A few days ago a family member hired a wheelchair accessible vehicle from a company that deals specifically in these types of rentals.
During the day the van was to be returned, they reversed into a tree, causing some damage to near the rear right light area (nothing cracked visibly to the eye, but there was a visible dent near the light). Upon returning the vehicle and showing/telling them of this, the family member was told that they will be emailed the papers they need to sign regarding the insurance claim and that the excess could be up to $1,500. We pay an insurance fee as part of the rental cost for the van, a quick skim through their terms and conditions and they call it a "fully comprehensive and third party insurance".
Today the email came through from the local person who we had dealt with, with an attached email from their higher up, simply stating "They will be charged $1,500, here are the forms". So the forms were passed through on the email to us, along with the full complete credit card details of my family member, expiry date and CCV number (this email was also CC'd to the first person who emailed them the forms and that it would be costing $1,500) asking to let them know when they can charge that account. I'm a little iffy on the fact that the entirety of the credit card details were just put plainly there in the email, but I'm just going to ignore that for the moment.
I've done just a bit of quick reading and apparently I should be telling my family member to request an itemised receipt for the cost of repairs, to make sure everything checks out. I also read that it goes against Australian Consumer Law but sometimes rental agencies charge the maximum damage excess fee without a repair quote. The car was returned yesterday afternoon around 3pm. We received the email around 1pm today from them. To me, I am again just feeling a bit iffy due to how quickly they have gotten back to us and basically said, it will be the full amount of excess we must pay.
We've never been in any sort of situation like this, so I am sort of wondering what advice to give my family member, do I tell them to contact the rental agency and ask for the itemised receipt of the cost of repairs, and then go from there?
Any thoughts or similar situations or help in anyway would be appreciated.
Thanks!
How did they pay for the rental?
Some credit cards come with insurance for the excess, I'm not quite sure if it only applies when travelling overseas however.
i.e https://www.citibank.com.au/aus/static/complimentary_insuran…