Bogus charges for damages
Complaint
mick unsworth
Country: United Kingdom
Locauto Rome airport, dropped the car back off, slightly dirty. Locauto excepted it.
2weeks later over 300 Euros extra charge on top of rental. Apparently a slight scratch on the under side of the bumper, Where if you were to check you would have to get on your knees or even lie down to see it.
How many people will pay for this same scratch I wonder?
This was the 2nd time I have used them, the first time, the cars windscreen washer pipe was split and didn't work, when i complained they shrugged they shoulder, I said "in the UK we get fined for that" and they said " yes here too" I waited for them to get me another car ( over 1 hour later) they finally did.
You have been warned DON'T USE THEM
2weeks later over 300 Euros extra charge on top of rental. Apparently a slight scratch on the under side of the bumper, Where if you were to check you would have to get on your knees or even lie down to see it.
How many people will pay for this same scratch I wonder?
This was the 2nd time I have used them, the first time, the cars windscreen washer pipe was split and didn't work, when i complained they shrugged they shoulder, I said "in the UK we get fined for that" and they said " yes here too" I waited for them to get me another car ( over 1 hour later) they finally did.
You have been warned DON'T USE THEM
Comments
I went to collect the car in Cagliari airport. They "pushed" me to take an insurance in case of scratches or damage to the car as this wasn't cover in the price I had already paid (£150). At first I wasn't sure as it would cost another £150 (£15 for each day) but I agreed (my children were tired and wanted to go). Asked if I would get the money back in case the car wasn't damaged but they said no.
I chose locauto because they were cheap but, it turned up to be more expensive than the well known rental companies.
LOCAUTO you are thieves!!
ko.vitalina@gmail.com
I rented a Golf from Locauto fand had it 30 houers,
The day after returning, they send me a mail that I will be charged E 1.250 Deposit, +E 100 for fuel.
The car was returned with full tank, and without any damages.
I took many photos of car after parked at their parking, that prove no damages.
Rented from Locoauto Napoli airport, via an online agency in July 2015. No staff to inspect car on pickup (so took some photos of the one small piece of existing damage). The car hadn't been cleaned and was quite dirty
On dropoff of the car (in exactly the same condition) - again no staff to inspect. In fact their office was open but there seemed to be no staff there at all, so was forced to park the car in their carpark and leave the keys on their counter
A week later- just had a bill for over 1144 EUR taken off my credit card. They've sent me an email (which breaks it down as a nice neat 1000 for "damage" than then various associated admin fees) So far, they've ignored my requests to provide more information on what damage they are claiming has happened
I'd put this down to some form of clerical error - but having read the 100's of similar stories here and on other sites - this looks like systematic behavior by this company
we had a problem with the windows steaming up excessively when we left and got little help (a bloke who said sorry I don't know why this is happening) and the only remedy was to drive the car with heating rather than aircon on - not an ideal situation when its pushing 30degrees outside) - however we endured this and dropped the car off after a lovely week in the middle of nowhere in Tuscany without hitch to be faced by an inspection that suspiciously went straight to a "scratch" running the length of the car low down - to be honest it was hard to even to see in the daylight (more of a mark than a scratch and definitely something that could have been t-cut out) so would have been absolutely impossible to see when we took the car in the dark. Naturally we disputed the damage and the practice of Locauto of having to hastily accept a car having only seen it with the aid of a "torch" on an iphone (we are 110% sure we did not do this) and suddenly the guy could not speak any English aside from the unhelpful comment "this is what you get when you take a flight at night" - REALLY? FFS? Anyway we refused to sign for the damage and I have today received an email to say that locauto have taken (wait for it) 1144.06 euros to cover the damage. We have been scammed and had beyond belief. Is it lawful to try to take the money from our credit card. We have explicitly disputed and not accepted liability. Can such transactions really be lawful? I can't tell you how angry and upset I am. These deceptive scamsters should not be allowed to trade.
We rented Citroen C4 Cactus at Malpensa Airport, the conditions for car inspection were very usual for airport rental companies – dark parking, so, we walked around the car, there were no visible damages, more of that – the car was just wet after car wash…
On return Locauto representative turned on flash light at her Ipad and inspected the car extremely carefully like nobody did before. She pointed on one small dirty spot at trunk spoiler and told it was a scratch. We had no car accidents during rental period and refused to sign the document, but a few days ago Locauto charged 370 euro from our credit card.
This one is so laughably small, about 1mm.
Collected car in the dark, a black Audi, in an unlit part of collection zone, and yet noted to attendant this significant scratches alongside passenger side. He waived this off as superficial. We never got a chance to note the damage.
Upon return, a dusty car, but the attendant knew immediately where to look for this tiniest dent, which was clearly there prior along with significant scratches.
430 euros they are trying to scam from us.
I wish a plague on the rotten [***].