Complaint Review: Enterprise Rent-A-Car

I rented a Minivan from Enterprise on Friday Jan 14 after my arrival from Minneapolis and meeting up with my 2.5yrs old nephew and sister-in-law who arrived from a long trip (22 hrs of travel from Bahrain). I was taking them with me to spend a full week at the Alfred DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE. By the time we got to Enterprise my nephew was screaming and we had a difficult time calming him down. This necessitated that I work fast through the rental process.

The car was brought to us and it had some grime from sitting out in the inclement weather. I pointed out to some issues asking for those to be noted but the young lady (who was very nice and pleasant) I was with said not to worry that those issues would never become a problem. With little Ian screaming and crying uncontrollably and my sister-in-law being very stressed and exhausted after such a long trip and the pending week of hospital exams on Ian, I trusted her (she was so nice....) and accepted what she told me and proceeded to sign off on the paper work.

We spent a difficult week at the Ronald McDonald House for Children and traveled a very few miles (about 5 to 6 per day) back and forth to the Alfred DuPont Children's Hospital. After dropping my sister-in-law and my little nephew at the airport to take they flight back home, I returned the car on Friday Jan 21st so I could take my flight home to Marietta, Ga.

The man who received the car said I had to pay for damage on the trunk. I asked him "What Damage are you talking about"? He went to walk me to the gate and he had cleaned up a spot near the license plate and said I had caused trunk damage. I could not see what he was talking about and got very close to the car ...

I said that there is no way I did that very slight indentation (not even a dent) and could have very well missed noting on the paper work when I picked it up because of: the issue with my nephew who was crying and screaming when I picked it up, because the young lady that rented it to me said we did not need to worry about minor, cosmetic issues and because of the fact that the car was not spotless on the outside (has exterior dirt from sitting outside) when I received it.

In fact , I pointed out to this man that this indentation could not be seen unless you actually rubbed spotless the area which coincidentally he had done very well (an area of 2X3. He had rubbed any semblance of grit or dirt off. I told him I refused to accept this as damage I had caused and it felt as if Enterprise was doing something unscrupulous having taken advantage of me by stating "don't worry about this, it is not an issue" and then trying to charge me for a dent that as far as I can tell, was caused by them prior to renting the car to me. I looked for other damage signs ...there were NONE...not on the bumper, not anywhere else around the lift gate or close to the license plate. Unfortunately, my phone's camera malfunctioned and I thought I had taken a picture but it turned out to be blank so I do not have a picture on record.

Yesterday 2/3/11 I received a letter from Enterprise's Damage Recovery Unit saying that I need to pay the claim. That is all. They provide No back up, no pictures, nothing. They asked that I file a claim with my insurance company or accept the liability against my credit card, again, without providing ANY proof, any pictures, details...nothing.

The form they asked me to sign when I returned the car has a notation in BIG letters from me that says" UNDER DISPUTE. DO NOT ACCEPT DAMAGE. DO NOT BILL MY INSURANCE" and it's signed by me. If my credit card is billed, I will dispute this. The whole process feels suspicious and underhanded and I cannot believe that an American company would behave in this unscrupulous manner.

Please help me resolve this.

Respectfully,