Enterprise van rental 'damage' rip-off

dld2s

I got a car from enterprise in place of my own car which was in getting work done after being hit by another driver. I collected it from their garage, it was quite dark and had a car in front of it quite close, inspected the car with the guy as best I could, looked ok, drove straight from there to Asda (5 min drive) no problems with anything, came out of Asda and noticed from a distance that underneath of the front bumper was badly scratched and marked (no way I could see it at enterprise with the car in front of it and probably still wouldn’t have seen it even if no car there) I was thinking barstewards I’m going to phone them and tell them about it and argue the point if they said it wasn’t there.

Had a second thought about it as I had signed it was okay, took it to a friend who is a car spray-painter, he buffed out the scratches and marks, I took the car back to them 3 days later, the same guy inspected the car that inspected it going out, he couldn’t hide the surprise on his face when he inspected under the front bumper and it was in perfect condition, I couldn’t resist asking him why he inspected under the front bumper coming back in when he didn’t when it went out, I just got a flustered "oh! did I not I should have"

It only cost me a couple of pints for my mate to fix the damage, but tell you what, best couple of pints I ever bought just for the look on the guys face if nothing else J

I only use small local firms now, have never had anything like that with them

plane_boy2000

I hire at least 3 cars a month, and never had a problem upon return - always have a quick walk around first to check for damage,but never been charged for anything other than the rental

ukjoel

GolfBravo wrote: »

Unfortunately this is true.

A friend of mine is a finance director at one of the largest car hire companies, and he says that most of the franchises are crooks - and one of their franchised branches tried to rip him off as well.

To cut the story short, he hired a car through his employer (he gets 50% staff discount) for a short break. When he returned the car they charged him €800 insurance excess for allegedly scratching rear bumper. About three months later he did a internal follow up to find out how much the actual cost of the repair was - as it turned out the local franchise never made any insurance claims, never repaired the car (it wasn't even theirs, they leased it from Ford Europe), and charged 8 other drivers €800 excess for the same scratch.

Dont know about the other 8 cases but this is standard practice. They never carry out the repairs unless its a safety issue like a nail in the tyre.

Otherwise every hire car would be looking like new.

ady_j

Strider590 wrote: »

Whenever i've had hire cars or courtesy cars, if it's been delivered to my home, I inform them I won't sign for it, if they turn up after dark and I try to make sure it's not raining on the day too.

Cool, tell us how you do that then.

Could come in useful for a BBQ I'm planning.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Renting vans and trucks is shark infested waters for the unwary and the private customer.

I rented a 7.5 tonner some years ago, as i was back at work the following morning the rental company collected it.

I was later billed for a tyre repair as they found a rear inner wheel punctured which it wasn't when i left it the previous evening, i know beacuse i checked the whole vehicle over properly and it was quiet being a Sunday so i would have heard a leaking puncture..

As in the OP's case i had no proof and was glad they didn't stitch me up for something worse.

They probably had a regular long term rental customer who had a puncture and didn't want to charge them, they simply waited until the next one off renter mug comes along and get him to pay instead.

As suggested above, honour and its sisters honesty and integrity are gone.

Notmyrealname

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

I was later billed for a tyre repair as they found a rear inner wheel punctured which it wasn't when i left it the previous evening, i know beacuse i checked the whole vehicle over properly and it was quiet being a Sunday so i would have heard a leaking puncture..

Lorry driver here. You can have the inner or outer tyre go flat on a twin wheel hub and not notice it if the vehicle is unloaded or lightly loaded. You can drive around with it and it'll look perfectly OK. The only way to check it is either with a tyre gauge or kicking it. Have you ever wondered why you've seen lorry drivers kicking tyres?

property.advert

I hired a van from Enterprise the other week and paid around £35. They even picked me up. Dropped it off, no problems. I use them almost exclusively nowadays.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Lorry driver here. You can have the inner or outer tyre go flat on a twin wheel hub and not notice it if the vehicle is unloaded or lightly loaded. You can drive around with it and it'll look perfectly OK. The only way to check it is either with a tyre gauge or kicking it. Have you ever wondered why you've seen lorry drivers kicking tyres?

Been driving trucks for some 35 years so know a fair bit about tyres and vehicle inspections, i did kick the 4 rears thats why i know it wasn't punctured, my raod was silent being Sunday evening so a puncture enough to flatten a truck tyre by morning would have been audible..

My problem is i was raised by a man of honour and have had to teach myself (not enough it would appear) how to ouwit the increasing hordes of con men and shysters.

Mrs_Imp

I got ripped off by them too. I paid the extra insurance to reduce my deposit. The car was damaged when I collected it, some of it quite old damage, so no repairs had been carried out at any time.

I checked it before returning it and all seemed fine. The man at their office went to check the car and came back tutting. He'd found a 'scuff' on the bumper, which I hadn't spotted, otherwise I'd have polished out or touched it up. I lost my entire deposit and he laughed and said 'good job you paid the insurance or you'd have lost a bigger deposit'

I requested a receipt for the cost of repairs as I didn't believe that such a small scuff would cost so much to repair. It never arrived. I can't believe that a scuff that small would cost that much to repair, and I really don't believe it was ever repaired judging by the state of the vehicle when I collected it. Is it really right that they can retain the entire deposit, even if the repairs wouldn't cost that much?

I would never use them again, and I tell my friends not to use them. I found a much friendlier rental place that only charged me £50 for about £100 damage (car reversed into me), and have ignored scuffs (overhanging hadge that I didn't spot till it was too late). I've used them since, and would use them again.

Strider590

ady_j wrote: »

Cool, tell us how you do that then.

Could come in useful for a BBQ I'm planning.

It's simple, you check the weather reports before you arrange for them to deliver the vehicle............

Or in your analogy, you check the weather before you stock up on sausages.