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.

brianposter

Given that you appear to have a strong case and have paid by credit card it would be very interesting if you simply rang your excess insurer and asked what you should do (and told us about the reply).

This is obviously in some way risky but I would have thought you should be pretty safe making a S75 claim on your credit card as a last resort, given that the money has been taken direct from the card.

Eskbanker may care to comment further.

whisky99

Thanks everyone for the feedback and advice.  I appreciate it!  

I had a web chat with Eversure (no working phone number there either!) and explained my situation and position.  The lady I spoke to said if I wanted to dispute the charge, I'd need to wait until it was settled with the rental complaint directly before submitting a claim.  

If I accept the charges (if Enterprise are not willing to discuss this) I can submit a claim to Eversure, after paying up-front  Then I need to cross my fingers that the claim is accepted and I get reimbursed!  If it is though, I should be covered for the full amount.

brianposter

Disappointing! I had hoped they would be more helpful.

Presumably you contact Enterprise Switzerland, Enterprise UK and then your credit card provider in that order.

whisky99

brianposter said:

Disappointing! I had hoped they would be more helpful.

Presumably you contact Enterprise Switzerland, Enterprise UK and then your credit card provider in that order.

It wasn't ideal, but it did help give me some confidence that, assuming the claim was accepted by Eversure, I should be covered for the full amount and not left out of pocket.  Obviously I'm making a few assumptions there that the claim was not challenged etc.

As for the order of events, I contacted Enterprise Switzerland (Helvetic Motion AG) twice followed by Booking.com/Rentalcars.com and haven't tried my credit card provider (Nationwide) yet.

pramsay13

eskbanker said:

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.

Even though the original booking was through rentalcars.com the contract for the (suspected) damage is between the OP and Enterprise who have taken the money from the card meaning the chain for S75 is still complete.