Enterprise Rent-a-car is screwing me over!

ColdFusion · Post by **ColdFusion** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:20 am

It's long but I need to be thorough. I'm not sure if I have ground to stand on here. I don't think they should be able to get away with this. I want to fight back but I'm not sure if this could go in my favor legally. I will take them to court if I can. Here is what happened:

My car was stolen just over 2 weeks ago. 72 hours after my car was reported stolen, my insurance company (ICBC) allowed me to rent a car until the damage was estimated and repaired. So, I went into Enterprise Rent-A-Car here in Vancouver, Canada and rented a car. I was told that because the car was stolen I would be responsible for the costs upfront and would need to be reimbursed by ICBC. The daily rate was $69.99+TAX which is very high, but I assumed ICBC would be paying for it anyways, so I gave him my Visa card and he said he was pre-authorizing $300 (He actually put through $400 according to Visa). Later that day I had a meeting with my insurance adjuster who informed me that ICBC only pays a max $40/day. She said the rate they were charging was outrageous and agreed to authorize direct billing from Enterprise to ICBC so they would stick to the ICBC rate. I spoke with one of the employees at Enterprise 4 days after renting the car, and gave him all the information needed to bill ICBC for the rental. Fast forward 12 days, ICBC calls and says my car is ready to pick up. I went to return my rental car the next day. To my surprise the manager handed me a bill for $1019.37!! I almost passed out. I informed him that ICBC authorized direct billing, which I confirmed on Monday Aug 10, so I should not have to pay anything, to which he said "We are not going to honor that because ICBC will only pay $40/day and the difference I will have to pay out of my pocket ... I could have rented the car to someone else who would have paid the full rental rate". So, I'm standing there in shock trying to figure out 1) How can they do this and 2) If they can ... why was I not told this as soon as they decided not to honor ICBC's rates. I have been driving around under the assumption that I'm not going to pay anything.

I was diagnosed with mono in July and I have been pushing myself so hard all summer just to get out of bed and go to work ... this is so much money for me and possibly the difference between me going to school or not in January. I hate that I am being screwed over here by some douche bag manager who is trying to make a quick buck. After subtracting ICBC's daily rate of $40, I still owe $659.37.

My ICBC adjuster has been so helpful and I am so grateful to her for helping me out as much as she can. She really feels for me, but her hands are tied. It's up to Enterprise wither or not they will honor what they agreed to. She has notes on file regarding a telephone conversation she had with Enterprise and authorizing direct billing which was OK'd. All this information is documented by my adjuster, but due to the Privacy of Information Act, this release of this information needs to be approved and can take up to a month.

What should I do?? Do I do a chargeback on my Visa card and let them investigate? Do I take them to small claims court? Should I just take this as one of those lessons in life and forget about it?

Thanks so much for any advise!

Paft · Post by **Paft** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:05 am

Perform a chargeback with Visa immediately, and when they investigate, make sure you let them know about your insurance adjuster and what was discussed.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:41 am

At most you should only be responsible for the difference between what enterprise charges and what your insurance paid.

fastchevy · Post by **fastchevy** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:39 am

I currently have a rental Charger with them because someone totalled the Honda. They are direct billing with Allstate so I hope things are smoother. That sucks that they try and stick it to you when you're already down.
I do know that Allstate is renting my charger for $30/day when the 'retail rate' is WAY higher.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:54 am

The only time I've had to deal with a rental company with an accident I went to my insurance first, got some info, phone # and name and went to enterprise and they set it all up right away. I'd be ****ed if I had to pay the difference as my insurance gets me an emergency rental for like 8 or 12 bucks a day, but I think thats only good for a week or 2 at the most.

Maybe this was due to the order of how things were done for CF.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:59 am

Always always request the CHEAPEST car they have when being reimbursed by insurance, most will only pay $30-$40 a day for a car, it should be noted in your insurance policy as a feature and how much they pay, so they assume that you know this amount going in. If Enterprise only has a $60 car, then go somewhere else, somewhere that will give you a car for the amount that the insurance will pay for, that is your responsibility sadly to line that up.

MissTynker2 · Post by **MissTynker2** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:11 pm

That could be a sticky situation for sure. I do not of course know if Canada's rulings might be different than ours here in the U.S. either, which is of little help!

Keep in touch with that agent...it does appear than she is on your side! I am surprised that the rental was not handled by your insurance company in the first place. It would sound as if papers were sent to Enterprise...that however does not obligate them to accept only the amount the insurance has agreed upon...unless of course...they signed such an agreement. That might leave the remaining balance still to be paid. If you signed the agreement at the rental agency...you might be stuck with that.

Don't give up however !

CiscoKid · Post by **CiscoKid** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:10 pm

Enterprise is a huge rip off...

A few years back, I was rear-ended and AAA sent me over there. Since I didn't have a credit card, AAA said I didn't need anything but the file number and that was it since they were doing direct billing and ended up trying to charge us. AAA told me NOT to hand over ANY kind of credit card and direct them to call the adjuster

hoss · Post by **hoss** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:23 pm

I have to say that I've used Enterprise for years, including a couple of insurance rentals, and been pleased 99% of the time.

when I've had to do insurance rentals I just went to Enterprise and told them the situation and they contacted my insurance and found what they'd pay and got me setup, so I don't believe you did anytime out of the ordinary.

As for getting some sort of settlement with them, I'd encourage you to submit a comment on their website. Be as exact as you can in what you've done, asked for, who you've talked to, etc. In the letter sate that you'll expect to hear from then within 10 business days and if not you'll be following up with the Canadian equivalent of the state attorney general's office. The one time I get hosed by Enterprise I did this and had the manager on the phone with me in 24 hours asking how to resolve this amicably, and 48 hours later the regional manager was asking if I was satisfied with the resolution.

Most of the managers of corporate franchises are rated on site customer service and complaints. Too many negative/significant complaints and they can lose their store to someone else. Bottom line, it's time to start working our way up the corporate chain within Enterprise.

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:25 pm

and contact http://consumerist.com

ColdFusion · Post by **ColdFusion** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:47 am

Just wanted to give you guys an update and say thanks for the help!

I ended up getting a call from the district manager of enterprise saying that he wanted to try to resolve this issue. He said he could not refund the whole charge, but agreed to refund half of the bill back to me. Also, my insurance adjuster reimbursed me at their maximum daily rate which helps as well. Total out of pocket ... ~$200.

I'm happy with this resolution and will take this as a lesson learned for future dealings!

Thanks again for the help!

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:27 am

thanks for the update, glad both parties pitched in

MissTynker2 · Post by **MissTynker2** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:03 pm

Way to hang in there!