Issue with Enterprise Rent a car

stra1ghtarrow

Hi,

I am new to this forum so I’m just asking for a bit of advice on something that has caused me a lot of stress with Enterprise rent a car.
My car was parked outside of my house over the weekend of the 13th December while I was away and the next door neighbour crashed into the side of the front bumper of my car. She left her insurance details and has a mobility vehicle insured through Royal sun alliance. The marks were minor and I asked her if she would want to just pay for the repair but said that her insurance would cover it all and would not affect my no claims. I clarified this with her insurance who were more than happy to organise the repair at one of their approved garages. As this was over Christmas I needed a car to use and they organised a car with enterprise rent a car. The car was fine for the first week but I could smell a burning smell under the car and called enterprise and asked if they wanted me to return it. They said if it wasn’t affecting the driving the choice was up to me so I said I’m in the area and ill switch it out just to make sure there is no damage (I did not want to be liable) they switched the car out but they only had one car left which had literally just been clean. There was a quick switch over and I must be honest I didn’t check the car out properly.
2 days later my car was ready and I handed the car back. Everything was fine until the person receiving the car on behalf of enterprise noticed a small chip on the windscreen. After some back and forth he concluded that the third party policy (RSA group) had a no excess for windscreen damages and said I would not have to pay anything, therefore I signed that there was chip damage and I was on my way.
Fast forward 2 weeks later and I have had a bill through from the enterprise for the repairs £409. I called them up and said there must be some sort of mistake. They said no, ‘you signed an excess of 500 to pay and must pay’. I told them that the person who took the car back told me I wouldn’t have to pay and that was why I signed the damage agreement but they said I did not have any recorded proof that conversation took place.
I therefore went back to RSA group and asked them what I should do. I explained to them that the cost for the repairs of the hire vehicle windscreen are more than the initial repairs to my car that was damaged. They agreed this was unacceptable and said I should only pay the excess of my insurance through Tesco which is £75. They told me their in house enterprise team would deal with it on my behalf and I should only have to pay my excess at worse.
Today I received a call from enterprise, the same unreasonable case handler telling me I had to claim on my insurance for the damages. I told them this is unacceptable as I would have rather have just paid for the repairs on my car and avoid all this stress. I then phoned RSA who said that I should not give the details to enterprise and that their in house team are still dealing with them and to wait to hear back.
As you can tell this has been a confusing and stressful experience. I am resigned to the fact that I may have to pay the money but the principle really has me at odds. Is anyone able to clear up who is right in this case and what course of action I should take?

Thanks

Shaun_of_the_Dead

You took the hire car so your responsible for the damage. Either use your insurance or pay.

seatbeltnoob

When I had to do an insurance repair on my car, the claims handler tried to get me to take out a hire care (which means a big fat bill to the liable party's insurance which covers the bill).


But I refused several times, the gently tried to persuade me to take out the hire car and I refused at each stage.


I refused for precisely this reason. They were so hell bent on me taking their hire car that I told them I'd do it in one condition. That I'm given a full damage waiver and £50 of fuel. They refused.


I know it costs them peanuts to get the hire car and they bill the third party £150+ a day. So I wanted in on the action.


But I know, when you hire a car and dont have full damage waiver it's a ticking time bomb. Anything could happen that causes a bit of damage on the car which the hire company charges you full wack for.


I would never get a hire car without full damage waiver, my eyesight isn't that great to spot everything. The hirer doesn;t seem to give a toss about any damage when you take the vehcile. It could have a 1ft long key scratch that you can see from 10ft away, but they'll just stand there with their clipboard like an idiot, not jot it down unless you point it out. But on return they spot everything like a hawk.

seatbeltnoob

Sorry this probably doens't help you OP.



In future get yourself a third party full excess waiver, or if you really dont want headache get it with the company supplying the car. It's a bit more expensive but you dont have to deal with bearacracy or temporarily financing the excess.

AdrianC

You signed when you collected the hire car, saying there was no damage to the windscreen.
When you handed the hire car back, there was damage to the windscreen.

Who else is going to pay for that?
Remember, while the windscreen's being sorted, the car can't be rented out.

You signed that you were liable for the first £500 of damage to it while in your custody.

The burning smell, and your car's repairs, are both irrelevant to the windscreen damage.