Green Motion car hire workers ‘were paid to find phoney damage’

Car rental company Green Motion was accused of claiming payment for pre-existing, barely visible damage or marks on cars
ES local feed
Benedict Moore-Bridger28 January 2019

One of the UK’s biggest car rental companies gave employees bonuses for charging customers “extortionate” fees over damage to vehicles, a whistleblower has claimed.

Green Motion, which has outlets at most of the country’s major airports, was accused of claiming payment for pre-existing, barely visible damage or marks. It reportedly faced criticism from customers who claim they have been “conned”. One customer said she paid nearly £800 for a tiny scratch which the company claimed she had made.

A whistleblower, who worked at a branch of Green Motion for over a year, said he received a £50 cash bonus every time a customer was blamed for damage. He told BBC London’s Inside Out programme: “When I first joined the company the boss was asking me things. When I said, well, the scratch was not there or whatever, he would say, ‘Just don’t worry about that’. We would have to charge them anyway.”

He also claimed damage would sometimes not be fixed to “catch out” future customers and charge them for it.

Richard Lowden, chief executive of Green Motion International, admitted customers being wrongly charged “could happen”, with some franchises having some freedom to bill customers as they pleased.

He said the company had conducted an internal review and some franchises had been “brought back into check”.

He added that it was rare for a customer to be charged for damage they did not commit, but in those cases Green Motion would “do everything we can to rectify that.”

The company says it has now lowered its damage charges and drivers will have until 10am the next day to report damage that was already there.

A spokesman for Green Motion International said: “The BBC Inside Out programme reports concerning allegations from a person who claims to have previously worked at one of the Green Motion franchise locations in the UK that staff were offered cash incentives to seek out damage on returned vehicles in order to unfairly charge customers.

“The BBC declined to share full details of the allegations with us before their programme was aired. As soon as we have them, Green Motion International and the UK master franchise holder will undertake a full and thorough investigation of the franchise operation in question. If any wrongdoing is found on the part of staff or management, decisive action will be taken. This may include termination of a franchise agreement.

“Under the terms of their agreement, franchise holders are permitted to incentivise good operational efficiency amongst staff, but they are absolutely not allowed to incentivise them to wrongly charge customers for damage. This goes completely against our customer service policy and undermines confidence in our brand, so we must ensure no staff employed by UK franchisees engage in this dishonest practice.”

Inside Out will be on BBC1 at 7.30pm

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