Enterprise Rental Charging Customer $47k for Mustang stolen from Enterprise Lot

[Rathji]

Best part about a rental car with insurance? You can go off-road to capture Own This World territories that really should never be captured.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

Nah. In my car insurance policy it says it will cover car rentals. I wanted to make sure of this, before my trip to Winnipeg last November. Sure enough...my policy covers insurance on car rental. Intact told me "no, don't pay for the additional insurance. You already pay for that in your policy. Make sure you decline it."

Ok. Works for me!

Keep in mind this only applies in Canada and the US. No go anywhere else including Mexico.

And will only cover up to a certain limit. Intact for instance has a limit of $40k.

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Keep in mind this only applies in Canada and the US. No go anywhere else including Mexico.

I wouldn't drive in Mexico if you paid me. I'll take the tourist bus.

If I go to Mexico, it's to plump my white ass on a resort beach and drink.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by fotze

You mean where you sign in 3 spots to decline their coverage? IF you are not paying the fee they will make you do that, else they would have charged for it and it would be covered.

I have used my credit card insurance (aeroplan) for a ding in a car door and it was a breeze.

Errr ya, that's what I meant. Just read the coverage eligibilty and I didn't read the part saying IF they don't have a spot to decline, then you write a phrase. I thought it was required anyways. Ooops.

You must decline the collision damage waiver
benefits (or similar provisions, such as “loss
damage waiver”) offered by the rental agency
(when not prohibited by law). If there is no space
on the Rental Car Agreement to decline coverage,
You must write on the contract “I decline the CDW
provided by the Rental Agency.”

Interestingly, I found the following phrases in my coverage:

This coverage does not apply to Rental Cars when
Your rental period is more than forty-eight (48)
consecutive days, or Your rental period is extended
for more than forty-eight (48) days by renewing or
taking out a new rental agreement with the same
or another rental agency for the same vehicle or
other vehicles.

Doesn't cover rentals more than two days in duration? Well crap.

Vehicles which belong to the following categories
are not covered:
• trucks (including pick-ups) or any vehicle that
can be spontaneously reconfigured into a pickup
truck

No trucks? Damnit, that's usually what I rent.

Is this typical of a basic card for peons and you guys are all running AMEX Blacks?

[Hockeyguy15]

48 days, not hours.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

48 days, not hours.

Complete Fail

This is why I should never review contract/terms documents on Mondays. Time to pack it in, brain is done.

[HockeyIlliterate]

I fail to understand how Enterprise's lack of on-site security should result in the car renter being responsible for the theft of a car that was, as far as I can tell, properly turned-in.

Let's take Enterprises' contractual language and play two what-ifs with it.

If a renter returns a car after hours, and an Enterprise employee torches the car before the office opens up the next day, should the renter be held responsible?

If a renter returns a car after hours, and during office hours on the next business day but before an Enterprise employee inspects the car, someone rams into the car, should the renter be held responsible?

Curiously, I note that Enterprise's language doesn't state who must inspect the car. Accordingly, if a renter returns a vehicle at 11:59 pm on Sunday(which, let's say, is after hours), and then "inspects" it at 12:01 am on Monday (which is, arguably, the "next business day"), is the renter no longer responsible for the car?

Enterprise is known for running a bare-bones and cheap operation. I guess that their lack of security is just one outcome of that business decision.

That being said, one of these days it might be "fun" to rent a car and take out full insurance on it, absolutely destroy the car, and return it to the rental company on the back of a tow-truck and just hand over the keys and shrug. I can see how doing so would be a cheap way to get out some rage and aggression.

[Nufy]

If I am booking for more than a week or two its usually work related...

Then i take what ever they have to offer...

For personal use I usually rely on my Visa included insurance...

[para transit fellow]

Once upon a time I got the extra rider to cover any car I rented. I kept it on my policy

My Jeep Cherokee was smashed by an oncoming driver and I had a rental. Which disappeared on a sunday afternoon.. ( stolen by ex GF's son -- which is another story)

My insurance covered it (without deductible). Part of the process was a $47,000 bill from the car rental company.

Car was recovered with minimal damage 4 months later- "Dim wit" had been driving it around. First indication I had that he had done it was the call from the arresting cop asking if a car had been stolen and did I know....

[burn_this_city]

What's criminal here is Ford charging people $47k for a convertible Mustang.

[-TC-]

She did sign a contract...caveat emptor

Having said that, the first thing I do when I get that call is talk to my insurance company or credit card company and sic their lawyers on Enterprise...

[Bill Bumface]

My favorite attempted rental company scam is attempting to charge you $10 or $15 per day to let anyone else drive it.

We recently rented a minivan and drove from Toronto to Buffalo, to New York, to Boston, to Detroit, to Pittsburgh and back to Toronto (guess what we were doing?).

So the rental company has a policy that encourages one person to drive all of that and not let anyone else take over when they are fatigued, surely increasing the chances their car gets crashed.

Sadly there are enough suckers that buy the insurance and pay the fees for extra drivers unnecessarily that make it more profitable than the loss of use of a couple of their vehicles while they sit in the autobody shop.

[LChoy]

My 2 cents, but I think every rental car company has this policy. In the past few years, I have rented from Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, and Budget, and there are always signs about the car being your responsibility until the staff take possession of the keys in the morning.

Granted, this might be the first time a car rental company has actually enforced this rule, and thus Enterprise is getting a bad rap.

[KelVarnsen]

Did Harper know about this? And if so, when?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by fotze

I got suckered into the pre-buying of gas in Maui. The lady point blank said the per/gallon is cheaper than anywhere on the island (RED FLAG). I assumed it was Hawaii and gas is going to be a whore expensive, so it was $118 or something. Go to do a fill up thinking it would be $100 and it was only $40. Bitch. I knew I was stupid for doing it at the time too, but it was a late delayed crappy flight.

Jokes on them though, someone totally dented the drivers side door in a parking lot and they never noticed it.

That's actually pretty surprising. I think you got extra ripped off. Usually the prepay is just slightly lower than prices at the station. The idea being that they charge you for the entire volume of the tank, and you'll never be able to nail it so you come in completely empty, driving for 30 minutes with the gas light on until you get back to the rental place. So you pay the price of say 60L of fuel, but they only have to fill it with 40L.

[JonDuke]

All credit cards are different. Some will cover your rental insurance and some won't.
We had CIBC and BMO. I forget how it went, but one did, and one didn't.

Also, afaik, most CC insurances cover car rental only (and not cube or moving vans)

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by fotze

I bet the rental companies are doing this because the uptick in the criminally expensive insurance premiums will be worth it. There will probably be a percentage or two more people who remember this story (and not the eventual tossing of it) and will choose the insurance. That will pay for these legal costs 100 times over.

That's taking the supposition that the rental car companies' insurance would cover the theft of the car. If it didn't, you'd have no one to go to bat for you.

[pylon]

Whenever I travel now, I bring a PDF copy on my tablet of my actual insurance policy, like all 8 pages, that shows it pays for all perils, theft, etc in the case that the car rental person gets pushy on the insurance. To double the coverage I always pay with my Visa Avion to be doubly safe.

If you do not have 3rd party on your personal car insurance it is ridiculously cheap, like $30 or $40 bucks a year to have full coverage, including theft, on a rental. Less than you would spend for 3 days of their coverage.

Also, I always leave rentals unlocked (if I have nothing in them of course). That way the car isn't going to get mangled by someone breaking into it. In fact some rental places in Hawaii suggest you do that.

All that being said, if I didn't have a credit card, or personal car insurance, I definitely would pay for their premium insurance coverage.

[RW99]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I have no issues with what Enterprise has done. Whenever I rent with them and I want to return it off hours, they will let me and only still charge me for my original time, even if I drop it off right before they open. Every time I did it, they told me about it being my responsibility, it was in the contract (still don't understand 'fine print' being thrown around) and when I go to return it, it says so right on the return box that you are responsible for it until they can check it.

I do think Enterprise could do a better job with it, like making the rental FOB open a secure lot and just have a video camera in there. But there is no real way to confirm no damages until they see it. Maybe a better question should be should rental agencies allow after hour drops?

As far as her auto insurance is concerned, I'm not really sure what most policies say. But it could be just the phrasing like 'while being rented', which stops as soon as she returns the keys and Enterprise isn't charging her.

I think the situation sucks all around, it's a grey area that isn't being properly covered. I'd like to see her credit card insurance cover it.

[GP_Matt]

I rented a snowmobile once and crashed it. The credit card girl just laughed at me when I tried to see if they would cover the damage.