Falsely Accused of Damage (Please Help)

[Ripped Off]

I had the misfortune of renting from Enterprise last month in Southern California.
Firstly, the car I reserved was not available, I was offered a POS Chevy Cobalt with 38K miles. I drove this car 1 day and returned it in trade for another.
Upon my return, the attendant found damage that apparently did not exist when I received the car. He said the care looked like it had been vandalized.
This is patently false. I parked in my garage overnight and at my office is aside the sheriff's station. Needless to say, there is no crime either in my garage or at the office.
I've cried foul and run my complaint up the chain of command but it has fallen on deaf ears.
The assistant manager (lets call him "T") has admitted to me that his cars get jacked with all the time in his lot.
The branch manager (This guy is "T" as well) admitted that although promotions and pay are performance based, his people would never try to fix a car on someone else's dime. Additionally, he did not return my phone calls and I had to hunt him down.
The area manager (JP) also does not return calls, is rude, will interupt you in a phone call, and does not read reports so I think he just likes to hear himself talk.
In Summary, can anyone give me some advice on what I can do? It would be faster to burn the money than give it to ERAC for damange that didn't happen when the car was in my posession.

Mistake #1: Always go over the car with a fine tuned comb WITH the ERAC rep and make sure they're marking "everything" down

Mistake #2: If there is "minor" damage like a scratch, since the pink copy the rep gave you is carbon copied, put any paper over top and insert a scratch where the "new" damage is. Then, very important, return it to another branch and give them the doctored pink copy. They won't have the original on file to compare with, and for minor damage won't call, especially if you've provided them with the pink copy when you return. Works every time.

Mistake #3: What were you doing for insurance? You have to consider the possibility something might happen. Besides, this is the biggest scam in the industry -- it happens with every company. Have you never rented before?

Background: The bit about his cars getting vandalized on his property is likely 99% bullshit. There's a chance, but honestly, we'd use that line on customers all the time when I used to work there. We were trying to make the customer second guess themselves, and show sympathy at the same time. Now there is technically the chance that your car was damaged or vandalized, but I want to believe you, so we'll assume you're telling the truth.

You know why he "has" to blame you, because his branch will have to eat the cost of the repair if you're right. Also, if the same guy checked you into the car or verified with the rep who did, the guy who checked you in doesn't want to look like an idiot and get yelled at, so of course he'll deny it. Different people, evaluate the condition of the car differently. When checking the car out at the beginning, the pickier the better.

Solution: Looks like it'll take a little effort. First thing call the branch, don't identify yourself and ask for phone number for head office. If they get suspicious and ask why, tell them you rented a while ago and experienced "great" service and wanted to make sure the head office knew how great they are and that you also planned on sending a letter. Then ask them who the best person to tell would be. Ask for the top boss. If the first branch you call is too sharp, then try calling another branch. One of them will buy it. They'll give you his name, hopefully not the area manager. Thank them. The branch will be more then happy as usually they likely only hear complaints. Some employees even get a cash bonus if a customer writes a positve letter. When you call you won't get him (also too busy), but you'll get his secretary who is the next best person. Don't worry, the message will get to him and then filter down through the chain of command. I should hope that would work. Damage is tricky, and the hardest to get out of. ERAC is so cheap, even this is hard to get them to bend on - even if they know you're probably right. You may be screwed.

Only other thing I can think of, if you were renting through a dealership, bodyshop or insurance company, call them and bitch, bitch and bitch. Hold them accountable for sending you to such a terrible company and that you want them to call ERAC and investigate. Only problem if it's through your insurance company, is that they may turn around and ding you as well, but then you may have no other chance. Worst comes to worst, try negotiating with ERAC to bring down the cost that you'll pay.

Maybe someone else also has some ideas.

[E####B]

Well, you have quite the leg to stand on if the car has 38K. There is a lot of wear and tear on a car when it reaches that mileage (and the city must REALLY be hurting for cars if that is still in fleet or the Cobalt resale market sucks beyond belief). Get in touch with the loss control department (if they haven't contacted you first). Ask them to review the past 10 rental contracts for that damage. A standard search is 3 contracts, but if the damage was there, SOMEONE had to document it. Enterprise employees get busy and miss damage or simply cannot see it sometimes due to night lighting or weather (snow, rain, etc). Also, get the unit history on the vehicle AFTER you returned it. 95% chance they re-rented the car in this "disasterous", dangerous, ugly condition thus giving you a little more ammunition for your cause.

FYI: This is NOT an Enterprise issue only, but rather an industry wide problem. Enterprise just seems to be more aggressive with pursuing it. I made a case against the RED rental car company and had some preexisting damage on a Cadillac overturned. Stay sharp and don't get angry or short with the loss control coordinator. Don't lose sleep over "T," "T," or JP. The LCC is the person who makes the ultimate decision anyway and realistically, that car will go to aution when it gets taken out of fleet, meaning the car will NEVER get repaired.

When i worked at ERAC most of the cars never really were rented "clean" on the outside and I could never find any minor scratches etc. Anytime someone returned a car and stated "this car was dirty when rented to me, I have since cleaned it" we always just took it back and would try to report the damage when someone bought waiver so they wouldn't have to pay for the damages.

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

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.

And most importantly, if they give you any grief, ask to speak with the Manager. If they're not in, ask when they'll be back.
As was mentioned, sounds like you'll be fine.

Okay! Thank you so much for your reply. I did think it was a little funny that she sort of made me think i could just "call in and add it on" but that's really how she phrased it! I didn't have any problem getting up there it would just take a couple days, the thing is I would have made more of an effort to call my dad up and ask him if she had actually said "you have to come up here when you add it on" rather than leaving the lot and coming back later which is what happened...

Well I hope you're right because she was saying that she would have marked the scratches down "elsewhere" on the contract because of the "size" (which I assure you is about um... 4 inches long on the streamline edge of the underside of the bumper - pretty hard to see if you walk right by, because its very thin (like 2 or 3 mm tall). I did take some digital pics of the scratch just in case down the line she tries to pull something and just charge me anyway... but I hope I can just get a different rep when I go in. She seemed nice enough but this really upset me, she shook her finger at me when I went back in like "see this is why your dad wanted you to get insurance" as if I didn't decide to get it literally an hour after getting the rental and as if the scratch hadn't already been there and marked down!

*whoo* Thanks so much for your reassurance!

-sleeping a little better

[iluvEcars]

yeah i wouldnt sweat it.... a lot of new MT's are power hungry and like cops go too far!

So... I have a similar story...

Last week my car was at a local body shop getting fixed because my friend's neighbor's daughter backed into it. The body shop uses Enterprise (which is just down the street) as their rental car service.

I drop off my car last Monday and an Enterprise guy is there waiting for me to give me a car for the week. We go through the normal paperwork, then we go outside, he "inspects" the car to make sure nothing is damaged and then asks me to sign the papers, saying I agree with his inspection (he said the car was 100% fine after his 2-second once-over). So I take a look around and see that one of the fog light coverings is completely shattered, and I tell him to make sure to write that down before I sign anything.

Anyway, I went to pick up my car at the shop on Friday, and dropped off the rental. The body shop guys take the keys, I drive my car home, everything is cool. The car is 100% fine when I drop it off.

Today I get a call from one of the Enterprise guys saying one of the outer mirror housings is cracked, asks me if I know about it... I reply, I have no idea what he's talking about and the car was fine when I dropped it off and gave the keys to the body shop (this body shop is a very well run business, not a random hole in the wall)... anyway, he says he just has to note it, and if they decide to repair, they will contact me in a couple days...

So there's no way I'm paying for anything on the damn car, because it was fine when I dropped it off. I'm also not sure why they call me 3 days later telling me, seeing as they are open 7 days a week.

So... I suppose there's no real point to this post, other than me venting. I'm pissed because if I hadn't noticed that fog light before they gave me the car, they would probably try to charge me for that shit too - I'm just wondering if this mirror is something I didn't notice... Do you guys think they will try to hold me responsible for the damage (from what it sounds like, its just a cracked piece of plastic and pretty minor)?