@KathyJ: Not personally, but such has been reported here on Christopher s site and in at least one c

Hertz said yesterday it plans to introduce a new photographic inspection system to take pictures of its cars before and after they re rented. Such applications have been available for years, but they haven t been adopted on this scale until now.
The company says it loses $170 million in damage payments a year, which may be true. But it s also true that many car renters lose hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars at a time when car rental companies like Hertz falsely accuse them of damaging their cars.
"There will be no discussion because the document would clearly show any incremental damage," Hertz chief executive Mark Frissora told Bloomberg News. "This keeps customers from being placed in a confrontational position and saves time."
If damage is discovered, Hertz will be the only party with a photographic record. I m not saying a car rental company would manipulate the image (that s not the Hertz way) but wouldn t it be better to have your own record just in case?
Wish I would have thought of that and had my camera along last week. I had a Hertz rental in Milwaukee. Car had to be among the worst I ve ever rented. Massive hail damage. Stains all over the seats. 30,000+ miles. And I m a #1 Gold Five Star member. Can t imagine what kinds of cars they re dumping on the occasional almo rent a car renter these days.
I am so glad my corporate contract (which I can use for personal travel) includes the LDW. As long as I hand them the keys, it doesn t matter if the smashed remains almo rent a car had to be towed in It s saved me a lot of hassle about scratches and dings.
I think someone should just invent the Trustworthy Traveler High-Def Supplier-Oversight Belt Camera to record the entire travel almo rent a car and hospitality experience from soup to nuts. The trust but verify, mutually assured accusations regime has come to travel. Travelers can wear plastic button that disclose: My travel experience is being videotaped for training and quality assurance. We (the travelers) can put up a collaborative web site called TripAccuser.com (or TravelShaft.com or Sh*ttyTravelSupplierTube.com). And then let the supplier chips fall where they may. Makes perfect sense to me.
It would make better sense to take at least four pictures front, rear, and each side. One photo just won t do the job. And if you notice some damage, be it a dent, scratches, or whatever, before leaving, take a few close-ups of that damage. If you use your digital camera, be sure to have the date and time recording feature turned on.
I think this is a good thing in general shift some of the burden of proof onto the rental company. Show me a photo of damage after compared against none before and it s much easier to believe that I m responsible.
I do think that everyone (including the rental companies) needs to properly define damage responsibility, however. Abandoning a car to flood, maybe, but I still contend that a hailstorm almo rent a car that would have done just the same damage to the car if unrented on the lot not only isn t reasonable almo rent a car to charge for, but a little dimpling probably doesn t need to be fixed at all (especially when it takes special almo rent a car lighting to see it). Same with incidental door dings that come from other cars in a parking lot; that s just normal wear and tear. Save the charges for *real* damage to the car.
I agree with Marv It would make better sense to take at least four pictures – front, rear, and each side. One photo just won't do the job. And if you notice some damage, be it a dent, scratches, or whatever, before leaving, take a few close-ups of that damage. If you use your digital camera, be sure to have the date and time recording feature turned on. A must do!
@KathyJ: Not personally, almo rent a car but such has been reported here on Christopher s site and in at least one case, there had been no hailstorm in the area during the rental time, and the so-called damage was only found by careful almo rent a car checking under a lighted tent (so it was obviously prior damage almo rent a car ).
My experience so far (knock on wood) has been the opposite agents are very careful to walk the car at rental time (while trying to convince me to buy the insurance because look how closely almo rent a car they inspect), but at return I ve never had an issue. I m pretty careful with other peoples things, though (but I wouldn t be able to avoid hail or a parking lot ding).
Since date stamps in cameras can be manipulated (and a contentious rental company will know this) it would be helpful to have the front page of the current almo rent a car day s newspaper visible in each photo. It s an old, low-tech system, simple and effective.
Rented in Las Vegas cars are in a darkened garage you take your pick couldn t find one without damage of some sort or severe smoke odor; finally accepted a vehicle, attendant gave us a damage report form in the darkened garage to complete I insisted almo rent a car on the car being moved into a lighted almo rent a car area and a flashlight to examine it found several areas of damage not noticeable in the darkened garage; took pics with my camera phone (date data cannot be changed), and upon leaving the lot asked the gate attendant to go over the vehicle with me again he noticed more damage and just chuckled good catch fella . Upon return car was meticulously gone over by agent and several damage areas were noted until I showed her my pictures and additional notations on the form by the gate agent. She commented she could get fired for not finding enough damage on returned vehicles.
as Les above points out here s the potential problem you take a picture showing a big old dent in the left side of the car at pickup and show that to Hertz (or whoever) saying it was like this when i picked it up and even a newspaper in the photo doesn t really prove the date that the photo was taken (it only would prove it wasn t taken any EARLIER almo rent a car than the paper s publication date)
(and for that matter, how would we know that the rental company s date stamps are 100% accurate? they could also take a photo of the undamaged vehicle at any time and claim that was its condition when the renter picked it up)
I know that Enterprise is very very picky about anything, and so I m very careful to note even a smudge on their cars and to make sure the agent agrees it was there when I picked it up they usually give you their business cards anyway almo rent a car so at least you have a witness from their side
I have done this for years, and before I had a digital camera, I used to walk around the car and note any damage. I would then point that out before I drove off the lot and made sure it was marked on our paperwork.
None of this helped me on our 2007 trip to South Africa however. We rented a car from the airport with National. When we returned the car we were informed that the spare tire(located under the trunk which I never thought almo rent a car to check) was missing. Our car was in a secure garage at my friend s home the entire time so I know we weren t robbed. Also it was locked and there was no signs of forced entry. Obviously I concluded the tire had never been there to begin with and refused to pay the $350 bill for it. I spoke to the store manager and obtained all the paperwork they had on file. As soon as I returned to the States, I contacted National and sent them all the information I had. They reversed the charges immediately and apologized.
It made me wonder though how often this happens almo rent a car to customers and how many just pay up without fighting. I will never rent another car without almo rent a car double checking the equipment, an error I almost paid for.
Even better most phones now adays have cameras. So if you have a smartphone, download an app called Shozu, almo rent a car configure it to upload pics to one of the social photograph sites flikr, Photobucket, or many of the others This way, you can take pictures of your rental car and immediately upload them to a remote site incase something happens to your phone, or you accidentally delete the photos
I had a problem with an Avis rental in Germany. We left the car before almo rent a car a 6 am flight, before the Avis counter was open, so no one could check it out with us. Our credit card bill charged us for damage when we complained, the first photos Avis sent us showed no damage almo rent a car that we could tell, and when we refused to pay the credit card charge, they sent us a bunch of papers in German showing what appeared to be a scratch underneath the car next to the wheel a place where we certainly would not have looked before or after the rental and certainly not worth the $1100 they tried to charge us
My son-in-law had a similar problem with Dollar almo rent a car in Las Vegas his credit card was charged for damage on a rental, but fortunately a Dollar employee had signed off on it unlike us, he did not leave the car without being sure that someone checked it over with him.
Of course, there is always LDW the present experience of myself and others highlights that it may be necessary. Even if we have car rental insurance on our own auto policy, we would face a problem with increased insurance costs it the rental companies keep charging us for dings (whether we did them or not )
When I returned the car (Hyudai 110) I was told (in German) that there was a scratch on the wing mirror, which I tried to explain was mearly almo rent a car a black rubber mark that could be easily removed with a damp cloth. Not conversent almo rent a car in German I assumed that the matter was sorted.
Weeks later when I recieved my credit card bill I dicovered that a deduction of over 400Euros had been made. After many phone calls and e-mails I managed to get a bill from Buchbinder for the ficticious repairs. It came as an e-mail on unheaded note paper and I can only say that the person who wrote it had a vivid imagination. I was charged for a new mirror, spraying of the mirror and refitting. A total of over 600Euros. My payment was for the excess on the agreement. What I found more amazing was that the repair was made on the same day as the car was returned, not bad considering the car was returned in the afternoon.
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