Recently, many online car-hailing drivers have reported that they rent a car from a rental company to run an online car-hailing car, and when they return the car, some minor problems of the vehicle, the maintenance fee given by the car rental company is much higher than that of a third-party repair shop. The car rental company believes that the two parties have already agreed in the contract how to assess the damage. How should such disputes be defined?
The family of Mr. Chen, a driver in Chengdu, told reporters that when returning the car, the company found that there were scratches on the protective layer outside the power battery under the vehicle, and went to the repair shop to say that it could be repaired for a few hundred yuan, but the car rental company Sichuan Boxiang Automobile Service Co., Ltd. informed Mr. Chen a month after returning the car, requiring 3,500 yuan to repair according to the standard of the 4S shop, and they could not recognize the price of this repair.
Mr. Chan's family members:The company determined the damage, and rented the car to someone else without repairing it. The maintenance worker said that it would be done for a few hundred dollars. He deducted my 3,500 yuan, do you think he will take it for repair? If he takes it to the 4S shop to repair it, it will be a bit over-repaired, and there is no need for it at all.
The chassis of Mr. Chan's vehicle was damaged
Mr. Chen's family said that when they picked up the car, they did not pay much attention to checking the chassis. The rental company had promised to provide a damage assessment and refund of the deposit within 7 days of returning the car, but they did not receive the damage assessment notice until a month later, when the car had been used by another driver. At this point, they were neither able to participate in the restoration process nor be able to contact the driver who was using the car.
Mr. Chan's family members:He had already rented out the car at that time, and it took about a month for the damage assessment to come out, and we had to see if it had been repaired for so much money.
Mr. Chen's contract stated that Party B could repair the vehicle by itself if it did not accept Party A's offer, but the vehicle was rented out
A staff member of the car rental company believes that the power battery is an important part of the electric vehicle, and the vehicle can be safer in the future by repairing it in a professional way in the 4S shop.
Staff member:The vehicle is repaired and protected in the 4S shop throughout the process, and it will not be messed up outside. The most important thing is that the chassis of the power battery has been damaged. The explanation of the 4S shop to us is that if there is no protective layer, the battery will be exposed to the outside, and the whole tram will be scrapped if it is flooded on rainy days. It involves the labor cost of the worker, as well as the cost of materials.
Mr. Liu from Zhongshan, Guangdong Province reported through the black cat complaint that he rented a car from Yadi New Energy Company and ran online car-hailing for 2 years, and when he returned the car in March this year, he couldn't see 2 injuries at all, and he was also asked by Yadi for compensation, and he had to pay 640 yuan for the two damages, which he felt was unreasonable, but the deposit was in the hands of the other party, and the company directly deducted the money.
She (the staff) looked left and right, found a very small point, and told me that it needed to be repaired. It's not very serious, I didn't even know when I used it. There was a little dent in the front roof cover that I couldn't even see when I picked up the car. And there is a black spot on the photo of picking up the car, when he rented a car and picked up the car, he said that it doesn't matter if these things are small, but when you return the car, you are there to find the problem according to the angle, this angle, that angle.
In a video sent by Mr. Liu to reporters, it can be seen that in the repair shop, Mr. Liu and the staff of the leasing company have a disagreement on whether "the damage on the engine cover can be seen with the naked eye".
Mr. Liu:You take a look.
Staff member:It's reflective.
Mr. Liu:It's not reflective, there's no trace at all!
Staff member:See for yourself if it's a concave? Come on, come on, you can shoot from this angle here. See?
Mr. Liu:That's the shadow of the light!
How should the two sides decide on the tiny traces? How to determine the standard of 320 yuan for the maintenance cost of each trace? As of press time, Yadi New Energy has not yet responded.
This kind of problem does not only occur in commercial vehicles, but also in the ordinary consumer. Ms. Zhao rented a car in Chitong Car in Fuzhou for a self-driving trip, and the exterior paint of the vehicle was slightly scratched, and when she returned the car, it was clear that it could be repaired in a more economical way, but the leasing company had to charge a high fee. In the end, with the coordination of the local transportation management department, most of the fees were waived.
Ms. Zhao:The scratches are very fine, about two centimeters, and they are very shallow, and the car can be treated with polishing, but the leasing company said that it is very unreasonable to paint the whole piece of sheet metal, and it only has a slight scratch of two centimeters. The leasing company asked me to bear the cost of stopping the freight, and then charging 800 yuan for the sheet metal painting of the whole 4S store, which was too much. I just don't think it's reasonable. The transportation management department is quite helpful and helped me solve it very quickly. The leasing company said at the time, then pay 200 yuan.
Mr. Dai, an online ride-hailing driver, has studied the contracts of several rental companies, and he is also the group leader of an online ride-hailing driver group. He told reporters that many drivers have reported that the inspection when returning the car is far stricter than when the driver picks up the car, many drivers neglect to collect evidence, and the final settlement is also deducted by the leasing company as a deposit, even if they feel that the maintenance cost is unreasonable, it is very difficult to protect their rights.
Mr. Dai:The car you originally rented to me was an old car, and when you handed it over to me, you didn't seriously handle the process of leaving evidence, and when I returned it, it was not easy to find faults? And often the person who assessed the damage was not the 4S shop but the person from the leasing company, and the price was basically based on the 4S shop.
Zhao Zhanzhan, a special researcher at China University of Political Science and Law, who has long been concerned about Internet legal issues, told reporters that if it is a new car, it is reasonable to go to the designated 4S shop for maintenance during the warranty period, but no matter where it is repaired, the fee charged is always based on the actual expenditure, not what the leasing company says verbally.
Zhao Zhan:At the operational level, whether it is to go to the 4S shop for maintenance, or to other manufacturers for maintenance, the specific maintenance fee must be subject to the actual expenditure, and there needs to be relevant expenditure vouchers, rather than the car rental company itself directly formulating the standard, which may not actually happen, and he still collects it from the renter. In this case, there is no legal basis. Because he may be a small scratch, he may only get together several times to repair once, and the cost of maintenance it actually occurs is very low.
Zhao Zhanzhan suggested that drivers can first complain to the regulatory authorities and collect relevant evidence to protect their rights.
Zhao Zhan:Because the amount involved may not be too high, and the driver usually does not understand the relevant legal knowledge, the cost of defending rights is also high. In fact, the car rental company is also well aware of the difficult situation faced by the renter to protect his rights, and the real prosecution can only be said to be a very small number of cases, so what to do about this situation? At the very least, you can report and complain to the transportation management department or the market supervision department, and then choose to resort to law and collect relevant evidence to protect your rights.
(Voice of China)