Full fare for two flat tires?

This fact pattern sure seems strange. $657 to fix a flat, and a fix that appears to have taken several days to boot? Seriously? Maybe the bulk of the charge is for towing, but I thought if you’re a AAA member, the annual fee includes 100 miles of free towing. I’d agree that Enterprise should have been the first call, but even if you didn’t feel like calling them, you could buy a can of Fix-a-Flat, limp down to Discount Tire, and get it replaced, probably for less than $100. The same thing happened to me on vacation once, and it took all of about 3 hours to deal with. Annoying, yes, but hardly a vacation killer. Seems like there’s more to this story than we’re getting.

I agree with MeanMeosh – there’s something missing from this. Why worry about getting a rental fixed?!?!? Call the company, you probably would have had a replacement van within hours, or they would have fixed the flat. This seems like a little problem turned large by the clueless. You would expect a little more from someone who spent so much time planning.

@ MeanMeosh – “Seems like there’s more to this story than we’re getting.”
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I agree.

I am surprised that Enterprise didn’t give any compensation (i.e. a free day, a certificate for a future rental, etc.). I had car problems with a Budget rental and I ended up paying only $ 30 for a four day rental.

Also, it makes sense to carry a can of Fix-a-Flat with you when traveling long distances, traveling through remote areas, etc.

There does seem to be more to the story than told here — I would always call the rental company first (and I believe even Entreprise has a 24×7 number to call) before calling my own AAA and paying for a tire repair, hoping to get reimbursed.

There are also questions of who’s liable — I personally think that flat tires should be considered normal wear and tear, and replaced by the rental company, unless the car was being driven on some off-road or closed construction zone; in my experience the likelihood of random road debris causing a flat is more closely related to the condition and quality of the tires (which the rental company controls) than driving style or anything the renter could control. But I feel that way about any “normal” damage, including parking lot dings, hail/storm damage (especially when the company chooses to fix minor cosmetic damage at very high prices that I would have ignored on my personal car), so I may be in the minority.

But even if we accept that the renter is responsible for the main flat tire, the spare being flat already (which caused the need to tow the car) is entirely Enterprise’s fault, and they should cover the towing and repairs required.

However, it seems like the renter made a whole bunch of decisions and payments without consulting Enterprise at all (who may have had their own agency tow/do the repairs for cheaper), so they may be on the hook for it.

@Carver – “And tire may be expensive when bought on the road.”

Maybe, but it sounds from the facts presented that they were staying at a motel in Anaheim or thereabouts (I’m assuming this since the traveler said he took the shuttle to Disneyland – they must have been in the general vicinity in that case). In a big metro area like that, big box tire stores like NTB or Discount Tire, or even Wal-Mart are a dime a dozen, so it seems unlikely that prices are going to be too high in that area. It’s possible that an unscrupulous shop ripped them off, knowing that they were tourists, or that there was some other major repair that was needed upon inspection, but we don’t have all the information unfortunately to figure that part out. I just find it very odd that a new tire alone would generate a bill of $700 given the location, even with a tow.

Actually, the types of towing available from AAA is solely dependent on the
level of AAA coverage a person has. The BASIC will provide towing to the
nearest AAA-member garage.

Based upon “My family and I rented a van from Enterprise to drive to California”, it seems like they drove from Albuquerque, NM to Anaheim.

They discovered that the van had a flat tire in the parking lot of the motel on the following morning when they were going to Disney.

I don’t understand why they didn’t call Enterprise (either the location in Albuquerue, a location in Anaheim or a national number) to report the flat tire. They could have left the key with the front desk of the motel and Enterprise could come by to fix or replace the car.

In regards to the $657 to fix a flat tire, here are my guesses:

1. $ 200 to replace the tire assuming that the tire was special (this includes the cost to balance, mount, road hazard warranty, disposal fee, etc).
2. The spare tire could not be fixed so it was another $ 200 to replace it with the tire.
3. $ 250 to tow the van

However, if the van was a regular mini-van like a Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Dodge Caravan, Ford Freestar, etc. I don’t see ‘special tires’

Another guess is that they were ripped off for being a tourist or the repair shop thinking that these people will be reimbursed by the rental company.

There could have been other repairs than fixing a flat\replacing a tire. A few months ago, I replaced the four tires on my car and it took less than a hour. I don’t see why it took at least one or more day to put on a tire on the car.

Unfortunately, we don’t have all the information to know what actually took place.

The bottom line is that Chris was right on with his response…they should have called Enterprise to report the problem.

Whenever you have any difficulty with a rental car, call the rental car company. Any other option is looking for trouble. Several people have suggested carrying Fix-A-Flat. If you put Fix-A-Flat in a rental car tire you have two choices: 1) tell them or 2) don’t tell them. The second option is patently immoral since Fix-A-Flat is only a temporary solution and will cause problems for a future user of the car if they don’t know about it. In either case, expect a huge bill from your rental car company. Not only must the tire be fixed, but the Fix-A-Flat gunk has to be cleaned out, which I’m sure they will charge you extra for, and many tire dealers will claim (right or wrong) that Fix-A-Flat damages the tires, requiring replacement (our tire dealer always claims that). And, it’s not the flat they are replacing the tire for, it’s the damage they will claim you caused.

The rental company billed them for the rental and at first didn’t want to pay for repairs. Well it would be all fine and dandy about not paying for repairs IF the person had not called the rental company first. From the conversation stating “I had to explain to the Enterprise representative on duty that I had paid $657 for repairs while in California and that they were supposed to be reimbursing me.” It sounds like to me that there was some phone conversation.

Enterprise IMHO had two choices; reimburse for the charges, or refund the rental costs. These people were without a van for a significant amount of rental time primarily because routine maintenance was not done on the vehicle. I’m talking about the spare tire. Enterprise is solely responsible for the maintenance and when someone is without a vehicle because of lack of maintenance then the people deserve to be credited for lost rental time.

I had a similar issue with Enterprise a couple months ago. I rented a car from Enterprise to drive from PA to NC. One morning in NC we had a dead battery at the Hotel. I immeditately called the 800 number for Enterprise (because it was before the local office or renting location were open) and was told that road side assistance was not included unless I had purchased their optional insurance. I had purchased the insurance because of the distance we were traveling and multiple drivers, but Enterprise had no record of it. Any issue I had would be my responsibility. So I called AAA for a jump start. It turns out the car had an electrical “issue”. So I took the car to the Enterprise office near where we were staying in Asheville and they gave me a different car.

Upon returning the car to my local Enterprise office, I complained about the road side assitance issue and having to use my own AAA membership to get help and was given a $50.00 discount on the bill and a 10% discount on my next rental.

Yeah…we all agree that calling the rental company is your first point of contact when there is something wrong with the vehicle, but to add to the cluelessness of this individual, they actually thought that they were in the right by calling AAA! and contacted a travel ombudsman to rectify their cluelessness!