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For nearly ten years now, I have judiciously photographed every rental car I use. On pickup I take at least four photos of each quarter and anything I can find

For nearly ten years now, I have judiciously photographed every rental car I use. On pickup I take at least four photos of each quarter and anything I can find which could possibly be argued as damage. On drop off I also take photos of the car from four quarters. I’ve had, especially in Europe, multiple incidents where prior damage is described as “too minor to note” on pickup, but the guy handling returns has a very different opinion.

1123581321 4y ago
“At least four photos”—why not just walk around the car with phone video running?
- Eleison23 4y ago
  It's often significantly easier to email a JPEG or two than attach a multi-gigabyte video clip with a codec that may not be compatible with the recipient's system. It's also much easier to preview, zoom, and manipulate a single-frame photo to find points of interest, than comb through a shakycam video for them. Why not obtain both, a full-length video for personal reference, and a few snapshots for attachments? That's been my M.O. lately.
  - 1123581321 4y ago
    Fair. Your earlier post didn't mention you were also taking video; if you had, I wouldn't have brought it up.
bluedevil2k 4y ago
> especially in Europe 100% this! Had this happen to me in Germany, a scratch on the bottom of the door suddenly became a “we need to repaint the entire door”. I had been warned about this “business model” before I went too. I’m convinced they scam tourists with this scam all over Germany.
- FireBeyond 4y ago
  Or charging you $1,100 for a windshield replacement for a crack. Apropos of anything else, I guarantee they're not replacing with OEM glass. Half the time probably charging you a windshield replacement for some epoxy resin or whatever the chip filler is.
jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
This is very common with housing rentals, and not just in the US. You absolutely cannot trust their documentation of what is or isn't a prior issue. They WILL change their documentation to try to get that deposit back or such. I learned this lesson as an 18 year old idiot first time renter with some friends. Luckily one of my roommates' siblings was a law student, and took on advocating for us for fun and learning. We got back 3x our deposit after it was clearly explained to the management company what liabilities they were creating.

1123581321 4y ago

“At least four photos”—why not just walk around the car with phone video running?

Eleison23 4y ago
It's often significantly easier to email a JPEG or two than attach a multi-gigabyte video clip with a codec that may not be compatible with the recipient's system. It's also much easier to preview, zoom, and manipulate a single-frame photo to find points of interest, than comb through a shakycam video for them. Why not obtain both, a full-length video for personal reference, and a few snapshots for attachments? That's been my M.O. lately.
- 1123581321 4y ago
  Fair. Your earlier post didn't mention you were also taking video; if you had, I wouldn't have brought it up.

bluedevil2k 4y ago

> especially in Europe 100% this! Had this happen to me in Germany, a scratch on the bottom of the door suddenly became a “we need to repaint the entire door”. I had been warned about this “business model” before I went too. I’m convinced they scam tourists with this scam all over Germany.

FireBeyond 4y ago
Or charging you $1,100 for a windshield replacement for a crack. Apropos of anything else, I guarantee they're not replacing with OEM glass. Half the time probably charging you a windshield replacement for some epoxy resin or whatever the chip filler is.

jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago

This is very common with housing rentals, and not just in the US. You absolutely cannot trust their documentation of what is or isn't a prior issue. They WILL change their documentation to try to get that deposit back or such. I learned this lesson as an 18 year old idiot first time renter with some friends. Luckily one of my roommates' siblings was a law student, and took on advocating for us for fun and learning. We got back 3x our deposit after it was clearly explained to the management company what liabilities they were creating.