strickerj

nova08

Anyone have experience with curb rash? I'm in a monthly rental in suburban PHL, booked compact but miraculously received an Infiniti Q50 with ~25k miles on it due to no compacts available or cars on hold. I'm pretty particular and have pictures of the car when I picked it up, but I just noticed some curb rash 3/4 of the way into my rental. Thing is, that is typically something you hear/feel when it happens and I have no recollection of it. So I'm torn between whether it was there and I didn't notice it, or whether I did it without realizing it.

AutoSlash

Hertz tends to be pretty good about that meaning that they generally won't complain about minor scuffs and scratches, although I will say that there's typically less scrutiny at the airport than at off-airport locations.

91StealthES

nova08

Cool, the previous monthly rental I had from an inner city PHL location was fine. They gave me a car with a ton of damage. Upon returning it I wanted to make sure that they were not going to blame me (I had pictures), and the agent told me I was good.

Autoslash, I've been using your website to find deals while I rent monthly until I find a car I want to buy. It's the summer so prices are naturally higher, but I've definitely found deals I wouldn't have otherwise.

beirut

So it's middle of September and I just received a letter from Hertz about the damages to the rental I had in March/April @ YYC.
They want me to pay almost $1400 for the damages.

I asked them to provide dated photos of the damage and they sent me this:

I remember a guy doing a quick walk-around after returning rental and he didn't mark or notice anything unusual.
And to me it looks like a fairly regular damage from irresponsible renters unloading their suitcases. And honestly I see this kind of thing often on the cars I pick-up and it's absolutely not an issue until this time apparently.
Also I know it wasn't me as I didn't even have a suitcase throughout my rental.


I do have a car rental insurance through Allianz but it's pain in the ... to use them, especially considering that this case feels like ........ to me.
.
Also another thing. In Canada I am fairly certain that deductibles are $500 so I have no idea why would they ask me to pay $1400?

Honestly not really sure how to proceed with this one.

AutoSlash

Hard to tell from the photo and the lighting if there is an actual dent on the bumper or just normal wear and tear, but I certainly would not just roll over on something like this. Additionally, I don't see any date on the photo as you requested. It literally could have been taken last week. Was there any mention of damage when you returned the vehicle?

You could write a letter which pushes back on their claim point-by-point yourself, or better yet, write a detailed letter and then see if you can find a friendly local attorney to edit the letter for you and put it on their own letterhead before sending it to Hertz. A letter from a law firm will carry 10X more weight than a personal letter. Might be worth a few hundred dollars to be rid of the spurious claim.

rickg523

90 days after a one day rental in LA, I received a demand letter from Thrifty for $6500 for damage to the vehicle I rented. I had returned the vehicle in exactly the same condition as when I took it. If course, no damage was noted when I checked the car in.
I have Amex Premium Rental Car insurance (which stands as first payer when I use the Amex card to rent the car).
I never even responded to Thrifty, just called AMEX, explained the situation and opened a claim. They contacted Thrifty and demanded the following:•

Closed rental agreement - This is the Final Document from the Car Rental Company and is provided when the vehicle has been returned. It will detail the following: the final charges for the rental, $0 balance, method of payment, date and time returned and mileage on the rental vehicle.
• Check in / Check out slips - Document which details the condition of the vehicle at time of rental pick up and return. Usually a diagram of the car is included detailing any pre-existing damage or damage that was found on the vehicle upon it's return.
• Accident / Incident report - Document filled out at the Rental Company, which details the facts of the accident as well as the damage caused to the vehicle.
• Photos of damage - Photos need to clearly show damage on vehicle.
• Appraisal or estimate of damages - Document is from a repair or body shop and should include a breakdown of parts and labor.
• Prior condition report - This report shows rental vehicle condition prior to the Card Member's rental of the vehicle. Contains vehicle condition for the prior rental right before the Card Member's rental.
• Fleet Utilization Log or proof of payment for completed repairs - Report from Car Rental Company that summarizes what rental vehicles were available for rent at the time the Card Member's rental vehicle was being repaired or the receipt showing the Car Rental Company paid for the repairs to the vehicle. The fleet utilization log must be location and class specific and will detail the utilization rate for each day claimed.

About a month later, Amex contacted me and told me Thrifty had dropped the demand and closed the claim.

Often1

Always best to let your insurance handle it. No need to pay lawyers, waste your time on arguing and the like.

The larger insurers have teams of people who work on these things, handle them at the same time and are incentivized to minimze the ultimate payout if there is one.

Best news is that if you don't like where the insurance people wind up, you may still fight about any excess.

trooper

That's BRILLIANT! I wonder if the AMEX folks laughed as they sent that off..... knowing most of it was almost certainly NOT going to be easy (or even possible) for Thrifty to produce...

Auto Enthusiast

Is there a risk the rental company would put you on the Do Not Rent List because the insurance behaved that way? While you may not want to rent with Dollar/Thrifty again, their Hertz affiliate may be of interest to you at some point.

jchan2

I don't think so. I went through a similar experience with Chase's claims process through Card Benefit Services (they do something similar, though are not quite as pro-active as American Express' Premium service) where I actually admitted fault for damage (chipped windshield while I was driving), produced all of the documents I had on my end (closed rental agreement, dated pictures of damage, completed accident report), then Card Benefit Services said they were simply waiting for final documentation (proof of payment for repairs) from Hertz to payout the claim.

3 months later I get a letter from Hertz saying I am past due on my balance and owe them close to $600 immediately and to contact them, then as soon as I contacted them and referred them to Card Benefit Services and the missing documentation they needed to submit to Card Benefit Services to be paid, I was swiftly told by Hertz they were dropping their claim and not pursuing payment with Card Benefit Services.

I've rented 5+ cars since then all with no issue.

rickg523

There is no chance I will ever rent from Thrifty or Dollar again.
I typically use Avis/Budget domestically and Sixt, Europcar, or local agencies overseas. I always rent with AMEX to invoke the PRI, unless I'm in a country where they won't cover (Italy, for example).

beirut

Anyway, I ended up submitting a claim with my Insurance provider and also gave my claim ID and contact info details to Hertz.
Haven't heard from either of them for over 10 days now.

In the meantime I had two Hertz rentals with 0 issues.

miadeals