Car Hire and Damage Waiver Crisis!

dawsonio

So pleased you got this sorted, I witnessed a taxi getting hit in the undercarage by that same bollard in Durham. Did you get your £100 deposit back?

rose28454

dawsonio wrote: »

So pleased you got this sorted, I witnessed a taxi getting hit in the undercarage by that same bollard in Durham. Did you get your £100 deposit back?

No not yet. I am going to chase the solicitors today. Was the taxi badly damaged?

dawsonio

rose28454 wrote: »

No not yet. I am going to chase the solicitors today. Was the taxi badly damaged?

Bent all the underside of the front bumper and radiator.

rose28454

rose28454 wrote: »

No not yet. I am going to chase the solicitors today. Was the taxi badly damaged?

I have been ringing the solicitors constantly and the man there never phones back. I sent a snotty letter last week and got a reply today to say Enterprise are sending me the £100.00. We will see how long that takes!!!

rose28454

rose28454 wrote: »

I have been ringing the solicitors constantly and the man there never phones back. I sent a snotty letter last week and got a reply today to say Enterprise are sending me the £100.00. We will see how long that takes!!!

At last! A cheque for £100 arrived today. I cant believe that this has been going on for 14 months. Off to the bank now!! Question is shall I take things further and report them to the people who monitor car hire companies?

oaneilr1uk

Enterprise rent-a-car does not try to cheat it's customers out of money. It simply takes out insurance on it's vehicles, and passes that cost to it's customers.

It's insurance covers almost all accidents. However if it decided to account for all accidents the cost to it and the customer would be too high. Gordon Ramsey decided to do some off roading in an Enterprise car and damaged it and this as you would imagine was not covered.

This is the same if you take out your own insurance, which you can even if it is a hire car. Standard Retail customers have a fairly robust insurance policy with a £600 excess (like you have for any car) or you can reduce this to £100 through Excess Protection (EP). Small damage is charged at £100 and is charged without going through insurance, and often not repaired. This is not simply to cheat customers, but to re-coup money from a lesser resale value.

I would strongly recommend taking excess protection as it offers piece of mind and is relatively cheap. All staff must take this out when renting to avoid large bills, and all staff also have to pay excesses if they damage vehicles whilst working.

Enterprise prides itself on it's customer service and this is why it is the market leader in the U.S. Unfortunately there will be occasions when the insurance will not cover a very unusual accident but this is simply to offer good service and prices. There will always have to be some trade off.

lissadenton

calling rosa-this just happened to me today=my car is possibly written off -would love to hear from you

lissa

sent you a pm

moza1969

Hi lissadenton

I had an accident (my fault) with the hire car from Enterprise which was rented to us from the driver's insurance who hit my husband's car. My husband's car went in for repairs and i went to pick the hire car as he used my car for his work as it was an estate. Unfortunatelly they only gave me a small car and not a like for like (His was a SAAB estate) therefore I had to use the hire car. I had an accident and thought i was insured but none of the insurances will cover the hire car as it wasn't arranged through them and Entreprise refused to cover the third party. It has been a nightmare for me as when I picked up the car they told me where to initial and signe. I did inintial the Accept DW but not the accepts EP (extra protection). They now somehow decided to deal with the third parties but I am getting all sorts of solicitor's letter from the people I hit (2 cars and a shop). I even had a county court appointment from the third party's solicitor taking me to court over a £490.00 loss of warranty on his car. Never seen any letter in the first place requesting this amount. Sorry for the spelling but i am writting fast....very upset for 1. causing an accident and feeling guilty 2. not knowing whether I am covered for third party liabilty.

I am glad your care rose has been resolved. I can understand what you've been going through. I hope I will have a happy ending.

MasterChief_3

Hi Rose28454,

Three years on and your post continues to attract readers. I am impressed. I can easily gather from the 100+ posts about these types of issues, people are very suspicious about car rental firm practices, more and more these days as the media pick up on their every mistake. Make no mistake, they charge lots of money for this protection and they still get away with it. But Internet is solving this small problem. Over the course of the last 3 years, the specialist insurance market for car rental insurance products has been growing. I recently came across a website called iCarhireinsurance (i-Car-hire-insurance) and they have very cool products which address this long standing insurance problem of Collision Damage Waiver or Excess Waiver, whatever they call it.

If you are hiring a car in the future, look to these specialists as they can really provide you with peace of mind and best of all, they retail for 1/3 the price you pay if you were to purchase at the car rental desk. I am not a promoter of any business. I just happen to spend the last 20-25 minutes reading the posts on your thread and searched a key term - Car Hire Excess.

Anyway, I hope you are doing well and good luck with your future hires.

james_m_123

Hey all, what a ball ache but heres my situation

roughly 4 month ago somebody hit my rear bumper, nothing major but his vehicle was a company car so he admitted liability straight away as scuffed my bumper an needed resprayed etc. So his insurance got in touch asap an they (not us) rang 'enterprise rentals' for a courtesy car for me, they organised a time an a place for me to get the rental car while mines at Honda etc and passed this on via phone when i should drop my car off and collect the courtesy from enterprise.

Got the rental car an paid the £1 charge on my card incase i had an accident an they needed to charge me their excess etc. Anyway they wudnt take my insurance documents (i offered them) an guy said it was all sorted due his insurance sorting all this etc.

Okay so get the rental vehicle and what happens i have an knock in it and now i have winn solicitors on my case wanting claim for guys car and whippy. I pass this onto my insurance to send to the guy who crashed into me previously (damaging my honda first) the whole reason i had the 'enterprise' courtesy car.

They've now played stupid and deny any responsibilty of anything sayin i wasnt insured by them to drive enterprise vehicle and also not only that my insurance didnt know a thing, ut i know they must insured me as the guy at enterprise had me booked in by them and wudnt accept my insurance docs due to having everything.

Now it looks as theyre denying all that im being stumped with the bill for the courtesy car and all the money winns are asking for etc for the guy i hit.

I have no money or own anything of my own as i live my parents an what money i do earn goes to parents for board, i dont even own the vehicle its my dads.

Im speaking to the citizens advice as im gutted what the insurance companies have done to me an now im stuck, theres no way i can pay anyones fees or claims i just simply dont have that money at all and i can prove that to them or the courts if goes that far.

Any advice guys im so worried, like worried sick now, im losing sleep an feel my health's running away wih me. so much on my shoulders that i cant do anything about i just dont earn enough money i only work 3 dasy a week earning jus over £120 per week. out of that 120 i pay my parents roughly £90-100.

Sick my life right now i didnt think the insurance companies could hurt people so much, feel totally let down and not only that totally shat on by them when i feel im the innocent party as im new to all this, never had trouble the police or creditors.

Obviously it was my fault the accident in the courtesy car and i know really i have no leg to stand on, i signed the paperwork at enterprise and like other people i didnt have time to read it, maybe i was just covered on their insurance hense them charging me 450 last week. i have now cancelled that card as i cant afford anymore charges, what do i do guys? please help me im 23 and have never dealt with anything like this before im braced for some nasty letters now.