So about half a month ago, I was moving places due to work. Because the moving facilities here are expensive, I decided to rent a trailer, as my friend had a car with a tow hook. Everything was fine, until when he returned, we noticed there was damage as can be seen in the images. We are sure, we did the damage because there was one instance when we were unhooking the trailer, we did not do it properly and we did hear a loud thud. So not contesting whether WE did the damage. WE did.
Now coming to the repairs. I had already paid a 250€ deposit. At the time of returning, the person also noticed a scratch on the inside of the trailer, and said that would cost 40€ additionally, not very sure if we caused it, but that was not at the time my main concern.
Anyway, a few weeks after they told they would take it to the mechanic to fix it, they mail a post to my friend who drove, as it was his license, address and name that we booked the trailer in, as I can't drive here. The charges as one can see in the pictures just blew my f*ing mind. 1664€ in total. 300€ in transport, we did the whole moving of 600 kms back and forth with about 80€ of fuel. Okay, I understand there are man hours too, but 300???!!!!
And then the prices of the items, I don't know enough to know if they actually had to repair all the parts, or how much they had to replace, or how expensive they really are, am I being scammed here? And 71€ per hour for Arbeitsstunde, is this normal?
And the 40€ scratch that I mentioned before, is now 50€ somehow on the receipt. Everything is so f*ked. As an international student this is wayyyyy out of my budget, I will probably have to ask my friends and parents to help me a out a little. Will have to live on scarps for at least a year. Is there any saving grace here? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
p.s: Also, another thing is that my friend who drove said he would write to his insurance, is there any chance of some coverage here?
by heylo07
13 comments
You need to find yourself a Turkish mechanic, it’s the best investment in every German’s life.
I’m no mechanic, but that looks like structural damage. So it is in the realm of possibilty, that there is need to replace quite some parts.
300€ for transport makes sense. That trailer is probably not legal to drive anymore, so they need to put it on another trailer. And that costs.
Not a scam per se, but definitely shop around.
I had to get a dent in the side of my car repaired and a bit of new paint. At the dealer, they quoted nearly 3000 EUR with insane hourly rates and a ton of probably unneeded work.
I went to a local body shop recommended to me by a couple neighbors: the guy took a quick look, quoted 600 EUR (cash), and the repair was great and professional. Even offered a free rental car during the repair.
Scarps can be pretty tasty, if you cook them right.
Just lightly fry them in sbutter and slemon juice. Or, if you’re feeling culinary, roll the scarps in bread scrumbs first. Delicious! 🤤
sometimes car rental companies will charge you for damage and then not fix it. This is because you’re actually paying for the loss in later resell value when the company sells the vehicle. If that was the case I would expect a lower bill.
However this looks like structural damage so the company **has** to repair it before they can rent it out again. With that in mind €71 per hour seems cheap. The independent mechanics round here (countryside south of Hamburg) charge about 85-90 hour. The dealerships charge a lot more.
If they just *replaced* parts then 5 hours seems like a lot for a trailer, especially as there’s no need for paint, but if they had to weld as well, then the total seems reasonable to me (I’m not a mechanic) but as a car owner I know how expensive simple looking repairs can get.
Do you know when and were the damage happened. Maybe there’s CCTV that you could request access to to find the culprit?
looks very serious from technicle point of view. the beam is properly meant to withstand forces from the car down the hook and it realy looks like you had tried to push the trailer with the car against something unpushable and bent the beam by this. or someone did drive up against it while it was hoocked in. The Repair log says they also had to do stuff on the clamping mechanism which indicates the forces did get through the tow hook as well. Whith enough badluck this is also damaged.
The materials is commen galvanized steal and its relative big i would guess 40 to 50 Squer pipe steel. this can take a punch, depending on the actual thickness of the walls but they are around 2 to 3 mm. Same time the dichsel is designed to serve as crumple zone in the event of someone drives straigt up in to your trailer while hooked. So it did exactly what it was designed for. It does not help you but to understand that the whole frame can be compromised and all involved parts had to get replaced in order to get through the next TÜV. Insurance about that are always like “better have and dont need then need and dont have” they also find ways if you done it Grossly negligent. means if you done it even if you did knew it was wrong.
See it as education bills. next time you know it better and it did cost you “just” 1414,99€ The ,99 is a bit sus though but eh. may a new trailer is cheeper?
Yeah, that’s a new drawbar and it even looks like a kinda complicated one to change. Sounds about right. And the Arbeitsstunde ist cheap honestly. Nowadays is more around 100-120€/h
Since many are asking about the uncoupling incident, maybe I can explain more. We raised the wheel thing under the trailer before removing the hook. But the thing is we raised the wheel too high thinking that would get the trailer to unhook as it was not unhooking to begin with. Turns out the ball just got a little stuck in the socket and that is why it was not unhooking. And we were just lifting the back of the car with just the wheel of the trailer which as you can see is right below the damage. And then when the weight got too much, I believe the ball popped out of the socket and there was the loud thud. But at that point I believe there was a situation where the weight of the back of the car was on the beam that is now damaged. But that should also cause the damage underneath the bar and not the sides. But that has to be how it happened.
71€/hr for the repair is cheap.
Didn’t you take pictures at the time you picked up the trailer from the rental place?
The kind of damage doesn’t match the “accident” you are describing.
This looks more like a jackknifing accident.
Seeing things like that really make me angry. First, unfortunately, that are normal repair prices in Germany. But look. The right side beam has a dent and they replace everything. The connection part costs nearly 400, more than both beams together, and I doubt it is damaged. The bad news is I think you have to swallow it. Perhaps you could claim a reduction, arguing that they overdone the repair or something, but that may leave you with more costs for a legal dispute at the end. If you get a good and even more important – trustworthy – lawyer, you could ask him what are the odds. I think professional legal advice is absolutely necessary if you want to fight this.
Thats major structural damage in the beam, the price seems ok
I am very confused on how you managed to damage it like this tho, did you back up against a wall with the anhänger and keep on the gas?
From looking on the photo and the bill, that states that both main load bearing beams had to be replaced. It definitely was not roadworthy anymore, you can see the dent in the beam in the photo.
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