Hire car insurance claim for missing part (no accident or theft)

mark_ashley

Hi all, 

I have just returned a courtesy car I was given whilst our car was in for repair following an accident.

Whilst I had the car I had a few issues, one of which was that the wheel centre cap/hub cap fell off on a journey. No damage, no accident, no theft. It was there when I set off and wasn't when I returned. 

I emailed Enterprise and informed them of this and other issues. I offered to simply buy another hub cap available online for about £50 and I had the following reply: 

"It really isn't putting anyone out to swap it - we would much rather you be comfortable in the vehicle!

Do not worry about this! We can arrange to replace it ourselves, thank-you for letting us know"

My insurance company has just called me to say Enterprise have put a claim in for the hub cap which will mean we have to pay our excess and it will effect our NCD.

I have disputed this with the insurance company and I am trying to get in touch with Enterprise to discuss.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Feels a bit underhand to let me believe they would replace and then put in a claim.

Thanks, 

Mark.

TELLIT01

Unfortunately there is nothing in their reply to say they wouldn't charge for the replacement.

DullGreyGuy

mark_ashley said:

Hi all, 

I have just returned a courtesy car I was given whilst our car was in for repair following an accident.

Whilst I had the car I had a few issues, one of which was that the wheel centre cap/hub cap fell off on a journey. No damage, no accident, no theft. It was there when I set off and wasn't when I returned. 

I emailed Enterprise and informed them of this and other issues. I offered to simply buy another hub cap available online for about £50 and I had the following reply: 

"It really isn't putting anyone out to swap it - we would much rather you be comfortable in the vehicle!

Do not worry about this! We can arrange to replace it ourselves, thank-you for letting us know"

My insurance company has just called me to say Enterprise have put a claim in for the hub cap which will mean we have to pay our excess and it will effect our NCD.

I have disputed this with the insurance company and I am trying to get in touch with Enterprise to discuss.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Feels a bit underhand to let me believe they would replace and then put in a claim.

Thanks, 

Mark.

Unfortunately you appear to have read into "we can arrange a replacement ourselves" to mean this is fee free but that isn't what it says. 

You could contact enterprise and settle it privately with them or alternatively you could reimburse your insurers for their outlay. Obvs if it is below your excess then it will be the actual claims cost you pay and the claim will be closed with no impact to your NCD

injuryclaimhelp

It sounds like Enterprise misled you by assuring that the hub cap wasn’t an issue and they'd handle it, only to then file a claim against your insurance. Since you have their email stating not to worry, I’d recommend presenting that to both Enterprise and your insurer to dispute the claim. This email can serve as evidence that they implied it wouldn't result in a claim, which feels unfair. Hopefully, with this documentation, you can resolve the issue without affecting your excess or No Claims Discount.

mark_ashley

I did get in touch with Enterprise who apologised. Mis-communication between teams whilst certain people were on annual leave. They closed it down from their end and let Aviva know too.