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Irish expats and tourists hit by car rental scams at Dublin airport
| Published: | 10 Dec at 6 PM |
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Irish expats coming home for Christmas are being warned over car rental insurance scams.
Tourists as well as expats returning to the Emerald Isle to spend Christmas and the New Year with their families are being warned to watch out for insurance issues with rental cars. According to victims, their ‘super cover’ insurance doesn’t cover wheel rims and other minor issues, even if renters didn’t cause the damage. To date, tourists as well as expats returning rented vehicles are being forced to pay for damage they didn’t cause and can’t refuse as their flights are leaving within a few hours.
One retired Aer Lingus pilot now living in Asia rented a car via Avis, picking it up at Dublin airport and carefully photographing any minor problems with the bodywork, wheels and tyres. Returning the car a week later at the airport, an Avis staff member informed him he’d damaged a tyre. When questioned and shown his initial photograph of the scuff mark on the tyre’s sidewall, the staff member called a supervisor who insisted on a payment of €130. The former pilot was not best pleased when the supervisor told him to ‘pay up and claim later’. After taking more photos of the ‘damage’, he paid and took his flight.
Once back in Hong Kong, the before and after pics proved his claim the minor damage was already there, with the Avis claims department agreeing he ‘might not’ have been responsible and refunding his money. The retired pilot also warned Avis and other car rental companies’ customers to read the insurance document’s small print very carefully, as ‘full insurance’ can often be far less than transparent. According to a survey, some 40 per cent of tourists are hit by excess charges when they return their rented vehicles, and are only then told that ‘full insurance’ cost another €20 or more per day.
Tourists as well as expats returning to the Emerald Isle to spend Christmas and the New Year with their families are being warned to watch out for insurance issues with rental cars. According to victims, their ‘super cover’ insurance doesn’t cover wheel rims and other minor issues, even if renters didn’t cause the damage. To date, tourists as well as expats returning rented vehicles are being forced to pay for damage they didn’t cause and can’t refuse as their flights are leaving within a few hours.
One retired Aer Lingus pilot now living in Asia rented a car via Avis, picking it up at Dublin airport and carefully photographing any minor problems with the bodywork, wheels and tyres. Returning the car a week later at the airport, an Avis staff member informed him he’d damaged a tyre. When questioned and shown his initial photograph of the scuff mark on the tyre’s sidewall, the staff member called a supervisor who insisted on a payment of €130. The former pilot was not best pleased when the supervisor told him to ‘pay up and claim later’. After taking more photos of the ‘damage’, he paid and took his flight.
Once back in Hong Kong, the before and after pics proved his claim the minor damage was already there, with the Avis claims department agreeing he ‘might not’ have been responsible and refunding his money. The retired pilot also warned Avis and other car rental companies’ customers to read the insurance document’s small print very carefully, as ‘full insurance’ can often be far less than transparent. According to a survey, some 40 per cent of tourists are hit by excess charges when they return their rented vehicles, and are only then told that ‘full insurance’ cost another €20 or more per day.
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