Never. Again.
Where to start. I hired a car from Autohorn for a month whilst my car was in the garage. It wasn't cheap but it was cheaper to do short term hire than a daily rental elsewhere. You have to pay an admin fee to be able to hire from them, which isn't ideal, so after £550 I got a car delivered. The drop off was done quickly, the representative told me that there was some superficial damage to the bodywork that he had marked on the paperwork as existing. I didn't think anything more of that at this point. The car itself was great, I have no issues with the vehicle, just the company who rented it out. I called 1 week prior to the month rental being up to let them know that I no longer needed the car and the sale rep I spoke to agreed a date with me that was one day before my rental period finished, so that (his words) "We can ensure you won't be charged on the rolling contract for another month". The car gets picked up and the rep starts a brand new inspection form to assess the vehicle, they do not use the one I have that details the existing damage. I mentioned this and was told it was fine to start a new one and that they'll submit the paperwork together. He told me all damage matched that of the damage already identified at drop off. I signed. He took all paperwork with him and left me with nothing, which should have rung alarm bells at the time but I needed to get back on a work call so didn't question it. The following day, £420 is taken from my account for another months rental. I called them to query it and they told me that they always take that and that they will then deduct any costs of repair and send the remaining funds back to me. I told them there was no damage, I had that confirmed but that nobody left me with any paperwork to confirm this. The next email I receive is from the maintenance team with photos of damage to the car that they are charging me for!! I honestly think this is their business strategy - to charge extra post-rental like this. After a lot of calls and emails, weeks of battles and me having to get my bank involved, I eventually received my money back. Do not use this company unless you have a few days you'd like to waste on the phone and email! Never. Again.
1 February 2023
Unprompted review