Posted on 01/04/2014 10:17:26 AM PST by rickmichaels
An international car rental company says it wants to work with a Dartmouth, N.S., woman who's on the hook for $47,000 to replace a stolen Mustang convertible.
"We are continuing to review the case," Enterprise spokesman Ned Maniscalco wrote CBC in an email.
"It is our intention to work with the customer and her insurance company to achieve a fair and reasonable outcome."
Kristen Cockerill rented the Mustang GT convertible from Enterprise Rent-a-Car in October. At the end of the two-day term, Cockerill returned the car to the Enterprise rental lot on Portland Street in Dartmouth.
She dropped the car off on a Sunday. Most Enterprise locations in the Halifax region are closed on Sundays and people who need to return vehicles that day are instructed to leave the key in a secure drop box.
When Enterprise employees arrived at work the next day, they found the keys, but no Mustang.
Police determined it was stolen.
In response to Cockerill's situation, Maniscalco wrote CBC, saying: "Keep in mind that a sign prominently displayed on the key drop-box reminds customers that the vehicle remains their responsibility until it can be checked in by an employee."
“I was pretty panicked, wondering where this car went, and actually went in to the shop that evening after work just to speak to [the manager] in person and kind of find out what's happening here,” Cockerill said.
After police contacted her in October, Cockerill didn't hear anything more until Enterprise sent her a bill last Monday for the replacement cost of the car.
"Sometimes customers mistakenly believe if they didn’t personally cause or witness any damage that they are not responsible," Maniscalco wrote.
"This is one of the most common misconceptions," he said "In fact, customers are financially responsible for any damage or theft that occurs during a rental transaction, regardless of fault or negligence — just as if they owned the rental vehicle themselves."
Cockerill's insurer said the car wasn't in her control, so it shouldn't be her problem.
Geez, Spitz[on]her vs. Enterprise — hard to pick a dog in that fight. Is there a way they can BOTH lose?
Exactly. Why let you specify what coverage you want when you reserve, if they’re only going to ignore your selection anyway and try and upsell you? I never had they try and talk me out of options I purchased ahead. They only seem to think the people who didn’t buy are the ones who don’t know what they want.
I have to say, though, I’ve got the upsell from companies other than Enterprise before though, so it’s not unique to them. I had one guy on a recent rental trying to upsell me to a better grade even. He asks me what I have at home and I tell him and he tries to put me in a truck for two or three times what I reserved the full size sedan for.
“....just as if they owned the rental vehicle themselves.”
But presumably if she owned the vehicle herself she’d have it insured. That’s what I don’t understand, why does it seem there is no insurance coverage in place covering the true owner of this vehicle.
And still thinking, do you mean if I’m driving a rental car and someone sticks a gun in my face (or not) and steals it, it’s like I myself stole it and now have to pay the rental company for it?
This is all crazy, if they need to sell insurance to the renters, let them do so, they already offer insurance. And some people who rent cars don’t own cars, so they have no auto policy in place.
it’s already insured.
That isn’t true.
After an accident isn’t the time to find out what is covered, and what isn’t. It depends on your policy, and what state you are in.
In some cases, your insurance may only cover you if your covered car is in a certified repair shop. In others, (most actually) they may only cover you for damages up to the value of your covered car, not the rental car. If you go cut-rate, I assure you that will be the case. I’ve seen it way to many times.
In addition, few insurance policies cover the loss of revenue to the rental company, they will come after you for that.
I pay for a specific rider on rental cars, since I travel so much, and that even has limits ($65,000 max value covered.)
“That doesn’t make sense because the renter would gain nothing.”
Yes, it does. They say “It wasn’t me!”, and then you have to go through all kinds of legal hassles and lawyer fees to recover anything.
see post 37
Depends on the state. I worked for a rental company (not Enterprise) and the renter’s insurance was primary. IOW liability reverted to the renter during the rental period and we informed the customer of that policy.
I confess that I am surprised at some of the comments here - the customer is responsible and that fact is stated as part of their selling instructions - and the it’s-not-my-fault attitude is really something I would expect from the left. I am not unsympathetic to this person by any means, btw. But I can tell you that no one who purchased our insurance ever regretted it when the car was damaged or totaled with no further cost to that customer. At my location we did not allow dropoffs after hours for the customers’ own protection but you would not believe the verbal abuse we endured because the customer could not be bothered to return to the airport fewer than ten miles away. Everyone says “I’ll take the risk” leaving it after hours, but you can be sure that if that risk resulted in a stolen car, they would be singing a different tune. Instead we were called inflexible when we were really doing the customer a favor. So if and when Enterprise changes their policy and does not allow after hours dropoff, people will start bitching about that next.
“don’t need a drone trying to scare you into additional nonsense that you already took care of making the reservation”
Until you face a situation like the one described in this article.
That’s New York.
They have a specific law requiring the car rental company to carry customer liability on every rental. (BIG money for the ambulance chasers. Also, NY is a vicarious liability state.
Because of this, many smaller franchises won’t allow their cars to be used in New York State.
If Enterprise was selling additional liability in NY, they were violating that law, I believe.
“if and when Enterprise changes their policy and does not allow after hours dropoff, people will start bitching about that next.”
Many companies do not allow it, especially at high-risk locations (Inner-city).
I looked at the Google Maps street view of that location. No obvious security cameras, though the front of the building has lots of glass - could be cameras inside facing the lot.
It'll be interesting to see where this car turns up.
The sign on the key drop-off box gives them a little cover but not much. If they're not going to be there at certain times and expect the customers to drop off the cars, then it's their responsibility to provide adequate security and the consequences should fall on them if they don't, not on her.
Exactly - that's why they want to "wrok" with her. If she takes them to court, she'll win on those grounds. Basically they are functionally terminating her contractual obligations with them by them setting up procedures whereby they take de facto repossession of the car. She is not responsible for their security procedures.
She should sue them, and end this crap. They don't want that to happen, because then they will have to spend a lot of money upgrading the security of their lots, and probably hiring more people to be there after hours.
Or the car is on a slow voyage to Dubai, the renter having scored a low 5-digit payday.
Yes, and that’s the irony - my location was inner city and we discontinued after hours dropoff precisely because of thefts, and yet people would complain about the inconvenience. Whether it’s upselling (just like a waitress suggesting cocktails & dessert or a kid asking to supersize your fries) or recovering damages, it’s still a business that is being run to make money.
Rental agents are taught to upsell and get pressured on their numbers just like any sales job, so I would hope that people understand that the next time they are at the counter and give that person a break. To be sure, some can be dicks but others are just working stiffs doing as they’re told and trying to keep positive. Customer service of any stripe can be very stressful.
It seems clear to me that they should REQUIRE people to buy insurance to cover theft, etc. Did your company require non-car owners to purchase ins through you?
What are their chances of getting $47K out of this woman? I don’t know her circumstances, but you’d be hard pressed to get it from me.
We’ve often returned cars after hours, although, as one who grew up in NYC in the bad old days, it’s always made me nervous.
Hertz does it.
They may be back again.
“They may be back again.”
Everyone is expecting it, except for the dopes who voted for DeBlasio. It would take a while for it to get as bad as it did in the 70s.
I was born in ‘58 and grew up on the east side of Manhattan. To me it was a beautiful world, until the late 60s, the church doors stood open during the day, rich and poor lived in the same area. I went to Public School with the children of millionaires and kids from the projects. Then, in seemed, they suddenly locked every door in NY. And it was downhill from there, but it still took about 20 years to hit rock bottom.
I will always say God bless Giuliani, he pulled that city back from the brink, and he did it pretty much single handedly.
I’m fearful though, When Obama got elected I said to hubby: now we’ll see how much damage one man can do in 4 years - but he’s been much worse than I ever thought.
We did not require them to do so, but we would inform them that they were fully responsible *regardless of fault*. I was not an aggressive seller, so if the customer snapped at me that I was “scamming them”, I would shrug and remind them that they were fully responsible. Regardless. Of. Fault.
Nine times out of ten, when I found damage doing a walk around inspection on return of the car, the customer would scream “I didn’t do it - it must have happened when it was parked somewhere. It’s not my fault. I’m not paying for that damage”. Mind, this was during operating hours - I never signed off on a contract but made the customer wait at the counter while I did the return inspection so no one ever got a “surprise” bill in the mail. And in some cases, perhaps the customer was right. But should the company eat that? No, that’s exactly what *regardless of fault* means. But people still expected the company to take the hit, even when the policy was clearly explained beforehand. (And for the record, I live in a blue state, hence my surprise at some of the anti-business comments here). Enterprise isn’t the renter’s mom lending her a car; it’s a business that exists to make money.
A common thing was to have a girl rent for her boyfriend who did not qualify. She would claim to be the only driver. Then he’d take off in the car (frequently with his new squeeze) and she’d report it “stolen” even though she gave him the keys and didn’t think she should be responsible for the damage he caused due to her foolishness and violation of the terms of rental. Should she be off the hook for that too? It’s a rhetorical question (and I’m making a broader point here) directed to FReepers at large here. Suffice it to say that if one of us owned a rental company with our own fleet paid for with own money, we’d probably feel very differently about the situation at hand.
I imagine Enterprise does not want to set a precedent by just rolling over because it will invite more thefts - the cost of which will ultimately be passed on to the customer, a point we should all keep in mind. I suspect they might want to work out a payment plan to minimize the publicity, but we are not being well served by having rental companies forgive customers of their responsibilities. My company was willing to work out payment plans, but if the customer let it go to collections, it would hurt their credit rating. Which, btw, is why people’s credit scores are checked now. The lost business from people who do not qualify has been proven to be less revenue lost than the savings in the reduction of uncollectibles.
I have rented a lot of cars-—this is in a small city environment, Pullman Wash., Bozeman Montana, etc.-—and over time I got so I rented virtually exclusively at Enterprise.
Decent cars, best prices, far and away the best personnel.
And those people put up with a lot of crap, from the cheapskate who wants to pay nothing for something to the rich guy who needs to abuse someone to make his own day.
I always understood that the car was my problem (I carried my own insurance) until they shook my hand and gave me my paid copy of the bill.
I also kept the cars reasonably neat and tipped the staff when I could-—and they treated me like gold.
p.s. My only gripe was getting a car with worn tires. After all, the renter has to pay for the tire when there’s a problem....
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