Alamo/Enterprise car hire - next steps

skyu

Hello people,

Sharing my experience renting from the Alamo/Enterprise branch at St. Pancras station in London, both as a warning as well as well as any suggestions for next steps.

I rented a car from this branch over the last weekend of November 2018, and paid for a lower excess of £100. Inspection upon collection revealed no damage to the car. We also planned to return the car after hours on Sunday evening, and was told that the car keys needed to be dropped off in the letterbox and the car parked.

During the trip, I scratched the car slightly, a 3mm scratch on the right hand side of the front of the car. When we eventually returned the car on Sunday night, we followed the after hours return procedures that were outlined to us when collecting the car.

The next day, I called the relevant branch to notify them of the damage to the rental, as well as confirmation over the phone that no further charges would be incurred, since we had paid for the lower excess coverage. The above was confirmed by the attendant over the phone.

In the two months since, however, I have been repeatedly contacted by the Damage Recovery Unit. I have been told that, since I had not notified the relevant branch of the damage to the car, the lower excess level did not apply and I was liable for additional charges of £420 relating to the damage caused.

I reverted with the details of the call made to the branch, including the date and time the call was made, to confirm that I had indeed followed the return procedure, and was told recently that the branch staff "do not recall having the phone conversation".

I've tentatively decided on the following next steps:

- Preparing to block any attempts by Alamo/Enterprise to charge my credit card for the £420
- I've used MSE's resolver tool to write to Alamo/Enterprise regarding this issue, and requested that they verify the contents of their call records on the day I made the call.
- If I/they are unable to find sufficient proof that the call was made, I am preparing to contest the actual charge itself, as I believe it is grossly excessive.

And my questions are:
- Are there any further next steps I should be considering?
- Is the request to verify the contents of their call history a reasonable one? If not, do I have any options to prove that I did contact them?
- What are my options to contest the charge (hopefully doesn't come to that though!)

Thanks everyone!

brianposter

skyu wrote: »

Hello people,

Sharing my experience renting from the Alamo/Enterprise branch at St. Pancras station in London, both as a warning as well as well as any suggestions for next steps.

I rented a car from this branch over the last weekend of November 2018, and paid for a lower excess of £100. Inspection upon collection revealed no damage to the car. We also planned to return the car after hours on Sunday evening, and was told that the car keys needed to be dropped off in the letterbox and the car parked.

During the trip, I scratched the car slightly, a 3mm scratch on the right hand side of the front of the car. When we eventually returned the car on Sunday night, we followed the after hours return procedures that were outlined to us when collecting the car.

The next day, I called the relevant branch to notify them of the damage to the rental, as well as confirmation over the phone that no further charges would be incurred, since we had paid for the lower excess coverage. The above was confirmed by the attendant over the phone.

In the two months since, however, I have been repeatedly contacted by the Damage Recovery Unit. I have been told that, since I had not notified the relevant branch of the damage to the car, the lower excess level did not apply and I was liable for additional charges of £420 relating to the damage caused.

I reverted with the details of the call made to the branch, including the date and time the call was made, to confirm that I had indeed followed the return procedure, and was told recently that the branch staff "do not recall having the phone conversation".

I've tentatively decided on the following next steps:

- Preparing to block any attempts by Alamo/Enterprise to charge my credit card for the £420
- I've used MSE's resolver tool to write to Alamo/Enterprise regarding this issue, and requested that they verify the contents of their call records on the day I made the call.
- If I/they are unable to find sufficient proof that the call was made, I am preparing to contest the actual charge itself, as I believe it is grossly excessive.

And my questions are:
- Are there any further next steps I should be considering?
- Is the request to verify the contents of their call history a reasonable one? If not, do I have any options to prove that I did contact them?
- What are my options to contest the charge (hopefully doesn't come to that though!)

Thanks everyone!

Your phone bill should be a perfectly straightforward proof that you made the call. I would already be thinking of making a small claim for any further costs which you may incur.

skyu

Thanks Brian!

This makes sense - my only issue here is that I didn't make the call from my own mobile phone. I instead made the call from a work phone located in my previous employer's office, which is not logged into a personalised account. Hence I've had to resort to asking Enterprise to check their call history.

Given the above, what do you think I should do? I could go back to my previous employer's offices and check (I think I MIGHT be able to find something but very doubtful at this point).

brianposter

Any record that the call was made is probably good enough. No relevant experience but I would have thought that most places could find a record of your call - or you could always try bluffing.