Enterprise Claims Vehicle Damage/Sends Us Bill.

[Owen Lucas]

That's not been my experience. I've done this for a similar situation and the "lawyer letter" was sufficient for the issue to go away. I was billed for 2 hours of their time.

That's overkill in my book, especially for $500. I've reverse engineered entire board of directors emails for banks, rental car companies, stores etc. and would often get calls back in a day or 2. Executive support groveling, ready to make the problem go away. Some people may think I'm a butthead and I wish it didn't have to be this way, but I expect quality work and good service.

"I'm sick and tired and can't take it anymore!!!!"

 

[Owen Lucas]

The bill is a lot, but other options cost more. I'd get it in writing that once paid, you are no longer responsible for anything else on that car. An email from the manager or district rep should suffice.

Against company policy, I have always added the rental company insurance. I treat the cars with respect, but I have been accused of scuffs, marks and dirty floor mats. No worries. I have the insurance.

I once rented some plastic mats for temporary road construction. I added the insurance, luckily. Three were damaged during my use. the rental company wanted $15k in replacement costs. Sorry, I got the insurance. After that, insurance on those things were never available again.

A lot of the problems dealing with rental car companies is the damage team is in the a foreign country. Philippines or IIRC, Columbia and Jamaica for Avis.

You can't get through to these people normally, they hate you because you live in the future and they are making $3 an hr if lucky. Once I heard a rooster cockadoodledoing in a the background. I told her that even her rooster agreed with me...

So escalate to the Board of Directors, investors, CEO, VP etc.

 

[CKN]

I’d get a lawyer before I paid the bill. I’m aware that it will cost more in the end.

For $500.00 ? REALLY?

 

[rijndael]

Yea, it seems like fraud. It's the principle of it.

Maybe I'm just not in the habit of paying $500 bills for things I didn't get/do.

 

[Greenbeforeblue]

How many days can a car be driven with a hole in the oil pan? If the damage was previous to the rental, it would have, in my estimation, become apparent pretty quickly after being driven away. That's probably same thing the rental company surmised. Now I'm not saying this is the case, but go ask ANYONE who works in a body shop how many times they've fixed damage that a spouse was said to be absolutely ignorant of. And honestly, the things people do inside cars today instead of paying attention, I'd probably believe it.

If it were me, I'd pay the 500 and be done with it.

 

[D60]

Be careful who you anger. If this were paid there's always the possibility the next three rentals will return with problems far exceeding the bill, and impossible to tie to anyone.

Those with mechanical knowledge know how. Not that I would ever do such a thing.....heavens no!!

 

[Owen Lucas]

Be careful who you anger. If this were paid there's always the possibility the next three rentals will return with problems far exceeding the bill, and impossible to tie to anyone.

Those with mechanical knowledge know how. Not that I would ever do such a thing.....heavens no!!

The front line employees/ branch managers at rental car companies are not that smart to target you. Too much volume, too little capacity to do anything right. The worst I've seen is renters get blacklisted because the last time they rented, they never returned the car, and came to rent again!

 

[rekit]

I have not seen this mentioned. Was there oil where the car was stopped, on the tow truck? 4-5 qts makes a mess somewhere. Of course if it was Enterprises tow truck he is going to cover his self. If it was a small hole, slow leak, well...my wife would probably not catch the low oil light.

 

[PandaBear]

Because of things like this I make sure I take photos of the rental I take and keep them for a few months at least.

 

[GW.]

Car would be covered in oil if it happened on your wife’s watch….

 

[Propflux01]

My guess would be the prior renter damaged the oil pan (and not the tow company) and it leaked slowly until your wife drove it a few days and it lost enough oil to go into limp mode. If the tow truck damaged it why did it go into limp mode? I would fight them on it up until they were going to send me to 'collection'. I'd avoid that at all costs but you never know...they might back down when they encounter 'resistance'.

PS: About 8 years ago I rented a minivan in Florida (Nissan Quest) for a week. On about the 3rd day I was walking toward the van in a parking lot when I noticed it was dented on the underside (lower part of rocker panel) in a spot that was only noticeable from a distance (you wouldn't see it up close). I knew that I didn't hit anything and realized it was rented to me that way. When I returned the van I parked it close to the wall on that side (passenger side) and when they 'inspected' it they missed the damage just as I had when I rented it. I never heard from them and all was well.

In 2018 while in Europe they tried to charge me for a new tire due to a gouge in a tire on a rented Renault. I told them I didn't do it (which I didn't) and refused to pay....they dropped the request to pay for the tire. I did learn to look more closely and document damage before taking a rental vehicle after these episodes.

This is my thinking as well. The pan picture looked like Bo and Luke launched it over a curb. Unfortunately, I did not take the picture so I cannot post it here.

 

[Propflux01]

I have not seen this mentioned. Was there oil where the car was stopped, on the tow truck? 4-5 qts makes a mess somewhere. Of course if it was Enterprises tow truck he is going to cover his self. If it was a small hole, slow leak, well...my wife would probably not catch the low oil light.

Wife reported no oil leaking at all. Only thing she mentioned to me was she thought the car was louder than normal, but didn’t give it much thought, as it drove ok and no dash lights. Until there were.

 

[dishdude]

This is my thinking as well. The pan picture looked like Bo and Luke launched it over a curb. Unfortunately, I did not take the picture so I cannot post it here.

So that rules out damage from the tow truck. You said the car was 110 miles from the pick up location when it was picked up, something isn't adding up here. She had if for a few days, there's no way that oil pan was damaged when she picked it up.

 

[Propflux01]

So that rules out damage from the tow truck. You said the car was 110 miles from the pick up location when it was picked up, something isn't adding up here. She had if for a few days, there's no way that oil pan was damaged when she picked it up.

She didn’t hit anything. As I stated earlier, she said it was a bit noisy, but she didn’t think anything of it. There’s nothing to “add up”about. My thinking is more of a crack than a hole, and I still don’t know if it had the plastic under-cover on it. The pic they gave me looks like a dented pan with no other obvious damage around it

 

[JHZR2]

This is a bit rough because it’s going to be a he said - she said argument.

They gave her a vehicle without a CEL, with oil, that met their pre-rental check, in theory. Whether it was actually in good condition is another story.

I always photograph my rental cars thoroughly at pickup, with notable indicators that I did it at the airport at the pickup, because I don’t trust these places at all. But photographing wouldn’t necessarily help here anyway.

If it was driven a long way it’s hard to come up with a plausible scenario that it was given to her damaged. Whether she recognizes or not that she hit something, scraped something, etc., unfortunately the reasonable fault here is her as she had the car in use for 110 miles. Not one mile. 110. So again, he said - she said. If it was given to her slowly dripping, and it dropped to empty over 110 miles would be impossible to prove.

If you have an Amex, enroll in this coverage and always use the Amex to rent the car. $19.99 per rental (not per day). They paid a $2k claim for me a couple years ago after a stone cracked the windshield on a BMW I had rented.

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/insurance/premium-car-rental-protection/

Yes, I held onto an Amex card for a while for this. Once in Europe our rental car suffered a damaged taillight. Not sure how. I never heard anything because Amex handled it.

I’ve read that CCs have been dropping the rental car perk, but I don’t know how broad that is. Free with a card is likely to have fewer benefits than the paid service like Amex offered. But OP should check with the cc issuer first.

 

[JustinH]

Similar thing happened to us. Wife crashed her car. Geico paid for a rental at Enterprise. We had the rental car for a month.

Upon return Enterprise sent us a bill for body damage due to hail. There was no hail in the area not even rain.

They sent it to collections. We had to put in an insurance claim to get it paid, it was like $3000.

Rates on insurance went up.

Another time we were in vegas with my brother. He rented a Chrysler 300m. Someone backed into it at the casino parking lot when we were sleeping. Turned the car in, never heard about it, but the rear quarter was pushed in.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I would write them a letter saying they did not properly check the vehicle over prior to releasing it to rent. Then, cc your lawyers office with the most official looking title you can come with. In the past I’ve seen them cave. It’s nothing for them to write the first letter but big dollars if they have to have their Lawyer respond. Good luck.

 

[JimPghPA]

Many years ago, the sales rep got charged for a damaged catalytic converter. The rental car company said that he put laded gas in it. He said he did not.

Sounds like these rental car companies stay in business by fraudulent damage charges.

 

[GW.]

Earlier I mentioned there would be oil everywhere if your wife did it. I also want to add that oil would be all over the exhaust and undercarriage causing a burnt oil smell.

 

[MaximumMini]

A lawyer will charge you 10x for the retainer than to pay the bill. Most likely wouldn't even want to deal with this situation.

from my experience.....
You don't have to accept the retainer fee like that. They have no law protecting the amount of a retainer fee.
People often fear attorneys.

If you're just blindly looking for an attorney, don't be desperate. Kindly counter their retainer demand with your offer and then politely tell them to call you within 48 hours and call another.

They will often accept if it's a reasonable amount. It's a windfall when clients just fold and accept, no questions asked (which is usually how it goes). It's better to get nothing back from $2500 , then to get nothing back from $5000 .