Excellent advice @PhilT and already done, thank you (attached).
2 Likes
For a comparison, in April 2019, we took out domestic travel insurance with Tick Insurance for 10 daysâŠprincipally to cover us for car rental. The total policy cost was $66.31 (or about $6.63 per day).
In addition to car hire excess reduction (Rental car excess waiver cover for maximum of
$4000), the policy also provided cover for Cancellation $20000; Medical expenses Nil; Emergency expenses $10000; Journey Resumption $3000; Travel delay expenses $1000; Baggage $7500; Money $300; Personal accident $15000; Personal liability $1500000; Legal expenses $25000; Baggage delay $400 and Valuables $750.
It is easy to see where the value in additional insurance lies.
Choice also reviews domestic travel insurance providers in Australia (member content):
While it is too late for you, domestic travel insurance can be bought at the time of car hire using a smartphone or other Internet connected devices. If others read this post in the future, it might provide them a (better) alternative to paying a premium price for what is (below) standard additional car hire insurance.
3 Likes
One caveat is domestic travel insurance usually starts on the day of departure and ends on the specified date or when one gets home. So if one is not actually traveling and buys travel insurance for a local rental it can go bad if a claim has to be made. For those cases the third party insurance is preferable as that aspect does not come into play.
2 Likes
Thank you, I will respond by email.
Looking at some of the terms and conditions of some domestic travel providers, they donât have a definition for travel, but have definition for a trip. Some indicate that it is a holiday or journeyâŠbut donât define these other terms an more than this.
Looking at the dictionary definition of a journey, hiring a car and driving locally from A to B would fit into this definitionâŠbut would not be the definition of a holiday, unless one was having a holiday locally such as using a bigger hire car to take friends and family to local attractions.
It looks like some domestic travel policies may cover local use of rental vehicles. But maybe Choice could get advice and add it to their domestic travel insurance review information.
Notwithstanding this, there are car rental excess reduction specific insurance covers available if one googlesâŠthe other option for the car is being used for local personal use, is adding say car hire excess reduction to another insurance policy one hold (such as for business unsurance or brokers may be able to negotiate and add specific car rental excess reduction policy to a insurance package) to cover any rentals which may occur at any time through out the year.
1 Like
Iâve also just been emailed a damage claim from Car Next Door for a trip that took place a month ago. A demand for $500 for what looks like a minor scuff mark (not a scratch) on the paintwork, when CNDs own damage policy states that minor wear and tear are not considered damage.
I believe CND is not acting in good faith when sending letters of demand to hirers for normal wear and tear that they exclude their own platform users from claiming for.
Itâs also very strange that damage that can be so significant that it costs at least $500 to repair has not been noticed for a month.
Based on everyoneâs responses here, it seems they wonât be reasonable when it comes to discussing the issue - itâs a shame as the service is actually useful, but obviously will never make use of it again and will warn others to stay away.
4 Likes
Hi @hulio, Welcome to the community. Itâs always informative when someone new shares their experiences.
Hopefully you have taken the opportunity to read the posts in this topic from the beginning. Have you only had the one contact with CND? How many weeks, days after you returned your hire was the claim by CND advised?
If you have not noticed one of the prior posters is connected with CND. Some of us are also now accustomed to photographing hire cars to verify the vehicle condition, given poor experiences with other companies.
Iâve noticed that the light conditions and cramped conditions can make it hard to identify minor damage on pick up. Similar concerns must exist with CND. What advice did they provide on recording the vehicle condition on pickup and return?
1 Like
Adding the obvious, there are also myriad scuffs and so on that are not amenable to photography or obviously visible to the average eye, that can be âbrought to lifeâ with a proper lens, filters, and photographic talents! One might cynically suspect some damage claims for wear and tear or buff-able marks could lie in that realm.
2 Likes
Hi all,
Some more info on my situation:
- Van was hired and returned on 21st March 2020
- Demand from CND was received yesterday 20th April 2020
I canât post the picture of the vehicle condition on pickup as I can only post 1 image as a new user, but here it is on dropoff:
If you look to the right of the taillight in the second picture, you may be able to make out a faint scuff - this is what Car Next Door has identified as $500 worth of damage. Itâs hard to tell if the scuff was there already as the picture I took on pickup was a bit far away (my first time using Car Next Door).
Here is Car Next Doorâs schedule of what they classify as normal wear and tear (AKA not damaged):
- Minor scratching â scratches less than 25mm in length and shallow, no more than 2 per panel, and hairline scratches
- Minor touch-ups or minor flaking of paint
- Dents - less than 20mm diameter, no paint surface penetration and no more than 2 per
- panel
- Minor stone chipping on hood, lower doors, wheel guards
- Rust or corrosion
What do you guys think? I consider it unreasonable to demand $500 from a user almost a month after a trip for what looks like a minor scuff mark (even if we accept that it definitely wasnât there before pickup).
Iâm not sure if the owner of the vehicle is strapped for cash during the current crisis and looking at this as an easy way to generate some money, but it defeats the whole purpose of a car share service if you can just be stung with a massive bill up to 6 weeks after taking a trip.
This is a van being hired out for moving houses, picking up commercial goods etc - all these uses are actively encouraged, and yet the vehicle somehow needs to be returned in showroom condition or you have to pay $500. Seems very outlandish to me.
4 Likes
After doing some more digging, I think Iâve worked out whatâs driving these unfair demands:
Car Next Door encourages owners to âbankâ the money that would be used for repairs. So why not just rent your vehicle out on CND, report every bit of minor âdamageâ that you notice and collect thousands of dollars from users for repairs that arenât even carried out or are done for a fraction of the actual cost down the line.
This seems massively unethical to me - although Iâm sure its great for Car Next Doorâs balance sheet.
5 Likes
It certainly appears open to abuse.
Additionally the quotes to repair come from one source, CNDâs chosen repairer. Further, to access the bank the future repairs are done by CNDâs repairer.
Not to mention that doing three or four touch up repairs or more in the one booking is a substantial saving. One trip to the paint booth, not four or five or more. This along with all the other savings of a single booking, parts order, invoicing etc.
4 Likes
It is, as you say, difficult to assess from a photograph. If I am looking at the right thing, the scratch definitely looks to be longer than 25 mm. So it might be outside ânormal wear and tearâ as per their definition.
That leaves you with various considerations.
- Was the scratch already there? Who can say? Who can prove it?
- Are the rules reasonable?
If you have exhausted your options with discussing this with Car Next Door then you should definitely report this to Fair Trading / ACCC.
Other than that ⊠once bitten, twice shy. Youâve learned your lesson and wonât make the same mistake again.
In some respects you are better off to hire out van+man (or men or people) i.e. let them supply the van and do the work and bear the risk of (existent or non-existent) dings and scrapes.
The delay in your case and in another Car Next Door case complained about above does raise the question of whether the vehicles are being hired out to any other parties in the interim and, if so, whether they are even accurately attributing alleged damage to individual hirers.
3 Likes
I agree that the photograph doesnât show enough detail but would be greater than the 25mm wear and tear definitionâŠwhether it is a mark on the paint which can be buffed or polished outâŠor a scratch through the paint to the underlying steel.
If it could be buffed/polished out, this would cost next to nothing (maybe $5 or less for labour for a few minutes and materials). If it is scratch through to the underlying steel, this may be more of an issue as it can lead to the panel rusting or deteriorating over time. In such case, the panel would need to be sanded and repainted which is far more laborious and also costly.
There are seems to be be marks (rather than scratches) above and in front of the rear wheel as well.
3 Likes
which as an aside perhaps the poster should have done him/herself, and avoided aggravation from Car Next Door.
Sneak round there overnight and just do it? 
2 Likes
Hereâs how Car Next Door has estimated the cost of the repairs for the van in the image I shared above:
- Estimated Repair Cost: $600
- Assessment Fee: TBD
- Damage Handling Fee: $60
- Unable to Use Compensation**: TBD
- Total Amount Owed: $660.00
You might be thinking thatâs a normal sort of charge for taking the car to an autobody shop or panel beater and having the panel resprayed - but Car Next Door doesnât do this. From their website:
âThe vast majority of minor cosmetic damage will be eligible for our preferred mobile repair partner. They will arrange with you to get your car repaired at your house and complete those repairs in a few hours.â
I went out and got my own quotes for a mobile repair using the images that CND shared:
- $165 from BumperTek (includes cut and polish and brushtouch)
- $385 from ProAuto Repairs (includes sanding and filling damaged area, prime and cure, colour match paint using online diagnostic software, apply base coat and cure, multiple glossy clear coats applied, infrared cured until set, cut and polish area).
I think itâs becoming more and more clear that they are more interested in extracting cash from users than providing a good experience. Why else would they be demanding payment within 3 days from being notified about the damage, and telling users to pay the demand and then go through the dispute resolution process after?
4 Likes
And the shakedown continues. After reaching out to the vehicle owner directly, heâs graciously offered to settle this privately for just $350 - what a bargain! Could it be possible that heâs got no interest in getting the âdamageâ repaired and is just using this to generate extra income?
4 Likes
I wonder what Car Next Door thinks about car owners making offers to settle privately with car hirers.
I can see that whether it is $350 or $500 in the Fix Bank, it makes the whole thing a completely uneconomic proposition from the customerâs point of view.
4 Likes
FWIW I used a mobile repairer and doing my due diligence one of their all but standard ploys is to lowball the quote based on the photo, and when they show up it is usually worse and requires more work and more cost than quoted. They happily leave if one is not happy with the âreal quoteâ but they count on the fact that they are there, the consumer wants his vehicle fixed, so they are susceptible to agreeing.
The fix we required was a door ding that chipped through the paint. It needed all the sanding, filling, blah, blah and came to about $700 because the entire door needed to be resprayed because of the low likelihood the specific paint could be blended properly. Overall it was about 40% the cost of a body shop all up and the gent did absolutely top quality work.
Your quotes could be totally dinkum, but my quote started out at about $400 if that makes any point in the sales practices. They all do the same âblah blah blahâ processes.
Gives one confidence in how CND work, does it not 
CND would engage the mobile repair, my punt agrees the owner would pocket the money as you surmise.
4 Likes
Thatâs a good point TheBBG.
CNDâs repair process is pretty opaque too, they wonât provide you with an actual quote even though they are asking you to pay for it: https://support.carnextdoor.com.au/hc/en-gb/articles/360001002006-Will-I-see-quotes-when-I-am-responsible-for-repair-costs-
Just another point to add to the list of reasons not to use this service.
Not surprising that no one from CND has bothered to get in touch - they know what theyâre about.
4 Likes
Was there any reference to GST in this, I assume this is all transacted domestically?
1 Like
