You'd think I'd have learned my lesson now about doing a detailed walk-around of the car before picking it up but I guess not. Anyhow, I picked up my rental at the airport on Monday around mid-day. The Gold desk was horrid-no names on the board, no cars assigned, a line out to the door in the little Gold desk office in the garage, etc. I get my car (which wasn't pre-assigned because my reservation was 2 hours later). It was dark in the garage, so my co worker and I threw our stuff in and off we went. I didn't even look at the passenger side of the car nor did my co-worker pay any attention. We hurry on to the office, later grab dinner and go back to the hotel. The next morning I happen to walk by that side and notice dents and scratches all down the car from the rear bumper to the passenger front door (and a dent on the passenger front fender). It honestly looked like someone was pulling in or backing out next to the car and had run their bumper along the whole side of the car! I know for a fact I didn't hit anything. My co-worker felt bad that he did not notice it. (It was lower around where the door trim would be on the car)

Debating on whether to turn it in, wing it, and hope for the best, I decided to go ahead and be honest and call the station. I told them I was in a hurry and didn't see the damage in the garage as it was dark and just now noticed it; however, I did not hit anything and it would have been obvious to me if I "accidently" bumped something. The rep pulled up my reservation and said "oh you're Gold, you're not usually required to do an inspection anyway, you just get in your car and go" (huh???). She said she'd go ahead and note this on the reservation. I told her that yes please do and to note that it was prior damage and that I haven't had a chance to call until now and that there was no damage form in the car. She told me it was fine and that was it.

Now I'm scared I'm going to get whacked for it. They could say "how do you know someone didn't hit your car while it was in your possession but when you were away from it." In turn, I can say "how can you prove 100% without a shadow of a doubt that I did this damage and that the previous renter didn't do it, turn it in w/o saying anything, and it got past the check-in guy?" I mean I can see a blame game going here. I have full coverage insurance on one of my 2 personal cars and they cover this stuff, but I don't want my record dinged (no pun intended). I also rented the car with an Amex Plat. charge card but I don't have that $24.95 premium insurance.

Before I get flamed, I have learned my lesson to always inspect cars up front. Anyone think they'll nail me for it and if so, any tactics to get them to back off?...(i.e. threatening to talk to a lawyer, demanding to see garage video surveillance tapes, records of previous renters to see if it was damaged, etc.).

I'm covered either way insurance wise but don't want to get nailed for it and have to use my own insurance. Should I not have called and notified them as soon as I saw it or did I do the right thing? BTW, the car had 36.6k on it, reeked of smoke, was pretty much beat to hell all the way around. I think I should start taking the CDW and expensing it to my company. I am sick worrying with this.

I think it is going to be a lot more common to find minor damage on rental cars as the fleet gets older and older. I think the days of getting cars with under 500 miles are long gone.

Fortunately the company I work for has a contract rate that includes CDW so I don't have the fear of being charged for any exisiting damage. I do still look for anything glaring.

I know there would be no easy way to do this, but it would be interesting to see how many times the same "damage" is billed to several customers. Again, I am not saying any station is doing this, but it would be very easy for a less than ethical company to do this and never be caught.

Of course just thinking about how easy this would be to do might also convince you to purchase the waiver, so the company wins if you think you might be scammed. Talk about win-win for the company and lose-lose for the customer.

Back to your situation, you did the right thing in telling them, I would forget about it unless they contact you, which I doubt they will, and if they do tell them the truth, you didn't cause it, and it was a high mileage car (although 36K isn't as high as I've seen on other cars). Tell them you already discussed the situation with them, and consider the matter closed. If they start pushing the situation, push back, but again I doubt they will. The car has probably already been rented to some other poor sap who is now thinking the same things you are thinking.

I guess I should add that I haven't turned in the car yet, so we'll see if they say anything when I turn it in. I'm one of those that worries about stupid crap like this for hours on end. Lesson learned. I guess I'm covered either way--just don't want to end up using my own insurance which would cause higher premiums. I'm also not one of those six-figure income traveling businesspersons that could simply just pay them whatever exhorbitant amount out of pocket at the drop of a hat just to make them go away.

I heard a similar response after I mentioned some bumper damage at Hertz in SAN. Lot attendant said something like, "it a gold account, you don't need to note it".
I never saw any additional charges, so who knows.

If you return and they want you to fill out an incident report then make sure in the comments you write, "I deny the damage" or "The damage was already there" and write very little beyond that. Whatever you do, do not write, "I was unaware" or "I didn't see it" or anything similar to that. Do NOT bring up the damage to the instant return rep - if they bring it up then talk about it but do not bring it to their attention.