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Comment by sixothree | Hacker News Reader

You forgot the whole "lets walk around this can and look for scratches and pretend we've never seen this car in our life" thing. And that's before you even exit the lot. Then you do the same god damn dance when you get back.

Enterprise does this and I just find it completely unfathomable.

You did a thorough cataloging of the car when you received it from the last renter. Just give me that fucking report instead of acting like an oblivious idiot.

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But between you and the previous renter it may have been driven by an employee or transported across the country by truck, or just damaged in the lot by the person renting the car next to it five minutes earlier.

I found the walkaround off-putting initially (years ago). Especially when you get it wet from washing and this it hides all the minor damage. But they have pretty lax rules about what counts as damage.

The best though, is those airport lots with cameras that record the condition of the car as you drive out.

One time we did the walk-around and neither of us noticed a scratch. When I returned the car they did notice this scratch. The agent offered to look on the computer to see if it had been logged from a previous rental. Nothing in the computer, but since we were using paper forms I got them to grab the form from the last rental and it did log the scratch.

I try to avoid rentals because their business model seems to rely on billing the same scratch to as many customers as they can.

I always record a full HD video walk through of the car and save it until the payment clears my CC payment.

Not gonna let them charge me for something they missed, same with uhauls that have a ton of little cosmetic damages not on the papers.

I generally distrust UHaul, but I have to give them credit for the stickers they put on existing damage. It gives some reassurance that I won’t get into an argument over whether that scratch was there before.

Keep it longer than that. There have been cases of rental car companies coming back later for supposed damages.

I always film the car I’m about to rent, as well as the employee. I get them to state their name and the date, and all and any damage on the vehicle.

It makes them really uncomfortable, as they know that they won’t be able to charge me €4000 after the rental for whatever arbitrary damage they decide I caused - although it doesn’t stop them trying - I had sixt earlier this year claim that I had stolen the passenger side door. Fortunately I had filmed the car at the unmanned drop-off, along with an airport sign with the time and date - otherwise I would have been on the hook for an entire new car, as they said it was irreparable.

They only dropped the matter after I filed a complaint with the business regulator in the country they were operating in - and that came with a lifetime ban from renting from them. Good riddance.

Sixt is the absolute pits. They are structurally engaging in fraud and it absolutely disgusts me that this company is still in business. I've dealt with a lot of car rental company bs in my life but Sixt is on another level. For months after returning a rental van (which I'd used for an hour) they came up with other damage that I supposedly had caused. Good I kept pre and post images. If they were to be believed I had swapped out the alternator and done a whole pile of other hard to believe tricks to their vehicle. It also magically kept acquiring new dents, even days after returning the rental. What a joke that company is. Never, ever, use Sixt, even if is your last option, just don't, it isn't worth the hassle and the price they show you is never the price you will be paying.

I believe this is a European thing, as I haven't had such problems with renting cars in the US. Buchbinder was the worst, to the extent that everyone I know who is about to rent a car gets a lecture from me about them. It's worth it to have the full coverage insurance every time and just treat it as part of the rental cost. The alternative is lots of headaches to deal with the scammer companies.

Yep, had the same experience renting in Germany. With Sixt, Enterprise and Buchbinder. Always trying to sneak something up on you.

I like Enterprise cause they're affordable, but they really take it to the next level. I had a full insurance (0% OOP) and they still made me do the handover dance twice.

In Australia some are one way (eg. Europcar, which does the "bill every millimetre-long scuff" thing) and some are the other (eg. Avis, who don't seem to care as long as you return it with four wheels and a windscreen).

Funny you mention Europcar, I've had nothing but pleasure with them.

Including one time where I hit a kangaroo and damaged the left front quarter pannel, only charged me a few hundred dollars to repair said damages which was a lot less than I expected. Though I have been almost using Car Next Door exclusively for two years so perhaps things have changed.

The first (and only!) time I used Europcar, I'd been using Avis for years and was used to their way of doing business, to the point where I didn't even bother to do a cursory handover walk-around anymore, because I knew they weren't going to be hardasses. It is absolutely essential with Europcar though (and I think Hertz too), to do a very thorough documentation of every tiny pre-existing scuff, scratch and ding.

Car Next Door is the same, but I'm willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience there to get a service I can't get at a reasonable price from the big rentals (light commercial vehicle available close by and for short periods).

Yeah it's a waste of time, and they should do it while you're doing the paperwork. But again, they're perpetually understaffed, so the same employee has to greet you, manage your place in line, do your paperwork, check your ID, ready the car, do the inspection, push the upsell to a higher-price model, do the insurance upsell, etc. etc.

They did, but you weren't there. Do you really want to trust their honesty on that one, since if they forgot (intentionally or by mistake) to record previous damage, now you become liable for paying for it.

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