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11-05-2009, 04:10 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 3
| | | Rental car loss of use
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
I was in an accident in a rental car some time back, and I'm concerned with how the rental car company figured their "loss of use" fee.
Instead of charging me for the actual days the car was in the shop, they took the number of labor hours the mechanic billed them, divided that by four, and called that "days". Thus, a 58 hour repair job was turned into "14.7 days" even though the repairs could quite possibly have been done in two or three days if more than one mechanic was working on it. This means they're charging me LOU for over two weeks, when for all I know they actually had the car back on the rental lot in three days.
This seems like an entirely unreasonable way to compute a loss of use fee - the actual time the car spent in the shop would be any rational person's assumption of the fair number. Moreover, the contract I signed with the rental car company does not spell out in advance that they will use this completely counterintuitive calculation.
Am I within my rights to protest this, and if so what avenue should I use? Or are they allowed to use any calculation they like even if they don't spell it out in the contract?
Thanks for any advice!
(I'm in California, but the rental, accident, and repair all occurred Nebraska.)
Last edited by IdahoEv; 11-05-2009 at 04:13 PM.
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11-05-2009, 07:43 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 17,844
| | | Typically shops can complete about 5 labor hours per day on any particular job. 4 hours is a lazy shop - or a busy (understaffed) one.
I would argue that you're not responsible for loss of use at ALL unless they had no other cars to rent and can prove they lost revenue because of the time in the shop.
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11-05-2009, 08:46 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 3
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by ecmst12  I would argue that you're not responsible for loss of use at ALL unless they had no other cars to rent and can prove they lost revenue because of the time in the shop. | I would feel that way as well, but their contract clearly states they will charge a LOU fee, regardless of fleet utilization. Since I signed that contract, I figure I'm stuck with that.
It's the arbitrary way they compute the lost days that still bothers me. |
11-05-2009, 08:57 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 17,844
| | | It's not arbitrary, it's industry standard to calculate either 4 or 5 labor hours per day (5 is more common). Maybe you can negotiate it down to 5/day instead of 4.
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Lawsuits are not about justice. They are about MONEY. If you don't want money, then you shouldn't be thinking about suing. And people post here because they are thinking about suing. Because they want money, no matter how much they don't want to admit that to themselves.
-Auto insurance adjuster for 2 years - as of 6/15/09, I am FREE!
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11-07-2009, 01:03 AM
| | Member | | Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 184
| | | I would tell them to take the loss of use charges and shove them up their a__.
I highly doubt they lost 14 days of use out of the vehicle. As said above, I'm sure they had plenty of vehicles on the lot to rent and were not missing this vehicle. |
11-07-2009, 01:08 AM
| | Member | | Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 184
| | | Also, what were the damages/estimate? 58 hours is a pretty good amount of time.
Was 58 on the estimate written by the shop or just a number that the rental company gave to you? |
11-09-2009, 05:12 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 3
| | | 58 hours was the amount actually charged on the repair invoice. |
11-09-2009, 05:31 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 17,844
| | | You must have damaged the car pretty badly.
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Lawsuits are not about justice. They are about MONEY. If you don't want money, then you shouldn't be thinking about suing. And people post here because they are thinking about suing. Because they want money, no matter how much they don't want to admit that to themselves.
-Auto insurance adjuster for 2 years - as of 6/15/09, I am FREE!
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11-09-2009, 05:34 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,274
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by ecmst12 You must have damaged the car pretty badly. | I'll say! Must have been an expensive car not to be totaled!
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11-09-2009, 05:37 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 17,844
| | | Most rental cars from major companies are less then 2 years old, and most of them get ridiculous discounts from their repair shops.
__________________
Lawsuits are not about justice. They are about MONEY. If you don't want money, then you shouldn't be thinking about suing. And people post here because they are thinking about suing. Because they want money, no matter how much they don't want to admit that to themselves.
-Auto insurance adjuster for 2 years - as of 6/15/09, I am FREE!
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11-10-2009, 05:00 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,274
| | | You can replace a whole lot of parts in 58 hours. They don't fix anything anymore, they replace it with new. The labor is a small part of the bill, parts are the biggest expense. I'm just saying it probably wasn't a KIA.
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11-10-2009, 05:09 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 17,844
| | | You don't actually know anything about auto body repair, do you? It depends on the type of damage, whether parts are repaired or replaced. And it depends on the type of labor (mechanical vs body vs paint labor) how much the labor itself costs. Labor cost could easily be greater then parts cost with a repair this long. Besides, the discounts the shops give rental companies usually applies to the parts AND the labor.
I would doubt that this is the cheapest category rental, but even a 2 year old Kia could be worth repairing; the value is still over $10k.
__________________
Lawsuits are not about justice. They are about MONEY. If you don't want money, then you shouldn't be thinking about suing. And people post here because they are thinking about suing. Because they want money, no matter how much they don't want to admit that to themselves.
-Auto insurance adjuster for 2 years - as of 6/15/09, I am FREE!
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