I've had two instances over the past 30 years, both with Hertz since that is my supplier of choice.

First was at PHL (around 1996) when my wife took the car to fill it with gas as we were on a tight schedule following my meeting. Uninsured driver backs into the front of the car doing significant damage. Obviously she was pretty upset, but I digress. Report to my insurance carrier who deals with the matter and takes care of all the damages, no deductible due to the clear responsibility of the uninsured driver, police showed up quickly and filed their report, so no arguments. A few months later I get a letter in the mail from Hertz demanding something on the order of $4,000 for lost rental revenue. Forward the letter to my insurance carrier who says they cannot do this. End result was that Hertz persisted, my insurance company also persisted and in discovery was able to prove that Hertz never needed the car in Philadelphia or surrounds as they had plenty of cars available in that market. Arbitrator dismissed the claim and forced Hertz to pay the insurance company for their legal fees. I believe this was a precedent setting decision, at least in PHL, and my understanding is that Hertz no longer even considers filing such claims!

Second was at BRU where I picked up a brand new mini-van (around 2006). No pics, but I drove out of the parking lot and pulled over to walk back in to get directions. Walked back to the car and noticed that the passenger side mirror was damaged. Pretty obvious it was from whomever drove it off the truck at delivery since it was a new vehicle. Went back in and a different agent came out and accused me of hitting the gate on the way out of the lot!! Took pictures and sent it to Hertz as well as my insurance carrier. Never heard another word.

In the end, are their scammers who play games trying to get money out of folks? Sure. But do the rental companies, in general, try to scam their own customers? Not much. One may run into the occasional over enthusiastic employee, but generally they know that pissing off customers costs a LOT more than simply dealing with the issues. Unless, of course, the damages are truly significant, such as multiple thousands to a prestige car!! That said, I do now take a video as I walk the perimeter of the car as well as a still of the rear bumper (where many folks drag their luggage across) just to be sure!