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Originally Posted by Unregistered  something like this happened to me too and I don't know what to do. I am 22 and have never rented a car before. The rental was a free offer from Allstate Insurance Co, a girl backed into me and her insurance is paying for my car and for the rental.
At the time of the rental the lady started looking around the car... then halfway during her looking she said "I'm looking for scratches if you see any tell me.." So i looked around the rest of the car. While I was at the back of the car, A red chevy cobalt with 20K miles, she wrote something down. I declined insurance because I wasn't sure I needed it as I had full-coverage and I thought that covered everything but I wanted to talk to my dad later to see if I needed it. She said "okay, all you have to do is call back up here and have it added on, you can have it taken off too if you want, I probably shouldn't tell you that..."
So an hour later after talking to my dad he told me to go ahead and get it just in case. I called up there...as she had told me and the man who answered informed me that I would have to personally come UP there... which I didn't have time to do until 3 days later (as I work full time and go to school full time). Although I wondered if they could just start it then when i called because they already had my credit card #. When I went to get the insurance finally she went outside and said there was damage (of course).
She showed me a small scratch on the lower part of the bumper. I pulled out the pink contract sheet and she wrote down on notes "Small Scratches on bumper". But she was denying that this was the same scratch, she says this one is bigger and wasn't what she was talking about...but there is not really any other scratches on the bumper. She brought a colleague out there who had been working there longer to take a look (she had only been there 1 week). He kind of shrugged, mumbled that it was already written down and walked back inside while she was still trying to say that it wasn't there before.
At the check in counter she still rung up my purchase but claimed the damage was never reported on any other contract so that I would ahve to pay my $500 insurance deductible to fix it but...that they would worry about that when I checked my car back in. I was astouned at this point..as her colleague the one that had come out with us was kind of shaking his head and trying to, i don't know, say that that wasn't exactly what would happen but he didnt' really speak up. I was confused and angry but haven't returned the car back yet as I'm still waiting on my car at the shop... I'm not sure how to handle this because I feel like I am being taken advantage of. Does anyone have any ideas on how to handle this gracefully as I don't believe I should have to pay for damage that is clearly written down on the contract regardless if she doesn't "remember" what she was referring to or not.
-losing sleep |
First, they require you to come back in to add it on because unfortunately, there are people out there that will damage a car and then try to add the coverage so they don't have to pay.
Second, if the original contact talks about the scratches on the bumper, then there were scratches on the bumper. Any loss control rep is going to see that and toss the DX out on its ass. If when you go in, they start to ask you for your deductible or filing a claim for that damage, do not pay the deductible and refuse to sign the damage report. Make sure you keep a copy of the rental contract. Explain nicely, but firmly, that the person who rented you the car marked down scratches on the bumper, and you are not paying for damages that were documented on the contract.
Thirdly, I doubt you'll even have to go that far. The newbie needs more training and the experienced person that came out to double check it didn't seem to care about it.
You'll be fine.