Picked up a van from Enterprise in Hammersmith last week for a one way hire back home to the North. On returning it next morning to my local branch the guy whipped out a tablet and instantly 'found' 2 marks that weren't on his report of damage.
One bit of damage looks about a lot more than 24hours old (think dirty, worn down hole in plastic bumper, not at all a sharp shiny hole from the day before) and the other 'bump' was actually a design feature and a bump is on the opposite door as well look like it was created by a machine press. Nonetheless laddo has to report it.
I mentioned that the van had faulty handbrake and the pads were grinding pattern in the discs on at least 2 wheels preventing me from hitting 60mph in a hurry. He said he would get a local garage to have a look.
With 25mins I have a £2250 excess hit on my credit card.
So I popped down to said local garage who I use for my car and caravan as it happens and learnt that within an hour the van was with them and so far they had found a non working handbrake and 4 failed disc brakes, sensors etc. Current total repairs bill standing at £1250 + vat, Citroen only parts for the handbrake and wheels.
I'm currently knocking up an email to the claims people to dispute the bump. Wish me luck
YOu will be fine. Enterprise have a very good and deserved reputation for not charging for small damage. I have used them many times. check their policy on minor damage. The person you dropped it off with is not acting according to enterprise policy
When I hired a van recently from them they were only worried about marks bigger than a mobile phone.
I suggested I could hammer the bodywork all over & not get charged. They agreed that I could & provided the indvidual marks were smaller & didn't connect to make a bigger mark it would be fine.
Deffo constest it - i've used enterprise before and when I dropped off, the guy doing the check over was training a newb, and he said something similar about little scuffs - they seemed pretty laid back, but there was no question of damage in my case.
It sounds like the damage in your case is questionable at best, so do persue it.
I have had recent good experience hiring a van from Enterprise, though for peace of mind I usually pay the extra insurance waiver.
Agree with suggestions to challenge the extra charges.
Yeah, I hired a van from them last year. They barely gave it a sideways glance when I brought it back.
Same thing happened to me last year
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/off-topic/just-been-shafted-by-enterprise/
I got my money back eventually but it was a giant PITA that I didn't need to deal with.
Enterprise are VWs go-to for warranty replacement vehicles. I get to use them a lot as a result. Generally they don’t care about damage larger than a 50p piece (they have a hand template for assessing things).
They are very good at supplying vehicles with major defects however. So far we’ve had a sharan that had no wheel weights, a transporter minibus where the rear heater couldn't be turned off, a Tiguan with no wiper blades, the same Tiguan which threw an error and failed to proceed. On top of this, every one had had replacement tyres of the Chinese random name variety with different makes on the same axles.
Always, always photograph every inch of a hire vehicle on collection and return. A basic dormant bank account with £300 for pre-auth in it and no overdraft facility is an extremely useful weapon against hire car companies.
There was a TV investigation a few years back where the reporter hired a car, drove it around the corner where it was loaded onto a transporter, taken to a secure area and photographed extensively.
It sat there unused and untouched till they returned it.
The hire company discovered 'marks' and damage and forced the reporter to pay for them.
It seems like a common practise, and they dont actually find damage, they just report they do in order to glean more money out the customer.
So if you do hire one and they try to pull a fast one, when you next hire, horse it in single gears to max revs, and dont forget to put the brakes through F1 standard testing regimes 😉
Surly the pictures and video you took when you hired the van prove you didn’t damage it?
It’s all a device to get you to pay for their damage waiver is it not?
It seems like a common practise, and they dont actually find damage, they just report they do in order to glean more money out the customer.
some companies are notorious for this. Enterprise is not one of them - see their policy above
some companies are notorious for this. Enterprise is not one of them - see their policy above
Managers change, policies change, and businesses continue to enshitify and squeeze more and more money out of customers all the time.
There's plenty people saying Enterprise are good but also plenty people on sharkattack's thread that say Enterprise are pulling the exact same scam as the rest.
I think we should expect all companies to get worse rather than better these days so just because a company has been good in the past doesn't mean it is still good today.
Enterprise have a corporate policy of not charging for small defects - bodywork damage that does not go thru to metal - ignore, bodywork damage less than a golf ball in size - ignore, bumper damage less than a mobile phone - ignore.
This is why I use enterprise only. Never had an issue with a lot of hires.
Standard practice when hiring a vehicle is to walk around it a couple of times whilst taking burst photos on your camera so you have a library of a hundred or so pictures, followed by another lap whilst recording a video.
You did do that, didn't you?
Slight deviation; returned a hire car to the airport at Salt Lake City (the slickest hire pick up and drop off operation you’ll ever see BTW). It was a car probably near the end of its cycle and had the scuffs to show for it, all photographed by me at the time of pick up. Upon return the iPad-armed employee did one circuit of the car, made no comment, and then opened the drivers door, stood on the cill and checked the roof - the one thing i hadn’t even glanced - for dents: evidently hailstone damage is a thing out there.
I'm sure every location is different but I wouldn't go near them ever again, I even refused a courtesy car as they were the manufacturer's choice of supplier.
This is cars rather than vans though. Got stung, gave them the benefit of the doubt a while later, more (but different shenanigans) nonsense followed. Corporate policy doesn't exist in these operations
Standard practice when hiring a vehicle is to walk around it a couple of times whilst taking burst photos on your camera so you have a library of a hundred or so pictures, followed by another lap whilst recording a video.
This, plus a video inside as well (including boot, spare wheel, headlining, seat condition etc). Do the same on return in case they try to argue the toss. I also make sure the staff know I have done this, which seems to reduce the likelihood of claims of damage.
Having recently hired a van from Enterprise I was told that the plastic bumpers were fair game for marks and edents, but putting a hole in one was chargeable. Always worth doing photos and video just to cover yourself, but we can't change the past.
I'd lean on them about the noting down of a design feature that was present on both sides as being unacceptable behaviour and showing the incompetence of that staff member in judging damage.
Yeah, I had it once with Enterprise when they tried to charge for some very minor marks. I asked them to get out the 'Damage Evaluator' so I could photograph the damage in accordance with their policy. They said it was fine, no problem, it's all okay, and accepted the car with no charges.
I sent off an email on Monday, haven't had any acknowledgement or reply as yet. They state 8 days for reply so I will await the response.
I have no photos or video from the pick up point as the street warden person was looming, pointed out by the Enterprise staff, the parking had expired on the vehicle. As Woodster points out 'we can't change the past'.
If all your vehicles are parked on public roads on parking meters, you are hardly going to spend a lot of time recording every inch of a long wheel base high top Citroen Relay or many other vehicles for that matter. Time is literally money to the staff there so they have to be quick to check and get the next car off the street. I can't blame the guys in the store for that, but I don't see why I have to pay for damage.
I'm hopeful we should be all fine with this. Will update in time
Had exactly the same shit last year with Enterprise (despite TJ's assertions). The car was covered in scrapes, was told their corporate line about not counting small scrapes.
Cancelled my card and just kept ignoring them, they went away eventually. They even contacted my employer to try and get the money back (personal hire through work thing).
Allegedly.
Had a hire through A.N.Other company while i was in the UK last week. And i actually did damage it. Scraped the corner of the bumper. The guy on returns just shrugged and said "not worth worrying about" and refunded my deposit. Not bad for a car that only had delivery miles on it when i collected.
On another note, why do you lot rave about Skoda Octavias? Only good thing about it was the boot size. Rest of the car was horrible.
