When is fraud, not fraud? [Car rental charges after return]

[nutwood]

very hard i think.

My feeling is that from a technical viewpoint, it wouldn't be hard, providing everyone played nicely. Unfortunately, if everyone played nicely, such a data base would be unnecessary!

 

[juddles]

Maybe I am lucky. More likely is that different franchises are run differently. But over the past couple of years I have been a devout customer of Budget/Avis at Noosa in Qld. About 50 rentals. This is a quantity that would reveal flaws. And they have been spectacular. Absolutely zero issues. I had tried Hertz here but had some bad experiences. So my input to this thread is that rental companies are not evil, it is just some bad apples that give the rest a bad name.

 

[JohnK]

How about the vehicle inspection - it's up to the hirer to identify the dents/breaks on the vehicle. I was thinking it would be nice if the renter said here's the ones we've identified already.

Why is it always up to the renter? Why doesn't the rental company need to prove the renter caused the damage?
If it wasn't for me taking photos beforehand I'd have been up for $330 bill for a superficial scratch the car rental companies say is usually wear and tear.

The stupid part is they would have charged me and not fixed anything and then trapped the next person.

FWIW I got my money back but Hertz didn't feel compensation was necessary for attempted fraud. Hmmm....