East Coast Car Rentals
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Outrageous Charges
Outrageous Charges East Car Rental told us to buy additional insurance when picking up the car but as we bought full proection from rentalcover.com, we did not buy full protection twice. Upon returning the car on December 25, there was a small scratch on the bumper which looks like the paint was scratched off (around 1-2cm), the customer service said they will need to charge AUD1000 as deposit although it can be up to AUD5500 for major damages. However, rest assure, it should be much less and that we will likely get a refund. On that basis, we paid the AUD1000 and left. I emailed a week later on the final cost and did not hear from them until end Jan 2025 (one month later). They put together a full report which includes an assessor fee, 5 days loss of rental income, processing fee etc,,, and asked us to pay an additional AUD1449 which is a total of AUD2449 for a small scratch (1-2cm). The amount seems so outrageous we emailed to ask and they said it is NOT a small damage!! They further said if we don't pay by the due date, they will pass the outstanding to an external party to collect and that we will be responsible for any additional charges. Lesson learnt, we will NEVER rent from East Coast car rental ever again and will choose more reputable and reliable bigger car rental companies such as Europcar, Avis, Thristy... This is the first time we ever rented from East Coast and will be the last.