Car Hire - Damage Charge

VickiSarge · 4 April 2024 at 10:52AM

I rented a car from Enterprise in January, no issues until we drove back into the car park and the tyre pressure light came on. The employee gave the car a once over and told us not to worry as it just needed air in the tyre.

Fast forward 2 months and £1000 was attempted to be taken from my card. I called Entperise and they said it wasn't them and to contact my bank/cancel my card. It was at this point I realised I didn't have my £200 security deposit back, the man said that was kept because the tyre had a puncture and it needed to be replaced. I was a bit miffed because they told me the car was fine but I had 3rd party insurance so knew I could claim on this.

I requested the documents, photo evidence etc from Enterprise and it turns out it was them trying to take the £1000!! Even more annoyed as I had to cancel my card etc. Anyway they were trying to claim for allow damage, sensor damage, side wall damage - it was all bull$!t. I even sent the photos and invoice to a mechanic I know and he said it's a fabricated claim and the photo evidence does not back any of it up, the alloy has zero damage. Didn't even show the puncture, yes the tyre is a bit flat but no sign of a puncture.

In addition to this, they sent letters to me via email that they had apparently sent out. We have never received anything, not by email, text, letter or telephone call UNTIL I contacted them.

I sent the information over to my insurance company and they have said the same, they are happy to pay for the new tyre but there is no evidence of the other 'damage'. In all fairness my insurance company are trying to help and being very fair, why would they pay out on something that isn't accurate!

We will be contesting this further with Enterprise and have informed my bank that we are disputing the claim. However I'm worried they will escalate to Debt Collectors if it goes unpaid.

I'm willing to fight this because it's all rubbish, £1200 for an unproven tyre punction is ridiculous.

Does anyone have any advice on how to tackle this, is there anyone else I should complain to other than Enterprise? There is so much miscommunication and outright lying from Enterprise, I went with these thinking they are reputable but they are just theives!