- Report: #950076
Complaint Review: Enterprise Rent-A-Car - Las Vegas Nevada
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Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America
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www.enterprise.com
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Enterprise Rent-A-Car False Damage Claim Filed in Las Vegas, Nevada
Im writing this report to 1) vigorously dispute Enterprise Rent-A-Cars (ERAC) claim that I damaged one of their rental vehicles in late September of this year (when to the best of my knowledge and in actual fact, it had been returned to them in undamaged condition) , and 2) consider if ERACs aggressive and accusatory behavior towards me and other consumers nationwide could potentially involve more than simply defrauding US consumers of hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars through bogus car rental damage claims, but organizations, possibly even government agencies/departments as well.
In my case, my recent and most unpleasant experience with ERAC involves the following details:
Our family car needed an emergency repair one Friday afternoon late last month so I took it to a local car dealer for service. There, the dealer's General Manager kindly offered to rent a car for me from the Enterprise branch located on the same lot.
I later went to that car rental office, examined that rental vehicle provided to me with an Enterprise employee ("T") - who I later learned was not a regular employee of this particular branch and who clearly told me only to look for 4+ inch scratches on the car during the initial vehicle inspection noted a few longer-length but not very deep scratches on the side of the car, received the vehicle, and drove off in it.
This car was not a local one as it had license plates for a Southwestern state quite far from our location geographically and one well known for it's rugged terrain; it had obviously traveled quite a distance to reach its present location.
During the above process, I had opted not to take the additional insurance sold by Enterprise due to my own car's policy totally covering me. "T" then asked me the amount of my insurance policy's deductible and wrote down that amount on the rental agreement after I told him- things I had never experienced before.
Also, "T" told me to drop my rental car off by Saturday noon at a different Enterprise branch a few blocks away because the car dealer-based branch would be closed all weekend; the staff there would then drive me and my family up to the car dealer so we could pick up our repaired vehicle.
From the time I left the car dealer's lot on Friday afternoon until I returned the car the next day to the same place, there were no negative incidents with the vehicle to report so no damage was done to it. We didn't hit anything, didn't bump into anything. My family, traveling with me, confirmed this to me and can reconfirm it for others as well.
The next day, Saturday, as instructed, I drove our rental car to the Enterprise dealer a few blocks away from our car dealer to turn it in but was then suddenly told over the phone not to do that by someone at the car dealership. Instead, I was instructed to drive the car back to the dealer's lot so they could turn the car in for me on Monday.
I subsequently drove up to the lot, giving the rented cars keys to one of the car dealers service department workers who told me that everything would be fine as they did this kind of thing all the time. I was later told on Monday by the dealer's service manager that he had made sure my car was placed inside Enterprise's locked lot (located evidently behind the branch's office) Saturday afternoon before the dealership closed for safekeeping.
However, two days later, on Monday morning, I received a call from "N"- the manager of the now open Enterprise branch claiming that the car had been returned with damage and that I needed to come down and see it for myself.
When I arrived at the branch a short time later, the car was actually in a different location at a franchise-type garage several miles away being very busily serviced inside and outside the vehicle by at least three or four but possibly more people.
The Enterprise employee ("M") who had accompanied me to this garage COULD NOT point out the alleged problems but instead somehow knew to push on the passenger-side headlight which rocked in its holder a bit and which evidently meant it was damaged.
I let him know immediately that I was never instructed by "T" the Enterprise employee that signed the car out to me a day earlier and again, who was evidently not a regular employee of this branch and who clearly told me only to look for 4+ inch scratches on the
car to push on all of the cars lights to check their stability. I therefore concluded to him that Enterprise could not reasonably be expected to hold me responsible for that alleged problem.
Incredibly, upon returning to that branch office, "N" - the Enterprise manager - told me there were visible scratches on the front of the vehicle that werent there when I had received the car and that the bumper is presently a different height on one side than it was before.
Further discussion ensued with me calmly but repeatedly stating that this entire matter seemed likely totally false and incredibly unfair to me given: 1) the overly simplistic inspection instructions I received from "T" - the employee checking the car out to me and 2) the ambiguous nature of the cars return to this Enterprise branch where it was out of my direct control for at least a day and a half (Saturday afternoon around 3pm to Monday morning 8 or 9am).
I also expressed my concern that this type of unbelievably picky and threatening behavior by the Enterprise company and its staff could possibly indicate fraudulent activity to law enforcement, investigators, etc.
In the end, "N" suddenly changed her position, stating to me numerous times that this matter was resolved, shell pay for the repairs (which I still maintained were not definitively proven to be necessary since there was a complete discrepancy between her claims and mine), I will not be charged for those repairs, and that the whole incident is totally finished and Ill never hear about it again.
"N" said she would lose money personally resolving the problem in this way (because, according to her, the car would have to be repaired from the profits the branch took in which would then reduce the percentage of profits she would later be paid).
I next tried to make the entire encounter a win-win for all of us by offering her some money to compensate her for any lost profit percentage payments but she refused, saying shed be fired if they found out she did that kind of thing.
We then shook hands and exchanged goodbyes. Everything seemed amicably resolved at that point in time.
Then, yesterday, a week after the whole matter supposedly was finished, I got a letter from Enterprise's Damage Recovery Unit in Texas indicating that a claim has been filed against me for unnamed damages involving unnamed amounts of money to the vehicle the car dealers General Manager had rented for me to use while my car was being repaired.
The wording in this letter leaves no doubt that this matter is cut and dried (i.e. there will be no investigation by Enterprise to determine if the alleged claim of damage is actually true or not) and it is further threatening in tone to say the least. I (or my insurance company) must pay up or else suffer various, as of yet, unspoken negative consequences. Its content is copied below for reference:
Dear Sir/Madam:
Thank you for your recent rental. Our Damage Recovery Unit has received notification of damage or loss to the vehicle you rented.
If you have not already done so, please contact your insurance company and/or credit card company to report this claim. Failure to report in a timely manner may void any coverage you may have. Once reported, please contact us to provide your claim information.
If you do not have insurance or wish to pay this claim yourself, we will send you a bill along with supporting documents. If you have any questions regarding your responsibility, please contact our office.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Damage Recovery Unit
866-300-3238
Fax: 888-874-8937
[email protected]
This Ripoff Report posting and the steps below I have taken or will take constitute my partial response to this entire matter, including the above mailed letter.
First, information found on the websites of the following federal, state and local government agencies, organizations, corporations, etc., make it very clear that unethical and/or fraudulent business activities by firms operating in the USA carry a wide-range of serious social and legal
consequences.
Further, individuals throughout the country are encouraged by the above agencies/organizations and corporations to officially file complaints against firms discovered to be behaving badly.
Im now very interested as a result in quickly contacting appropriate legal counsel along with the entities below to discuss ways that: 1) my present dispute with Enterprise Rent-A-Car can be swiftly and completely resolved in my favor, along with finding out: 2) if ERACs actions could actually involve fraud on a much wider scale nationwide and, if so, what legal remedies might there be to rectify such wrongdoing (i.e. civil, criminal prosecutions, class-action suits, etc.). Interested legal professionals can feel free to contact me regarding this matter.
(((link redacted)))
I have already contacted my auto insurance carrier's fraud unit and am actively cooperating with them.
To conclude, it's my professional opinion - and I work in areas involving the detection and prevention/mitigation of very serious criminal activity - that my experience with Enterprise is not an isolated incident that can be merely passed off as insignificant or infrequent. There is WAY too much smoke here (i.e. numerous similar published reports of Enterprise branches nationwide making false damage claims after renters do not buy ERACs additional insurance coverage, etc.) for there not to be some type of a fire (i.e. some or many Enterprise corporate activities across the USA that are potentially or actually punishable by law in American civil or criminal courts).
And, if the above is true to any degree, while it is a very bad and highly illegal thing for any well-known, large-sized, obviously successful company to routinely and brazenly defraud the average US private citizen out of their hard-earned money using the internet and the US mail system to do that...it is a MUCH more legally perilous thing for any company large or small - to rip off local, state or federal government workers, their respective agencies/departments and US taxpayer's monies.
It is worth repeating here: corporations conducting business in the USA no matter how large or successful - and their employees are NOT above US federal, state and local fraud-related laws. Exceedingly harsh facts they eventually learn from private sector lawyers and public prosecutors when their publicly reported, totally unjustified and constant financial and legal harassment of American consumers is finally and decisively restrained by force of law and imposition of sanctions.
My final question about all of this is: What in the world could ERAC possibly be thinking? Regardless of the companys standard operating procedures for filing damaged vehicle claims, ERACs well-documented practice of regularly making highly disputable - indeed bizarre - accusations against so many of their customers (like me) is a really shameful thing to do according to many hard-working, law-abiding Americans!!! To paraphrase that famous Nike expression: Just DONT do it!!!
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
In my case, my recent and most unpleasant experience with ERAC involves the following details:
Our family car needed an emergency repair one Friday afternoon late last month so I took it to a local car dealer for service. There, the dealer's General Manager kindly offered to rent a car for me from the Enterprise branch located on the same lot.
I later went to that car rental office, examined that rental vehicle provided to me with an Enterprise employee ("T") - who I later learned was not a regular employee of this particular branch and who clearly told me only to look for 4+ inch scratches on the car during the initial vehicle inspection noted a few longer-length but not very deep scratches on the side of the car, received the vehicle, and drove off in it.
This car was not a local one as it had license plates for a Southwestern state quite far from our location geographically and one well known for it's rugged terrain; it had obviously traveled quite a distance to reach its present location.
During the above process, I had opted not to take the additional insurance sold by Enterprise due to my own car's policy totally covering me. "T" then asked me the amount of my insurance policy's deductible and wrote down that amount on the rental agreement after I told him- things I had never experienced before.
Also, "T" told me to drop my rental car off by Saturday noon at a different Enterprise branch a few blocks away because the car dealer-based branch would be closed all weekend; the staff there would then drive me and my family up to the car dealer so we could pick up our repaired vehicle.
From the time I left the car dealer's lot on Friday afternoon until I returned the car the next day to the same place, there were no negative incidents with the vehicle to report so no damage was done to it. We didn't hit anything, didn't bump into anything. My family, traveling with me, confirmed this to me and can reconfirm it for others as well.
The next day, Saturday, as instructed, I drove our rental car to the Enterprise dealer a few blocks away from our car dealer to turn it in but was then suddenly told over the phone not to do that by someone at the car dealership. Instead, I was instructed to drive the car back to the dealer's lot so they could turn the car in for me on Monday.
I subsequently drove up to the lot, giving the rented cars keys to one of the car dealers service department workers who told me that everything would be fine as they did this kind of thing all the time. I was later told on Monday by the dealer's service manager that he had made sure my car was placed inside Enterprise's locked lot (located evidently behind the branch's office) Saturday afternoon before the dealership closed for safekeeping.
However, two days later, on Monday morning, I received a call from "N"- the manager of the now open Enterprise branch claiming that the car had been returned with damage and that I needed to come down and see it for myself.
When I arrived at the branch a short time later, the car was actually in a different location at a franchise-type garage several miles away being very busily serviced inside and outside the vehicle by at least three or four but possibly more people.
The Enterprise employee ("M") who had accompanied me to this garage COULD NOT point out the alleged problems but instead somehow knew to push on the passenger-side headlight which rocked in its holder a bit and which evidently meant it was damaged.
I let him know immediately that I was never instructed by "T" the Enterprise employee that signed the car out to me a day earlier and again, who was evidently not a regular employee of this branch and who clearly told me only to look for 4+ inch scratches on the
car to push on all of the cars lights to check their stability. I therefore concluded to him that Enterprise could not reasonably be expected to hold me responsible for that alleged problem.
Incredibly, upon returning to that branch office, "N" - the Enterprise manager - told me there were visible scratches on the front of the vehicle that werent there when I had received the car and that the bumper is presently a different height on one side than it was before.
Further discussion ensued with me calmly but repeatedly stating that this entire matter seemed likely totally false and incredibly unfair to me given: 1) the overly simplistic inspection instructions I received from "T" - the employee checking the car out to me and 2) the ambiguous nature of the cars return to this Enterprise branch where it was out of my direct control for at least a day and a half (Saturday afternoon around 3pm to Monday morning 8 or 9am).
I also expressed my concern that this type of unbelievably picky and threatening behavior by the Enterprise company and its staff could possibly indicate fraudulent activity to law enforcement, investigators, etc.
In the end, "N" suddenly changed her position, stating to me numerous times that this matter was resolved, shell pay for the repairs (which I still maintained were not definitively proven to be necessary since there was a complete discrepancy between her claims and mine), I will not be charged for those repairs, and that the whole incident is totally finished and Ill never hear about it again.
"N" said she would lose money personally resolving the problem in this way (because, according to her, the car would have to be repaired from the profits the branch took in which would then reduce the percentage of profits she would later be paid).
I next tried to make the entire encounter a win-win for all of us by offering her some money to compensate her for any lost profit percentage payments but she refused, saying shed be fired if they found out she did that kind of thing.
We then shook hands and exchanged goodbyes. Everything seemed amicably resolved at that point in time.
Then, yesterday, a week after the whole matter supposedly was finished, I got a letter from Enterprise's Damage Recovery Unit in Texas indicating that a claim has been filed against me for unnamed damages involving unnamed amounts of money to the vehicle the car dealers General Manager had rented for me to use while my car was being repaired.
The wording in this letter leaves no doubt that this matter is cut and dried (i.e. there will be no investigation by Enterprise to determine if the alleged claim of damage is actually true or not) and it is further threatening in tone to say the least. I (or my insurance company) must pay up or else suffer various, as of yet, unspoken negative consequences. Its content is copied below for reference:
Dear Sir/Madam:
Thank you for your recent rental. Our Damage Recovery Unit has received notification of damage or loss to the vehicle you rented.
If you have not already done so, please contact your insurance company and/or credit card company to report this claim. Failure to report in a timely manner may void any coverage you may have. Once reported, please contact us to provide your claim information.
If you do not have insurance or wish to pay this claim yourself, we will send you a bill along with supporting documents. If you have any questions regarding your responsibility, please contact our office.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Damage Recovery Unit
866-300-3238
Fax: 888-874-8937
[email protected]
This Ripoff Report posting and the steps below I have taken or will take constitute my partial response to this entire matter, including the above mailed letter.
First, information found on the websites of the following federal, state and local government agencies, organizations, corporations, etc., make it very clear that unethical and/or fraudulent business activities by firms operating in the USA carry a wide-range of serious social and legal
consequences.
Further, individuals throughout the country are encouraged by the above agencies/organizations and corporations to officially file complaints against firms discovered to be behaving badly.
Im now very interested as a result in quickly contacting appropriate legal counsel along with the entities below to discuss ways that: 1) my present dispute with Enterprise Rent-A-Car can be swiftly and completely resolved in my favor, along with finding out: 2) if ERACs actions could actually involve fraud on a much wider scale nationwide and, if so, what legal remedies might there be to rectify such wrongdoing (i.e. civil, criminal prosecutions, class-action suits, etc.). Interested legal professionals can feel free to contact me regarding this matter.
- The FBI Corporate Fraud Hotline in Washington DC & FBIs XXX local office
- Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection
- Government Services Administration (GSA)
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- StopFraud.Gov.: The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service Mail Fraud Investigations
- The National Insurance Crime Bureau
- The State of XXXX Office of the Attorney General Insurance Fraud Unit
- XXXX Department of Motor Vehicles
- XXXX Metropolitan Police Fraud Detail
- The XXXX Better Business Bureau
- Senior executives at Enterprise Rent A Car HQ (including VP Donnel Henry at:305-684-0004)
- J.D. Power & Associates Voice of the Customer Office
- Senior executives at Buick/GMC HQ
- All major US media outlets with investigative reporting units
- All of my personal credit card companies
- All major rental car review sites
- Complaints Board website
- Rip-Off Report website
(((link redacted)))
I have already contacted my auto insurance carrier's fraud unit and am actively cooperating with them.
To conclude, it's my professional opinion - and I work in areas involving the detection and prevention/mitigation of very serious criminal activity - that my experience with Enterprise is not an isolated incident that can be merely passed off as insignificant or infrequent. There is WAY too much smoke here (i.e. numerous similar published reports of Enterprise branches nationwide making false damage claims after renters do not buy ERACs additional insurance coverage, etc.) for there not to be some type of a fire (i.e. some or many Enterprise corporate activities across the USA that are potentially or actually punishable by law in American civil or criminal courts).
And, if the above is true to any degree, while it is a very bad and highly illegal thing for any well-known, large-sized, obviously successful company to routinely and brazenly defraud the average US private citizen out of their hard-earned money using the internet and the US mail system to do that...it is a MUCH more legally perilous thing for any company large or small - to rip off local, state or federal government workers, their respective agencies/departments and US taxpayer's monies.
It is worth repeating here: corporations conducting business in the USA no matter how large or successful - and their employees are NOT above US federal, state and local fraud-related laws. Exceedingly harsh facts they eventually learn from private sector lawyers and public prosecutors when their publicly reported, totally unjustified and constant financial and legal harassment of American consumers is finally and decisively restrained by force of law and imposition of sanctions.
My final question about all of this is: What in the world could ERAC possibly be thinking? Regardless of the companys standard operating procedures for filing damaged vehicle claims, ERACs well-documented practice of regularly making highly disputable - indeed bizarre - accusations against so many of their customers (like me) is a really shameful thing to do according to many hard-working, law-abiding Americans!!! To paraphrase that famous Nike expression: Just DONT do it!!!
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
St. Louis,Missouri,
USA
Enterprise Customer Service
#2UPDATE Employee
Sat, October 06, 2012
Weve taken note of your complaint and we would like to have the opportunity to look into this concern for you. Please send us a detailed email to care[at]enterprise.com including the exact rental location information, your contact information, your rental agreement and any further information regarding your experience with us. When emailing, please list Reference Number 121007-000068 in the subject line. We look forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully,
Katherine
Social Media
Enterprise Holdings
