Green Motion Car Rental Where do I start? Three of us, my daughter and grand-daughter aged 75 53 and 23 had reserved a Honda SUV from Australia some months prior, to be picked up, am 28th December 2023, Glasgow airport depot. Upon our arrival there was mayhem in the office and to cut the often confusing hire agreement and not being sure that we had 3rd party damage insurance on our travel insurance took the damage limitation (400 UK pounds). Seriously that doubled the hire charge! As no SUV was available, we took a UPGADE to a Mercedes Vito Van, sorry minibus, (but it had been delivered from www.estarttruckandvan.co.uk ) This was no upgrade. The vehicle was turned around with quite a lot of damage most significant was the near side mirror, (all the corners had been knocked off) see photo and note that the vehicle is wet and it was raining, this is significant later in the complaint. It was obviously overdue for a service as the following suggests. AdBlue, The warning on the dashboard was a picture of a fuel bouser with “Ad Blue Refill AdBlue See Owner’s Manual” We only thought it was the type of fuel to be used, coming from Australia it was not used in any of our diesel passenger vehicles, (I now know only reserved to European HGV’s.) We simply did not know what AdBlue was had never heard of it and it was not in the briefing of the vehicle. We assumed, wrongly that the vehicle was ‘in service’ it clearly was not! Still being turned around and still being washed. Certainly not fully cleaned nor serviced, the service manual states that AdBlue is not normally needed between services.. By googling we found out that the vehicle would cease to operate therefore we did put in 20 pounds worth of the said additive on 02.01.2024, 10;13am. Night Delivery 41.67pounds, we did in fact pick up and return the vehicle well within working hours, upon our dispute of this charge the answer was. “we can confirm the ‘night fee’ as you collected from Glasgow and returned to Waverly”. Why were we not told of this charge and why was this not listed as a fee for what it was (remote return)? Claim for a refund refused. Please bear with me because this will be drawn out. We first noticed a growing crack in the windscreen on the morning of the 6th January when the sun was on the windscreen, under close inspection an impact chip could be seen in the black part of the windscreen just below the VIN number, bottom right corner, I might add that this was near impossible to see under normal light. Note in the picture, no crack can be seen in the black area. Coming from country South Australia and having had four damaged windscreens to deal with in 57 years of driving and I remember each one very well indeed, I can categorically say that we did NOT have any screen strikes at all. Over the period of the hire the crack did grow considerably and we reported it, (they did not as their emails suggest “found” it) with our protest that it was probably pre-existing. Upon picking the vehicle up in Glasgow, we three, witnessed a staff member photographing the vehicle, in fact from the front. Knowing where to look and what to look for, we requested that those photos be sent to us for perusal, the answer we received was: “Our branches only take photos of damages when a vehicle returns with new damage. We do not take photos of the vehicle before it goes on rent.” That being a blatant lie as three of us were witnesses. A second email sent suggesting there were photos taken, received curt reply, “There are no photo’s your signed damage report attached”. Reading reviews there is more than the suggestion that commission is paid for finding damage, I now realise that the photos were destined for the Waverly branch so that the surreptitious damage could be easily found, pity about the crack growing. Loosing commission because the windscreen would have to be replaced and not rehired. OK so we did wear that damage although certainly not ours and not happy, the cost being 1,060.50 but as we reduced our liability to 400 we wore that cost plus a further 75pound admin fee?? Limited liability of 400 turns out to be 475? In the picture below, under intense lighting the whole crack can be seen clearly. Windscreen saga continues, please stay with this……Being in a small town related to the motor industry I did enquire as to the replacement cost of a Vito windscreen. Auto Guru in Australia quote between $600 & $1,000 for a complete windscreen refit. Auto Glass Europe is 439 Euro and UK car glass is 457 pounds. This is a far cry from the 1,060pounds quoted by Green Motion. Whilst at the windscreen repairer I did show the photo of the originating impact area. The explanation that I got was astounding to say the least. An employee, 27 years in auto glass replacement and repair, stated that the impact on the Vito screen was not consistent with a stone strike. The symmetric damage with fourteen radiating cracks, all of similar length, other than the two that grew, are consistent with vandalism, being struck with a very sharp object impacting at exactly 90 degrees, possibly a spring-loaded centre punch. Don’t leave me here, read on, but in my mind, that explanation is damning! https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2018/jun/09/green-motion-car spring -hire-bills In this Guardian article, near the end, there is a identical claim as ours, “ When Heather Dryden and friends” Their story is the same, as is the damage! In an area impossible to see under normal light let alone low light, (Bottom right corner within the black part of the glass near the VIN) what’s the chances? Our car was wet and raining as was theirs, ensuring that rain drops certainly covered the damage when picked up. Both cars were rented from the Glasgow franchise. One wonders if in our case the crack had not grown on our vehicle would the Green Motion employees miraculously have found the impact damage and what would the cost have been? Green Motion seem to have a lot of problems with windscreens! I cannot believe that this is a coincidence considering the reviews. Upon returning the vehicle to Waverley Edinburgh the receipt for AdBlue was scanned, and pinned to our damage report paperwork. We were reassured that the cost would be refunded however later, Green Motion said there is no record of a receipt. Hence that claim is disallowed. We did score one though, on reading reviews and seeing that large amounts of money had been taken out of customers card’s for no reason, my daughter put a stop on international transactions, which was fortunate as there was a “bus-lane infringement” possibly legitimate, emailed to us on the 3rd February and we did notify Green Motion that we would deal with Aberdeen Council directly. No further correspondence has been received from Aberdeen or Green Motion. In that matter. On the 9th of February however, the day that we received a email stating that none of our claims were to be refunded, our bank notified of an attempt to deduct some $131 from that card, no explanation, no correspondence, no reason! Obligatory administration fee for denying claim? As Deren Hinch would say here in Oz Shame Green Motion Shame SHAME! As a conclusion to this, Budget was a breath of fresh air to deal with in the second half of our holiday. Car had damage, didn’t matter, “everyone scuffs wheels in the UK and drags cases over rear bumper!” Better car at HALF THE PRICE! Absolutely no hassles