Posted on 01/08/2014 3:07:54 AM PST by rickmichaels
A Nova Scotia woman is relieved her fight with an international car rental company is over and she will not have to pay $47,000 for a Mustang convertible that was stolen from a rental lot.
Kristen Cockerill, who had been facing a $47,000 bill to replace the stolen car, said she got a call on Tuesday from Enterprise Rent-A-Car's general manager for Nova Scotia.
"They offered an apology for the experience I've gone through over the last week or so," Cockerill told CBC News.
"It's been extremely stressful, actually, just not knowing where things are going to go, the financial piece hanging over my family. It's been quite stressful. But I'm happy to see it come to an end."
Cockerill rented the car for two days in October. At the end of the two-day rental, she said she returned the car to the Enterprise rental lot on Portland Street in Dartmouth.
Cockerill 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.
The next day, Enterprise called Cockerill. The company had the keys, but no Mustang.
Police determined the vehicle was stolen and last week, Cockerill got a bill from Enterprise for $47,000 — the replacement value of the Mustang.
Cockerill's insurance company initially took the position that she wasn't responsible for the Mustang after she returned it to Enterprise, so it wasn't going to cover the cost of the theft.
She said she later heard from her insurance company that it's now negotiating with Enterprise.
"It is in the small print of the contract that I am responsible for the vehicle until they receive it," Cockerill said. "So the insurance is going to cover the cost of the vehicle."
In a statement to CBC News, Enterprise wrote: "We are now thoroughly examining our processes and looking for ways to better communicate with our customers. We want to acknowledge and thank you for bringing this matter to our attention so that we could properly address it."
So she really didn't win...just wait until she renews her car insurance and sees how much her premiums will jump.
I just want to THANK ALL of you for the amazing support you have shown to Kristen. The Insurance company has agreed to pay the claim for this incident. Please know, she never heard anything from Enterprise, ( they never "worked" with her ) and she is hoping that this story will let people know to be more aware of signing contracts and the small print at the back of contracts. And most of all that Enterprise would review and hopefully change its policies regarding "unsupervised" car drop offs.
So in the end Enterprise will get back their $47,000.00.
They can put that towards the roughly $4.7 million in advertising and P.R. costs that will be needed to restore their reputation after this incident.
My insurance company is planning to negotiate a fair price to pay Enterprise for the stolen mustang. I will not be penalized on my insurance. I am extremely relieved that the bill is looked after by my insurance. Sadly, Enterprise did nothing to try and resolve this issue. Ideally, I would still love to see Enterprise make changes to how they do business. I would hate to see this happen to the next unsuspecting customer. They told me they have the after-hours drop box available for the “convenience” of the customer. As I wrote in my Better Business Bureau complaint yesterday, this has been one of the most INconvenient experiences I have ever had. Convenience would be opening their doors on Sunday, extending their hours, having surveillance cameras, and making sure that customers are fully informed about the terms of their rental at the beginning of the lease...not when it’s too late.
So, Enterprise is NOT off the hook as far as I'm concerned.
Hmmm , I rented from them a couple times last year. The last time dropping the car off on a Sunday, keys in box.
Might rethink that the next time. Could rent at the 24/7 airport location, a pain though.
Question: Just about every car dealership has a key drop at their service department, so you can leave your car after hours for service. I do it all the time. Never thought about the liability aspect, if the car was damaged, or stolen, after I dropped it off. Anyone have any ideas?
It seems to me that Ent. received the car when she dropped it off and put the keys in the box.
“Anyone have any ideas?”
That would probably be on you, but presumably you have your car insured for theft.
Evidently (and there was a long thread on this the other day and I had a long discussion with another Freeper who worked for a car rental place, not Enterprise) when you RENT a car, you’re responsible for it until the rental company says: ok, we got it back.
To me it seems crazy this situation was even an issue, and I can’t believe it hasn’t happened before, many times.
Did they really think this woman just has 47K around to reimburse them for their car?
Next time I rent a car I’m going to be really explicit with the agent.
I bet the Enterprise reps are going to be sick of this very shortly.
I’m also not clear on how it works with people who don’t own cars (and have no car insurance policies) or people who maybe have cr*ppy old cars that aren’t insured for collision or theft. I mean, those have to be some of the people who rent cars, right?
I just don’t understand why Enterprise doesn’t/didn’t have it own coverage on its property.
However, in this case it wasn't even her car, it was owned by Enterprise, and it was stolen from their location. And $47,000 for a Mustang? If I remember this, I'll think twice about renting a car from Enterprise, and they should have been able to predict that this would turn into a PR disaster.
Translation: We are taking so much negative publicity that we'll eat the $47K and pretend that it's just a big misunderstanding and we are the good guys that will come and pick you up and take out your trash.
Please, please, please rent from us.
I have just examined Enterprise. That are lacking any need for my business. I didn’t know this could happen. Heck, it might be an Enterprise manager tipping off thugs about the lot for a little extra cash.
And this is how businesses go down the drain. They get into a pissing match and real prickly with people, then real public. Then some other company says they will give an extra insurance for a small fee, and people go there. Who won’t be mentioning this at sometime today while working?
It's surprising that every drop-off lot does not have one-way gates and full security camera coverage. They should have.
A $47,000 Mustang? Really? What was it a Vintage ‘69 Mach I?
Drop coil wire into the lock box along with the keys.
I quit renting from Enterprise years ago. They will scam you on anything they think they can get away with. Not a good company!
I think that once you park it, lock it, and deposit the keys, they HAVE received it. How can they not have at least video security of the lot?
@Yehuda: Smart move on the photo ... I'll start doing that if I rent OTA (other than airports).
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