Headed For The Land Down Under

[Northeast]

2 hours ago, mn90403 said:

It was a bill for Premium Station Surcharge

WTF is that???  I've never heard of it   ?‍♂️

[Northeast]

3 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Premium Station Surcharge

Ok, I looked it up.  Apparently renting from an airport can incur an extra cost because it is a 'Premium Station'.  I have rented approx a dozen cars in the last 6 years, all of them have been from an airport in Australia and not a single one of them has incurred this cost.  

I would call BS on it and say "Hey, this should be listed as a cost upfront and not tacked on the bill at the end.  I want it re-funded".  They knew damn well where it was being collected from, it wasn't a surprise or a special request and their rental outlet is bloody located AT the airport - where else were you supposed to get it from. 

I'd be cranky.  Actually, I am cranky and it's not even my car  ?

[Gold Seeker]

11 hours ago, Northeast said:

Ok, I looked it up.  Apparently renting from an airport can incur an extra cost because it is a 'Premium Station'.  I have rented approx a dozen cars in the last 6 years, all of them have been from an airport in Australia and not a single one of them has incurred this cost.  

I would call BS on it and say "Hey, this should be listed as a cost upfront and not tacked on the bill at the end.  I want it re-funded".  They knew damn well where it was being collected from, it wasn't a surprise or a special request and their rental outlet is bloody located AT the airport - where else were you supposed to get it from. 

I'd be cranky.  Actually, I am cranky and it's not even my car  ?

I'm sure they knew they had a tourist and jumped at the chance to make a big profit !!

Even though the rental location was a "Premium Station" I'm sure the vehicle wasn't a premium vehicle since as we all know most if not all rentals aren't premium vehicles, so he should have gotten a discount!! 

[Jin]

We rented a car from Europcar and around one month later got a bill for damage to the car (marks/scratches) I'm pretty thorough and had kept the original invoice that detailed damage done to the car before I hired it. The bast#rds tried charging me for damage that was done by previous people. I emailed them a copy of the invoice and that was the end of that. It just annoyed me that they wasted my time. If you look at most rental cars they have damage all over them. They never bother fixing minor damage. Guess what car rental company I walk straight past in the airport now.

[Andyy]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

We had a Kea (alpine parrot) eat the antenna off a hire car we had, it chunked it up real good, it also started pulling the rubber out of the front windscreen, they're famous for doing this kind of stuff, Europcar didn't notice the damage and the car only had about 6,000km's on it when we got it. 

Yep, them darn parrots got our car weather strip when we went to Milford Sound.  Evil buggers.  But I wasn't charged, at least.

[mn90403]

I read my contract with Kemwel who got the car from Europcar and it did say between certain dates a Premium Station charge would be levied.  I didn't read the full contract at the time so now I know.  They 'discounted' me to get my business and charged me back at the end.  It is part of the game I didn't anticipate.

[1515Art]

4 hours ago, Jin said:

We rented a car from Europcar and around one month later got a bill for damage to the car (marks/scratches) I'm pretty thorough and had kept the original invoice that detailed damage done to the car before I hired it. The bast#rds tried charging me for damage that was done by previous people. I emailed them a copy of the invoice and that was the end of that. It just annoyed me that they wasted my time. If you look at most rental cars they have damage all over them. They never bother fixing minor damage. Guess what car rental company I walk straight past in the airport now.

I backed into a little short metal pipe sticking up out of the parking lot pavement one time in a metallic red rental car and put a big scratch in the right rear quarter panel. When returning it I stopped at cvs and bought a cheep tube of lipstick that  matched the color pretty close. Between the dirt and lipstick it passed inspection and never got a bill although if thy had looked close they would have caught it.

[mn90403]

18 hours ago, phrunt said:

The next person will have the car now if it's anything like here, the cars don't sit unused for long.  So it sounds like you got away with any scratches ?

 

I hope they were able to buff them out because they were not dents but you could see them.  The euckys have some stiff little dry branches.

[mn90403]

I rented a car in Thailand one time.  It was during one of the Songkran festivals if any of you know what those are.  Before the Songkran in Pattaya I went to see the elephants in Surin, Thailand.  While there I hit a high curb and scratched up the running board pretty bad.

As you know during Songkran there is lots of water, water battles and general non-sense.  The car didn't get any more damage during that time.  The final days of Songkran have lots of locals putting white flour paste on your face and generally spreading it around.  Some of it just happened to get on the under carriage of my car and covered the scratches from the curb!  

I didn't get a bill for that one either.

[afreakofnature]

Here in the USA I put many AZ pinstripes on all the trucks I rented.  No probs.  The rental guy told me the scratch has to be atleast 6” and go into the undercoat before charging.  If it does that they can’t buff out for resale.  The dust really showed them off good on those nice brand new trucks