Had a hire car (see breakdown thread in octavia 2) and i've just checked my bank account and hey i've been charged £150 for a damaged tyre:mad:

Story is:- picked the car up on sunday morning from National hire company at birmingham airport, inspected the car and noticed damage to the car bodywork and had the paperwork altered to show the damage before driving away. Drove 2 miles to my girlfriends house and at 4 0'clock i went to go out and the rear tyre was flat.

Tried calling the hire company at the airport but gave up after 3 attempts and so i e-mailed the company to inform them of the damage to the tyre.

The tyre had a large screw in it that had been there before as it had worn some of the head down on the screw.

Left the hire car at the dealers after telephoning the hire company to say i was leaving it their and about what had happened to the tyre. I received a call from National on Wednesday asking why i had still got the hire car:mad:

National hire car had lost the car for 24 hours and only asked me when they realised they didn't have a car!

Now after calling the retards there looking into it.

Please downt reply with you should have checked the tyres before driving off as i'm not going down on my hands and knees looking for hidden screws in the tyres when i've already checked the bodywork!

One really hacked off driver with a £150 charge for a crappy mondeo tyre:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Ask to see a full VAT receipt for the cost of fitting including the supplier and then get a quote for the same make of tyre fitted locally to them (Say event tyres).

If you don't have a receipt take them to the small claims court and if they show you one and it's a lot less than £150 (which it will be) make an offer of the amount you could have got it for, minus fair wear on the tyre which no doubt was part worn. If they refuse offer to see them in court.

Say hello to £150 again as they don't like providing proof.

I'd take a good chance they just repaired the tyre as I'm guessing the screw was not in the sidewall areas.

The local branch won't get an invoice as it will be on their account, directly billed to their head office. The hire company will have a nationally agreed pricing structure with the tyre company based on the volume of tyres which they buy, so why would they charge it out at cost?

You should have had a copy of the pre-rental checklist, if it is not filled in correctly, you could use it as lever to introduce some doubt as to whether the car was actually checked before rental to the requirements of their ISO 9002 accreditation. The fact that additional damage was noted prior to you taking the car would imply that they skimped on their pre rental inspection procedures.

With regard to your call about the car being 24 hours overdue, that says to me that that branch is running a tight fleet which means quick turn around times.

You should have had a copy of the pre-rental checklist, if it is not filled in correctly, you could use it as lever to introduce some doubt as to whether the car was actually checked before rental to the requirements of their ISO 9002 accreditation. The fact that additional damage was noted prior to you taking the car would imply that they skimped on their pre rental inspection procedures.

Hit the nail on the head (sorry for the pun) - when you get the car it displays the hanging paper cutout on the rear view mirror to say this vehicle had been quality checked for body damage, interior damage and tyre damage:rolleyes:

Well if i go to court to dispute this bacause i'm not accepting i done it, then i'm pretty sure as i had to make them ammend the additional documentation ref the body damage (which was easily visable i.e. red scuff marks on a silver bumper) that they can't prove that they checked the tyres for damage as they failed to spot the damage to the bodywork. It's harder to spot a screw in the tread of a tyre thats possibly out of view of the human eye.

I'm the person who if i damage something i'll pay for it no questions asked but i'll be damned if i'm paying for something i haven't done!

You'll probably get the result that you want by taking it up with customer services at their head office rather than the branch from where the car came from. From my Europcar expeiences head office invariably caved in even though, us as a renting location could prove that a charge was justified.

I'd still say that they were short of cars as well, given the time of year. Probably annoyed that they had a load of 09 cars sitting there that they couldn't use until Sunday.

I find my local branch of National pretty good. I've rented from them in the past with no bother at all.

Enterprise - not too bad, but when I handed the car back they went looking around saying this wasnt here before etc felt like they were trying to fleece the excess charges as I hadnt gone for the damage waiver.

I'd complain to the office I rented from first, then take it up with the head office.

Chances are someone prob noticed the screw and instead of telling the hire company they just handed the car back with pumped up tyres to avoid blame and a charge.

Hire companies also have RAC/AA cover and all this is in the glovebox.

Was the spare a space saver/full size?

Raise the query with the credit card co they should be able to intervene.

Rather than dump at a dealers, why didnt you call the 24hr problem line on the reverse of the agreement? You should have this with you at all times.

Did you buy the extra full excess cover?

Got a phone call today and yippe there refunding all £150:D:D

They have admitted it wasn't my fault

Well done !