Lin Jiawen, Author at Goody Feed

For those of us who drive, crashing your car is probably one of the worst things that can happen. Especially if the car isn't yours. Recently, a Facebook user who rented a car from BlueSG, a local electric car rental company, took to the BlueSG Users Group on Facebook to speak about his experience of being charged almost $10,000 for repair works after someone else crashed the car that he had rented. And if you're going, "What?" after reading what I just said, don't worry. Just read on, because here's all you need to know about what happened. Man Rented Car, But Was Unable to "Park it Perfectly" On Thursday (29 September), Facebook user YP Alex posted about how he rented an electric car from BlueSG on 18 August this year. He added that he was "struggling" to park the car "perfectly" due to the "narrow space" available for him to manoeuvre the car, and that "another person" helped him out by offering to help him park the car instead. From the photos attached, it can be seen that Alex had intended to parallel park the car on the street. However, despite the person's act of kindness, disaster soon ensued. "But he mistakenly pressed accelerator instead of brakes. The car hit a garbage can and stopped," he recalled. He also noted that the car was going at a "very low speed" due to it being "just started". His photos showed that the car's license plate had fallen off, the rim of the rear wheel was dented and that the car's bonnet had been dirtied due to the collision, which was, uh, "mild damage" according to Alex. Well, I suppose "mild" is a subjective term after all. And even though he apparently reported the incident "promptly to every party related", it seems like BlueSG is still holding him accountable for the damages done to the car, at least for now. Received Repair Bill Costing Almost $10,000 Alex then stated that he received a bill from BlueSG around a month after the incident which told him that the repair costs for his rented car had amounted to around $10,000. In particular, he was charged $9769.42 just for the repair works, with $8,495.15 coming from the "own damage repair cost" and another $1,274.27 being charged for administration and GST charges. According to BlueSG's website, "own damage repair costs" includes the amount of money that a driver has to pay for any damage "arising out of or in connection with any collision or accident or incident" during the rental period. "The repair cost is impossibly high. This huge amount really stretches my and me to the edge of ," he wrote. Apart from that, BlueSG also included in the notice that Alex would be charged an addditional $5,000 to $8,000 for "third party excess or repair cost", but this value is currently pending confirmation. The third party excess or repair cost refers to the cost that the driver has to pay for "any damages or injury caused to any third-party property or person arising out of or in connection with any collision, accident or incident that occurs" during the rental period. According to him, he has tried to contact BlueSG for more information regarding the breakdown of costs and "transparency", but has yet to receive a legitimate answer from the company even after calling their customer service hotline. "Is there anyone who had similar experience that can help me on how to deal with BlueSG?" he concluded, in hopes of finding someone who can help him with dealing with these charges. Join our Telegram channel for more entertaining and informative articles at https://t.me/goodyfeedsg or download the Goody Feed app here: https://goodyfeed.com/app/ Netizens' Reactions After reading his post, many Facebook users in the comments section gave their opinions on the matter, with many of them actually not supporting YP Alex's view. Of course, many of them pointed out how his photos proved that the "mild damage" that the car sustained was, in fact, not very mild. One commenter also pointed out how his story failed to add up, saying, "Huh? The car hit the dustbin cause he accidentally accelerated, but your rear wheel dented??? Don’t make sense leh." Some speculated that YP Alex might have lied by telling the story of how someone offered to park his car in order to evade responsbility, and speculated further that he was the one who had actually crashed the car. Others said that he simply should not have attempted to parallel park in the first place if he realised that he was unable to do so. Apart from that, many other netizens also brought up BlueSG's terms and conditions (T&C), especially the point that YP Alex should have been the only one driving the car since it was listed under his name. Some Facebook users also pointed out that the car cannot be used when it is undergoing repairs, and that BlueSG might have charged YP Alex for the loss of rental income as well. However, some also commented that BlueSG might be profiting from these charges. Goody Feed has contacted BlueSG for comments. 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