Enterprise Rent-A-Car Charged me over $1000 for damages I did not owe based on the "walk away coverage" I purchased. Henderson Nevada
I rented a car from Enterprise and purchased the "walk away coverage" for the car. The car was stolen. I filed a police report immediately, contacted Enterprise, sent them a copy of the police report, and went on with my life. Over a year later I get a bill for $1386 in damages. I called and was transferred to a claim representative. I was told that because the keys were stolen from a cabinet drawer that the coverage I purchased was void.
I asked them to email me a copy of the contract. After I received it, I called the claim agent back, and I read part of the section of the contract they had highlighted and emphasized: A theft is presumed to have been committed by a person other than an authorized driver or a person aided or abetted by an authorized driver if the short-term lessee of the car: (a) Has possession of the ignition key furnished by the lessor OR ESTABLISHES THAT THE IGNITION KEY FURNISHED BY THE LESSOR WAS NOT IN THE CAR AT THE TIME OF THE THEFT.
I pointed out how the police report specifically mentions that the keys were missing from the cabinet drawer in my apartment where I keep my keys and that I had the ignition key attached to my house key so I had to use them to unlock my front door proving the keys were not in the car.
She said that voids the coverage, so I asked where does it say that in the contract. She said, "it says you need to have possession of the ignition keys," and I said, "OR establish they were not in the car at the time of the theft. OR in contracts means 'either of,' so nowhere in the contract does it show that it should be void." She hung up on me.
I called back, gave my claim number, was put on hold and the call disconnected after several minutes. I called back over a dozen times for over a week and no one would speak with me. I emailed the claim agent who had sent me a copy of the contract. He replied, "we believe you owe this amount and are reporting it to the credit bureaus." And they did, which caused my home loan application and car loan applications to both be denied.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,United States
It doesn't work that way
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, March 22, 2022
You are trying to treat the "OR" in a way that is not the intention. That is like saying "If it rains OR is sunny then you are not responsible for damage". If it was a rainy day you can't say well it says "Or sunny so I am not liable".
You left out a few key details of this "theft", such as how exactly this person was able to get the keys and how do you know this person.
If the keys were in a cabinet in your apartment, how was this person able to get into your apartment and get to the cabinet? You would have had to have been in the apartment. So either this person was brazen enough to rob you inside your apartment, you left the door wide open and this person just got lucky figuring out where the key was, or you knew the person.
They are likely thinking that you enabled the person to get the key through either intention or negligence, which would make the insurance void.
Did they catch the person?
Did you go forward with having the person charged?
Were other things taken?
If they caught the person and you refused to prosecute they could feel that you knew the person. If the car was the only thing taken it lends to their idea that you were negligent.