Ripped off by rental company

[Energizer Bunny]

Afternoon all,

 

After a bit of advice on a situation I had over the weekend. There is admittedly a good chunk of fault on my own head here so I'll be prepared for a few posts pointing out that I should have known better, but I'm interested if anybody has any advice as to what I should do.

 

The short story is that I rented a van to do some moving over the weekend. When I picked it up I did an inspection and the van was generally in good condition except it was missing one hubcap which I pointed out to the company. They noted it on the receipt and I countersigned it.

 

The next day I dropped the van off but the place wasn't open at the time (it was Sunday morning) so I was not there when they inspected it later that day. Anyway I got a call to say there was damage to the back door and that the replacement cost would be the insurance excess (£750!). So I marched back down there expecting to see the back door utterly destroyed only to find that the 'damage' in question was a a bit of chipped paint and a tiny bulge which was almost invisible to the human eye.

 

Now I know for sure that I was ridiculously careful with this van and there is no way I caused this damage. Unfortunately I signed the receipt and didn't point out the damage in question, simply because I didn't spot it (it is very hard to see). Since then I've been through the small print and unsurprisingly my rights appear pretty limited (it is down to their appraisal of what damage is, their right to get the repair quote and their right to get it repaired.

 

So taking into account that I am acknowledging that I am a bit of a muppet for not spotting the damage up front, what would you guys do in this situation? I'm going to chat to the Citizen's Advice Bureau to see what their thoughts are. If this was £50 I'd just let it go and chalk it up to experience but £750 is a lot of cash.

[raydetinu]

Did you take out the additional insurance that covers the excess and limits you to £100, only costs £8/day.

did you pay a deposit?

Did you take photos when you went back?

They can only ask you to pay for the actual cost of repair, up to the excess I believe.

Ask for a break down of the costs.

Did you pay by credit/debit card, watch that they don't just take it?

Cancel card if not too late.

Edited June 5, 2013 by raydetinu