Enterprise Switzerland car hire damage dispute

whisky99

I hired a car in June from Enterprise in Basel airport (Swiss side).  It was booked via Booking.com and their Rentalcars.com group.  We checked the car carefully on pickup and took photos all around it as it had a number fo dents and scratches already.  The holiday and car hire went well, and we returned it on schedule to Basel Airport on July 13.

Fast-forward to August 12 and a ~£1400 charge was made to my credit card.  The email invoice that followed highlighted a scratch on the right-hand door, and detailed ~£900 for the deposit and ~£500 for bodywork repairs (that invoice is in German).

I have photographic proof that the scratch was present when we picked up the car in June.

Enterprise Switzerland is a franchise owned by Helvetic Motion AG.  I filled in a web form disputing the damage and have heard nothing since.  It is not possible to check the ticket status.  I emailed claims@enterprise.ch, and that just opened a new ticket.  The link in that email to view ticket status is dead.  All phone numbers for Enterprise Switzerland go to an automated line saying "fill in a web form and we'll get back to you". 

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be an isolated case, with many reports on the web of similar situations with this company from Basel, Geneva and Zurich.  Because they are Swiss, they are not subject to ECRCS rules either (EU countries only).

I do have Eversure excess insurance, but do not really want to pay Enterprise Switzerland anything for what is a false claim against me.

I'm looking for advice on how to proceed next.  

MyRealNameToo

Whilst you say you photographed it on pickup did you actually see the handover report on collection and if this damage was noted on it? 

whisky99

Yes, it listed "right front door - scratches - medium" on that report

pramsay13

A lot of car rental companies are like this and I'm not sure how they keep getting away with it. 
Get your bank to do a chargeback, that way the money will be taken from the company and they will have to justify the cost to get it reinstated.
If that doesn't work then make a section 75 claim but that will mean the bank is paying rather than enterprise. 

eskbanker

pramsay13 said:

If that doesn't work then make a section 75 claim but that will mean the bank is paying rather than enterprise. 

Section 75 won't apply given the number of parties involved, breaking the direct debtor-creditor-supplier chain required to sustain a s75 claim:

whisky99 said:

I hired a car in June from Enterprise in Basel airport (Swiss side).  It was booked via Booking.com and their Rentalcars.com group.

jbrassy

I appreciate from your post that you're cheesed off with Enterprise and don't want to give them money, but if it was me, I would go through the insurance. Ultimately that is what it is there for - to give you peace of mind. 

I rented a car in Iceland a few years ago from Avis and it had lots of scratches when I picked it up, which they claimed I caused when I dropped it off. I wasn't happy about this as I was pretty sure I didn't cause them, but I still went through the insurance because I couldn't be bothered to have the back and forth over email disputing the damage. Funnily enough, my insurance was also with Eversure and the claims process was quite straightforward. 

For the sake of stress reduction - just use the insurance.