Who is pulling a fast one? The odd case of a car rental cover-up

I see strange cases all the time in my line of work, but fewer are stranger than Rebecca Davis’ rental from Enterprise in Norwood, Pa.

Here are the facts: Davis rented a mid-size sedan while her car was being repaired. At some point, maybe while the car was being rented by her, there was damage to the vehicle’s bumper. Enterprise claims that whoever scuffed the car tried to cover it up with paint (see picture above) and it believes Davis was responsible.

Enterprise’s proof? A series of photos showing what appears to be a shoddy repair job and her rental agreement.

All of which leads to the question: Is someone trying to pull a fast one here? And if so, who?

Davis is dumbfounded by what happened. She says no damage was found to the car when she picked it up or when she returned it. She dropped the car off at the body shop, as requested, when her car was fixed.

Several hours later I received a call from an agent at Enterprise who stated that I had damaged the car. He accused me of scratching the front bumper and then painting over the scratch with white paint (the car was white).

I was shocked and appalled by this claim, as I had done absolutely nothing to damage the car.

I immediately called my insurance company and filed a claim. An adjustor went out to look at it and there was indeed damage to the car.

When I spoke with the adjustor he said that it looked like a scratch but from a while ago and that rental car companies often engage in this type of scam.

Next I received a notice from Enterprise with an invoice for $941.44. I called my insurance company and they said that they would investigate further and that I should hold off on doing anything until further notice. A few weeks later I received another invoice from Enterprise in the amount of $822.67.

And then recently I received a third invoice in the amount of $556.10 and instructions to pay within 10 days. I have been given no information as to what the actual cost of the repair was and why the amount kept changing.

I am very upset about this. I did absolutely no damage to this car and do not feel that it is my responsibility to pay for this.

I suggested Davis ask for proof that she damaged the car, including repair records, timestamped photos and any documentation of loss of use. But Enterprise only sent her a copy of her rental agreement and photos of the painted-over bumper — a bumper that may or may not belong to the actual car that she rented.

I recommended that she appeal her case to someone higher up at Enterprise. A manager responded to her request for additional documents with the following note:

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to review your claim; at this point we feel the claim is legitimate for the following reasons.

1. Your contract shows the condition of the vehicle upon check out (which you initialed directly above the car diagram) that shows the vehicle had no damage in the area in question.

2. The damage is clearly visible and would not have been missed during a normal check out/check in process (as you can see in the pictures).

3. Your insurance company has reviewed the claim and has made a partial payment on your behalf.

I didn’t think those reasons were valid, so I contacted Enterprise on Davis’ behalf. She also sent a written appeal to the supervisor, wondering if it’s possible that the car might have been damaged after she returned the vehicle to the body shop.

A manager responded to her that it didn’t matter what happened to the car after she dropped it off at the body shop, even though Enterprise had allowed her to return the car there. Her agreement was with Enterprise, and she was responsible for the car until it was returned to the rental agency, not the body shop.

Still, Enterprise agreed to split the difference on the deductible, lowering her charge to $250.

Since Enterprise was threatening to take her case to a collection agency if she didn’t pay up, she reluctantly agreed to the compromise.

I’m not sure what to think about this case. If Davis damaged the car and then painted over the scuff, then she’s pulling a fast one. But if Enterprise sent her a random photo of a car and claimed it was hers, then it’s pulling a fast one. Or maybe it’s the body shop?

I surveyed more than 500 readers. Here are the results …

  • Joe Farrell

    Umm, gee. She dropped the vehicle off at a body shop. And there was damage to the vehicle at some point and there was a ‘shoddy’ repair done. Hmmm. Reputations of body shops, availability of paint there, and a repair. Hmmm. I wonder, gee, could someone have damaged it at the body shop and tried to cover it up there with a quickie repair?

    No that she would not then still be liable but that sure muddies up the waters. The question I have is was it discovered when it was picked up by Enterprise people or some time later?

    Did Enterprise ever provide the repair documents identifying the vehicle by make model vin etc? If not – then screw off. Just because they send it to a collection agency does not mean her credit report gets dinged – how do they know her SSN to be able to report it to credit bureaus? She certainly can insist on being sued so Enterprise thusly loses – there upon clearing her credit report.

    A copy is going to need more than a few bad photos to prove its case. And by suing her – discovery lets her ascertain who the pre-and post renters were, and get real documentation, not 3 photos of some repair and a copy of her rental agreement.

    There are all sorts of agency issues here revolving around pick up and delivery of a vehicle a body shop given Enterprises business practices . . .

  • Jeanne in NE

    Surely the body shop knows how to paint better than that!

  • DeVon

    This is a tough one. Does her return to the body shop constitute an actual return of the rental car to Enterprise’s possession? If there is no rental agency at the body shop, until the car is checked in..she is responsible for any damage that occurs to the vehicle. It’s the same thing as dropping a car after hours to a rental company, until they check that car in during normal business hours, any damages that occur would be on the driver of the vehicle. So if someone hit the bumper before it was checked in, the rental driver is responsible. Her best bet would have been to drop it off at Enterprise, then let them give her a ride to the body shop to pick up her car. I get they may have dropped the car off at the body shop for her convenience, but she is still on the hook.

  • SirWired

    @Jeanne: A proper paint job takes time…

    For this case overall, I think the outcome is about the best that can be done. I’m going to guess that Enterprise isn’t so stupid that this is a random vehicle. That car could have been damaged at any time… I guess this is another reason to ALWAYS get someone from the car rental agency to sign off on a return.

    However, the fast-changing amounts are indeed confusing and require further explanation.

  • Rich

    It’s probably the body shop’s fault, but lots of rental car franchises make valuable extra profit from scams like this.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    They should be another line item for the poll\survey: Enterprise & Body Shop. Enterprise and this body shop could be working a scam.

  • Mike Z

    Many body shops have enterprise locations as part of the location. So I would have checked into this more. Also, the photo of the damage shows that it is below the trim line on the bumper. As normal people stand there and look at a car, the area below the trim line isn’t always very visable and most people don’t get down on one kneee to look at it. there is a strong possibility that the damage was pre-existing but she did sign off that the car was clean when she picked it up.

    Personally, I think she should have pressed further for the documentation she requested. she shoudl have also pressed for the rental records of the past xx people who rented the car to see if the damage had been noted at any other time.

    A good one for you guys: AT&T sent a bill collector after me for a charge which I would never have agreed to as I was transferring service out of my name. I sent a letter back stating that I wanted proof from either a signed contract or a voice recording of me agreeing to the charges. Their response was to send me a copy of the final bill as “proof” that I owe them money. So, this type of thing and ignoring the request for documentation is not limited to one specific company or industry. (In my written response to them I mentioned I would send everyone in their company a bill and when they contested it, I would send the bill again as proof they owed me money. LOL)

  • Teresa

    I admit I don’t know very much about collection agencies. Why was Enterprise’s threat to take the case to a collection agency scary enough so that Davis decided to fold and accept their compromise, which left her out $250? What can the collection agency do to her? A question for the lawyers: if a debt is turned over to a collection agency, can a consumer force a small claims court resolution of the issue?

    Another question. Why did she call her insurance company?

  • Chicky

    You’re right, Chris. This is bizarre. I’m betting your “scam” antenna went up, just like mine did. The photo, changing amounts, no itemized repair bill– it all stinks like an old tennis shoe.
    So the driver notices a ding on the front bumper. So she goes to the local home improvement store and buys a can of white spray paint or, from the looks of the photo, white house paint, hurriedly slaps it on and hopes nobody notices? Say what? That’s a stretch.
    I’m inclined to say it either happened at the body shop and they did a hasty repair, OR it happened at the car wash after the Enterprise worker got it back to the lot and maybe he took it back to the body shop for a hasty repair. Either way, I don’t think the OP is, or should be, responsible for the damage. Enterprise cannot prove conclusively that it happened while in her possession. If the people at Enterprise told her specifically to leave it at the body shop, then as far as I’m concerned, she followed through with the instructions given to her by the company and they were responsible for the vehicle when she handed over the keys.
    It’s an ugly little tap dance.

  • Jerry

    It seems to me there are MANY complaints of this type against Enterprise. My take – BOYCOT!
    Make an example of 1 large company. They & the other car rental companies will get the message quickly.

  • Carver

    This is actually an easy one from a legal standpoint.

    1 What can the collection agency do?

    Nothing. Certain types of debts, basically loans by financial institutions can be automatically reported on your credit report. Most other debts cannot. As long as you dispute the debt within the requisite 30 days (I strongly recommend via certfied mail, return receipt), the collections agency cannot report most debts that did not originate from a financial institution unless there is a judgment. I’ve used that technique often in representing clients and deflating the collections agencies hard sell.

    2. Is Enterprise liable?

    Absolutely. More than any other major rental car company, Enterprise has a thriving business via insurance and repair rentals. As such, Enterprise will be considered to have purposely availed itself of that market. A judge is likely to consider the body shop to be Enterprises agent due to the close relationship with Enterprise. If we accept as the manager stated that “The damage is clearly visible and would not have been missed during a normal check out/check in process” Then Enterprise if SOL because the body shop should have caught.

    The only way for Enterprise to prevail would be if it convinced a judge that the OP really did damage the car and painted it over to hide her guilt.

    @Devon

    A better analogy would be had the OP rented from Enterpise at LAX and returned it to Enterprise in Burbank and Enterprise LAX is claiming the OP liabile until the car actually reached LAX

  • MVFlyer

    What smells really fishy is the changing amounts–if Enterprise really wanted to collect the actual amount for repair, it would have had one amount throughout the ordeal. Why did it keep changing? And she does have the right to proof that it happened during her rental period, and the repairs right after the period–a vague picture and her rental contract do not prove anything.

  • BucksterSF

    Yes it does take time to do a decent paint job but a body shop worth anything would have done a better job than that. They can paint and buff something out in a few hours and it would have looked far better. Maybe not perfect but far better.

    I’m willing to bet this happened on a previous rental and they are just catching it.

    That said, shame on the renter for not noticing something repaired that bad before driving away. Yes it’s below the “belt-line” and hard to see but its a pretty bad repair and really obvious – especially with that trim loose.

  • Steve

    I vote Enterprise on this one. This has scam written all over it. If the renter truly did damage the vehicle, why then are they presenting her with bills for increasingly smaller amounts of money instead of going after her for the full cost of repairs? And why can’t they provide actual documentation that the damage happened while she was responsible for the vehicle?

    I wouldn’t roll over just because Enterprise uttered the phrase “collection agency,” either. As Carver mentioned, having something like this go to collections doesn’t automatically mean that your credit will be affected. Moreover, you don’t even know for a fact that Enterprise would actually sell the debt to a real collection agency. My wife’s company trots out the “pay by this date or we’ll send you to collections” line on customers who are delinquent, but the fact is that when they “send something to collections,” they’re just talking about another division of their company, and it doesn’t affect the customer’s credit at all. But it sure is effective in getting people to stop ignoring those bills.

  • Jeanne in TX

    @BucksterSF

    I agree with your statements, except that I think there may be a question as to whether the image they provided was even the same car she rented.

    “But if Enterprise sent her a random photo of a car and claimed it was hers…”

    I think there’s reasonable doubt whether this photograph is even the same car.

  • Troy Gorda

    If you rent a car and do an inspection, use those camera phones! Photo’s at pick up and photos again at return.

    My first guess is that someone at the body shop damaged the car, didn’t want to fess up to the boss or the client, figured it was a rental and tried to cover up the damage, just long enough.

    My second guess is that there is a little deal privately worked out between this enterprise location and the body shop and they help each other out. What would be really interesting to see is the number of damage claims this particular enterprise is going after customers for. If there isn’t a scam going on, then there wouldn’t be inflated number of claims and charges.

    Sounds like we the customers need to have them sign off on some things and initial those as well.

  • noah

    I don’t understand how, from the information presented here, anybody could have any idea who is “pulling a fast one” here.

    I would add that there’s a fourth possibility: the Enterprise employee who picked the car up from the body shop.

  • Jesse

    Enterprise states that even if they were to sign off on the rental when the car is dropped off they may find other things once the car is washed.

    When you pick up the car you sign off on it, but if you were to find other defects once the car once you have driven it, it isn’t their fault and you have to assume fault for it.

    Seems to me that Enterprise wants to have their cake and eat it too. We do not have any protection from rental car companies as we need to abide by their rules once we sign the contract but those contracts aren’t always written in a fair way…

  • Abbey W.

    It’s hard to say – would be helpful to know how long after she dropped the car off to when Enterprise checked it back in. Looks like it was done by someone who was inexperienced or in a rush.

    I’ve never understood why a scratch would take so much money to repair in the first place. Sure, I understand “loss of use,” but unless you’re renting from a really busy location that constantly sells out of cars, I don’t think it should factor in. Unless it’s Christmas, most places I rent from have plenty of inventory to go around.

  • Dang

    I guess it’s a connivance of Enterprise and Body Shop to scam her and I doubt it was the first one. Rent a Car while being repair and ask the customer to drop off the car at a body shop ??? Go to People Court, I will bet the money on her.

  • Raven

    Looks like the body shop and/or Enterprise is just trying to scam this lady.

  • Carrie Charney

    Loss of use means that there were no other cars to be rented while the car in question was being repaired. The insurance company I worked for required the rental companies to prove loss of use.

  • Dr Bill Toth

    Given my own experience with Enterprise (still unresolved) I’m betting they’re pulling the fast one. ( I could be wrong of course) Review other posts in this blog going back several years and you’ll find Enterprise at the center of many of these situations…more so than any other company. And here’s another fun item – while you are disputing a claim you cannot rent a car from Enterprise, Alamo or National. Found that out upon getting into airport at 11:30pm and being told “sorry sir, the computer says…”

  • Bella

    Based on my experience with Enterprise is that they’re pulling a fast one. They also tried to scam me for damage I didn’t do. I felt like I was in a den of thieves.