Let s start with Dollar. Sending a damaged car back out into the fleet, as you noted and as an emplo

The car had some minor paint damage on the rear bumper, but a sticker was attached indicating that the damage was previously new england inn identified, so I didn t give it any further thought. new england inn Prior to leaving for the airport on my return trip, I walked around the car to make sure that there was no damage to the vehicle. There was none.
More than two weeks later, I received a letter new england inn from Dollar asking for $239 for unspecified damages no pictures, no description of the damage, just a demand letter. I tried to reach them by phone, but their subrogation department is closed over the weekend.
I am furious about the way this was handled by Dollar. The complete absence of inspections new england inn with the customer is not good business new england inn practice but then, maybe they re not interested in good business practice. I m sure they get a lot of suckers to pay up just to avoid the hassle involved in pursuing the matter. new england inn Any suggestions you have would be appreciated. William Hicks , Carpentersville, Illinois.
Let s start with Dollar. Sending a damaged car back out into the fleet, as you noted and as an employee new england inn verified, was an awful idea. Dollar should have fixed the car and then returned it to the lot to be rented again. The sticker was an interesting idea, but stickers have a way of coming unstuck and car rental companies are not the best at keeping repair records, as any reader of this column knows.
Dollar should have also offered the opportunity to inspect the car with an associate, or at the very least allowed new england inn you to document the results new england inn of your own inspection. Instead, an employee just waved you off with a verbal assurance that everything is fine. But everything was not fine.
But you could have also prevented this. First, why did you select a damaged car? If you re ever given a vehicle in less than immaculate condition, don t accept it. Second, you should have taken numerous photos of the vehicle, and carefully documented the damage. That s pretty easy to do with your cellphone or digital camera.
And finally, you needed to make sure that any pre-existing damage was noted in writing. If for some reason no one is available for an inspection, then at least find a manager and let him or her know about the problem. Don t leave unless the dent is documented on paper. Verbal assurances are useless, as you now know.
Dollar s follow-up with you left something to be desired; waiting a few weeks before hitting you with a claim seemed suspicious. Why not ask you to fill out a damage claim when you re still at the airport? And why not send documentation of the damage and repair, as opposed to just a bill.
It was a rental at Enterprise at the Austin, TX airport. They brought the car out, I started load luggage into the trunk, and I noticed that the rear bumper was crunched. At some point in the past, someone had backed into a post, fairly hard. It was easy to see, if you knew what you were looking at, and if you had good light to look with. If you didn t happen to look right there in good light, or you didn t immediately realize what you were looking at, it would have been very easy to miss.
I don t see any inherent problem with sending a vehicle out with minor body damage, as long as it s handled properly. Why take a car out of service (and dinging a customer with loss-of-use fees) for something that in no way effects it s usability as a rental car?
Now, certainly if a rental company new england inn uses this as a money-making operation, THAT s bad. But that s another question entirely. I ve said it before, and I ll say it again: rental companies should be prohibited from charging you one thin dime after they ve turned over your final rental new england inn receipt.
My experience with car rental damage is so different than the stories Chris helps mediates that I always wonder if someone else ended up with the issue. I rented a car from Budget for 1500 mile work trip. There was an incident with a very high curb and I ended up scuffing and damaging the plastic near the front wheel. Prior to returning the car I reported it to my company s insurance and received a claim number. When I returned the car, no one would do a damage check with me even though I reported the damage. They did have me fill out an accident report that included the claim info. They didn t even bother to give me my copy of the report. I had to go back for it.
Several weeks later I was contacted by my work insurance asking new england inn what ever came of the claim. Budget never came after me for the damage nor, as far as I am aware, did they pursue it with the insurance new england inn company.
The car assigned to me that time had a serious dent in the back. I went back to the desk to report it. The manager said that, indeed, one of his employee had backed into a pillar in the garage. I had signed for full insurance coverage and he was hoping that I take the car without further ado and let the insurance I had just contracted pay for the damage after returning the car at end of my rental.
Here s my question to you if you don t think that ex post facto charges new england inn should be able to be applied, how much do you suggest they charge for damage? Or are they supposed to have a body shop on retainer and tell the customer new england inn wait here for a few hours while we get a price on the repair. How do you suggest this all work? It seems good until a person actually looks at it, then you will be overcharged, or car rental companies will become extinct.
You re probably right. If his company is a high value customer, they might try to nail the next renter rather than risk losing a corporate account. This makes more and more sense the more I think about it.
I had the SAME problem with Enterprise at Palm Beach International airport last March. Got it straightened out but it took a lot of time, effort, and toil that should NOT have been necessary. Will never rent from them again.
Wait did he TELL you he was expecting the insurance that YOU just purchased, to pay for the damage done by THEIR employee? Did he actually tell you that they were going to make a claim that YOU did the damage? Am I reading that right?
Reeks of ? HA! I d say it more than reeks. This is undoubtedly a scam, and a common one. We hear about the same thing in here, and on numerous other travel blogs, new england inn on a weekly basis. They just send out these damage claims willy-nilly, with no proof, knowing that some of the poor customers will pay. They re doing the same thing as Nigerian scammers blasting out as many scams as they can, knowing at least some of them will stick.
FWIW I rented a vehicle from Budget at the airport in Redding, CA in May 2012. In the parking lot at the hotel a guy who also rented from Budget in San Francisco backed into me scuffing and dinging the bumper in the brand new with 400 miles on the odometer new england inn car.
I filled out a rental damage form noted that another budget driver had hit me while parked and no one mentioned anything about it and here we are 9 months later and I have heard nothing more from anyone about it . . .
I had an Avis guy try to come after me for suspension damage after a flat tire that was an amusing end. I told them that my business policy requires proof of damage with estimates, photographs and copies of the last three and next three rental agreements to provide the vehicle was out of service for a longer period that normal between rentals funny, never heard back and never heard from him again . . .
Interesting to see how close the vote is on the poll. I voted yes, as in places, like Hawaii, getting new cars to rent out everytime a rental comes back damage would be next to impossible for agency and angry renters where they could not pick up a car because of it.
Is there any car rental company out there that doesn t pull this type of stunt? Because I d like to know which one(s) I can count on to not get scammed by and would pay extra (albeit not too much) to avoid this aggravation. Not everyone who rents a car has Chris Elliott advocating for them. Also, is the car rental industry such a low-margin and competitive business that this is the only way they can make any real money?
Here s what I ve noticed at Hertz (I always rent there): When I rent from an agency office in town, the agent walks out to the car with me and makes notes. If there s a scratch or ding, he writes new england inn it down on his chart, and we both get a copy. If I rent from the airport, new england inn where I go out to the lot myself to find my assigned car, the cars are always in perfect condition. Maybe it s a coincidence, but I think Hertz keeps the no notation required cars for their airports so that the airport rental process is faster.
I m sick of renting. Almost all the major rental car companies have tried to pull this scam of charging and re-charging for damage that remains unfixed. For that reason, I m using a shuttle service to/from hotel followed by public transportation or cab (have to be careful about taxi scammers, too.)
That s quite intuitive; although new england inn they d never give you copies of the previous/next rental agreements, the rest are completely new england inn reasonable requests and should be automatically included whenever a rental company claims damages.
In my experience, Enterprise is pretty good about having one of their agents do a walkaround with you and note any damage. I find their general I m your best friend act a bit annoying sometime I want to rent a car from you, not go out on a date but they do seem good at noting damage. In general, I ve been pretty lucky over the years. I ve never had a notable accident in a rental but I ve never been dinged for minor bumper scrapes and the like.
What s your problem? If you're having trouble with a business - any business - and you've reached a dead end, maybe I can help. Send me an email and I'll investigate. (I can't promise a fix, but I take every request seriously.) If you want to connect new england inn with other consumers, why not sign up for my free weekly newsletter , RSS feed or free daily email updates ?
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