Damage, deposits and disputes

The deposit is set per car, quoted to the renter as its own line, and added to the booking total. It is held against damage, missing fuel and fines, and it is returned to the renter when the car comes back as it went out.

Zuruflex collects it, so Zuruflex returns it or holds it back. How much is taken before pick-up is a Zuruflex setting that differs by country — sometimes the whole total, sometimes the deposit alone — so a booking marked paid does not always mean every part of it has been collected. Support can tell you what has actually moved on a given booking.

Both ends of the hire get a record: one when the keys go out, one when the car comes back. Each carries the same things, which is what makes the pair worth having.

A pick-up record can be written and corrected all the while the booking is confirmed. The moment you start the hire it is sealed, and nothing — not you, not Zuruflex — edits it afterwards. The return record works the same way one step later.

So show the renter the record on your phone before you start the hire. They are looking at the same four photographs and the same odometer reading you are, and both of you know it cannot be changed after that. A record agreed at the car is worth more than an argument three days later.

Two things the system simply refuses: a return recorded with no pick-up behind it, and a closing odometer lower than the opening one. Both are typos or guesses, and both turn into a negative charge if they are let through.

The photographs are evidence, not gallery pictures. They are stored privately and served only through short-lived signed links, and the record is readable by you and by Zuruflex staff — not from the renter’s own account.

The renter gets it the way they signed for it: on your phone, at the car, at both ends. If they ask for a copy afterwards, ask support and they will send it. Do not paste a photo link into a chat expecting it to still work later; it will not.

Record the return as you find it — the real odometer, the real fuel level, the damage photographed from the angle that shows it — and write what you see in the notes. Then say it to the renter in the booking’s own thread, before they have left if you can, and raise it with Zuruflex on the partner support line — WhatsApp or email, both on the app’s help screen.

Deciding what comes out of a deposit is a person’s call, not the system’s, and returning money is done by hand in the payment provider. That cuts both ways: nothing is deducted automatically, and nothing is refunded automatically either, so raising it early is what gets it settled while the deposit is still held.

Keep it in the thread rather than on a phone call. The thread is between you and the renter, but it is also the transcript the decision gets made from: Zuruflex staff can read a booking’s thread back when you bring them the reference, and a phone call leaves nothing to read.