Employees Don't "Check-In" Car, Get A Violation And Charge It To Customer

Basically, I rented a car from Enterprise in London, England two weeks ago, returned it at eight AM as per my agreement, and then received a letter in the post to say I’d been driving the car illegally in a restricted bus lane, at 9:30 that morning!  I don't know if it was a subsequent customer, or one of their staff, but they've helpfully paid the fine straight from my bank account to cover the charges.

The letter included an email address in case I had any ‘questions’ about the fine, so I laid out exactly what had happened, but heard nothing. I then sent a follow-up mail, saying I needed a response on this, and again heard nothing.

So I went onto the Enterprise web site to use their customer services form and submitted all the details again, and received no reply. The web site allows you to follow this up if you’ve had no response after one working day, so I did, but I still haven’t…

They charged me £50 for driving a car I no longer had, plus a £25 administration fee, to cover the cost of them messing things up.

I called the branch this morning and they said “Sometimes, when we’re busy we don’t close the accounts until later.” Busy doing what? Driving in bus lanes? I then got hold of the number of the person I’d sent all the explanatory emails to, as was advised in their letter. She knew nothing about it. I advised her to have a go at reading her emails, and am now waiting to hear back from them.

Not only have they fined me for their own incompetence, and notified the local council that it was me driving illegally, but they can’t even get organized enough to respond when I point out the problems for them.

LATER:

I thought you might like to know the latest developments.  I contacted Enterprise again yesterday to try and get a response from them and this time, they gave me one.  You have to read this for yourself, as I can't bring myself to talk about it... Here's the response I got:

"Dear (name removed),

I have been speaking to the branch about this situation and have asked them to confirm that you off hired the vehicle at 0800 on the 16th August 2004. The branch has told me that as far as they are aware the vehicle did not off hire until 1015 on the day in question. Unfortunately I am unable to confirm that you off hired the vehicle at 0800 and so I am unable to refund the £75.00 back to your card.

With regards to Enterprise Rent-a-Car accepting liability to for the violation we have to assume that the fine they are sending us is correct as we receive over 100 tickets a day. With Bus Lane violations Enterprise Rent-a-Car is unable to transfer liability to the hirer of the vehicle like we can with all other violations. Enterprise Rent-a-Car are legally liable for the fine. If you wished to contest the violation or needed to see the photographic evidence we would be able to do this for or we could send you a letter giving you authorisation to speak to the issuing authority on our behalf."

And that's it - the branch staff didn't bother to close my paperwork until 2 hours after I gave the car back, so Enterprise 'have to assume' it's my fault.

Well, they've misjudged me by thinking I'll just give up on this - by good fortune, I realised I could *prove* I wasn't driving at the time.. Here's the reply I sent yesterday evening:

"Dear (name removed),

I was shocked that Enterprise could have made such a mistake to begin with, but it is amazing that the situation has been continued even after it has been highlighted.

I spoke to your branch yesterday regarding this issue and was told "Sometimes when it gets busy we don't close the rental out straight away." - an amazing admission, I would have thought.

I have attached a document which comes from the (name removed) security company, that controls the digital security system for the office building where I work in the City of London. Nobody can enter or leave without signing in with a personal security card. As you will see, and as the head of security explains below, I signed in to work at 09:12 that morning, and left again at 13:13. I could not possibly have been driving your vehicle at the time of the incident, nor could I possibly have returned it at 10:15, when apparently, my rental was finally closed.

Please resolve this - the mistake arises from the carelessness of the staff at the branch, but I am not prepared to pay a fine on their behalf.

Yours sincerely,"

I'll let you know what happens next!

Kind regards,

Phil

England

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