Ryu2

Anyone have any experience claiming with a small rental car company when there aren't 100% the documents needed? I banged up a car in Santorini, Greece from a small local rental agency.

They do things a bit less "formally" than the big companies do in terms of paperwork. There's no initial or final rental agreement, just one contract. Nor is there an separate formal accident report form, nor actual itemized bill listing each damaged part of the car. The guy from a local garage just looked it over and said 500 Euros + 7 days in the garage (so loss of use charge of 400 Euros on top of that), gave us a handwritten receipt with company stamp (in Greek, I got them to also use Google Translate to write a English version).

But the Chase insurance provider are saying we need those documents.

Anyone successful with a small rental company like this?

me4tux

Hello, Need some advice.
Pre-Booked and rented a car with Chase MileagePlus CC. Good thing it had the Primary insurance. The rental is 4 days, Portland Oregon.

I had a 4-day rental which I just completed/returned today. On day 1, someone bumped into my rear quarter panel near the wheel. It was minor damage but the other other person had more substantial damage to her bumper. We exchanged information, and I have her lic & insurance card & phone.
Clearly it was her fault, and she did not see my car. She didn't admit it but was apologetic. I still think she's capable of turning on me and doing something tricky... maybe...

Interesting that I only provided her my lic & hertz rental agreeement & phone. Thats it. I did not provide her my personal car insurance info. She didn't ask for anything else and took off.

I did visit a Portland based Auto body to get a repair quote and they estimated the cost to be ~$3K. I have a copy of the estimate.

Fast forward, when I returned the car earlier today, and got my final print-out; I stayed back to observe.... I saw the Hertz attendant walked around, past the damage area and drove off to take the car away....

So, what is the best course of action now? And, what possible scenarios could play out?

Option 1: When I get home today, should I just file the Hertz accident report and Chase MileagePlus CC accident claim?
Option 2: Should I just wait it out? Maybe Hertz will not see the damage?
Option 3: Should I wait until I get the Hertz letter or bill about the damage and then file the Hertz Accident report and Chase report?
Option 4: What if the other person tried to file a claim against me, and Hertz finds out about the accident later?

I hope someone can give me advice and the best direction about this matter. I am relived that I do have the Primary coverage from Chase, but I have read in some cases that Chase does nickel and dime on payout... I am not sure....

Thanks in advance...

ordx

The issue for you is that there's a 60-day window to notify Chase of an accident then then the claim form must be submitted within 100 days. It's possible that Hertz may take longer than that to initiate contact about the damage. I once received a letter about hail damage to a rental car six months after I returned it. (As an aside, the hail claim was completely bogus. Apparently, the damage occurred several weeks after I rented the car yet they still tried to charge me for it. How that can be allowed is flabbergasting to me.)

I'd suggest that you go ahead and submit the claim form with Chase along with all the documentation that you have (photos, rental agreement, etc). Once you have done that you have a full year to provide any remaining documentation, such as the Hertz demand letter if they send you one. If you never hear anything from Hertz you can just abandon the claim.

ETA: I'm sure you already know this, but the Chase insurance only covers damage to the rental car. If the other driver files a claim that would have to be handled by your own insurance unless you purchased supplemental liability from Hertz. You should file an accident report online with your version of events. In fact I just checked the Oregon DMV website and filing a report is required if there's more than $2500 of damage.

Happy

If a body shop can quote you a $3K est repair cost, that the damage is not "noticed" by the receiving Hertz employee?
Was the damage so un-noticeable so the Hertz rep did not see it when doing the walk thru?
Yet it got an est repair cost of $3K?

Why would you not mention this to Hertz and file the accident report right at return? At that time it would be much easier to make sure the damage description is correct so as everything else... Now you are setting up a scenario that Hertz can say whatever afterward...

On top of that, without the proper accident report and the final RA indicated so, you would have a hard time getting your Chase claim approved. Otherwise, it is just a matter of getting doc / pix submitted and claim settled within 7 to 10 business days from filing to money in the bank (our experience for scratches done in Italy). I honestly dont understand why you have not brought this to Hertz attention at car return... Nothing to gain but a lot of things can go wrong by not properly documenting the damage at the time of returning the rental car.

me4tux

Thanks for your reply. We just arrived home.
We will file a report with Hertz and the Chase report tomorow.

The body shop quote was rather suspicious. He obviously knew I was from out of town.
The damage was minor, but he asked me if it was for an insurance quote, and I said yes.

Don't ask me why the Hertz employee missed it. I have no idea. Like I said, I waited at the elevators before the vehicle was driven away by the employee.

me4tux

Thanks for your reply.
I am aware of the Chase datelines. I shall file the Chase claim tomorrow when I get back into the office.
Q: Does Chase need the Hertz accident report "form"?

Truth to be told, I just don't want or have the time to deal with all the paperwork...
When the accident occurred, I did take photos and documented everything that I could.
So, the pictures have the time stamps etc. I also took photos of the area of occurrence etc.
I have everything pretty much at this point, on my smartphone.

NOTE: When I waited for the vehicle to be driven away, I guess I initially felt lucky. But, you just indicated that they may claw back at a later date.
However, they would have rented the vehicle out numerous times, so how would they assume it was my rental (with incident) past a month or so forward in time?

Happy

Even the repair estimate is overstated, it would not be THAT MUCH because insurance company is not dumb - its job is to scrutinize any claim and shoot down any unreasonable repair bill. The body shop regardless how suspicious you may feel, would not make it at $3K for a repair only a few hundreds (minor enough to not being noticed at first.) Do you, yourself, notice the damage? I assume you do, else you would not bring it to the repair shop which does not serve much of a purpose, to be honest other than give you a ballpark figure which now you feel is suspicious.

Chase / eClaims DEFINITELY needs an Accident Report / Repair Estimate to process a claim, let along settle it.

The WHOLE Reason to report the accident to the rental car company at the return, is to PROPERLY DOCUMENT the accident so there would not be any ambiguiousness / "misunderstanding" or whatever. Then with the paperwork in hand, you start the claim filing process, followed by the eventually Repair Cost estimate. The best scenario is the rental car company has the repair cost estimate at the spot, together with the pictures taken by them at return, then a charge right on the card (as in our case which you can go back to May or June 2018 to read my very detailed post), plus the Final Rental Car Agreement - these are all eClaims wanted - once submitted and they confirmed receiving everything, the next communication we got, was claim approval, which payment method we would prefer... within 7 days, reimbursement is ACHed to our bank account, for the Exact repair cost estimate Budget invoiced, on the spot of car return. The only item not reimbursed was the airport surcharge on the repair which per the benefit T&Cs is not covered anyway.

Please read your Rental Agreement T&Cs, where every rental car company would tell you, that it has the right to bill the customer on anything they discover AFTER the return, from damage to gas tank not fully refilled or whatever.

The next renter if not stupid / careless, would do a walk through before accepting the car if he has declined CDW from the rental car company - Ask yourself, would you not do a walk through inspection before taking a rental car of which you turn down optional CDW?

ordx

When I had my accident I submitted to Chase the online accident report which I filled out for the state, but I didn't include the form from the car rental company which I had also filled out. Of course, I also submitted the damage estimate letter once I received it. It took the car rental company about 5 weeks after the accident to send me that letter.

Unfortunately, an accident with a rental car necessitates keeping track of a lot of paperwork. But once you get the initial claim form filled out you're mostly just waiting to hear back from the various parties involved.

Happy

Or, if one does not want to deal with the paperwork then just buy the full coverage with the rental car company, then it should be piece of cake regardless whatever happened - though it still needs one to go over the T&Cs fine print at the counter when buying the additional CDW coverage, to make sure one is indeed fully covered.

If one wants to save money and rely on credit card benefits, then like it or not, one has to go thru the motion and such, in order to get reimbursed.

Or, the other option is just to pay up without the need to deal with any paperwork. Very simple.

TravelinSperry

I don't see how Hertz can come back to you and say you damaged it if they drove off. Could've happened on their lot after they drove off. Still - if they never rented it again, it could be a future issue. But once they rent the car again to someone else, I'd say you're clear. To find out, call Hertz and tell them you left something in the car (a charger, for example). Then provide them the license info and ask them to search. See if the car is "on rent" or on lot. If the 800# won't tell you - go into a Hertz location (they can see whether the car is currently being rented or not). If it's rented they'll tell you they'll search the car upon return. Thank them and leave (or hang up). If it's rented - then I'd say it's all done and I wouldnt file with Chase.

ordx

Hertz certainly can come back and try to pursue you for damages even after they re-rented the car. It happened to me once for hail damage as I mentioned in an my post above and there are many more examples online of people receiving demand letters weeks or months after they rented the car. Here's an article in the Seattle Times about a damage claim received 15 months after the rental: Hertz Slaps on Damage Charge/

me4tux can try claiming ignorance, but I find it unlikely that $3K in damages will be missed for long. Either another Hertz employee or perhaps the next renter doing a walk around before leaving the lot will spot it.

mia

Why do you think this means that the employee did not notice the damage? The employee could have been moving the car to their service facility.

threeoh

Filing a claim with Chase (but not supplying any documents) preserves all of your rights for 365 days, takes 2 minutes and $0. Seems like a no-brainer if there's any question at all.

Just a random data point: I screwed up a bumper on a rental about 3 years ago (hit a high curb while parking). I thought the damage was pretty visible but (foolishly or not) I didn't mention it when I returned it. I did take a few pictures just so I could have some evidence of the extent of the damage if they tried to bill me for something more. But I never got a bill or anything. So sometimes bumper damage does get missed. The problem is you won't know definitively for months.

threeoh

In the case described in the advice column (not a news article), the renter did report the damage and filled out a damage report when returning the car.

Also, the bill was dropped.

ordx

The point is that rental agencies can and will come after you for damage long after you drop off the car, unlike what another poster claimed. I linked to the article I did because of the long time frame involved (15 months). But there are many, many other examples discussed in online forums, newspaper articles, etc. I invite you to do some googling if you don't believe me.

Definition of "article": A piece of writing included with others in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.