Better communication between customers and companies would help overcome problems around rental damage charges, says Meridian Vehicle Solutions.

The rental company says that the area is one that has considerable potential for friction and misunderstanding, and that both parties could potentially achieve better outcomes by entering into dialogue.

Phil Jerome, managing director, explained: “The underlying problem here is usually that rental customers feel that they might be ‘clobbered’ with a large bill because of damage that has occurred to the car while in their care.

“This can lead to some difficult behaviour. Recently, we had a customer who simply refused to sign the return documentation for a vehicle they had hired from us and damaged, which is something that is unpleasant to deal with.

“However, we believe that a lot could be achieved through better communication where customers are more forthcoming about damaging vehicles and rental companies are able to talk directly about the potential cost of repair.”

Leicester Council recently confirmed its trading standards department is conducting an investigation into vehicle hire company Europcar following allegations around how the rental company charges customers for repairs.

Jerome said that the customer perception that a damage charge would be expensive was very often mistaken.

“Damage to rental vehicles happens fairly often and we are, in that respect, bulk buyers of repairs. This means that we are usually able to get jobs done at a low cost and then pass that saving to the customer.

“Certainly, our damage charge rate will tend to be lower that the cost quoted by your local SMART repair company, which is the usual port of call for rental customers who have damaged a car.”

He added that customers undertaking poor quality SMART repair were also a potential source of conflict.

“The fact is that a lot of SMART repairs that we see carried out on behalf of customers are simply not up to scratch, if you’ll excuse the pun. It is an industry where standards do vary quite widely, he said. “This can create problems where a customer believes they have solved the problem but we then have to challenge the quality of the repair.

“The truth is that we would much rather customers get in touch and we can have an honest conversation about the repair and the likely cost. As with most parts of the whole rental process, transparency and dialogue can overcome most issues.”
 
 

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