s0ssos

Back in July I was renting a car and hit some metal in the road, and damaged the car. They took a report (well, I actually don't know what they did), and said someone would contact me. Fast forward 2 months, nobody did.
I called the location, they had nothing and told me to call another number, which I did, which wasn't answered (during business hours) and gave me an email. I emailed and got no response.

I only paid the deductible of $1,000. I have only liability on my own auto insurance so they didn't bother to take it down. My credit card was going to cover it.

2 questions:
1)should I keep pursuing this? I don't really have a formal damage report, just an invoice where they charged me the deductible.
2)is now a good time to ask my credit card insurance for the $1,000? Or should I wait because I don't know if they will charge more

WeekendTraveler

I don’t understand the issue for 1: you’ve paid National $1,000 and you want to be sure that the matter is closed, with no further charges?

For 2, you may have a deadline with you credit card issuer, by which you have to submit claims. You might also need to submit various documents to it. So I would go ahead and contact your credit card issuer.

garykung

Yes. You are responsible for your damage. But if the damage was not severe enough (i.e. $1,000 was more than enough), National is supposed to issue a refund.

Given you will attempt to recover your money from credit card, having the report does help a lot.

Report the incident ASAP.

When the process can be delayed, the claim deadline can't be delayed.

PDX4MSU

I had this happen to me in March. It took until July to get it resolved. The key is to start the claim with your credit card company. Add information to the claim as your receive it. I called National multiple times during the process and each time was told they would reach out to the office where the car was returned but nothing happened. Finally I received a final bill from National, submitted it to the credit car benefit service and it was resolved quickly. The credit card folks were great. They deal with these all the time so give them a call and tell them what you know to date.

s0ssos

Great, good to know National may take months and I need to report to credit card ASAP. Will do, thanks!

s0ssos

Whew. Apparently Chase gives you 60 days. Just a days short of that to file a claim.

s0ssos

So National finally gets back to me, rather someone from EHI Claims does, with an email to call and no claim number or anything. She says they are still waiting on the location for more information. That 90 days is very reasonable.

Reasonable? I guess there is no oversight over the rental car agencies, nobody to complain to, just accept it that they are horrid.

s0ssos

Anybody know how long the statue of limitations is for the rental car company to claim anything? They still haven't done anything. Last I contacted the central office they said they were waiting for the local office to send them the information. It has been months, I guess, and no information.

Credit card insurance is waiting for me to claim, asking me to submit documentation, but there is none (they said I have up to a year from the incident date).

zachary

Not exactly what you're asking, but I damaged a car in STX. It took Avis over a year to get information to me. I had opened a claim with Chase right away. But by the time I got the damage information from Avis, Chase had closed the file citing their one-year rule. Fortunately, when I explained this to Chase, they reopened the file, took the documentation, and paid the claim. So while I don't know how long National will take, my experience with Chase was that they aren't sticklers with the one-year deadline if the reason you missed it is beyond your control.

rickg523

I use Amex Premium Rental Car Protection. It costs $18 per rental.
Last summer, I damaged a rental in France. I filed with Amex online and they contacted the rental agency, got all the documentation, and paid the claim. (The claim by the rental firm appeared as a charge to an Amex card; APRCP initiated a dispute to delay the charge until they finished their determination). Essentially all I got were status notifications. I think it took about 4 months to complete.
On another occasion, Payless tried to charge me $6500 for damage to a car, that I had returned undamaged. Again, I sent it over to Amex and forgot about it. About 3 months later, Amex informed me that Payless had dropped the claim.
I highly recommend this service when renting a car (FYI, coverage not available in Italy. Buy Super Cover from the rental company).

s0ssos

Thank you for the information. So it seems they can take quite a while to get the information. I guess there is no issue with statue of limitations, as it could be years.

garykung

It depends on the state where you rent the vehicle.

Note - usually there are separate statute of limitations for property damage and written contract. Always assume the statute of limitations written contract prevais (as it is usually longer).

Send a certified letter with RRR (paper or electronic) to its registered agent address, reiterate the issue and provide document proof regarding the credit card deadline, as well as anything about the filing the claim.

If they still fail to respond before the credit card deadline when you make proper notice like this, the car rental company will have to offset any damages that the credit card may cover based on the failure of mitigate.

s0ssos

Update:
My timeframe is a bit off, as I cannot remember all the details and when, as I am only able to talk to them over the phone.
Sometime months ago I checked in with them again and they said the paperwork was never properly filed, and they will file it.
I check back later and someone says yes, you had the paperwork sent. It has to be re-sent though. And I also learned that the initial person who contacted me no longer works there (though technically they couldn't say that, just said "I don't know who this is"). But if it is no good then we will work on escalating it and closing the case.
I call back again and another person responds and says it takes 3 tries to contact the branch, so I need to wait again as she will send it one more time. But yes, if they don't respond they'll escalate it and get it closed out.
Finally I called back two weeks after that, on the dot, and the person said yes, they didn't respond. Technically they have 4 years though to take care of this. But she will escalate it and see what she can do. She promised much less than the last person, who said they'll just close it.
A few weeks later I see a refund on my card for the deductible, so it seems they have closed it.

I have no documentation of any of this. My credit card company has stopped bothering me for information. Should I request National actually write to me, email vs letter, that they closed it, or give me a status report? Can they re-open it in the future?

platbrownguy

Congratulations on getting the refund; your persistence paid off. Personally I wouldn't worry about it any longer. Doesn't sound like they ever generated paperwork documenting cost of repairs, and it seems very unlikely that they would come back at some random time in the future and charge you money for this. Of course, YMMV.

s0ssos

Wonderful. After this, I understand why insurance is actually such a good deal. Cause you don't have to deal with this.
Though I mean insurance specified in the contract, or insurance you buy from the rental agency, as I'm not sure third party insurances would be any better than just my credit card insurance (Amex premium is probably not better than Chase, in that they will handle this without me getting involved. Though I could be wrong)