Becky Bond Writes
Car Scam
My View - Wednesday 4th March 2020
I should have listened to my gut reaction when I clocked the car rental office. The off-site location, pot-holed entrance and scary looking meat-head a few units down set alarm bells clanging from the off, but I was in a rush and had booked it through a reputable website, so swallowed my concern and entered the portable cabin.
The clutch had gone on our family car and I just needed something for a couple of days while it was being fixed. The scruffy sales guy started immediately with a hard-sell for insurance with their own company scheme because, he said, other dealers take ages to pay out and anyway, he said, they didn’t always have the paperwork other companies needed. Klaxon.
When we went outside to the car, my spidey senses went into overdrive. The vehicle had various scratches, mud splashes and a few small dents, but by now I'd already signed the agreement. Fortunately, I'd had the foresight to take photos of the exterior, making sure he marked them on his inventory, which he promised to email me but never did. He handed me the keys without any explanation of how to drive the car.
It was only when I got home and looked inside the vehicle properly that I saw how filthy it was. I took more photos. Then I did what I should have done right from the very beginning – checked their reviews. My heart sank. Not one single good comment. They ranged from ‘this outfit is a complete scam’ to ‘avoid at all costs’. I actually felt sick reading the cautionary tales from customers who hadn’t received their full deposits back. Many had been charged for unnecessary valeting, scrapes which had been hidden behind mud-splodges and some even reported that the owner turned menacing when questioned. Worse still, more than a handful deemed the car they’d hired to be unsafe.
I now felt too scared to drive the thing and wasted the best part of a day getting photographs printed for evidence, calling the bank to block my credit card and generally fending off a low-level sense of dread. But I was also livid and determined not to be scammed by this company. So I went completely overboard and created a folder containing print-outs of emails I’d sent them but had no response to, a document from their own website regarding deposit refund timescales and some reviews.
On the return date, I brought my husband for back-up and poled into the cabin with purpose. The guy took one look at my folder, had a cursory glance at the vehicle’s bodywork and signed the inventory all-clear. My deposit was returned within the week. It felt like a massive relief, which is ridiculous because all I did was hire a car for a couple of days. This was three weeks ago, but what worries me now is they still have copies of my passport and driving licence.
