On November 17, 2009 I went to Enterprise at 601 South Cameron Street, Harrisburg PA to pick up a rental car. My car was in the shop getting fixed from an accident after someone ran me into a barrier on 581 and fled the scene. When I got to Enterprise this lady that took care of me seemed to be helpful. She walked around the car and marked down all the damage that she saw. We talked about the insurance and since the car was in good condition I declined it since I park in safe places and don’t really drive that much. I signed off on the papers so that I could get the key. I left the office and everything seemed fine for a week.

It was December 1, 2009 when I was at work and got a call from the same lady that I dealt with when I first got the car. She stated that she needed to give me another car and take the car I was currently using. I informed her that I was getting my car back the very next day, in less than 12 hours, but she insisted that they had to have the first car back. She came to my work and stated that she was in a hurry as well as she knew I was since I wasn’t on lunch or break. She had already started to mark down damage on the car before I got a chance to meet her in the parking lot. When I got down to talk to her she was almost finished and she said to me that she was finding a lot of damage from the previous user. I took a look at the paper she was filling out and saw that there were a lot of damages. It seemed as though she got everything after looking at the car and the paper. There was a lot of writing and this car was really beat up. I initialed the paper since she was in a hurry and I had to get back to work. She did not ask about insurance on this car which I would have taken considering the poor condition of the car and the fact that she was finding countless amounts of damage as we were standing there. She handed me the key and I went back to work. The very next day, December 2, 2009, I had to go to work so my husband took the car to pick up my car at L.B. Smith Ford Lincoln Mercury, and since there was an Enterprise on site he was told he could just leave the car there. He drove from New Cumberland to 1100 Market Street, Lemoyne. When my husband went to give the key to the Enterprise representative the representative was extremely rude to him. The guy walked around the car and stated to my husband that there was a dent on the car that wasn’t marked down previously. My husband explained that we had the car less than 12 hours and didn’t drive anywhere except home from work and then to the Enterprise location. He also told the rep working for enterprise that there was a bunch of damage when the car was given to me. My husband refused to sign anything since the damage was not ours. My husband left the site and accidentally left the papers in the car. When he told me about this I immediately called Enterprise and they directed me to the Damage Recovery Unit. I spoke with a rep and they told me that there was nothing reported and that unless I receive something in the mail not to worry about it.

On February 5th I received a letter as well as the bill from Enterprise for $962.92. After looking at the bill I saw that they charged me for two dents, loss of use, a depreciation fees, and administrative fees. On the letter dated January 29th 2010 it stated that I needed to remit payment within 10 days. I made a call to a guy named Mike Smith at 352-313-4637 who was the representative that was working on my case in the Damage Recovery Unit and asked what I can do to dispute this. The guy was extremely rude and short with me. He told me that if the payment wasn’t in the office within 10 days that they were going to send me to a collection agency. I asked Mike if I could get a copy of the reports to see what other damage was reported that day and he said he was not able to release that information to me. I also asked if he could send me pictures that were taken after the previous user returned the car and after I returned the car. Mike said that they only have pictures of when the car was in the shop getting fixed from the damage I caused. I was told that he would email me the pictures without a problem. I waited and waited and still no pictures. Since I am looking into buying a house and need to keep my credit in good standing I had to make the payment in full which I did. Along with the payment I also sent a letter stating that even though I am making the payment I am not accepting responsibility of the damage on the car. The payment and letter were sent certified to Atlanta, GA and delivered February 15, 2010. I have not heard anything since.

I do not accept responsibility for this and feel that I was set up to take a car that they knew was damaged. I don’t know how to resolve this but I was obviously set up!

Why can’t you repair things yourself? It seems to me that if I am going to be charged for something then I should be able to get it repaired.

In fact, I remember I had a blow-out with a rental car. Budget told me that if I could get it to Goodyear, the tire would be replaced and directly billed to Budget, but if not, I could get it replaced and they would deduct the cost from my bill.

after reading your article, I am almost sure that this is happening to me. My husband and i rented a car over three months ago and are now just being informed that there was damage to the car. we were sent a letter from a claims company for Thrifty. The letter doesn’t even say what the damage was, only “physical damage” and “loss of use” as well as a $100 admin fee. They also said in the letter that if we didn’t pay in a month that they would send us to collections. i don’t see how they can wait 3 months to tell us that there is damage and then be so threatening with their letters. i realy hope i can reason with them and show they why it would be rediculous to pay for something 3 months after the fact. thanks in advance for your time!