I damaged a rented camera. Thoughts?

C

Camera Expert

Well-known member
Basically I rented a camera from a well known rental place, got a lot of great shots but I decided to go down to a certain area to get shots of a place that was next to the ocean. Right after I got a quick shot and have put the camera in my coat pocket, a gigantic wave got to me. And then when the water finally went back into the ocean, a second big wave got to me. Luckily a third wave didn't get me when I was going up or I wouldn't have had time to run to the wall of rocks to hold on. Who knows what would have happen to me.

I made it out soak and wet from head to toe with just a sore elbow and scrapes on me. Nothing really serious but the camera got damaged because of the water. In the contract, water damage is viewed as "negligence" so even though I payed for their insurance, I still have to pay full price to replace the camera on top of the money I already paid to rent the camera. Basically in total, I'm having to pay more than what the camera is worth and at the same time, they keep the damaged camera.

Just wondering what are people thoughts in this.


Something similar happened to someone years ago.
 
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I would try to speak with them again and just be very, very honest: that you weren't careless, but it was just very unfortunate situation. Explain everything and say that you of course will cover all the damages. I'm sure after your deep explanation will not charge you more then what it's worth.
 
I hate to say it, and I hate that it happened, but I don't think you're going to talk your way out of that one, especially after watching the video.
 
That's actually not my video. I looked around to see if anyone had something similar happened to them and that video popped up.

I was in a different place and have already put the camera in my coat pocket before the first wave came. That reminds me, I might as well post my video. The location I was at is the very last clip in this video I made of the Azores, January 2015 with the LX100 camera. Would have been more clips after that if it wasn't for what happened.

Start watching at the 8:52 mark. Water was perfectly fine when I shot this clip and then soon afterwards, bam!. If only a big wave got into their right before I walked their which would have told me that it's not a good idea to go.

 
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I would never even think of bringing a rented camera close to water.
had to film a thing with my FS700 in knee deep water, almost tripped a few times. Never again.
 
Yes, it's true that walking down their close to the ocean with a rented camera was a little crazy of me. What's ironic is that on a day before, I was going to take a few shots of a certain place but when I saw that it was slightly raining, I decided not to take the camera out. I didn't want the camera to get a tiny bit of rain but yet, I ended up being inside a couple of big waves on another day. I should have been just as cautious.
 
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Something is wrong with this: "I still have to pay full price to replace the camera on top of the money I already paid to rent the camera. Basically in total, I'm having to pay more than what the camera is worth and at the same time, they keep the damaged camera". IMO if you have to pay full price to replace the camera, the damaged camera then should belong to you, to do with what you want e.g. try to get it repaired, sell it for parts. If your car is seriously damaged in an accident and the insurance company declares it a total loss and pays you for the value of the car, they keep the wreck to do with as they please
 
If you paid for the rental with your credit card, you may want to give the credit card company a call. They often have insurance built in and it often covers things like theft and water damage. Worth a call at least to find out.
 
I'll obviously have to bring up rather or not I can get the camera once I'm done paying it off. I'm paying money every month. I read in one place that they keep it but I wonder if it depends on the circumstances. I'll have to look that up again.
 
wjauch said:
Something is wrong with this: "I still have to pay full price to replace the camera on top of the money I already paid to rent the camera. Basically in total, I'm having to pay more than what the camera is worth and at the same time, they keep the damaged camera". IMO if you have to pay full price to replace the camera, the damaged camera then should belong to you, to do with what you want e.g. try to get it repaired, sell it for parts. If your car is seriously damaged in an accident and the insurance company declares it a total loss and pays you for the value of the car, they keep the wreck to do with as they please
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I disagree.

The camera belongs to them. It's up to them to decide what they want to do with it. Sure, it would be a nice gesture if they gave it to him, but they're under no obligation to do so. The money paid for the rental of the camera is gone -- because he had the camera, they were unable to rent it to someone else. So that money doesn't even come into the equation. The money to pay for the camera is to reimburse them for having to buy a new one to replace the one that got damaged.

That all seems perfectly reasonable to me, though unfortunate for the OP.
 
It doesn't matter if they give him the camera or not. The salt water fries the circuits. There's no detachable parts. It's worthless now. Sorry it happened to you.
 
From terms of the insurance that I paid for:
"A damage waiver does not cover lost or stolen items. A damage waiver does not cover water damage as that is considered to fall under the category of Lessee negligence."

It definitely stinks that the camera ends up getting damaged in 1 of the 2 ways in which the "damage waiver" wont help me at all.

I'm usually very careful with cameras but still, this has been a wake up call for me to be even more careful. I really should have never had gone to that place. I might have had second thoughts but I still decided to go all the way. That was really very crazy of me just to get a clip that wasn't really worth getting. With all that said, it could have gotten much worse. I could have been badly injured and not have much energy to get the heck out of their.

I might as well add a little bit more to the story just for the heck of it. I shot a clip of the scenery in one spot and when I went back to the place I was staying it, it looked a bit washed out on my laptop screen and so I decided to get a clip of that shot again the next day. Right after I re shoot that scene, I told myself that maybe I should go down to where the ocean is and get one more clip and we all know how that turned out right after I got the clip down their. Anyway, when I finally got back to the US, I played the clip on my TV and saw that the clip that I thought was washed out, really wasn't bad and in fact, it looked better than clip I did the next day. Ahhh!!!! If I had realized that the clip really wasn't as bad as I first thought, I would never have went to that spot again the next day.
 
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Sucks that it happened, but folks reading this should take this as a lesson learned.

Always read the contract you are signing!

Many also list "color runs" as breach.
 
Getting the camera wet is a whole different story...

But I had a grip & lighting house tell me I had 1,500 bucks in damages... told them anything I have to replace will go in the back of my truck... funny how the bill dropped to $250... and a $150 of that was a legit damage.... found out later they do this to everyone... they low ball the bid on rental and try to make it up this way...

Again if the insurance doesn't cover for it and I have to replace the camera I want the damaged camera as well...
 
GaryinCalifornia said:
Again if the insurance doesn't cover for it and I have to replace the camera I want the damaged camera as well...
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You can want the damaged camera, but they are under no obligation to give it to you. And their refusal to give it to you doesn't absolve you from paying for the damages.

If I ran the rental house, I would think it was good business practice to give the ruined equipment to the person who is paying for the damages, if they wanted it. But that's just me.
 
I'll just raise an ethical question here. Just curious other opinions. Concerning the rental company...they will most likely claim this on their insurance. Odds are...they have really good insurance and plan on getting reimbursed through them...and the client. Effectively they would be paid twice and could buy another camera....and rent that as well.

This is definitely not the proper or ethical thing to do. Does the customer have any protection against such an act? Whats your take?
 
ReelWorksMedia said:
I'll just raise an ethical question here. Just curious other opinions. Concerning the rental company...they will most likely claim this on their insurance. Odds are...they have really good insurance and plan on getting reimbursed through them...and the client. Effectively they would be paid twice and could buy another camera....and rent that as well.

This is definitely not the proper or ethical thing to do. Does the customer have any protection against such an act? Whats your take?
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The more insurance is used, the more it costs to maintain. So, if I rent a camera out and it comes back destroyed, I'm not going to file that with insurance (increasing my monthly bill thereafter) if the renter is responsible for the cost.
 
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