I wish I had read previous posts regarding 'Cornwall Car Hire' before hiring a car with and would suggest to fellow travellers that they pay a little extra and use Hertz as I did on previous visits. It pains me to say this but as other TA reviewers have said previously there is something untoward here, & their customer service could be improved upon to say the least. I too have spoken with a gentleman who implied I was a liar yet I can assure you (and him as no doubt he's reading this) that I am in no way one of his unscrupulous customers which he has referred to as a defense mechanism on this site.
We (4 adults) collected our car from Newquay airport, the rep pointed out the various dents and I signed a form saying I agreed to these dents. I was given a copy of this form. I paid CDW so my deposit was £300. On returning the car at same airport the rep walked round the car, and then asked if there was a full tank of petrol to which I replied yes- he didn't check this. I then signed a form which I assumed was confirming that the car was returned in same manner as collected because I had my copy from arrival in my hand and this new form was identical to that and there were no additional pen marks showing new damage. I was not given a copy of this form. NO chips were pointed out to me, and NO discussions were had. I asked for a receipt to show that my deposit had not been banked and was told that he couldn't find it and the only thing the rep said after this was to wish us all a safe flight. Today I receive a bill for £70.50 as apparently there was damage to the car, my invoice tells me there were not 1 but 3 chips on the windscreen "as pointed out by representative"
I have spoken to who I assume is the same gentleman that previous TA's have spoken to who told me I was a grown woman and I can read can't I after I told him I had thought the form I signed was saying the car was returned in the same state as when I collected it. He tells me that my signature is on this form (the one I was not given a copy of and apparenty surprise surprise it is not their policy to give you a copy when you return the car), and this form is annotated with 3 chips to the windscreen. If I wsh to see a copy of this there will of course be an admin fee. This form may well state further damage but it didn't state this at the time I signed it so how could these changes have been made to the form when I was no longer present (without a duplicate copy of my own)?? If I am not given a copy of the said form, and no discussion took place and my passengers were witness to this then how and more importantly when did this form get updated to reflect the chips (of which I know nothing about)?? I asked this gentleman what assumption he would make if this happened to him and of course he could not say. So I was not given a copy of this form at the time and this damage was not pointed out to me or discussed with me at the time, yet somehow damage has been recorded on the form what am I supposed to think? What would you think? Be careful when choosing a car, don't go for the cheapest option like I did because as today has proven, it clearly wasn't cheap in the end. There are plenty of other car hire firms out there so do what I didn't do (hindsight is a wonderful thing) and read the reviews on here first as there are others out there who have had all too similar experiences with them so this isn't just a coincidence and there is a pattern here which the company cannot deny unless they are calling all of us on here liars. If anyone has successfully had a refund form this firm can you PM me please before I contact Watchdog and Trading Standards? Thanks
