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Long story but basically I had to get to Manchester airport in the middle of the night with a bike box and a suitcase and I don't have my own car at the moment. The only airport taxi company who could carry my bike wanted £170. So I decided to hire a car and drive myself. I live 5 minutes away from a Sheffield branch of Enterprise so I rented a car and arranged to drop it off at Manchester airport out of hours.
When I collected the car we did the usual walk around while he was looking for damage and poking his iPad. I noticed that the NSF foglight trim wasn't sitting flush and had popped out on one side with visible tabs on one side. It's from when you flex a bumper and it deforms and pops out and can be easily put back together.
I pointed it out to make sure that he was aware of it. He said he wasn't bothered. In fact he looked at it and said he thinks it's meant to be like that, which was a mad thing to say as it clearly wasn't but I didn't force the issue. I asked what constitutes damage and his exact words were “anything bigger than a golf ball”. Any 'what' bigger than a golf ball? A bullet hole? Bird poo?
So I took the car and went home via the petrol station, total journey of 10 minutes maximum. Then I woke up at 2am and had a totally boring and uneventful drive to Manchester airport where I parked the car and dropped the keys in the metal box. Job done, no drama, happy customer.
Then guess what happened. By the time I landed in Malaga at 10am I had an email with a damage report saying that I'd returned the car in a different condition to how I collected it. You guessed it, damage to the NSF foglight. I'm not sure how much of my £1500 excess they'll charge me to pop a piece of trim back in. Any guesses?
So the first thing I've done on my Spanish riding holiday is have a long phonecall with someone in an Enterprise call centre to explain what went on at the collection.
How do we think this will play out? Anyone want to place any bets? Am I about to get shafted for hundreds of quid or fully refunded with an apology for the inconvenience?
I'm cursing myself for not taking my own pictures of that bloody foglight. Also it's cold, gray and windy which is absolutely not what I signed up for! Anyway, riding bikes tomorrow.
My experience is they are normally pretty decent about these things... But I have the weight of a company behind me.
Just refuse refuse refuse restating your story.
Twenty twenty hindsight and all that but just insist they note things down if you are concerned. And take a photo.
There is normally a card in the glovebox for damage indication. Seen a few versions one was just a card ruler and one has circles cut out of it. Bigger circle for bumpers and smaller one for paintwork, aslong as they fit in the circle they are normally fine.
Contest it - but also lesson learned. That would be noted by me on the hire form regardless what they tried to say
First think I normally do when collecting a hire car is a 360deg video and closeup photos of any mark I spot. Hard to argue with timestamped evidence of pre-existing damage.
If it's any consolation many years ago I hired from Enterpise in Toulouse and had a nightmare with tree sap totally trashing the paint. In a moment of madness the day before return I tried to clean it off with a spongy washing up thing and it scoured a massive dull patch on the roof. At the airport the chap cursorily checked the car on a baking hot afternoon and said it was OK. I ran.
Also too late for you now, but when I hire a car I take a video on my phone, clearly showing time, date (from watch) and location (car hire car park) as I do a walkround of the car pointing out any scratches, marks, dents etc.
Only takes a couple of minutes but should save bawache later on if they try to play funnybuggers.
I'm not a regular car renter but I will 100% do all of that next time. I thought it would be fine after I'd pointed it out and knew that he knew it was there.
Just checked the forms and they've put 'misaligned front bumper', 'incident type: Fire' and there's already a £383 charge on my credit card.
I swear I didn't set that car on fire!
Did you take any pictures? (edit, yeah sorry, missed your last sentence) Take Pictures!!
Enterprise did the same thing to me last year on holiday in Spain/France. Once I showed them the pictures I took, they backed off.
Also too late for you now, but when I hire a car I take a video on my phone, clearly showing time, date (from watch) and location (car hire car park) as I do a walkround of the car pointing out any scratches, marks, dents etc.
This, and ideally make sure they see you doing it too. Do the same at drop off
I also always get third party hire car insurance from somehwere like https://www.insurance4carhire.com/
At work our policy is to always take extensive photos on phones when collecting or returning cars. It is for this exact reason.
We use Enterprise at work pretty regularly and to be fair they have always been ok but I always take photos. My favourite moment with a hire car was with a Landcruiser pickup, they tried charging me for a dent in the tail gate and got all huffy when I pointed out that it wasnt new damage because it had been me that did it 4 weeks ago and we had paid then...
I hate car hire for this very reason. Hope you get it sorted.
You really do need to have your own evidence at collection & drop-off.
I hired a van a few years ago & while at the desk sorting the paperwork there was a woman returning a car having to pay £300 for a bumper she'd dented, on a Nissan Micra.
When I went out to get in the van, there was a woman round the back with the car & a heatgun repairing the damage by heating the corner of the bumper and just pushing it back out. Not bad - £300 for the the <5 mins it took her.
I grounded a car on a kerb I rented from Eurocar in lanzarote
the sill was trashed & one contiguous piece with the back wing, rear & sill on the other side!
I was bricking it , but the guy didnt even bother checking
So what we're saying is that poor sharkattack is making up the slack for all the times you lot have damaged cars and not told them 🙁
Poor bloke.
I always pay the extra ~£10 for the insurance. If nothing else it gets me out of having to stand there for half an hour each end waiting for them to do a damage report and faff with taking my own photos, because if it's insured they don't seem to care.
Once returned a car with the passenger door hinges hanging off, the door closed funny and you could open it way past 90deg. it'd clearly been either opened into a cyclist, reversed into something with the door open, or flung open on a windy day. But no one gets in/out the passenger door so it never got checked. Presumably could have gotten expensive if I'd not had the excess cover!
Exactly the same thing happened to me with Enterprise. There was a dent and the person handing the car over said that they didn't worry about things like that anymore and didn't record it on the handover doc. Dropped the keys in a box and they phoned a couple of days later for me to pay the huge invoice. They guy was genuinely confused when I didn't want to pay. Luckily for me it was a corporate account.
They tried to get the money out of me several times, then my company, who nearly rolled over as well. Not once did they provide evidence or photos. Took a few weeks for them to give up.
I can only assume it's part of their business model, I feel for you as stuff like this is so stressful. Maybe if you fight it hard enough they'll cave in?
In my experience it's now pretty rare (certainly at US airports) for you to go round the car with a rep noting the damage.
You are either pre-allocated a vehicle or you pick one from the row you paid for (e.g. Intermediate Car), keys on the dash, paperwork done in advance (damage report in unintelligible scrawl on dash too) and just checked at the gate.
Most cars at US airports tend to be in very good shape and low mileage though. I tend to have a good look around and won't take a car with a load of dings if at all possible but I would be lying if I said I took photos. That being said the Truck I picked up in Tampa last year had seen better days but it was about the last car in the lot and the equivalent of 3am UK time...
I did offer to give you a lift.... 🤷
Also, please ensure warm sunshine for when I arrive out there tomorrow. 😉
Good luck sorting the car thing.
That's right you did, I wish I just gave you the fire fee now!
Honestly we were planning to buy a car so it was going to be so easy but we bottled it at the last minute. I couldn't leave the Mrs without her car for a week.
When enterprise provided the hire car whilst mine was being repaired, I chose to pay the £10 per day “insurance” . They don’t even inspect the car on return when you do that 😁
OP dropping off his car
Just had Enterprise drop a car off at my place. Last time a tin of cherry air freshener had been sprayed inside to hide the smoke smell so I thought I’d try a sniff test. Wish I hadn’t as the driver had dropped his guts inside. Hope it dissipates before I have to drive it tomorrow.
When enterprise provided the hire car whilst mine was being repaired, I chose to pay the £10 per day “insurance” . They don’t even inspect the car on return when you do that 😁
Same here. Worth every penny.
We hired a car on Gran Canaria a few years ago from Cicar which included "insurance" and they didn't even leave the office to see it I'd actually returned it or was just dropping off some random keys.
No word from Enterprise yet.
But today, on the 2nd run of the day, my bike fell off the trailer and disappeared for half an hour.
When we found it, it had landed perfectly upside down and snapped the saddle clean in half and put dents and scrapes all over my bars and brand new Hope brake levers.
I think this week will have a theme.
I've had them try it on, except i videoed the car on pick up. And drop off.
So, yeah, that went well for them.
(Pretty much every panel was scratched, handful of sizeable dents (wheel arches, doors), scarily enough, it was probably the best car of the lot!)
Same here. Worth every penny.
In the same way that paying off extortionists is.
To be honest I pay the extra these days for full insurance. Particularly abroad, drive it like I stole it and throw the keys back at them at the end of the hire. Once my wife clipped a kerb (driving wrong side of the road) blew the tyre out, bent the rim, hire company checked what insurance I had and just kind a of shrugged when we dropped it off. Pretty sure it would have been a huge bill if we hadn’t.
I know it’s extra cost but a stress free holiday is worth more these days.
I’ve had them try it on, except i videoed the car on pick up. And drop off.
So you’ve caught them trying to commit fraud and rip you off.
Must have been difficult to resist a massive loss of temper.
I wonder how many times they charge for the same damage?
Utter shisters, good luck to the OP, must admit I’ve never taken photos of a hire car, will do in future.
I use hire cars a fair amount and often enterprise because they ar5e good on minor dings. I also have stand alone hire car insurance for £48 a year and used it once
I would be surprised if enterprise did not rescind the charge after a complaint
OK Mobility in Alicante charged me 300eur for a couple of tiny (less than 10p sized) dings in the (rubber) rear bumper that I’m pretty sure I had nothing to do with. Got refunded using my excess insurance but I take HD video of the whole car now. AND photos of obvious damage.
Enterprise Sheffield? Took £850 off me without warning while we were still getting quotes on a scratch.
Can't remember the exact details but I caught them lying about something and got the cash back.
Absolute shower of shite.
Enterprise Car & Van Hire on Queen's Road in Sheffield yes. The one in Sheffield. On Queen's Road. S2 4DG.
I wonder if this thread will start popping up in Google searches.
You know if anyone in Sheffield is thinking of hiring a car or van from Enterprise on Queen's Road. This thread would be very informative for anyone considering doing that.
To be fair it was the Manchester Airport branch who issued the damage report. No idea what will happen yet but if they don't drop it I'll be visiting the Sheffield branch when I get back and speaking to the kid who served me that's an absolute certainty.
If it helps at all, I had one of the easiest journeys ever through Manchester Airport car park, terminal and security this morning.
That doesn't help does it...? 🤔
Working overseas used to always tick the insurance box.
Ripped the entire side of a Clio off on a scaffolding truck in Paris, keys in the box at CDG.
Dented a roof using the car as a mobile step ladder then later the back window fell out on a motorway in Morocco,
Inner wheel arch fell out of a Clio after we'd been rallying it, rubbed on the tyre and set on fire.
Got stung on the neck in Turkey, crashed hire car in a ditch whilst swatting stingy thing.
Different car filled brake system with shampoo after bursting a brake line with a rock after rallying it - also in Morocco.
Numerous punctures / dented wheels / broken windows.
On holiday - tried clearing a set of double jumps on a gravel track in a brand new Seat Ibiza...in Ibiza and ripped the wheel arch and bumper off on landing. Bought some cable ties in conjunction with a red hot skewer to poke holes and cable tie it back together. They didn't notice on return.
For balance: whenever I visit the UK, I will only ever use Enterprise - as they are the only car hire places that I've found that DON'T make it their express mission to con you. I've only ever dealt with Heathrow and Manchester airport branches though.
Seems to be the MO of some Enterprise branches. They tried to do a similar job on one of our corporate hire vans which we 100% did not damage. They said we signed for it without this particular defect so I asked for a copy of the signed agreement showing we accepted the van with no defects present. They kept just sending me a copy of the hire agreement and eventually when I pushed for the signed handover document they provided a bit of paper with no signature on it so I refused to pay it. Seems the branch put a claim in and it is then handled by their central recovery team. This team said they would go back to the branch with my counter argument and I heard nothing further. They were just trying it on as it was a corporate hire. Daft of them really as I have now instructed our fleet services to never use this particular branch again.
Quite a few airports these days have car scanners on the way in and out that take a extremely high res image of the car, so there can be no qualms at all. Hope it takes on everywhere
There is normally a card in the glovebox for damage indication. Seen a few versions one was just a card ruler and one has circles cut out of it. Bigger circle for bumpers and smaller one for paintwork, as long as they fit in the circle they are normally fine.<br /><br />
I’ve got several of those, they’re usually magnetic so you can plonk it on the bodywork to take photos, or hold it against plastic parts like bumpers. As a logistics driver for British Car Auctions, and later working yard logistics for a company that did repair and refurbishment of ex-lease cars, including Enterprise, we had to check and photograph any paint or physical damage when we picked up a vehicle or when they arrived on site, so it was an established process. <br />Should I need to hire a car at any time, I know exactly what to do, and the necessary equipment to indicate the damage. It’s worth pointing out that special attention should be paid to all the glass, particularly the screen and any glass sunroof or panoramic glass - they’re easily damaged, and cost a fortune to replace; £1000 for a heated screen, and easily £1500 for a panoramic roof, if not more, and some are hidden by a retractable inner sunscreen. <br />I had to drop off a car at a dealership that had the windscreen cracked by an object thrown up by a truck going in the opposite direction; they weren’t best pleased, I can tell you!
Please keep refuting the damage, in writing when you get home. Take them to small claims court (MCOL) if you have to, because you don't want to be recorded as having an incident (fire??) on the insurance databases.
Cicar
Cicar/Cabrera Medina seem to be no fuss, and we’ve used them several times. Canaries only though.
They love it when the car gets damaged so they can keep trying to charge everyone to fix it.
Finally got a reply from someone at Enterprise. Surprise, surprise they've blown me off.
I have reviewed your claim and can confirm that you completed a Rental Contract agreeing to the condition of the vehicle. The contract has been signed electronically by our branch representative and yourself. It is the renter’s responsibility to check over the vehicle and report any damage that has not been listed on the rental agreement within the first hour of the start of your hire.
Please note that we are not suggesting that you caused the damage directly, but it would appear that the damage has occurred at some point during the rental period. Unfortunately, that means that you would be responsible for this damage
Unless you have any evidence to suggest this damage was pre-existing to your hire unfortunately, we have no option but to hold you liable or the costs of the repair.
Kind regards,
I like how they finish by suggesting I should have my own evidence to proove that I didn't cause the damage. Thanks for the tip dickhead.
I've just replied saying that they haven't answered any of my questions. They've charged me for damaging a car and not provided any pictures or evidence that I've actually done so. All I have is a pdf of a damage report that says "Incident Type: Fire". They've made no effort to speak to the person who handed the car over who I'm sure can remember our conversation where I pointed out the exact bloody damage that I've been charged for.
I've reported the transaction to my credit card company as fraudulent. Not sure if that will come to anything.
Any tips for going nuclear? Other than a 1 star Google review I'm not sure what I can do. I live very close to the branch so I'll be going in on Saturday morning, hopefully when it's very busy. I could have gone in on the way home from work today but I was a little er, excited, and I'm not very articulate when I'm excited.
The evidence they have is you signing a hire firm confirming the car did not have the damage at start if hire.
I don't think you have anything to go on here.
That's a rubbish outcome - and a lesson to everyone. Someone bumped my Mrs's car in a supermarket carpark a couple of years ago. Her 'free' courtesy car was supplied by Enterprise and I was on my guard straight away. They delivered it while I was at home to receive it and the lad dropping it off recommended just doing a quick phone video around the car as soon as we had the keys which is what I've done ever since.
Pre covid times I had to regularly hire cars for work trips, mostly to Belfast. I had an annual policy from these folk - Excess Cover , never had to use it but it was extra peace of mind knowing that I could just chuck the keys back to them and jump on the plane. Was only about £35 quid a year at the time.
When I signed the 'Rental contract agreeing to the condition of the vehicle' I thought I was just confirming that I was taking the car away in the condition that it's in and returning in in the same condition.
I didn't even imagine that I was signing to take away a car in mint condition when it clearly wasn't.
They still haven't sent me any pictures of the damage or proof of any fire.