An article in The Guardian newspaper as uncovered a hidden problem behind car hire charges. Customers of Europcar have expressed anger at having their credit cards charged for alleged damage to a hire car after returning the vehicle in pristine condition, the reason seems to be due to staff shortages.

Problems with car hire charges

One case highlighted in the article is that of Kate Colledge who hired a car from Manchester Airport. She returned the car 10 minutes before the deadline but when she went to the car hire counter to return the keys, she was told that there were no staff available to check the car. Ms Colledge had to leave the keys in an envelope at the office and wait for her invoice to arrive by post.

However upon checking her credit card statement, Ms Colledge discovered she had been charged £208 without consultation by the car hire company. After much persistence and correspondence via email and phone it transpired that the car hadn’t been checked until 17 hours after she had returned it and the customer had been charged the fee due to damage to the vehicle. Ms. Colledge was informed by the company that “customers are liable for vehicles until they have been checked in by staff regardless of when that is” she added “if I’d wanted the car to be checked by someone I would have had to have stayed with it for 17 hours after the agreed time of return.”

After the newspaper probed the issue further, the car hire company conceded that their staff can be forced to spread themselves thinly due to the busy nature of the airport. They have however withdrawn the damage charges due to the time lag between the car being returned and the inspection taking place.

To prevent other car hire customer suffering a similar fate The British Vehicle Leasing and Rental Association recommend these steps be taken: customers should try to return the vehicle during office hours, if there are no staff to check the vehicle make a note of the mileage, fuel level and for extra evidence take photographs.