Just been shafted by Enterprise

sharkattack · 2024-01-12T13:53:27Z

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.

mjsmke

Posts: 4390

Full Member

What is NSF? Some kind of new light technology?

Posted : 25/01/2024 10:26 am

woodster

Posts: 1248

Free Member

Good to hear. My experience with Enterprise was hiring a van, they tried to swap me into a tail lift Luton when I'd booked an XLWB Crafter, but did find me one. It had been used as a courier van so there wasn't a straight panel on it, they told me not to worry about damage since it could hardly matter, but I took a video anyway. No problems on handing it back thankfully.

Posted : 25/01/2024 10:30 am

neilnevill

Posts: 5802

Free Member

Whoop whoop! Good. It shouldn't have happened but really glad you've got a result.

Posted : 25/01/2024 10:35 am

lunge

Posts: 13522

Full Member

I word of caution about the excess cover policies. They are without question better value, particually if you're hiring a lot.
But.
It does mean you end up paying for the excess and then claiming it back. There is an argument that paying the for the hire firms extra cover makes the whole thing a lot easier and more convenient, and that to some is worth a few quid.

Posted : 25/01/2024 10:36 am

mashr

Posts: 7136

Full Member

I’ve only ever been stiffed once and Section 75’d Europcar

I was trying to remember who my run-in was with - you've just reminded me. Myself and another guy both dropping cars off at Stanstead, Europcar guy just takes the keys from both of us and waves us off saying everything is fine. Cold, dark night, not long until flying and the guy has just vanished so not much I could do. No surprise when a claim for a damaged wing mirror comes in, with no evidence provided. It was telling when I was copied in to an email from our insurance people saying "Another one for you to look into. Given the circumstances we would strongly recommend this claim is withdrawn". Shysters indeed.

Posted : 25/01/2024 10:39 am

hooli

Posts: 3642

Free Member

Good result but he loses any credit by saying "reach out to myself"

Posted : 25/01/2024 10:42 am

sharkattack, convert, Watty and 5 people reacted

sharkattack

Posts: 9110

Full Member

Topic starter

What is NSF? Some kind of new light technology?

Nearside front. As in, passenger side headlight. As oppose to OSF (offside front) or NSR (nearside rear) etc.

Good result but he loses any credit by saying “reach out to myself”

Everyone in the branch looked about 16 years old to be honest so I'm not surprised their language skills aren't very polished. The paragraph breaks are mine. The original was a wall of text and quite difficult to read.

Posted : 25/01/2024 12:51 pm

Forum menu