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Problems with Sixt insurance.
May. 24th, 2009 02:52 amWe had rented a car from Sixt for a weekend more then 3 months ago. I had paid for the most expensive insurance possible, covering everything with my liability up to 100 euros only. Car insurance in Germany is tricky. Unlike most other countries, where the more you pay for insurance, the higher is the cover, in Germany the more you pay, the lower is your liability limit.
Just before returning a car, my wife made a scratch on a door on a parking lot. We had informed Sixt upon returning the car, an employee had taken a picture and helped us to fill an accident report form.
2 weeks later we've rented similar car at the same place, and asked the same girl if it's ok with our previous accident report processing. She said yes.
3 months later, we've received a mail stating that we have to pay them ~4000 dollars to cover the painting of the door we've scratched. They gave us 2 days to do that. They say the insurance does not cover the scratch because we have refused to write an accident report (the form Sixt employee had helped us to fill).
I call this Sixt behavior a fraud because it has the properties of scam: "deliberate misrepresentation which causes another person to suffer damages". The misrepresentation is that
1. They claim we've not filled the accident form while we did.
2. painting a door costs 4000 dollars. (while looking ridiculous, that might be true, I am not an expert in cars)
3. They deliberately used the way of communication that only leaves us 2 days to react, ignoring our local phones and addresses.
I guess they do this only to those who visit the country. If we had returned to New Zealand, it would have been extremely difficult to dispute this. Luckily, we are in Munich, and we have full legal insurance, that will hopefully help. I've found some examples of similar scam by Sixt here: http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/sixt-car-rental-a43240.html
I was considering using the car leasing service in Sixt, that has special rate for employees of the company I work for. Not any more. There may be some other scams there.
Upd1: Just spoken to a very nice lady at Sixt call center. She speaks perfect English (quite a rare thing for call center employee here). She had admitted they lost accident report, our German address, and the copy of accident report they've sent was likely lost during transit to New Zealand. So they'll send us another one and we'll likely pay 100 euros as outlined in insurance agreement.
Just before returning a car, my wife made a scratch on a door on a parking lot. We had informed Sixt upon returning the car, an employee had taken a picture and helped us to fill an accident report form.
2 weeks later we've rented similar car at the same place, and asked the same girl if it's ok with our previous accident report processing. She said yes.
3 months later, we've received a mail stating that we have to pay them ~4000 dollars to cover the painting of the door we've scratched. They gave us 2 days to do that. They say the insurance does not cover the scratch because we have refused to write an accident report (the form Sixt employee had helped us to fill).
I call this Sixt behavior a fraud because it has the properties of scam: "deliberate misrepresentation which causes another person to suffer damages". The misrepresentation is that
1. They claim we've not filled the accident form while we did.
2. painting a door costs 4000 dollars. (while looking ridiculous, that might be true, I am not an expert in cars)
3. They deliberately used the way of communication that only leaves us 2 days to react, ignoring our local phones and addresses.
I guess they do this only to those who visit the country. If we had returned to New Zealand, it would have been extremely difficult to dispute this. Luckily, we are in Munich, and we have full legal insurance, that will hopefully help. I've found some examples of similar scam by Sixt here: http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/sixt-car-rental-a43240.html
I was considering using the car leasing service in Sixt, that has special rate for employees of the company I work for. Not any more. There may be some other scams there.
Upd1: Just spoken to a very nice lady at Sixt call center. She speaks perfect English (quite a rare thing for call center employee here). She had admitted they lost accident report, our German address, and the copy of accident report they've sent was likely lost during transit to New Zealand. So they'll send us another one and we'll likely pay 100 euros as outlined in insurance agreement.
