Powell's Auto Center Inh. Iris Powell e.K.

„We had some unfortunate experiences renting from Powell's Auto Center.

We leased a car for a month from Powell's after PCS-ing to Ramstein, intend…ing to extend our rental until our own car arrived from the States. The rental process itself was smooth. The gentleman working there seemed courteous and professional.

However, about 10 days or so after we got the car, we noticed a smudge on the back bumper, about an inch or so in diameter, that looked like someone had used cheap paint or even whiteout to try to cover a small place where paint had come or peeled off. We hadn't initially seen anything here, but it had been raining quite heavily in the days prior so we assumed the spot was now more noticeable than it would have been before. My spouse was concerned we might be blamed for this so we took the car back to Powell's to make sure they saw and understood we had not tried to cover the spot up.

However, the woman working when we stopped by proceeded to blame us for damaging the car and covering the spot up. She said we would have to pay damages and that the car could not be leased out again until the damage was repaired. (Mind you this spot was only about 1-1.5 inches in diameter).

We asked why we would do such a thing (i.e. try to cover it up) and then go out of our way to show them the spot, but our argument fell on deaf ears. We thus decided to return the car early and try to lease elsewhere. We cut our contract short, loosing money on the return. The woman had a mechanic look at the spot and charged us $100 for the damage.

Luckily, after returning the car, we remembered that we had taken photos of it on the lot before we picked it up that first day. We checked. Sure enough, after blowing up one of the photos, we found that the spot had indeed existed when the car was first leased.

We returned to Powell's and showed this picture to the woman, She initially refused to believe it was authentic, but acquiesced and called us back later when she saw the date on the photo. She returned the $100 for the damage. She did not, however, return the money we lost by returning the car early before the end of the contract. We ended up loosing money, and of course had to lease elsewhere.

Also of concern: We discovered she put the car back on the lot within minutes of our return. She had said it could not be leased again soon because the damage would have to be repaired. But the car sat on the lot with the other vehicles for several days. We checked, and the spot had not been fixed.

Was this a scam? Did Powell's cover the spot intending to blame us when the car was returned? Or are they simply incompetent?

We can't say, but either way, beware.” Weiterlesen Text ausblenden