Rental companies urged to increase communication with customers over vehicle damage charges

Date: 25 July 2017   |   Author: Daniel Puddicombe

The firm's managing director, Phil Jerome, said customers could be more forthcoming about damaging vehicles and that rental companies should be able to talk about the cost of repairs from the outset.

He added that customer perceptions that damage charges are expensive are often unfounded, as rental companies are effectively bulk-buyers of repairs, allowing them to get favourable quotes compared with customers.

"Our damage charge rate will tend to be lower than the cost quoted by your local repair company, which is the usual port of call for rental customers who have damaged a car," Jerome said. "The underlying problem here is usually that rental customers feel that they might be 'clobbered' with a large bill because of damage that has occurred to the car while in their care."

He added: "This can lead to some difficult behaviour. Recently, we had a customer who simply refused to sign the return documentation for a vehicle they had hired from us and damaged, which is something that is unpleasant to deal with. The truth is that we would much rather customers get in touch and we can have an honest conversation about the repair and the likely cost. As with most parts of the whole rental process, transparency and dialogue can overcome most issues."

"We believe that a lot could be achieved through better communication where customers are more forthcoming about damaging vehicles and rental companies are able to talk directly about the potential cost of repair," Meridian's managing director concluded.

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