Bitting believed that he was being billed for someone else s damage. He filed a complaint with the B

For starters, the car didn t appear to be the one that Bitting, an account executive for a federal agency in Washington, had rented. The dates when the damage hertz usa car rentals occured didn t match the dates on which he d driven the Mazda 3. The pictures were taken weeks after he d returned the car. And questions to Enterprise s damage recovery unit, asking for an explanation of the inconsistencies, were met with silence.
Bitting believed that he was being billed for someone else s damage. He filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, which at the time gave the car rental company a rating hertz usa car rentals of F, he says. Within days, Enterprise sent him a letter threatening to turn over the case to a collection agency.
Complaints about allegedly bogus damage claims appear to be a growing problem. I receive several requests for help every week. And a series of reports implicating Budget in a scheme to systematically and intentionally defraud customers by overcharging for minor repairs that sometimes aren t even done is making headlines in Canada.
British Columbia hertz usa car rentals s Attorney General, Shirley Bond, is reportedly investigating allegations of fraud at several Budget locations, and it wouldn t be surprising if a suspicious eye were eventually cast south of the border.
Bitting, for his part, was undeterred hertz usa car rentals by his setbacks. He contacted the Virginia Attorney General s office and also asked me to help. Enterprise s claim, he said, was ridiculous hertz usa car rentals and filled with inconsistencies and cryptic notes that he couldn t understand.
I asked Enterprise to review his bill, and it dropped the claim against him. I ve had numerous conversations about damage claims with Enterprise hertz usa car rentals in the recent past, and it believes that customers in the United States single it out for what they believe to be fraudulent damage claims because it s the largest car rental agency.
Cases such as Bittings, it argues, are usually reversed as a gesture of goodwill, not because they are invalid. This seems to make its customers happy. But there s a growing consensus among industry-watchers that closing damage claims to avoid extra scrutiny may not be enough.
Sharon Faulkner, the executive director of the American Car Rental Association, a trade group for the car rental industry, says that her constituents are obviously concerned about the Canadian investigation.
That said, our industry serves millions of customers every year, providing affordable and accessible vehicles at the airport, as well as in thousands of neighborhood locations, and we re proud to be of service in so many communities for the long term, she adds. Overall, the industry does a very good job of managing vehicle damage claims.
The problem may not be the car rental hertz usa car rentals industry s current damage-recovery practices. After all, it has had years to fine-tune its claims process, and with the possible exception of a few rogue franchisees, it s difficult to imagine this kind of fraud being carried out at a chain-wide level, with senior management s blessing.
Rather, two other issues could broadside the industry. The first is how car rental employees are trained. One former Budget employee told Canadian broadcast network CBC that he d been told to inspect vehicles from top to bottom and report any damage to managers no matter how minuscule, starting with the windshield. I spoke with a former car rental franchise owner in the States recently, who told me that she paid her employees hertz usa car rentals to find damage on vehicles after they d been returned.
Current and former car rental employees are only too aware that their business model is fragile. Take away the expensive insurance, fuel purchase options, navigation systems and aggressive pursuit of all damage to the vehicles, and your location could start hemorrhaging money. So it isn t necessarily what the American car rental companies say about damages that could be damning it s what it says to its employees about them.
The second problem: People never forget. If you ve been dinged for damage that didn t exist when you returned your vehicle, you could spend years, and even decades, pursuing justice. Did I say decades? Yes.
Walter Bird contacted me recently because he d received what he claimed was a bogus bill after he d rented a Lincoln Towncar from Budget in Toronto in 1995. No one had offered to do a pre-rental walkaround, and no one had been available to inspect the car, he says. They d just handed him the keys. Several weeks after returning the vehicle, he says, he received a notification from Budget that it had charged $154 to his credit card for a damaged tire. No explanation, just a bill. He s still furious.
It s people like Bird who make me think that this time, someone, somewhere, is going to say enough. hertz usa car rentals If the Federal Trade Commission can stop hotels from hiding hertz usa car rentals resort fees and the Transportation Department can force airlines to come clean about delays, hertz usa car rentals then it s just a matter of time before this issue is taken up by an agency with meaningful regulatory oversight.
Okay, I ll be honest. I m not holding my breath. So, in the meantime, do this: Take multiple pictures of your car before and after your rental. If there s damage, make sure you note it. If you re uncomfortable with the pre-existing damage, ask for another car. If you don t think your insurance will cover you, buy the extra collision-damage waiver.
You know, the part about the franchisee paying employees to find damage didn t register much on me, at first. But thinking about it for a minute, if employees know they ll get and extra $20 if they find a scratch, someone is going to try damaging a car intentionally just to get the money.
The problem is the practice of not inspecting the car with the customer before and after the rental. The car rental hertz usa car rentals companies cut employees and passed the cost of damages along to consumers, without any mechanism to protect either party.
If the problem is as endemic as the article hertz usa car rentals hints, I m surprised there hasn t been an expose on it where news agencies plant people hertz usa car rentals as employees to try to get the low-down on what s really going on here!
It won t be a federal issue because the Department of Justice has more important thing to do, like hounding kids to death for downloading research papers. But your state s AG could well be encouraged to get involved. It won t hurt to try.
This has been going on for years. hertz usa car rentals Hertz did the same thing to me a few years ago. (Oner $700.00.) When I proved hertz usa car rentals it as a fraudulant claim, Hertz dropped it. Then my Company asked me to no to persue hertz usa car rentals it.
FWIW, I have rented numerous cars from a multitude of rental companies, both domestic and internationally, airport locations and in-town locations, hertz usa car rentals corporate-owned and franchise, over the past 10 years since I started working, and have never once had a problem with a damage claim. The sole issue I ve had was with an unscrupulous counter employee that slipped a bogus upgrade by me at the counter. hertz usa car rentals But never any issues with damage. I always insist, however, that an employee sign my damage form before I leave the lot, regardless of how much attitude they cop about how it s a waste of time and not necessary. So I suspect such scams are perpetrated hertz usa car rentals by some rogue locations/employees, and not necessarily a major conspiracy by the chains.
That being said, I agree that there should be some kind of time limitation on sending out a claim. The rental companies shouldn t be allowed to try and get you days or even weeks later or at the very least, should be required to produce date and time stamped hertz usa car rentals photographs documenting that the damage was indeed there at the time of return.
This is a very interesting discussion. I ve had no problems in years of renting cars all over the world, Avis cheated us on repairing a little scratch but American Express took care of it. It would seem pretty simple hertz usa car rentals to require hertz usa car rentals the rental companies to bill you for damage at the time you return the car or forget it.
But how many of us would be happy waiting for a thorough hertz usa car rentals inspection of the vehicle when we re on our way to catch a flight? And the airport garages are so dark who could see the damage at pickup hertz usa car rentals or return? hertz usa car rentals It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years. The whole system is based on ethical behaviour, and it s obvious from the stories that some rental companies don t know what that means.
I think this scam is widespread in Europe as well after renters are thousands of miles away and intimidated by the rental company s aggressive threats. We had an experience a few years ago with Budget out of Frankfurt where they were claiming 800 euros in damages which we never caused and never paid. We always get our banks to cancel a credit hertz usa car rentals card we have used and issue us another card with a new number. This seemed to do the trick as we never heard from Budget again. We travel extensively and now cancel any card we used right at the airport on our way home. Keep a different card that hasn t been used where you have traveled. Needless to say we bad mouth Budget any chance we get and of course would never rent from them again. Since then and after reading other horror stories, we video record any car we rent and pay particular attention hertz usa car rentals to any previous damage noted on the paperwork.
Something similar happened to me, but as I paid for a rental one-way for a friend s return to the location from which he had helped hertz usa car rentals me move, I was totally stuck with what I knew was a fraudulent 347$ bill. He said there had been no indication of a problem when he returned the car, and no damage. But what could I do from a different city? This was 10 years ago, before everyone had a phone you could take pictures with. And yes, it was Enterprise.
That s a good point, backprop. Renting under corporate accounts I ve never had a damage claim and we re talking dozen of rentals. Renting as an individual (less than a dozen rentals hertz usa car rentals total) I ve had two different bogus claims both filed a month after I rented the car, both from locations that didn t have anyone to check in the car, both w