Car Rental Editing and Proofreading Services

A rental agreement is signed with a diagram showing a rough circle around the rear bumper and the word "scratch" written beside it. The car has, in fact, three separate scratches, a curbed wheel, and a chip in the windshield, none of which the circle or the word could possibly convey. When the vehicle is returned, the counter agent finds the windshield chip and charges the customer for it, and the customer has no way to prove it was there at pickup, because the document that was supposed to establish the car's condition recorded almost nothing about what the car's condition actually was.

We edit what car rental companies produce to document vehicle condition at pickup and return — vehicle condition inspection forms and diagrams, pickup and return condition comparison documentation, damage charge dispute correspondence, fuel and mileage policy disclosures, and the customer-facing explanation of how a damage charge was determined. Our editors work on the record that has to prove what a car looked like before anyone can agree on what changed.

The specific, located condition record is what actually protects a customer from being charged for pre-existing damage, and its failure is a diagram and a single word standing in for a description precise enough to be compared later. A circle and "scratch" cannot be compared against a different scratch discovered at return, because nothing about the first record specifies which scratch, where, or how large. We work through these so each mark is recorded with its specific location, approximate size, and type — a photograph wherever possible — since a photograph timestamped at pickup settles a dispute that a hand-drawn circle cannot; so the customer is invited to walk around the vehicle and add anything not already recorded before signing, rather than presented with a completed form to simply sign, given that a customer who has not actually looked at the vehicle cannot meaningfully confirm its condition; so the return inspection is compared explicitly against the pickup record item by item, because a return inspection conducted without reference to what was recorded at pickup is not a comparison, it is a fresh, unrelated assessment that treats every mark as new; so a damage charge states specifically what was found, where, and how it differs from the pickup record, rather than a general statement that damage was discovered; so fuel and mileage policies are disclosed with the actual charge that applies, given that a policy referenced only by name means little to a customer trying to understand a specific charge on their bill; and so a dispute over a charge is resolved by comparing the two dated, specific records against each other, rather than by the counter agent's recollection versus the customer's. Records kept this way mean a customer is only ever charged for damage that can actually be shown to be new.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including vehicle records, customer information and dispute correspondence. We are editors rather than rental fleet managers, damage assessors or claims specialists, and we offer no view on vehicle condition, damage determinations or charge disputes. What we can do is make sure the record is specific enough to actually settle a disagreement.