that the contract clause is unfair, and have it struck from their contracts forever, so that they can't mug people any more. He thinks Sixt won't fancy that, just in case.
I'm thinking of offering them something like £100 in addition to citing the above when they get back to me saying that I must pay or go to court, so that it looks like I'm being reasonable. I'm really furious about this, because every single time someone scratches their van, they are charging to return whichever panel it is to brand new condition — even though they have no intention of ever repairing it! It's a really nasty little scam in my opinion.
Grateful for any advice, esp if you think my cousin has got it right.
Thanks in advance,
Minxi.
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