A folder of open damage cases
In most rental offices there is a folder, a spreadsheet or an email label called something like damage. In it are cases at every stage: a bumper scuff waiting for the bodyshop estimate, a windscreen chip where the hirer has not replied, a van with a smashed mirror where the hirer took the super damage waiver and nobody is sure whether the mirror is covered.
Each case is handled by whoever has time. Some get a letter within days. Some sit for six weeks, by which point the hirer has forgotten the hire and is irritated to hear about it, and the card on file has expired.
The recharge process has no owner and no clock
The damage itself is found at check-in, but the recharge needs four or five other people and firms to act: the bodyshop for an estimate, the branch for photos, the office for the letter, accounts for the payment or the invoice, and sometimes the hirer's insurer or the business account manager.
- Estimates arrive by email as PDFs and are retyped into the letter.
- Excess, damage waiver and tyre and glass cover are applied from memory, so two similar cases get charged differently.
- Admin fees and loss of use are added on some cases and forgotten on others.
- Business account hirers need a different route from retail hirers, but both go into the same folder.
- There is no date by which a case should be closed, so old ones never are.
The inconsistency is what fuels the disputes. A hirer who is charged for something a friend was not charged for, or who receives a letter with no photos, has a reasonable complaint.
What drifting recharges cost you
Money, first: charges that are never raised, raised late or raised at the wrong amount. Then time, because a disputed case can take many emails and calls, most of them repeating the same evidence. Then reputation, because a clumsy damage letter is exactly what prompts an angry review about rental firms inventing damage.
And when cases are closed as a write-off, you rarely know why, so the same gap keeps costing money.
How we build the recharge workflow
- A damage case opens automatically when new damage is recorded at check-in, carrying the agreement, the hirer, both sets of photos and the staff member.
- The case goes to your bodyshop or SMART repairer through a link where they upload the estimate. If they email a PDF instead, we extract the figures from it for someone to check.
- Your terms are set up as rules: excess by vehicle group, what each waiver covers, tyre and glass cover, admin fee and loss of use. The case shows the amount your rules produce, and a person approves or changes it.
- The hirer receives one clear pack: what was found, the check-out and check-in photos side by side, the estimate, how the amount was worked out under the terms they signed, and a payment link.
- Payment by card goes through your existing processor, such as Stripe or your current terminal provider. Business account charges go onto the account as an invoice in Xero, Sage or your accounts system.
- Replies and disputes land on the case, not in a personal inbox, with a reminder schedule and a date by which a manager must decide.
| Case stage | Who acts | What the system does |
|---|---|---|
| Found at check-in | Branch staff | Opens the case with photos |
| Estimate | Bodyshop | Collects the estimate, extracts the figures |
| Amount | Office | Applies your terms, asks for approval |
| Hirer notified | System | Sends the pack and payment link |
| Paid, disputed or written off | Manager | Records the outcome and the reason |
Handling the disputes that remain
Some hirers will still disagree, and some will be right. The workflow makes that easier to handle fairly. Every case shows the evidence, the terms applied and the correspondence in order, so the manager can decide quickly and consistently. When a card chargeback arrives, the evidence pack is already assembled for your processor's form.
We also add a write-off reason list, so that at month end you can see how many cases were lost to missing photos, late letters or waiver confusion, and fix the cause rather than the symptom.
Recharges that close instead of lingering
The office sees every open case with its age and next step. Letters go out while the hire is fresh in the hirer's memory. Similar damage is charged the same way, which is the fairest position to defend. The folder called damage stops growing.
Signs your recharge process needs this
- You have damage cases older than a couple of months with no decision.
- Waiver and excess rules are applied differently by different staff.
- Bodyshop estimates are retyped into letters.
- Hirers receive damage letters without photos.
- You cannot say why last month's write-offs were written off.