In my nearly 40 years of life, I have never looked up a companies BBB rating before doing business with them.

I think BBB was Yelp before there was Yelp.

Worth a shot.

What good are the credit card protections if the vendor can just circumvent them and send a bill outside the credit card company?

I was a manager at an airport location for one of the major rental companies (not Budget) right after college. This shit happened all the time. But back then, everyone had a paper rental agreement when they walked out. If they came in disputing it, it was easy enough to see if they signed for it or not.

As shitty as this situation is, you have to remember how many shitty people rent cars. It was a normal occurance for someone to purchase the insurance, and then try to remove it when they returned the car undamaged.

Well--maybe not. . . . My wife and I were in Scotland during the end of May.  Rented from Enterprise (I'm an Enterprise Plus member---used them exclusively when I was working).  
Had a great trip, returned the car, no additional chagres yadda yadda. . .
On Monday my VISA was charged with a $325 bill from Enterprise.   Called the Plus Member hotline.   "No, it's not related to your rental.  Maybe a toll or fine."  So she give me the email address of that dept.  I send off the email. . . "Nope"---not a fine.  Call the office you rented from."  
Ok, this am I call Glasgow.  Guy there was scratching his head, but he could not transfer me to the correct dept.  But he took my email address, said he gave it a "rush" and sent it to another dept.   Waiting to hear back.  It's either a mistake, or a fraudlent charge.   Can't believe no on at Enterprise can trace it.  SOMEONE there charged my VISA.  

This. National grab and go FTMFW.

Remember the old "Should have used Hertz" commercials?

You should have used Hertz.

Didn't they hand you a paper copy of everything when you drove off, or sent you an email of it all?

I have never had a rental where they don't give me a preliminary explanation of charges at the time of rental.

Not sure about their track record, but their are certainly shady employees that will try to sneak it on there, too. When I was the manager, I would say more than half of the disputes just got taken off the bill. It was either a sketchy employee, or an honest mistake.

Have you talked to the manager at the location?

Since covid, I think most of the big players went paperless.

I don’t remember ever having a car rental that didn’t include unlimited miles.

Hertz hasn't.  But don't they send an email at the time of rental?

I'm, Hertz Gold and they always hand me paper copies when I drive off the lot.  The few times I've used other companies, I've either gotten paper or emails.  Usually both.

I rent once a month with Avis/Budget when on business travel and haven’t ever had a problem. I’m sure next week imma get fucked….

I think in today's rental climate you are nuts not to buy their insurance.

Even if you have insurance through your credit card company or your primary insurance carrier they will generally not cover the diminished value claim or the loss of use claim.  The rental care company will absolutely send you to collections for any crazy charges they can dream up and that  your insurance or credit card company will not cover.    You think the daily rental fee was high when you actually rented the vehicle, wait until you see what they charge per day in "loss of use" which is probably 3 to 10X what you paid per day on the actual rental.

You will also be on the hook for your deductible even if somebody else hits you and they have insurance.  The rental car company doesn't care if the person who hit the rental  has insurance or not, in the case of Enterprise they won't accept the return of a damaged vehicle without an insurance deductible payment made to them on the spot at the point of return.

I have even had a rental company (Hertz) a couple year back send me the bill for $50K for a vehicle they claimed was "totaled" 6+ months after I returned it without damage.  On top of them wanting me to pay for the new vehicle they were also claiming about $10K in loss of use.  They were so confident they could fuck me that they gave me pictures of the odometer reading when the damage occurred which was like 13,000 miles more than after I returned it according to my return receipt.   It took me the better part of 6 months to unwind that fradulent claim.

Even insurance through the rental car company doesn't make you fully immune to their shenanigans as I have had SIXT try and bill me for a fully insured vehicle months after returning it (undamaged by the way) claiming I didn't buy the insurance.  Thankfully I still had the rental contract printout showing I did purchase full insurance.

You always need to do a full 360 degree video of the car before picking it up and another full 360 degree video of the vehicle when returning it and ask the attendant to state on the video there is no damage to the vehicle.  Also keep every bit of paperwork you receive for at least a year as the company may claim you didn't buy the insurance and send you the bill even though you did.

IMHO, you will probably get a more fair and honest deal from the local drug dealer on the corner in the hood than a rental car company today.  About the only thing I have not had happen yet is have Hertz get me arrested for falsely claiming I stole their rental car.

I have had good luck with Enterprise, but I always get their additional insurance. I like the fact they have unlimited miles on most vehicles. Great for taking long vacations where I will be going 3,000+ miles.

I worked in this industry, and specifically for Dollar, before they were bought by Hertz.  The pressure for sales is beyond anything I have ever seen before. It was insane.  Our city catered to military staff, flying in for classes at Wright Patt.  They were forbidden from taking insurance on the government contracts. It made our sales program suck beyond belief. Back then, Govt rentals was approx 50% of our business, meaning our sales were always 50% lower than regional average.

Dollar is Hertz. Hertz bought them outright 10-ish years ago.

call to state Attorney General would probably be more useful


BTW, most of them record the counter interaction

TLDR: Jump to the 1:00 minute mark. But it's all good.

The FAA had that slogan first, and they exemplify it the best.

Demand they provide the document that indicates you accepted the insurance (obviously it doesn't exist).

Fair Credit Reporting Act

Why don't people just call the hotel and explain their situations?  It's like people just assume that everything will be OK and some automated system will have their backs without knowing how it was configured.

QFT - quick in and out at the Airport

I know the other side of the coin where you walk in and ask the agent how much a car is, they tell you $50/day, and then you pay $25/day for the car and $25/day for the insurance, when you could have rented that same car for $30/day online.  That happened far too often, I didn't condone it or allow it, but I did know it happened.

Enterprise rent a car at the Minot, ND airport tried to screw me last year.

I paid for a 9 day rental through a 3rd party booking service in full in January 2022 for a May 2022 rental.

Upon arrival to the Enterprise desk at the Minot airport the class of car I prepaid was not available so they gave me one in a class below what I had paid for since that was what they claimed to have at that time.

5 months later a $1428.10 charge hits my card which I disputed with AMEX and AMEX sided with enterprise.

Multiple emails to enterprise customer service got this reversed.  

2 months later enterprise sent the bill to a collection company.

4 more emails to the enterprise reps in Minot and I got one that figured out the error on their end.  

Fuck enterprise and the pot smoking idiot they have/had employed at the Minot, ND airport.

The final email from the collection company was this

Hello,

We are very sorry for any inconveniences caused by this rental experience. We have reviewed, and the balance of $1,428.10 has been written off. There is no remaining balance due. Please disregard any further notices, as letters and emails are automatically generated.

Thank you,

Consumer Collections Department-EAN Services LLC.

He did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertz_Global_Holdings#:~:text=Hertz%20Global%20Holdings%20(formerly%20The,Rental%20and%20Thrifty%20Car%20Rental.

Hertz Global Holdings (formerly The Hertz Corporation), known as Hertz, is an American car rental company based in Estero, Florida. The company operates its namesake Hertz brand, along with the brands Dollar Rent A Car, Firefly Car Rental and Thrifty Car Rental.

I suspect that's a violation of company policy if not actual law.

I've been a manager for Hertz and Penske Truck Rental, and we were legally obligated to provide paperwork to customers. You're signing a legal contract when you rent a vehicle, you must be provided a copy of it.

@medicmandan

Yup. Insurance is cheap...insurance...if and when something goes wrong.

CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!

-Have a cracked windshield?  get a bill for the windshield replacement at (for example) $600 + 12 days loss of use @ $69/day
-Scuffed bumper?  they pay the bumper repair guys who work out of their vans on-site $500-1000 to heat a bumper and melt out the dent, or fill it with bondo and sand, then paint the bumper.  And then add on several rental days @ $69/day, until the car has been repaired and returned to the fleet.

This is not unheard of at all.  The thing about loss of use is that some states and credit cards and insurances require them to prove they were sold out for the times they claim loss of use.

jbntex didn't even touch on "Diminution of value" - that's where the car was worth $35k prior to being wrecked and is not worth $28k post-repair.  It's legit claim, but man, they will kill you with a claim, that's for sure.

I've had this conversation in real life 100's of times (as the rental agent).

It's intentional.  You signed the waiver, that option wouldn't have been available for you to sign if it wasn't in the system that you declined the insurance.  They know you declined.

I suspect it's their standard practice.  They know that a certain percentage will just pay the bill and for those that fight it you'll eventually get a "so sorry, it was an error".

I got a rental once in Kansas at Hertz.  Truck had like a third of a tank, the agent made a little mark on the form (gas gauge icon on the form, she drew a little mark showing the fuel level that it was a third full).  Upon return I filled it up to that mark on the truck's gauge.  Return agent goes out, checks the gas, and comes back in and says fuel was low, gonna charge me for a few gallons.  Looked at her, said "really?  You're going to charge me for a few gallons when it's impossible with the precision of the gauge to determine the exact amount of goes on check out and check in?"  She held her ground, it wasn't worth the effort to me to fight it.  Gave her her fucking extra $9.

Another time rented a car in Hawaii.  Got a flat tire.  Go to change to the spare, and low and behold, no jack!  Call up the c/s line bitching and the agent tries the old "well, it must have come from the factory that way".  I told her to stop with the BS, there's no way the car got shipped from the factory without a jack.  I mean, why even try that tactic?  We ended up with me needing to go back to the depot at the airport and swapping the car out.  Got the tire changed (crew I was working with had a floor jack).  I get there at around 10 pm.  Tell them I'm here to swap cars as the one they rented me had no jack.  They check the system, see the reservation, and ask me to wait while they go get it.  45 minutes go by, I see agent typing on the computer, going to the back office, coming back, typing on the computer.  Manager comes out, types on computer.  Seems they rented out my reserved replacement car!  Hit the roof.  Felt I was in a Seinfeld episode.  It was all good, though, they upgraded me to a brand new fully loaded Explorer.

When they brought it around front I made them show me the tire change tools (jack, wrench, spare with proper inflation, etc.).  They were confused, assuring me the tools were there, until I told them "well, the LAST one you rented me didn't and that's why I'm here right now."

I'm kind of surprised Hertz was able to maintain control through their bankruptcy.

I rented a full size car from Thrifty. I am Blue Chip member. When I got to the car rental terminal in San Diego, I was directed to the pick-up area like usual; except there wasn’t a single car there.

It was back to the office. I waited 45 minutes in line only to be told they were out of cars and Hertz would honor my reservation. I waited another 30 minutes at Hertz for the paperwork to be completed. When I went to pick up my car it was a Honda Civic.

So much for a full size car in California.

Back in January, I rented from Enterprise and booked online.  When I go to pick up the rental they do they we don't have that one line and put in something else and take a few dollars off the total.  I give them my credit card and assume that I am paying at this time.  I return the vehicle after the trip with no issues and think everything is done.  I have even submitted my expenses to my work for reimbursement when I get a call from them wanting me to authorize them to charge my card for an amount that was higher than my original internet booking pricing.  I call them out on it saying that is not the price that was agreed on and he asked what was the price then?  I didn't have everything in front of me so I said I'm not sure but I know it was about $150 less than this amount.  He put on me on hold for a few and came back with a number that was actually less than what I signed for they day I picked up the car.  I told him to go ahead and run the card for that amount.

Also they have multiple levels of insurance they can provide.  They originally tried to sell me some that was damn near the cost of the daily rental.  I declined that one and they offered one that just covered anything on their car (I took this one) that was much more reasonable priced.

I'd refuse to pay them on principle. If they send it to collections and it ends up on credit reports you can have an explanation added there.
But I'll admit I'm in a position that I don't much care about a pristine credit score.
But I did similar a few times over the years.  One that comes to mind was a cable company.  We were moving.  I returned everything and paid the final bill. Their words.  Except it wasn't and I get a bill forwarded about 3 months later for like $12.  I called and they dug in.  I said out of principle you're not getting another dime.  Never heard from them or about it again.

You're not paying ahead of time. It's typically a hold for the calculated total + a deposit. Taking a CC# ahead of time is also a way to weed out thieves and people who can't afford the rental.


That's why they offer multiple levels: to get you to buy something. "This coverage is only $xx/day"

I’ve gotten better prices renting through Uber recently than I have Costco travel.

I don't know if there is a worse company than Budget, particularly in Austin.  I had to wait 3 freaking hours for a car, only for them to say they didn't have one.  Then they wanted me to pay for an upgrade.  Then they screwed up the bill.

Later they contacted me a few times to "understand the situation".

I hope all the people involve get infected monkey pox then die in a fire.

I had Dollar reservations two times at BWI recently and was told it would be hours of waiting to get a car.  Budget had cars and I’ll easily justify that extra cost on future DTS trips.

Same here.

My shitshow was with Budget.  Rented a Ford Explorer in 2013.  Declined the insurance.  2 days into the trip, going 30 mph down the road the transmission grenaded.  To their credit, Budget had a flatbed with a replacement vehicle to me in (iirc) an hour, maybe 2.  Finished the trip.

A week later I get a bill from Budget for $13k for the replacement of their transmission, which they claimed would have been covered by the additional accident insurance.  I wrote them a letter back saying that's nonsense, accident insurance isn't for mechanical failures, the car was likely under warranty (12k miles), and to politely pound sand.  They sent me another letter that was more threatening, and I was telling my CEO at the time about it and he said to let him handle it.  So he wrote his own reply about getting our lawyer involved and poof the problem went away.

Fucking leeches.

I sincerely believe that society has become 'too civil'.  If you could threaten to come to their HQ and make an example out of the CEO, companies would be much less likely to try bullshit like this.

This is the first time in my life that I've heard of the BBB doing a damned thing for anybody.

Executive with National.  I don't even have to talk to anybody.  Make reservation, pick a car at the airport, hand my CC and license to the agent at the exit to verify, then I drive away.  Drop off car at airport and get a receipt emailed to me.

In my experience that isn't how it works.  It might seem like a logical assumption, but fact is they will rent those rooms out again if no one shows up.

This is one of the reasons why online check-in through an app is so important.  Once you check in and they issue you an actual room number and often a digital key, the room is yours.  Regardless, a quick call to the front desk will let them know you are having travel difficulties and they will hold your room.

You have my sympathies.  It sucks.  Think of it like a flight.  If you don't show up for the flight, they will give away your seat regardless of payment.

<----  Seasoned traveler