Location: Arizona
I have a legal plan, spoke with a telephone attorney through them who said I might need a few different lawyers for my situation, or a firm that can handle all three. His suggestions were: Civil Damages, Personal Injury, and Consumer Protection (Car Rental). I am having a distinctly difficult time finding someone to take my case and so is my legal plan. Personal Injury attorneys I have spoken with have all turned me down because its not accident related. So people of reddit, what/who am I looking for? And do I have a case?
The story:
I rented an electric vehicle through a peer to peer car rental app. The manufacturer claim for range on the vehicle is 220-240 miles on a full charge. Independent Highway speed test (70mph) shows that this vehicle gets 200 miles on a full charge with minimal regenerative braking/coasting. On the owner/Vehicle Host's page/listing, he states that the vehicle gets "190-230 miles of range (this depends on speed, A/C use, etc.)”. However, in direct messages on the website between myself and the owner/host, he states that I should realistically expect only 150 miles of range. Which, would still be fine. We talked about my trip plans and how long I had to get to certain destinations. He did initially voice concern but after discussing the details we just agreed that should i be late on the return trip that we would just extend my reservation by a day. Note that the owner and the vehicle reside in Mesa, AZ. I am a resident of Tucson, AZ
During my trip the vehicle was getting somewhere between 100-120miles. On a couple instances the vehicle would inform me that I had enough charge to continue my trip to the next charger, but halfway there it would change its mind and tell is to turn back. Both of these times, I found a third party charger on the way to bridge the gap. At no point during my trip did I exceed 150 miles in between charging locations that were recommended by the vehicle. I ended up getting to my first destination a full 10 hours after I had originally planned, 26.5 hours after I left my point of origin (normal navigation estimates the trip should have taken 13 hours.
We ended up turning around as we had missed our commitments at the first location and the on board navigation kept pushing our ETA to our second destination by unexplainable amounts of time. On our way back it happened again, the distance to the next charger was 130 miles but 15 miles in the car changed its mind and told us to turn back. This time, we all lost signal due to where we were and so we pressed on, not knowing there weren't any third party chargers. When we got signal back and realized this, we routed navigation to a third party charger that was the same distance from the last charger as it would have been to our originally intended charger (130 miles) but despite going below the speed limit (the car insisted that we wouldn't make it unless we drove below 55mph). We made it out of the reservation to the interstate where we pulled into a gas station and parked with 6% of battery. I proceeded to call the rental company for support.
Location: New Mexico
For the next 10 hours i spoke with (as their own records show) more than 40 different representatives through phone and online chat (their EQ/Vehicle Quality team was only accessible by chat) across multiple departments. Some contradicted one another, put me on hold indefinitely, disconnected (I had full reception), or flat out told me that they did not have the resources to help me. What they could offer was an Uber/Lyft/Taxi Reimbursement but only up to a certain amount/distance. They could put me into a different rental of equal or lesser value but that required I be in a location where they had other owner/Hosts who were renting their vehicles out through their app. Where I was located, none of those options were available. 6 hours later, desperate, I phoned 911. The Sheriffs department came out but said they could not offer us any aid as by their definition we were in "a safe place". Four hours after that, the rental company finally sent out a tow truck but tow trucks are no longer allowed to transport people. So the rental company had the means of recovering a vehicle and returning it to its owner but none to rescue their customer if they broke down outside of a major city.
10 hours after parking and pleading with support for help, their Roadside Assistance finally got a tow truck out to us who at first confirmed they weren't allowed to transport us, but after hearing about the situation we were in, agreed to "smuggle" us all the way back to our state where we could be picked up. We were relieved to be back home finally but we were all deeply upset and traumatized by the experience.
The owner of the vehicle filed a claim for damages against me because I allowed the battery in the EV to go to 0% which risked damage to the battery. I explained to both the owner/Host and the rental company that I was forced to keep the heater on through the night so that me and my passengers didnt freeze to death while i battled support for 10 hours so I really had no choice. And that I stood out in the cold/in the gas station to speak to support so that my passengers could try to get some sleep in the warm vehicle. The owner also invoiced me for all the uses of the Charging stations (fast charging ones proprietary to the vehicle which billed the owner directly) which I had agreed to originally but felt that the amount at the very least needed to be adjusted due to having been forced to use them a lot more than I should have.
At the time of this writing me and my passengers are still deeply distraught from the ordeal. I lost everything I had put into the trip. The business side of the trip was for one of my passengers who incurred losses due to the missed business arrangements in our two destinations (primarily the second). While the trip ordeal was not the direct cause of, it compounded/aggravated existing problems she had which influenced her decision to attempt to take her own life a couple days after our return home. I confirmed with my doctor that I am suffering symptoms of severe depression. My other passenger is going through much the same.
The owner/Host decided to drop the claim for damages and I suspect that the charges for the use of the proprietary charging stations will be dropped too though they are still currently being disputed. I strongly desire compensation and a proper apology for me and my two passengers, one of whom is currently hospitalized. And I dont want this to happen to any other user/customer, this company should have a plan in place to assist customers who become stranded outside of a major city.
I have a legal plan, spoke with a telephone attorney through them who said I might need a few different lawyers for my situation, or a firm that can handle all three. His suggestions were: Civil Damages, Personal Injury, and Consumer Protection (Car Rental). I am having a distinctly difficult time finding someone to take my case and so is my legal plan. Personal Injury attorneys I have spoken with have all turned me down because its not accident related. So people of reddit, what/who am I looking for? And do I have a case?
The story:
I rented an electric vehicle through a peer to peer car rental app. The manufacturer claim for range on the vehicle is 220-240 miles on a full charge. Independent Highway speed test (70mph) shows that this vehicle gets 200 miles on a full charge with minimal regenerative braking/coasting. On the owner/Vehicle Host's page/listing, he states that the vehicle gets "190-230 miles of range (this depends on speed, A/C use, etc.)”. However, in direct messages on the website between myself and the owner/host, he states that I should realistically expect only 150 miles of range. Which, would still be fine. We talked about my trip plans and how long I had to get to certain destinations. He did initially voice concern but after discussing the details we just agreed that should i be late on the return trip that we would just extend my reservation by a day. Note that the owner and the vehicle reside in Mesa, AZ. I am a resident of Tucson, AZ
During my trip the vehicle was getting somewhere between 100-120miles. On a couple instances the vehicle would inform me that I had enough charge to continue my trip to the next charger, but halfway there it would change its mind and tell is to turn back. Both of these times, I found a third party charger on the way to bridge the gap. At no point during my trip did I exceed 150 miles in between charging locations that were recommended by the vehicle. I ended up getting to my first destination a full 10 hours after I had originally planned, 26.5 hours after I left my point of origin (normal navigation estimates the trip should have taken 13 hours.
We ended up turning around as we had missed our commitments at the first location and the on board navigation kept pushing our ETA to our second destination by unexplainable amounts of time. On our way back it happened again, the distance to the next charger was 130 miles but 15 miles in the car changed its mind and told us to turn back. This time, we all lost signal due to where we were and so we pressed on, not knowing there weren't any third party chargers. When we got signal back and realized this, we routed navigation to a third party charger that was the same distance from the last charger as it would have been to our originally intended charger (130 miles) but despite going below the speed limit (the car insisted that we wouldn't make it unless we drove below 55mph). We made it out of the reservation to the interstate where we pulled into a gas station and parked with 6% of battery. I proceeded to call the rental company for support.
Location: New Mexico
For the next 10 hours i spoke with (as their own records show) more than 40 different representatives through phone and online chat (their EQ/Vehicle Quality team was only accessible by chat) across multiple departments. Some contradicted one another, put me on hold indefinitely, disconnected (I had full reception), or flat out told me that they did not have the resources to help me. What they could offer was an Uber/Lyft/Taxi Reimbursement but only up to a certain amount/distance. They could put me into a different rental of equal or lesser value but that required I be in a location where they had other owner/Hosts who were renting their vehicles out through their app. Where I was located, none of those options were available. 6 hours later, desperate, I phoned 911. The Sheriffs department came out but said they could not offer us any aid as by their definition we were in "a safe place". Four hours after that, the rental company finally sent out a tow truck but tow trucks are no longer allowed to transport people. So the rental company had the means of recovering a vehicle and returning it to its owner but none to rescue their customer if they broke down outside of a major city.
10 hours after parking and pleading with support for help, their Roadside Assistance finally got a tow truck out to us who at first confirmed they weren't allowed to transport us, but after hearing about the situation we were in, agreed to "smuggle" us all the way back to our state where we could be picked up. We were relieved to be back home finally but we were all deeply upset and traumatized by the experience.
The owner of the vehicle filed a claim for damages against me because I allowed the battery in the EV to go to 0% which risked damage to the battery. I explained to both the owner/Host and the rental company that I was forced to keep the heater on through the night so that me and my passengers didnt freeze to death while i battled support for 10 hours so I really had no choice. And that I stood out in the cold/in the gas station to speak to support so that my passengers could try to get some sleep in the warm vehicle. The owner also invoiced me for all the uses of the Charging stations (fast charging ones proprietary to the vehicle which billed the owner directly) which I had agreed to originally but felt that the amount at the very least needed to be adjusted due to having been forced to use them a lot more than I should have.
At the time of this writing me and my passengers are still deeply distraught from the ordeal. I lost everything I had put into the trip. The business side of the trip was for one of my passengers who incurred losses due to the missed business arrangements in our two destinations (primarily the second). While the trip ordeal was not the direct cause of, it compounded/aggravated existing problems she had which influenced her decision to attempt to take her own life a couple days after our return home. I confirmed with my doctor that I am suffering symptoms of severe depression. My other passenger is going through much the same.
The owner/Host decided to drop the claim for damages and I suspect that the charges for the use of the proprietary charging stations will be dropped too though they are still currently being disputed. I strongly desire compensation and a proper apology for me and my two passengers, one of whom is currently hospitalized. And I dont want this to happen to any other user/customer, this company should have a plan in place to assist customers who become stranded outside of a major city.
