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.
All you say is reasonable and would definitely work as a defense at any trial or adjudication...IF she is lucky enough to get before a Conservative judge. And that likelihood grows smaller by the day.
Assuming she actually dropped it off. Several posters have made the point she could have wrecked it or kept it and just returned the keys.
Then if something happens, they hit YOUR insurance.
Pretty easy law case. The company doesn’t provide a “secure” area for the car. Their problem.
This gives Enterprise a huge incentive to have poor security and let their returned vehicles get stolen from their lot. Could be an inside job.
That doesn’t make sense because the renter would gain nothing.
A lot of bad PR for a mere $47,000
She no longer had control of the car as soon as the keys were dropped off as per Enterprise’s drop off instructions. In addition her contract required the car be returned on Sunday. If Enterprise has no way to secure the car on that day, don’t ask the customer to return it on that day.
Enterprise can go suck an egg.
Someone said inside job...I tend to agree....
true, but it’d be unheard of for a car lot not to have some security... if even just a camera... to secure a lot with 10+ cars worth $25k+ each
That seems to be Enterprise's MO. I've never been in a transaction with them that "went bad", but even in just routine matters it seems like half of them are belligerent moronic azzholes. They get real huffy if you have the nerve to point out that their policies or procedures don't make any sense. Like the other poster, I try to avoid doing business with them if possible.
If they don’t have cameras and write contracts that require the car be returned on days they choose to have no one from their company present, it is entirely by their choice and entirely their fault.
I’d find it amazing if they don’t have cameras on their lot. They likely have a record of both the car being dropped off and the keys being inserted in the drop box as per their instructions. Otherwise they’d be saying the car was never returned - which they aren’t.
True. If everything is as reported, then I’m firmly on her side. A couple posters mentioned the possibility she’d tried to game the system and I just posted my 22 because I hadn’t stopped to consider the possibility.
It sounds more like she may have been in a hurry to return the car and didn’t think to really read the sign; only the secure box return of the key.
Until last year, I routinely would rent from Enterprise because of extensive business travel (even have a preferred customer card) until a car I rented from them last summer was damaged by a "phantom" car (hit & run)in a parking lot. When I returned the vehicle, the agent told me it was less than $500 damage, and since I had a $500 deductible on my auto insurance I just paid out of pocket. A month later, the legal department at Enterprise sent me a demand letter for $2,500 damage to the vehicle I rented from them. I turned over to my insurance company and have NOT rented a car from them since.
“If you return it to our insecure lot, we will stop charging you.
If you keep it an extra day to protect yourself, we will charge you extra.”
Sounds as if they are monetarily coercing the customer into a risky situation.
Did she buy the stop-loss insurance?
I find Enterprise to be a scumbag operation. After a long flight, the last thing I want to encounter is a sales guy trying to ram additional options on top of what I specified in my reservation while I am loading the car up with luggage. That never happened with any company I’ve rented from aside from Enterprise. It happened to me twice with them. I’ll never rent from them again for that simple reason.
Every other company seems to get the simple fact that people are frigging groggy after a flight and don’t need a drone trying to scare you into additional nonsense that you already took care of making the reservation :-)
I can’t believe they don’t have these cars insured for theft, etc. This can’t be the first time a rental car has been stolen.
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