Enterprise Rent

Enterprise Rent a Car Another Fraudulent Damage Claim Windsor Locks, Connecticut

25th of Apr, 2011 by User970551

I have to travel quite a bit for my job and have used a number of different rental care companies. However, I have a history of renting from Enterprise that dates back to 2001 and have never found significant reason to complain. If you've read the multiple reports along the 'Damage to Vehicle' complaints vein, you know that it typically begins with a letter from the 'Damage Recovery Unit'. Here's my history:
Business trip to Boston 3/23
Rent Car at ERAC at Boston Logan Airport
Nice guy in a suit talks me into a discounted upgrade to a Chrysler 300.
We do the walk around - Neither one of us notice any significant damage.
Have another presentation in Springfield, MA, but the closest airport is Bradley Airport which is just a few miles away, but it is just across the state line into Connecticut.
Stopped at a gas station near the ERAC office, fill up with gas, pick-up the car, even washed the outside of the windows (habit of mine). I walked around the car to see if there were any dirt splatters around the wheel wells or insect splatters on the nose, but there really wasn't any of that.
I also did not notice any damage to the front bumper.
Drove to the Bradley Airport rental return office, was quickly shown where to pull in, helped out of the car, and went inside to sign and pay.
A guy came in that had checked the mileage and walked around the car.
NO DAMAGE NOTED or MENTIONED
The one agent did inform the his associate that, "You know, that's not a return, it's a rental from 'ANOTHER OFFICE'." He said it like it was disgusting; maybe he has an issue with Boston, who knows.
There were quite a few agents milling around outside at the couple of cars that had been returned.
It was not busy, and my transaction took a bit longer because I wanted to remove the deposit from my personal credit card and charge the car on my business account.
I was there for almost a half hour between getting there and waiting for the Shuttle.
In all that time, NO DAMAGE NOTED OR MENTIONED TO ME OR ANYONE ELSE. Today, April 26, 2011, my daughter brings me the mail when she gets home from school. There is a letter from Enterprise Rent a Car stating that they are sending me the supporting documents that I requested. REQUESTED??? I hadn't even known about any problems. My blood began to boil as I read on the following pages that somehow something happened to the front bumper and it was my fault. The only problem that I ever noticed about the car was that it had New York license plates. Maybe that gets everyone's ire up. But now, my reasonable rental car of $27/day for 2 days, cost me an extra $30 for the upgrade, an extra $45 to drop it at a different Enterprise location, and $12 for customer facility charge (probably a tax); so instead of the 75 bucks that I was expecting, it closer to $200 with the other charges and taxes. But, evidently, Enterprise was not done finding bogus charges to levy on me. This letter from today wants to charge me $17 for parts, $332 for labor, and some $90 for paint supplies. That totals $439.10, BUT THEN, they add administrative fee, because they must hand it over to a collection agency immediately bent on threatening with irrepairable damage to credit rating AND pocket book; that's $50. There's also the 2.601 days of 'Loss of Use' damages in the amount of $70. AND the message pretty much states, "PAY UP OR ELSE!" So, I did what I do in these situations; I researched the commonality of this situation. To my dismay, it is a common complaint with little chance of being resolved. I did however come across a couple of patterns that seemed earily similar in these cases:
1) Frequently, the victim has already been stressed by another incident, i.e. a major breakdown away from home or a major accident that will makes their own car unavailable.
2) The victim is often required to accept an Enterprise vehicle because either their insurance company or the repair facility has some kind of strategic partnership.
3) The car is either returned to the repair facility or returned at night.
4) The car is quite often returned to a different Enterprise office than where is was first obtained. While I did not experience a horrific accident that put me on the Enterprise pathway, I did fall victim to Item 4. It must be some sort of interagencey competition that encourages them to carefully scrutinize any vehicle that they do not own. My suspicion is that when you return the car to another agency, there is no paperwork to backup the rental/damage history of the car, and so they want to make sure that their 'new' car is PERFECT. The crazy thing is that I lazily watched as the guy was carefully checking the car out with his clipboard while I was in the office. Whatever this $17 part was that essentially cost $542.30 to install/buff/paint, it must be important! Incredible. I live on the west coast. What is my recourse for reconciling something that far away with a huge company. My hope is that if I can maintain my sense of humor and be sensible, that Enterprise will not want to burn the bridge on an old customer. With the delay in getting me any information, I am essentially a month behind the snowball effect of big company red tape and paperwork. I pray that the resolution will be fair.

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