Rental Cars - beware

[tomn]

Those of us who travel frequently often rent cars from Enterprise. I am dealing with an issue with them currently where two guys in my company rented a car and are being accused of denting it - they say they did not. They picked up the black car late at night on a rainy evening - looked around the car and did not see any damage but said it would have been hard to see any dents on a black rain covered car at night. The car was returned to an unattended lot and the keys returned to an agent inside the airport main building.

Enterprise says there are two dents in the car and that my company is responsible for the cost to repair. We, of course, disagree.

The point is - be careful when picking up a rental. Be sure the paperwork has any damage at all noted and if you can't tell because of darkness, rain, etc. make them do something about it. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't have time for this sort of thing.

[PTK]

Refuse to rent a car at night that's been sitting outside in the rain. It's difficult to inspect. Also absolutely refuse to drop off at an unattended lot leaving the keys with some unknown individual. 

Now it's your word against theirs! 

[AmigOne]

Indeed the car rental companies have become become a pia regarding dents, such as those made by other cars when opening their door, over which you have no control. This is compounded by the fact that very often you do not get a bill when you return the car (mostly on rentals at FBOs) so if a few days later you get a bill that includes some "damage cost" it becomes very difficult to dispute.

[DrBill]

I typically rent from Hertz due to deep discount from employer.  I ALWAYS do a walk around and anything that is NOT perfect, I take a phone picture.  Any dents, deep scratches, I'll go get the agent IF it's not already noted on the rental agreement (usually it is).  Only once, in 30 years, have I found a dent not on the RA and had them mark it up and initial.

Never had a problem.  It's 30 seconds of time well spent.  Now, with all my rentals I'm a lifetime "GOLD" member so the light is good and most of the walk around is dry even when raining.

 

BILL

[Jamie]

I know it's more expensive, but I always take their insurance, even if my own auto insurance would cover it. I'd rather pay a little more and not have to worry about paying a lot more. I never check for dents or scratches. Not my problem.

[BigTex]

For Enterprise this is not uncommon.  My daughter had the same exact thing happen to her.  She dropped off her car to an unattended parking lot.  A couple of days later Enterprise called her and try to shake her down for some what we can tell prior scratches and normal wear.  We just called our insuance company and let them know we're being scammed by Enterprise and they handled it.  Enterprise kept calling but all we'd say is call our insurance company and provided the number.  They called two or three times before they quit.  Not sure they ever called the insurance company.  No claim was ever filed on the car.

 

I suspect this is just a tactic they use to get repairs done to their fleet at the renters expense.  I've been renting for 30+ years from Avis and Hertz and has never had anything like this happen.  In fact, I rented a car that the front bumer almost came off.  I returned it to an unattended lot with the bumper held on with duct tape and never heard a word.

[flyboy0681]

Like Bill said, I always take pictures before pulling out of the spot, making sure I get background references in the picture to prove the pictures were taken in their lot. If there is no attendant when I return the car, I park it and take a dozen or so pictures again and save them for a couple of months.

 

Unlike Allsmiles, it's difficult for me to refuse to take a car on a rainy night. My standard procedure is to inspect the car the best I can and go back to the desk and report what I found. Also, most small town airports that I go into (Urbana, Illinois for example) don't have people checking cars in on the lot and require the renter to record the mileage and fuel and drop the keys off at the desk. Again, the best backup to this arrangement is taking a lot of pictures.

[Earl]

Our company has had a national contract with Enterprise for a number of years.  We had a litany of charges from them for dents and dings and when we renegotiated our contract we included insurance in the daily rate.  Since then believe it or not we have had far fewer allegations from Enterprise of damage since they are responsible for the costs, not us.  It did not add that much to our daily rate and has been well worth it.  I make sure when I rent from at an FBO that they have our company account number.

[N601RX]

We only use Hertz at work and out of hundreds of rentals I've never had a problem.  I have noticed at locations in other countries an agent actually walks out to the car with you and walks around it with you noting any damage.  I had kind of come to the conclusion here in the US that they didn't worry about small dings very much.  I think some credit cards automatically give some amount of coverage if the car is rented on their card. 

[Bennett]

Like others, I travel a lot for business, and rent cars often. I like Alamo (as with National's Emerald club) you can walk about and pick out your car. I always (no matter what the weather) do a walk around, and insist that an employee note, in writing, any damage, scratches, and especially windshield dings. I haven't tried taking photos, but that sounds like a good idea. AOPA has shifted their discount program to Enterprise, and they want you to book through them. I just go direct and use the old discount numbers for all the companies they used to use, and so far that works. Watch out for the "cheaper" companies. I had a blowout on a major highway, changed the left side rear tire myself at roadside in spite of traffic whizzing by, and upon my return I told them that the blown out tire was in the trunk. A few days later they tried to charge me for the tire (full retail that no one pays), and a day's loss of use. I refused to pay, and we fought over this for months, until they gave up. Never had this type of problem with Avis or Hertz.

[Ksaunders]

I rented a car from Enterprise at KAVL one horrible, below minimums, ice everywhere, IFR December day.  Upon returning later that evening the Enterprise worker had vacated her station.  Scheduled or unscheduled Enterprise worker departure; I had no idea.  FBO workers told me to sign my paperwork and return the keys, they would handle everything.  Hummmm.  Sound too good to be true?  Up, up, and away I went.

 

Upon my return home, I followed-up with a few calls to Enterprise and they assured me everything was fine with the rental.  About a month later I receive a rental bill for the car in excess of $1,600.  HU??  The car was never closed out and taken out of my name upon return.  Rut-Row.  Two other fine chaps enjoyed driving the car for a week at a time before finally returning it to an Enterprise location in sunny Key West, FLA.  

 

A couple of calls later and my Mastercard was relieved of the $1,600 burden - all good.  Not sure what the moral of the story is, however, what's a guy to do when the fine Enterprise worker departs for the night and the drop box is our only alternative?  Anyway, they were cool to work with and didn't give me a hard time.  Shameless plug for Enterprise I guess.    

 

With my job I rent cars every week.  99.9% of the time the rentals are issue free.  Only once Avis made me fill out a damage report due to some bumper rash.  I honestly don't know if it happened while in my possession and did my best to keep a straight face when I told the Avis trainee that.  Avis in beautiful Allentown, PA took care of everything and I never heard a peep.  Good deal.  Shameless plug for Avis --(??)--  

 

One more.  Wife renting in California walks out of restaurant and finds her rental car absolutely smashed from head to toe like a meteor hit it from DEEP space.  Ford F-250 comes around the corner and hits the parked rental car head-on at just over rotation speed.  Happy couple can't find owner (my renter wife) and leaves a note on her car, "Sorry, here's our number and insurance agent number".  Avis picks up car on flatbed and delivers wife a Convertible Camaro SS within one hour of her phone call to them.  How cool is that?  On the downside......for two weeks after that all I heard was how I now have to buy the wife a convertible Camaro SS - just like the Avis rental she had in California......blah, blah, blah.       

 

What's the difference between a rental car and a Hummer?

 

 

 

 

The rental car will go ANYWHERE.  

[1964-M20E]

Will go anywhere doesn't mean it will get you back or that it is capable of being driven. :-)

[kmyfm20s]

I always use my AMEX for the added coverage with car rentals and have never had a problem, hopefully never will. I will take pictures with the cell phone in the future as suggested. 

[scottfromiowa]

My wife worked for enterprise out of school. I will never rent from enterprise again after this experience. We rented a car in San Francisco and drove down to the wharf for dinner. I left my GPS on the windshield and when we returned the side glass on passenger side was broken and GPS was gone. It was raining and enterprise made us return the car with glass all over the passenger seat to the airport which was way out of the way. They hounded us for reimbursement of the glass. I paid for on my credit card and the credit card agency with a lot of paperwork handled. The enterprise " we'll pick you up" was a bunch of BS.

I never never never leave my GPS on the windshield. One time and stolen...get it out of sight.

[Bennett]

I think that Enterprise is trying to enhance their (historically poor, at least to me) reputation, at a couple of airports I regularly fly to. The folks at Dulles have gone way out of

their way to accommodate my request for renting me a specific car, and this has recently also been true at SFO. On the other hand, a "one way" rental I thought I arranged with Enterprise

at the Santa Maria(KSMX)terminal turned into a horror show. They misquoted and low balled a one way rental fee, and when I went to return the car at SFO, the Enterprise representative at

SFO said that the Santa Maria Enterprise was a franchise, and SFO wanted to charge "their" outrageous one way "additional" fee if I left the car there. That was not going to happen, so I called

the Santa Maria Enterprise office who said: "Sorry, we made a mistake, but we can't fix it from here". At that point I lost my cool, and kept working up the chain in command at SFO, and finally a manager said she would issue me an Enterprise dollar certificate, on the spot, in the same amount of the "one way" fee. I accepted it, and it was enough for a couple more

Enterprise rentals, but obviously I have been wary about Enterprise since then.

The absolute worst rental was from Santa Rosa airport. Avis and Hertz refused to rent me a car at 5:03 PM, although their employees were still at their booths in the terminal. I had just

landed, and needed to drive a passenger to a her destination. Santa Rosa was the nearest airport, and the Taxi fare was quoted to me as being over a hundred and fifty dollars. In retrospect,I should have paid it. The car rental booths officially closed at 5:00 PM, and all the respective representatives were just plain horse's asses about it. (I wrote a lot of letters to both

Avis and Hertz -no one bothered to reply). Anyway, an off premises rental shop, the only one I could find, was in walking distance. The car was a wreck to start with, and I had to stay

overnight in Santa Rosa, as they had no facility, not even a key drop box, to return the car until the following morning. When they finally arrived, an hour past the posted time, they said

I was responsible for any number of damaged areas, even though the rust was apparent. They charged my credit cars hundreds of dollars, and I fought back via my credit card company. The bank was great, and ultimately I got back the overcharges, but it was a miserable experience. I think that Alamo and National (both Enterprise companies) have proven the most reasonable for me

at least, over minor bumper rash that happens during the rental period.

[Marauder]

I agree with all the comments on inspecting and noting ANY damage (including the infamous trunk scratches from people putting luggage in). I take pictures and have the exit attendant sign below where I noted the damages.

 

I recently did have a different twist on a rental car claim. I got a bill in the mail for a parking ticket in Toronto. I had rented the vehicle in Buffalo drove to Toronto and back. I got a $200 CAD bill for some sort of illegal parking in a fire zone. Only problem was the ticket was written two days before I actually rented the vehicle.

[N201MKTurbo]

I was at a hotel in Vancouver BC with a rental car. Some construction workers at the hotel dropped an airconditioning unit on my rental.

 

Sounds pretty cut and dried; hotel pays for the dammage, right? Well the rental company said i was responsable for it, the hotel said the construction company was responsable. The construction company said my insurance company was responsable on and on and on.

 

After screwing with it for a few months, I gave it to the leagle department at work. Never heard another word about it.

[wiguy]

 I really try not to rent a car if I can get away with it. Last year the slow airport even let me keep the courtesy van overnight. Yes, I did recipricate.

[WardHolbrook]

I normally rent cars at least once a week and personally, I carry rental car coverage on my auto policies. I've also got coverage on my credit cards. Last year one of our pilots got dinged for hail damage to his rental car while he was at recurrent in DFW. It was a real pain in the keester dealing with all of the various parties - Enterprize, the credit card company, our company loss prevention guys and our pilot's personal insurance company. In the mean time, Enterprize blocked out a few thousand dollars on the company credit card. He finally got things sorted out after about 6 months, but it was a frustrating experience. After this experience, our chief pilot simply told us to accept all of the insurance. It makes things simple, but it also doubles the cost of our rentals. At least now if there's a demolition derby in town and we decide to participate we're covered.   

[tomn]

Update on what started this post. Enterprise has apparently given up on working with our insurance company and is now threatening my employee with turning the claim over to a collection agency and having his personal credit report damaged. It is unbelievable how they are handling this. This will no doubt only get worse before it is over.

[Cruiser]

Insurance on auto rental policies use to be for major accident protection.

 

Now days, the rental companies are using it much like the local gangsters offer a "little extra protection" to your business to keep bad things from happening.

[richardheitzman]

I rent cars at least 20+ times a year. I always use National (when they are availalbe) and on my last trip I was forced to pick another rental company and enterprise was the only one that had cars. So I make the reservation and when I arrive the counter girl was very nice, handed me the key and when I went out to pick up the car it was a disaster. This was the second time this has happened to me with enterprise. The car was filthy, scratched up, dented and had only 15K miles on it. National cars I have never had one with more than 10K. Anyway I went back to the counter to the same girl, and told her the car was unacceptable, and she became very rude and aggresivly told me that there was nothing else. I handed her the keys, cancled my reservation and walked away. Alamo had a car that had just been returned and cleaned.

 

I will never , ever rent from Enterprise.

[tomn]

I'm pretty sure Enterprise now owns National...

[flyboy0681]

Last week I rented a car in Paris (not Texas) from a city office. When the car was pulled up front I was astonished to find the rear hatch severely damaged and had the agent acknowledge it and give me a copy of the report. As always I took pictures, with the office in the background just so the location could be identified.

 

When I returned it to the airport location a group of reps swarmed around the car, blank damage reports in hand. When I showed them the pictures and the written report they backed down. I could just as easily have driven off and been blamed for the damage. You need to be careful out there folks.

[Alan Fox]

Unfortunately , people will not accept responsibility when they damage a car .... Im in the business , I see it all the time...Caveat emptor do your due diligence.....You sign a condition report , check the car out.....If you cant check out the car , take a cab , or buy their insurance.......