Everything you need to know to prevent and dispute rental car damage claims

[ExCarJockey]

Hi everyone.

For customers reading these posts, the best way to avoid these types of damage claims is prevention. I have written the following article on how to prevent the "discovered damage" claims:

How to Prevent Rental Car Damage Claims | eHow.com


If you are a victim of one of these claims, I have also written an article about how to dispute these claims:

How to Dispute Rental Car Damage Claims | eHow.com

Good luck.

[iluvEcars]

do you really think ERAC people are different than anyone else? do you actually think we plot to charge our customers fraudulently? thats a stretch in anyones book.

has that happened? probably, like any other company, not every employee is 100% legit but on the whole, just like most, we are.



i would agree with your points to actually have the customer check the car out as we do it more for a courtesy. its the customers responsibility to check it out when they get the car and mine to check it out for damage when it returns.


now, have them note car dirty or lot dark? the contract states that the renter agrees to vehicle condition regardless of outside factors so thats a lost cause. that other problem is how would you like it if you returned a dirty car to me on a rainy day after dark? no sir, you need to return the car do me perfectly clean, on a dry day and during the day... would that be fair to you? no, its not. so just suck it up and check it out good, ask them to clean if need be or pull it to a better lit area. i have no problem with customers being thorough



i wont bother with your other article, but i will say it probably empowers more people who are manipulating the system than helping people who are truly right

[RokonJim]

Are there any questions I can pose to the Enterprise branch that fleeced me to uncover lies about prior damage?

[RokonJim]

Is there an audit feature built into the Odyssey system to uncover any changes in DX reports?

[RokonJim]

What is the actual procedure when a car is washed and damage is observed? Does the car washer make a written note or a computerized note and can the computer entry be deleted ?

[RokonJim]

When a rental car has damage, and it is not to be rented until repaired, what is the normal process by which it is kept out of service?

Is it a computerized process such that the 1-800-reservation line knows that the branch location has one less car than the system otherwise would report?

When a car is taken "out of service temporarily" for repairs, does anything get entered into the Enterprise computerized system?

If there is a way to remove it from the "available cars" at a particular location. If a branch manager wanted to erase the un-availability of a car and put it back into the "available cars" what is the systems process and does it have an audit trail?

Which Enterprise Program does an investigator need to audit to get to that information?

If an Enterprise Damage Recovery - Loss Control staffer was asked to check for that kind of change by a branch manager would they be willing to look into it on a "prior damages" dispute inquiry? Or is going to be "the case is paid for and closed, we cannot look into it" ?

Would any manager be willing to help me to track down the audit trail on a particular Unit #. I do have the unit number and the one specific date it would have been taken out of "available cars" status.

I've been fighting with Enterprise on this prior damage issue for nearly 5 weeks. Can anyone get me that point of information and if there is a notation of why it was taken off the "available cars" list? That would provide me with evidence that the car was truly damaged before I signed for the car.

I am familiar with the series of questions the ends in 'What evidence do you have for the court that would prove prior damage?"

I am looking under all rocks to dig out the evidence, and reasonable cost is not an issue.

[RokonJim]

Among the extremely insignificant minor insurance fraud opportunities is one which affects and angers traveling consumers: The car rental prior damages not noted on the rental contract.

At the onset of every Rent-A-Car episode is a scene we all know too well. Like the contract that most of us face on a regular basis: No one reads them, you check the box and install the computer software. No study has to be done to acknowledge that happens at rental car counters.

The consumer does not read the contract, follows the rental car employee around the car, and shortly after the contract is signed and the customer is on the hook so to speak. The rental car could be driven immediately into a storage garage 1 mile away, then the next day brought back to return it, and the rental car company is within its legal right to make you pay for damages you missed in the pre-rental inspection.

Low costs now on digital camera storage media could change everything. It would be fairly easy to document the condition prior to signing the contract, instead of just whining about I didn't do it. If a problem arises, you have reasonable evidence that the coin sized dent was already there. A digital media viewer with a specified size screen should be available to any renter who wants to check that his images are satisfactory.

Alternatively, and even better, the renter should be given the opportunity to use the rental car agency camera to record as much of the car as he or she would like, and to be given the instant digital images on the inspection for a modest fee to cover the cost of the storage media. safeguards right from the start.

[RokonJim]

Digital Cameras, the storage media, the viewers are all very inexpensive, and the renter can opt out of it and check another box on the contract to waive his or her rights to digital image documentation. The size and weight of the storage media is insignificant for anyone, and if the renter loses it, no worries, a back up exists by law with the original Rent-A-Car office, which uploads it to the regional headquarters, making it accessible instantly by the internet. All the return rental office needs to do is be responsive to a complaint that the damages existed prior and the customer is off the hook.

The benefits are numerous and just for starters include:

Reduced insurance claims.
Extra peace of mind for renters, and
Happier customers since the rental car companies have such justifiable concern for customer.
Incentive for the rental car employees to do a better job of pre-rental inspection.
Easier, faster, and more reliable documentation than used presently.
Reduced medical costs from angry renters getting raised blood pressure and worse.

I recall my father becoming angry over a craft show dispute when an adjacent vendor extended his space by 2 feet into ours. He had arrived earlier than our family and took advantage of the situation. My father, being an attorney and not willing to put up with such nonsense, insisted that the vendor correct the error. The neighbor vendor refused because he had too much of his heavy pottery display and heavy shelving to move. My father got so frustrated and controllably angry that he suffered a stroke. The craft show staff made the pottery vendor move his pottery and shelving, as an ambulance took my father to the hospital. He survived, but with some of his brain functionality compromised. His career as an attorney was compromised ultimately due to strokes, and he couldn’t pursue it as long as he expected. This is what elevated blood pressure can do to a person. President Obama would like the benefit of this Rent-A-Car proposal, because it would reduce the current health care crisis. It would also have kept my father earning taxable income, receiving less medicare and social security benefits. It’s a win-win situation.