A friend of mine got caught a few months ago in Sydney, rented a TOYOTA TARAGO and paid on Citibank Gold Visa, but someone in a car park scraped the car, on return to the depot (Sydney Airport), they charged him $4,300, where the rental was about $320 for 4 days, but they charged him the full excess of $4,000. After much prompting and threats to take them to Fair Trading they finally sent him an emial "We have now received the quote which I have attached. Hertz will be refunding the difference between the excess and repair cost in 2-3 working days". The repair quite was $360.58. he was lucky they didnt charge for "loss of revenue". So the moral of the storey is always pay on a cc that reduces the excess or just pay the excess. My friend always was a believe in not reducing the excess down, as he knows the rental car companies just apply it to their profit. they don't actually pay it to the insurance company.
Originally Posted by
JLaw725
I've been renting cars for years. Mostly Hertz and Avis for business and National for personal use with family (need Emerald Aisle to chose the mini-van). Since Jan 06 I've been Hertz, almost every week. And for the first time in my life, I dented a car pulling out of a parking spot, smacking into a garage support pole. As I got out to look I was praying it was small and un-noticeable...not to be. Got a nice dent where the door met the front quarter panel, with some impressive paint transfer. (Funny that the week before my boss and I were discussing taking the LDW on our business rentals in the future, but this one was already booked) Hertz was very nice and had me fill out a vehicle accident report and said I would hear from them soon.
Has anyone had this happen? What can I expect now? (It's been two weeks and I haven't heard anything)
I got an estimate from a body shop in PHL, where it happened, just so I knew what the damage was ($1100). On the accident form I left the insurance information blank as I want to pay out of pocket. (Visa will reimburse me $500, my personal deductible).
Thanks for any info anyone might have.