Many on the RS forum are probably aware of this, but I thought it might be a good idea to post this article. I had a brief look but didn't see it posted yet.....
https://www.travelandleisure.com/rental-car-damage-scam-7554138
This is definitely something I'll be doing next time I rent a car!
Thanks for posting this. Aside from being a bit nervous about driving in foreign countries, I haven't rented a car in probably 20 years, so the whole process is unfamiliar to me. AutoEurope seems legit and they were helpful when I needed to change a reservation, nevertheless, I've set up reminders to do this on my phone for the days I'll be picking up the rentals.
We have always done this when renting a car. Also be sure that your camera is set to the local time and date.
We always do this, but it is such a good reminder!
Since there is no way with an iPhone to date stamp photos, I wonder how good photographing the car really is push comes to shove.
They are date and time stamped. You might have to download to your laptop to see the properties.
One way to get around the 'date' issue, is to make your 1st photo of the car one that includes the license plate and enough background to show its on the rental lot. Then the odometer to show the mileage which should be the 'mileage out' shown on the contract. Then document all the damage you see. Finish the photo series as you started.
It was a lot simpler/easier to just mark the exploded car diagram with where the damage was and they took a copy as you left and you kept a copy.
"Since there is no way with an iPhone to date stamp photos, I wonder how good photographing the car really is push comes to shove."
EXIF data is shown on iPhone photos, however that may be dependent on which iOS version the phone is using. I'm currently using iOS 16.5.1 and with the iPhone camera app, tapping the small "i" that's in a circle below the photo will reveal not only time and date, but also the camera settings used to capture the image (ie: shutter speed, ISO, etc. That's also true of the Camera+ app that I use. Info is also provided on videos (ie: FPS, date, etc.). If I post an iPhone photo to my photo website, the information will also be shown there.
If the phone is set to update time automatically, it should adjust to European time as soon as the phone is switched on in Europe. The local time would then be attached to photos. I use an iPhone and that's always been the case when travelling.
I'm using iOs 16.5.1. True, you can adjust the date and time aa photo was taken. But on my phone it always displays the original date/time the photo was taken just above the adjusted date/time. As far as I can tell, I don't see a way to alter it. I'd still take the photos and a video.
That said, renting through AutoEurope last summer and purchasing full coverage was well worth it. The rental company we chose at MXP was Hertz. We had a minor incident scratching a wheel rim rather significantly and damaging the tire slightly. I pointed out the damage to Hertz. They said no problem since I was fully covered. The agent wished us a safe flight and we were on our way. Never heard another word from anyone. I can imagine that damage would have been a lot more than the extra for our full coverage. More importantly, no speeding tickets from automated sources or ZTL violations!
This happened to us when we returned a car at the Zagreb airport last June. They charged us $400 for a scratch on the bumper. We were running late so we paid. When we got home the next day, we sent the company pictures we had taken when we rented the car, all date and time stamped. It was the same day and time we rented. We received an email of apology and our money back.
"Giving it more thought the photograph method should only be done on a phone and not a digital camera for ease of zooming in on scratches and marks with return agent, and ability to provide proof of age of photo given the context of the photos in the phone."
In some ways, I would prefer to use a digital camera for that. One of my P&S cameras has about 30x zoom, so lots of ability to zoom in as necessary. It also has a GPS built in, so has the ability to pin photos to the location where they were taken. I've never used that feature, so would have to check the manual to see how to set it up.
