A businessman who spent his career promoting American business investment into Scotland has called on the authorities to take action against the car hire firm Green Motion. He was charged £366 for damage to a vehicle he rented at Glasgow airport – damage he claims he did not do, and that was levied because the company knew he would struggle to fight it from the other side of the Atlantic.
David Christie – originally from Scotland but who now lives near Manchester, New Hampshire – says he has complained to Action Fraud and trading standards at Renfrewshire Council over the damage he is adamant he did not cause.
He says staff “instantly located” the hidden damage on his Peugeot hire car after he returned the vehicle earlier this month, which, he claims, “gave the game away”.
Guardian Money has received numerous complaints in recent years, mostly from outside the UK, from Green Motion hirers who claim that either they did not cause the damage found by the company, or that the price for repairs has been inflated.
Green Motion says complaints it receives “genuine or otherwise” make up less than 0.1% of total customers in the past five years.
It says it handles 2,500 customers a day and enjoys “excellent customer satisfaction” ratings, and strongly disputes the allegations by Christie.
Christie, 79, a former executive director of Locate in Scotland, and a member of Unesco’s Scotland committee – and a Freeman of the City of Glasgow – claims when he refused to sign the credit card slip demanded for the alleged damage, Green Motion staff threatened to have his and his wife’s bags taken out of the courtesy van and to make them walk to the airport terminal.
Only the fact that he had a flight to catch prevented him calling the police, he says.
He has since complained to contacts within the Scottish government about what his says is the poor treatment of tourists by the firm which will have a negative effect on visits unless it is challenged.
The report sent by Christie to Renfrewshire trading standards says that when he returned the car to the depot, rather than circling the car in a normal way to check it over, the Green Motion employee almost immediately looked under the front right bumper where he found scratches.
“We had only driven 145 miles in six days and I had been particularly careful and was positive that we were not responsible for the scratches. The manner in which he inspected the car pretty much gave away the fact that he already knew they were there.
“When we complained, he became very belligerent, telling us it was not the car rental firm’s responsibility, and accusing us of lying.
“I have hired cars all over the world and never had an experience like this. It is nothing short of taking money by deception,” he claims.
We put Christie’s complaint to Green Motion. In a statement, it said: “While the vehicle was in his custody, an accident occurred which resulted in damage to the front bumper.”
It alleges that Christie did not challenge the damage charge at the time, which Christie says is untrue as he argued with the employee extensively before leaving for his flight .
In the same week as Christie’s complaint, Money was also contacted by a Portuguese tourist, Luis Mira, who described a similar experience after hiring a car from Green Motion’s Edinburgh branch.
He has been charged £1,265 after the company claimed he had damaged the BMW 116 that the company had “upgraded” him to at a extra cost of £120 because the smaller car he booked was not available. “When it arrived it was covered in scratches and bumps, with a broken fog light. The employee went round the car and noted the damage and promptly asked me to sign. I identified a few more, which he added, and I signed the form.”
He says when he returned the car, rather than walking around it as he would have expected, the employee immediately went to the left rear door and theatrically pointed to a tiny scratch and shouted “here”.
Although Mira says the mark was only visible if you looked at the door in a certain light, and does not show up in photos supplied by the hire firm, Green Motion has charged £714 for a new door, £465 to have it painted, plus a damage service fee of £55.
He is adamant that he did not cause the damage, and again says the only thing that prevented him from calling the police was the fact that he had a plane to catch.
Like Christie, Mira says that when he got home and started investigating the firm, he was shocked to read of the experiences of some other renters. He says he has also filed a complaint with trading standards.
A third person also contacted Money about Green Motion this month. Cassandra Fowles, from New Zealand but who lives in Edinburgh, recently hired a car from the Gatwick branch of Green Motion. In her case the company charged £595 for scratches, which she and her partner say were already there when they picked it up.
As they left to catch their flight back to Edinburgh, she says the Green Motion employee said “you shouldn’t be worried, you can claim this money back on travel insurance”.
“I responded by saying ‘why would I have travel insurance, I live here’. I saw a flicker of an expression on his face.”
The company later waived the charge and refunded her deposit, and Fowles says she is convinced it was only because she lived in the UK, and unlike those returning abroad, was in a position to fight it.
Lawyers for Green Motion told Money that in both cases the extra charges were justified, although in Christie’s case it has refunded the £66 damage service fee as it had been incorrectly charged.
In Mira’s case, it says: “The damage is a severe dent, which, in line with the approved charge matrix, would require a new panel and repainting along with paint blending.”
It has offered to allow the car to be independently inspected and said it will refund the fees if they are deemed unreasonable.
“In years gone by, it was often the case where incidental damage and minor scuffs and scrapes would not be charged for, with rental companies absorbing these costs out of their operational profits.
“With these profits now decimated, rental companies are being left with no choice but to levy charges to customers who damage vehicles,” it says.
