Has anyone had a lease return inspection done by OPENLANE prior to turning the car in? We just got ours this morning and the report showed over $4k of “excessive wear and tear”, most of which were “scratches” that don’t even appear on the photos.
I attached some screenshots of the report below.
I don’t even see the supposed 1" x 20" scratch on the Left Quarter Panel, and you’d think a 20" scratch would be something pretty obvious. (Spoiler, there is no 20" long x 1" scratch on the car.)
Honestly, I will pay for stuff I know is bad, like the 3/32" tire tread on two tires. I have no problem with things like that. But none of the documented scratches are bigger than a credit card, and the hilarious thing is they didn’t even mark the curb rash on the wheels as damage I had to pay for.
What recourse do I have to challenge this BS? Was this all done by AI image reading?!
Had the same thing happen to me. Took the car to a friendly body shop got them to “fix” the issues that were listed and submitted the receipts, got my money back. Also the tires, if you can find used tires, doesn’t have to be same brand just match the rating of the oem, they will accept that.
That is for sure ridiculous. Did the inspector himself note the sizes or say anything else or did he just take a few pics then leave?
Wouldn’t surprise me if they have some Hertz-esque AI photo analyzing crap going on on the backend.
The fact that he noted a bug but missed curb rash tells me he was just a complete idiot and/or it was his first day on the job (which he evidently knows nothing about).
Also FWIW I don’t take the report to say it was a 1"x20" scratch but rather 1 scratch 20" long.
OpenLane may be having trouble recruiting / maintaining quality employees in some markets. They sent someone from Toledo to our house in Columbus to inspect our Blazer EV last week.
Inspector mentioned something about GM not trusting the local inspectors in the Columbus Metro area so they often drive in from Toledo. Obviously this is thirdhand info / anecdotal.
When I dropped my car off a few months ago, the lease return guy at dealership told me that he will re-verify the condition of the vehicle, even after after having the open lane inspection done.
I would point out the issues to the person you’re dropping car off with.
Openlane is weird. I returned my eqe without pre-inspection last month with a large scratch on the door, cracked windshield, curb rashed wheels, cracked mirror turn signal and a small dent . They only noted the scratch and wheels as chargeable items but marked them as zero charge. They either missed or didnt take pictures of the windshield, turn signal, and dent. They took the pictures of the wheels and scratch. More strange thing is, they noted missing cable and manual which is normally chargeable but didnt charge for them either. However I returned them inside the car but in their inspection pictures they are not where I put them. Overall, it worked out for me but I can tell why others’ experience may be wildly different.
how frustrating (but also hilarious?). There’s clearly nothing pictured and I imagine when you turn it in, you won’t get charged for any of it considering there’s no damage. You could also say you just washed the car and it came off. If they don’t have any photo evidence of the damages, that should be a pretty easy appeal, though I suspect you won’t get charged for anything once MB does a quick walk around. You must have gotten the world’s worst inspector.
Thanks for all the commiseration, everyone – it really is chaffin’ my hide here. I called OPENLANE and they said talk to Mercedes Financial. And of course, I always get put on hold for 45 minutes at MB Financial and never end up talking to anyone.
My plan is to go get a decent hand wash + wax job and have them buff out any “scratches” they see. I took a better look at the 20" scratch and it’s visible in the right light, but it’s one of those clear coat scratches you get from the automatic car wash bristles.
I really do think the AI “inspector” is at fault here. Literally the human came and took photos of every single thing he thought could be damage, whether it was actually damage or not. I suspect that’s just his marching orders. Then he must have uploaded them to the AI overlords to do vision analysis or whatnot.
They tried charging me for missing key fob and tire but they removed the charges after talking to them couple of times. It was not easy to get hold of someone from the right department and they have long hold times. I posted about it here - Mercedes Benz EQS Lease Superthread - 2 - #3360 by maverickjoe
What is the white mark to the left of the green arrow in the Left Qtr panel photo? I wonder if these guys get kickbacks on the amount of ‘damage’ they find?
