Lou1234

Hi

We arrived in Mallorca a couple of days ago with a hire car on a family holiday. We came back to our car in an Eroski car park to find a scratch along the rear door. The scratch has a very slight indentation along its length. In the UK it would be a simple repair for mobile scratch repair guy. But unsure the best way to go forward with this as we are in Mallorca.

We are reading hire car companies will take a very large excess from your credit card whatever issue you return it with so are very worried.
We are in Mallorca for another 11 days. We are in the Sa Coma area until Thursday then Santa Ponsa area for 1 week. If anyone has any trusted advice it'd be greatly appreciated as we are unsure who to trust here.

L

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

amideislas

Well, OK... Yes, it's common for cars to get a bit banged up in parking lots. The car hires know this, and it's actually a bit of a profit center for them. It's not right, but unfortunately, it's how it is.

Getting it fixed might be a possibility of avoiding that charge, but not a guarantee, especially if it's still visible at all after the repair. Look for a shop in Manacor - maybe search the internet for "chapas y pinturas Manacor". I know there are many shops there for that sort of thing...

Otherwise, the question is, did you buy the full CDW insurance package at the hire desk? The full CDW should cover it. If not, how much did they block from your card?

Otherwise, if they blocked, say €600 from your card, unfortunately, it's unlikely you'll get any of it back. Worse, if you have 3rd-party insurance, it may be very difficult to get a receipt for the repairs from the car hire to claim from your insurance (they generally don't bother repairing them, so they would need to create a fake invoice for it, and they don't like doing that).

I know that's not what you want to hear, but unfortunately, the car hire business has turned into a racket. Not just in Mallorca. It happens everywhere.

I was similarly stung at Stansted not long ago. But in that case, there actually was no damage (that I was aware of). But they got their reward anyway. Luckily, I had other insurance, but I had to force the car hire to produce a receipt for repairs, and this took months. Worse, it was an obviously dodgy, forged invoice from a garage that doesn't actually exist. But the insurance paid anyway (I don't know why .. ??).

Good luck...

Fredbargate

Too late this time but for future peace of mind you may wish to take out

Car Hire Excess Insurance | insurance4carhire.com

or similar

bobd22

To be honest that should be covered under the standard hire insurance. Usually what isn't covered is glass roof underneath and tyres. I scraped a car once (quite badly) I informed hire company asap by phone. They said OK we will sort it out when you return the car. I thought glad I had excess insurance. However when I returned the car at end of the hire they said "oh that's nothing and is covered on the standard insurance" they paid back the excess deposit in full. I would speak to the hire company you should per terms inform of any incident asao. My guess is it will not be an issue or cost you anything!

johnnyone

That was the case up to a few years ago when zero excess was the norm. Now excesses are applied, that vary from company to company.
Having said that, I have returned cars with minor damage and not a word has been said. The one time I was charged the amount was not outrageous and I recovered through my excess policy.
I think I would take a chance and return it damaged.

missile

+1 for those comments

Lou1234

Thanks for the replies.

We are about to take the car to a local town where we have been told there are about four car body repair shops. We will ask for quotes. I'm a bit worried about this as we are obviously going to look like tourists and are in danger of being taken advantage of. Any advice on dealing with garages ? Proof of quotes. For all I know we could return to collect the car and they'd claim no knowledge of it haha.
There's also the timescales involved as we leave this area on Thursday and then spend a week in Santa Ponsa.

I even thought of a scratch repair kit but not much evidence of these things in Mallorca.

Thanks for your help.

missile

I would suggest you are taking a huge risk. What if the repair does not work? The repair shop recognises it as a hire car and reports you to hire company / Police?

MikeJ

Don't do that - unless you have cleared it with the car rental company or you could be heading into deep and murky waters. After all it is not your car to decide on who or how it should be repaired, you will have no idea of the quality of the work, you'll probably invalidate the insurance that you do have, you could even end up having to cough up for a complete respray if the paint job isn't invisible.

VFR

+ 1