UPDATE I was contacted by Enterprise Rentals Area Offices and after reviewing the information I provided here on my blog they have decided to drop the claim against me. The representative also said that it is not Enterprises Policy to require their renters to get down on their hands and knees to inspect under the car and any reasonable person would not have seen the damage from a standing position before or after renting the vehicle.

Woo hoo!

That is a sigh of relief! Goes to show that making good and bad experiences known through social media can make a difference!UPDATE I was contacted by Enterprise Rentals Area Offices and after reviewing the information I provided here on my blog they have decided to drop the claim against me. The representative also said that it is not Enterprises Policy to require their renters to get down on their hands and knees to inspect under the car and any reasonable person would not have seen the damage from a standing position before or after renting the vehicle.

Woo hoo!

That is a sigh of relief! Goes to show that making good and bad experiences known through social media can make a difference!Summary:
– Don’t ever use Enterprise Rent A Car, especially the one in Kahului, Maui on Dairy road.
– Michael Drove a rental car from Enterprise 15 miles and was charged $1000 for Damage found beneath the car & which likely existed before his rental
– Enterprise Rented the same damaged car out before having it repaired, possibly worsening the damage
– The Repair shop charged for repairs unrelated to the initial damage assessment, which was then billed to Michael
– Enterprise tacked on an addition $100 “Administrative Fee” & $128 “Loss of Use”, 4 days worth, when it was repaired for only 10 hours.
– Enterprise is now officially inducted into Michael The Maven’s “Hall of Shame”, members of which Michael will never do business again.

It isn’t often I use my 1st Amendment Rights and blog as a means to describe an astonishing display of taking advantage of a customer. I did it once before after I was scammed by Gold Gym, and if you are to type in “The Gold’s Gym Scam” into Google, not only is my article #1 on that subject, there are literally hundreds of other reports about the same. As everyone knows, there are poor displays of customer service everywhere and only when I see a blatant or what appears to be administrative control of a company intentionally milking it’s customers will I make it public. I will never sign a contract with a Gold’s Gym again, and I highly recommend that you do not either, as it is a straight up scam, and there are numerous other reports that confirm it.

Enterprise Rent A Car is a company you should never use under any circumstances for the reasons I am about to prove. When I spoke with them directly about the matter, they refused to listen, in fact seemed happy about the situation, like bonuses were in store. Totally unsympathetic.

The back ground:

I was getting some repair work done on my Prius and needed a car to get around for a day. Did the walk around, car looked fine, drove home. I went to the post office and Walmart. Returned the car. Drove a total of 15 miles, all on paved roads.

The agent at Enterprise went outside and inspected the car, suspecting nothing, I was shocked when he asked me “Hey did you bottom out?” I told him I did not and I would have known if I did because I know what that sounds like, that I drove the car home, to a run a couple errands and back all within just over 1 day of renting. He asked me again “Did you bottom out?” I replied I did not and repeating the question wouldn’t change my answer. He then said he needed to fill out a damage report. At this point I have no idea what is going on and he said the drivers back side rocker panel (beneath the car) had been damaged. I knew nothing about this and demanded to look.

We go outside to look and he points it out to me, hardly noticeable while standing outside the vehicle. I would later take this picture while he was inside (Enterprise did not know I took my own photos)I get close to the ground and there appears to be a 1/4 inch gash mark (marked in blue) on the panel. I know it is this size because my pinky is next to it, which looks like it split the paint. I see no other damage to the car.An additional image with my compared to my hand shows the cracked paint to be about 12-15 inches in length.At this point I started to get a sinking feeling this was some kind of carefully orchestrated scam. I see no way that the car was damaged when I drove it, unless the damage occurred when it was parked while running my errands. The location of the damage is what is bothering me, I didn’t see it when I returned the car, and there would have been no way for me to see it when I picked it up either. The agent actually had to physically point it out to me, before looking underneath the car. I have no way of knowing if it was already there when I picked it up or not. 15 miles on paved roads is not much.

When I explained this to them and the fact that the car had been driven 15 miles on paved roads, the manager and agent were both indifferent and unsympathetic to my reasoning. I notify my insurance agent and he says “wait until you get the paper work from Enterprise.” Fair enough.

I get the damage report yesterday and it’s essentially asking for $1000, or about 6.5% of the 2013 Cruz total valueIt gets better

Now beside the point that there is damage to the rocker panel only (See initial report boxed in red):
Enterprise includes the repair report, including images. Here are the images Enterprise took:Their images are in black and white, so its hard to see what is going on, but there appears to be significant more damage than when I returned it. I do not see such a large bump in my images, yes there is a huge one on theirs. Almost like someone hit it with a sledge hammer.

Its gets even better

When I returned my car, there was 10,049 Miles, I have highlighted it in red here, the number is “10049”, and the total miles driven are “15” thought hard to read, note the pink circle, which is mileage after I returned it:

But….when the repair shop got the car, there was 10093, which means the car was driven 54 miles before it arrived at the shop.

What this means is that Enterprise chose to continue to rent the car out in it’s damaged state. This is significant, because there was paint damage and if the car is being driven, how can the repair company know what damage was original and what was new from the continued renting and driving of the car…..after the fact? (as well as How can I know the damage occurred earlier and my driving only opened the gash more?) There is no way to know…. so Enterprise chooses to bill me for all of it.

The repair report also indicates multiple other repairs not related to the driver side rocker panel, which I believe my images and even their own report show were the damage was isolated. The original damage to the car is underlined in red, the blue underlines are for work not related to the rocker panel, about 3 hours worth. The pink Circle is the new mileage. While I don’t blame the repair shop and have thus blurred out their name, I do think it’s funny it would take any mechanic worth his salt an hour to open a door and handle cover, but why are they even doing that in the first place? There was no damage to the door or quarter panel, none to the bumper, door, light etc.

What I believe is happening here is Enterprise is having other little things on the car fixed and also billing me for it If it was just the rocker panel, why the other work?

As you can see, the total mechanic work total was 10 hours. Right? On the final bill, to add insult to injury, Enterprise reasons to charge me for nearly 4 days of “loss of use” $128 and to top it off adds an additional $100 “Administrative fee”.
What I am saying is, that in addition to the repair work, I the data indicate that Enterprise is billing me an additional ~$300 for things unrelated to the damage which I do not believe I caused anyway. This is dishonest.

I do some searching around the internet, and find thousands of similar stories. This is a regular thing that Enterprise does, it is straight up part of their business model to generate revenue:

Enterprise Damage Scam on Pissed Customer
Enterprise Damage Scam on Ripoff Report
Enterprise’s 1 Star Rating on Consumer Affairs