Why can’t car rental companies give the “all clear” when you return your vehicle?

If you think the recent series of stories about car rental companies charging customers for “damage” to their vehicles is troubling, then you’re not alone.

I’m bothered by it, too. And so is Christopher Hill, a reader and frequent car renter.

But he’s got an idea: Why not close the loophole on these frivolous claims?

He writes,

This afternoon, when I returned my rental car to Dollar in Washington, the representative Jason (who was the fleet manager), made a quick walk around the car, printed off a receipt and handed it to me.

Keeping in mind the number of consumers that have been getting billed for damages after they return home, I asked Jason if it was written anywhere on the receipt that the car was returned with no damage.

He answered, “Yes, your total is right there at the bottom.”

Huh? I responded that while the receipt did indeed show a total, I would like it to state somewhere that there was no damage.

Jason told me that they didn’t have the ability to do that. So I reached in my pocket and pulled out a pen which I offered to him as a solution, and asked if he would write on the receipt that there was no damage and sign it.

Now he told me that if there had been any damage, I would have had to fill out a damage report there on the spot, and that the fact that I was handed a receipt was my proof that there was no damage.

Again, this goes against the experiences of several of your other readers, which I mentioned to Jason. He responded that while policies may differ from one company to another, the policy of Dollar was to identify and document any damage at the time the customer returned the car.

It’s understandable therefore, if this truly is the case, that consumers are left uncertain of how best to protect themselves, when they get a different story from each rental car company, if not each different employee. When you rent an apartment, you typically will conduct a move-in inspection and move-out inspection and both will be signed by the tenant and the landlord. So why should it be any different with a rental car?

I agree. We’ve debated this issue in the comments previously, with car rental representatives insisting that they needed more time to go over the vehicle to determine if there was any damage, and lawyers claiming that the return receipt was, in effect, the “all clear” document that trumped any future claim.

There are a few solutions, as I see it. The first is that a car rental company should automatically take a digital photo of every car before and after it is rented. Hertz said it was going to do this last summer, but I’ve followed up several times to find out how the program is being implemented, only to be met with complete radio silence. The other is a standard release to be signed by a car rental company representative when you return the vehicle, that specifically releases you from any future damage claim.

Chances are, both options are too expensive. The digital cameras add to a location’s costs and to the time it takes to process a rental car. And the waiver would effectively end a car rental company’s ability to pursue a claim for damages that are “discovered” after the rental, whether they are legitimate or not.

These two steps could also shut down the cottage industry of third-party damage claim services that work with car rental companies to squeeze every available penny from insurance companies and renters.

Something tells me it’s not gonna happen.

(Photo: Howared Lake/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • Josh

    It could happen with either an explicit law, or a court finding. A digital camera is extremely cheap, and it takes very little time to snap a picture of the car, especially since they really only have to do that on return if they find/allege damage (personally I believe they should also be required to have their own snapshot at checkout to prove it’s new damage).

    More people should force the rental company to take them to court, if they can (I know it’s usually not practical) — any sane judge would throw the case out. If I claim that you damage my property, but I had the opportunity to but didn’t bother to take any pictures to prove it, you can bet I’d be laughed out of court. The same standards should hold for the companies.

    I’d also love to see a codified “10 foot rule” — only damage that can be clearly seen from 5-10 feet away with the naked eye should count; a minor scratch in the clearcoat on the roof of a car only visible if you put your eye up to it is called normal wear and tear in my book…

  • cjr

    Such measures shouldn’t be necessary. It’s simple: once you sign the receipt and receive your copy, that’s the end of it. No going back later claiming damage. If these companies are that interested in making sure there’s no damage, then they should be checking for it when the car is returned.

    If there’s no claim made at the time of return, then no claim should be able to be made later. Anybody coming back weeks later trying to put a claim against a renter should be viewed as perpetuating a scam.

    One would think common sense should prevail, but it seems pretty obvious that common sense is now a foreign concept in this country.

  • http://www.spaindex.com Kristina

    We travel frequently and rent vehicles on a weekly basis. While we’ve never caused or been dinged for damages, we are proactive at the outset.

    True, an excellent solution is for the rental agency to take digital photographs of the vehicle when the driver takes possession, and true, it would slow down the process.

    However, there is nothing prohibiting you from doing it yourself, and we do. In full view of the agent, we do a full walk-around and we snap digital photographs as we go. It’s part of the photo documentation for our entire journey, but it also sends a very clear message to the agent witnessing our photodocumentation: We are careful. We are looking. We are responsible — and we expect them to be as well. It sets the tone.

    Beyond vehicles, in more borderline cities and countries where we receive less than ideal accommodations, we photograph the room as well, and any damage we find on check-in.

    These photos are easily deleted later, or uploaded to a reserve spot on your PC until sufficient time has passed that they can be deleted.

    We love the idea of the 10 foot rule defining wear and tear. These are not new vehicles and a scratch on the roof of car in a sandy beach area during high winds shouldn’t matter a whit.

  • Walt Blackadar

    To me, the receipt is the end of the transaction. It’s the acceptance of the rental company of the return of the car. If damage isn’t caught then, then there’s no proof that the consumer did it. It equally could have happened after the car was returned by another customer or an employee. Or, in quite a few cases, the damage took place before the car was even rented by that customer!

    I have no doubt that damage does happen. But as the almost-victim of a car rental damage scan in the Northeast, I have zero sympathy. They tried to take advantage of a 22 year old kid, but I knew enough back then to not get bullied. I 100% knew there was no damage to the auto – especially in the location they claimed because it was protected on that side in the one place I parked the car! I had 2 other witnesses and absolutely, unequivocally refused to pay for supposed damage 4 weeks after renting the car. They backed down because they got caught in trying to scam a 22 year old kid. That was two decades ago.

    So I have no sympathy for car companies. If there’s damage, they better catch it when the car is pulled on to their lot. If they don’t want to spend the money to do so, then they can deal with the consequences. But there are too many car rental crooks out there to ever believe them anytime they claim damage to a car days or weeks later.

  • LeeAnne

    Years ago, when returning a rental car, an Avis agency accused me of causing some scratches on the trunk of the vehicle I rented. I pulled out my digital camera and proceeded to show the manager date-stamped photos of the scratches on the car in the lot on the day I picked it up, BEFORE I drove off with it. It thoroughly pissed him off…but it stopped the scam in its tracks. There was not a thing he could do about it.

    I now do that for every car I rent. In full view of any employees who might be watching, I walk around the car and take shots from every angle before I even touch it, being sure to snap anything that even remotely resembles damage or wear-and-tear. I’ve been asked why I’m doing that, and I happily tell them about my experience with Avis.

    Nobody has bothered me since…and I’m sure if they did, the same thing would happen. If an agency tried to hit me up for repairs after the fact, I would simply send them copies of the photos I took, along with nice lawyerly-sounding letter letting them know the futility of attempting to pursue their claim, given the irrefutable evidence in my possession that I did not cause the damage.

    If every car renter did the same thing, this scam would disappear.

    Try it, folks.

  • Steve

    The fact that the car rental companies are whining that they need more time to inspect the cars for damage illustrates the fact that their definition of damage is unreasonable. It should take an employee no more than 90 seconds to walk around the car and check both the interior and exterior for any damage. I don’t consider tiny scratches or scuff marks on the bumper, etc, to be “damage” – that’s normal wear and tear.

    I know it’s a rip-off, but on the rare occasion that I rent a car for a leisure trip I buy the LDW simply to avoid the headache of being penalized for something I didn’t do…and since I’m factoring that extra cost into every rental, I rent a lot less frequently than I would if I didn’t feel I had to do that. It’s the rental companies’ loss in the end.

  • Jack

    Josh wrote…

    “If I claim that you damage my property, but I had the opportunity to but didn’t bother to take any pictures to prove it…”

    Sometimes there ARE pictures. This was indicated in some of Chris’s articles. However, my concern is about the same pictures being used more than once. In other words, have there been any instances of any of the so-called “reputable” (major) car rental companies trying to collect, from more than one customer, for the same damage.

  • Josh

    @Jack, I agree with you; a single set of pictures may only show part of the story. If I had my way, the agency would have to show side-by-side pictures, one dated/taken at checkout, the other at checkin, with the damage clearly showing up as a difference. And they’d have to make that available with the initial claim letter.

    Of course it’s still a good idea for the consumer to take their own photos, but the burden of proof should be on the agency to show the damage actually occurred during the rental.

    And it doesn’t have to take much time — a couple of video cameras mounted near the entrance/exit might be sufficient (at least for what many of us here consider “damage”, not the minute dents and scratches that they’d like to treat as such).

  • LeeAnne

    I’m surprised that anyone thinks that the rental agencies would even consider investing in digital cameras to take before/after shots of damage. It’s in their best interest to NOT do this! The moment they start doing that, all opportunity for perpetrating this damage-claim scam on thousands of unsuspecting schmucks disappears. They would only be able to collect on ACTUAL, VALID damage claims! And that would suck for them, since (I truly believe) a large percentage of their take on damage claims is through these scam claims.

    Most customers roll over and pay out of fear or ignorance or both, and the rental companies know it. Why would they take expensive measures to dry up a nice fat source of free money?

    Take your own photos, people. Don’t expect the rental agencies to protect you. Protect yourself. It takes moments, and can save you massive headaches.

  • Tim@OKC

    I was the victim of this scam back in ’08, fortunately since I had digital pix of the car showing the damage pre-existed at rental check out, the “claims adjuster” closed the case after I provided him copies of the pix, along with an email to the State Insurance Commission alledging fraud by the Rental Company.

    So I believe that something needs to be done about it, to protect the consumer. However I don’t see how either of these options would be workable.

    Digital pictures would require either additional personnel to walk around each car at return taking picutres of it. Then possibly have to compare them against the check out. (what happens if they say they lost those pictures?) And lengthen the time at check in, plus providing the consumer with copies of both sets of pictures, and we all know that Rental companies are “completely” honest now……

    Signing a waiver? Again requires additional personnel and time to walk the vehicle and then take the time to sign/date the paperwork. And how would a disagreement about damage be mediated between consumer and check in personnel? Also, we’ve all had those times where we pulled in to Return lane and it’s packed with cars/families rushing to the shuttles at peak times. (can anyone say Orlando) Again, this would lengthen the time to return cars and most people won’t put up with it.

    Best advice is NOTE ALL damage on rental contract, and take pictures PRIOR to leaving the rental lot. (and try to get the gate attendant to sign the contract) That’s what I do now with every rental, and it seems to work. Takes a few extra minutes, but can save you $$$

    And if the Rental company tries to scam you, send an email to the company and cc the State Attorney General / Insurance Commision of that particular state where you rented from.

    Don’t follow the herd mentality and rush to pay the Rental company when they threaten to turn you over to a “collection agency”, which is most likely just another division of the company.

  • Vivian Rouleau

    We just got back from a delightful week in San Diego. Being a diehard Elliott fan, I knew to be extra careful about the car rental. We used Alamo and I am happy to say all went as planned. There was some damage to the car when we picked it up – I made a big deal of photographing it and had the agent clearly write it up and inital it. I mentioned the stains on the back seat, and he said we don’t write up stains. I told him to do it anyway (I didn’t want any surprises later). When we returned the car, it wasn’t even inspected, so I pointed out the original damage and asked the agent to sign and inital that there wasn’t any new damage. He said it wasn’t necessary – I said, yes it is. The receipt is signed and in a safe place, now I’ll wait to see if I hear anything from Alamo in the near future regarding a damage claim. Thanks, Elliott, for making us all more savvy travellers1

  • Nobody

    I videograph my rentals before I leave on my $80 Pure Digital I carry in my man bag aka attache`case. If confronted by a return car clerk who made some bad choices in life to end up working for low wages in a parking lot, I would review the video with the clerk and point out the defect when I picked up the car. At which point, I begin to demand a discount voucher for having be shamed being seen in public with their tarnished equipment.
    DOLLAR RENTAL @ DTW in Detroit tried to scam me AFTER I returned a car sending me (poor) photos of the wrong part of the car where damaged was reported. “If you would kindly sign this charge card authorization for the amount of the damage estimate and return in the postage paid envelope….” “I’ll consider it once you send me a damage report with my signature on it. Otherwise I would assert one of your minimum wage reps did the damage (that I can’t see in your photos) AFTER I left.”
    Nobody at fault?
    Prove it.

    Nobody

  • Eric

    The problem with using a digital camera to take “before” photos is that the time stamp on a camera could be faked by resetting the camera’s date and time, so those photos are not 100% proof of the damage prior to the rental. A cell-phone camera, since the date and time are automatically set by the cell network is probably better. But what if you don’t have a camera phone?

    Here’s what I’ve started doing. A video can’t be faked. I ask the agent to hold up the clipboard showing the rental contract. I video him holding the clipboard, which serves as an irrefutable time stamp, and then do a continuous sweep around the car, never pausing the camera, and video record all the body surfaces and the glass. As long as it is one continuous video, it is 100% proof of the condition of the car at check-out.