Originally Posted by BrettS

I rented a car for one day (actually, more like 8 hours) one way from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco to SFO. When I picked up the car at Fisherman's Wharf I went into their office and signed all the paperwork and the agent had me sign a damage report showing there was no damage to the car even before I had seen the car (the car was a block away in a parking garage). She said that if I found any damage I should drive it over to their office and she would inspect it for me. When I finally got to the car I found a small ding on the front bumper near the headlight, so I went around the block and parked on the street in front of the Budget office.

I asked the agent to come out and inspect the car, and she was a bit reluctant to go out as it was pouring down rain at the time. Finally I got her out there and she looked at the ding and told me that it was no problem and didn't need to be noted on the report. I even mentioned that I was returning the car to a different location and wanted to make sure that it was noted, but again she said that it was nothing to worry about. I think she mostly wanted to get out of the rain. In retrospect I probably should have insisted that she note it on the damage report, but, unfortunately I didn't... I wasn't so fond of standing in the rain either.

Sure enough, 8 hours later when I returned the car at the airport the person checking the car in noticed the ding and asked to see the damage report I had signed, which, of course, said no damage. She said that she marked the car as damaged when she checked it in and stated that I would need to fill out an incident report. I took the incident report up to the counter and explained what happened and the guy behind the counter said that I should just fill out the report stating that the damage was pre-exsiting. The report was really designed to be used after an accident, so I left most of it blank as it didn't apply, but I simply stated that the damage was pre-existing and that it was shown to the agent at the time of the rental and she assured me that it was not a problem.

The guy behind the counter took the report and said that would take care of it, but I'm not entirely certain I believe him. I just checked with my credit card company this morning and so far, at least, I was only charged for the rental and Budget released the $200 hold on the card, but the car was only returned three days ago, so I'm not sure what to expect now.

Do you guys think that this is really over or should I expect another charge or letter from Budget about this incident?

Thanks,
Brett