“I asked the Alamo employee to inspect the car while I took pictures with my Blackberry (see image,

"I declined the insurance several times as I read through the rental agreement," he says. "The pressure to purchase the insurance by the counter clerk was unbelievable. I think he must have sold timeshares at one time."
"I asked the Alamo employee to inspect the car while I took pictures with my Blackberry (see image, above)," he said. "After he finished his inspection and said there was no damage I had him write on the receipt 'no damage' and had him initial the receipt."
Almost two weeks later, Balovich received vaguely worded letter from Alamo, saying he should file a claim with his insurance company or pay the damages with his credit card. But the letter did not describe the damage or the cost of the repair.
If you have not already done so, please contact your insurance company and/or credit card company to report this claim. Failure to report in a timely manner may void any coverage you may have. Once reported, please contact us to provide your claim information.
If you do not have insurance or wish to pay this claim yourself, we will send you a bill along with supporting documents. If you have any questions regarding your responsibility, please contact our office.
Door number 1, file a claim for an unknown amount and damages that we are not going to inform you of, OR Door number, 2 agree to pay the unknown amount yourself and WE WILL THEN send you a bill with supporting documents.
Derrick said the windshield on the driver's side of the vehicle was cracked and the estimate to fix it, not replace universal orlando hotels it, was $600. He told me I could file a claim with my insurance company or pay the $600 right then with a credit card.
I then found myself talking to Crystal who told me that I had opted not to take the insurance and I was responsible for any damages while the car was in my care. She offered to send me a copy of the damage report along with the estimate for the repairs.
Again, I repeated that I not only had pictures of the vehicle when it was returned but I also had a receipt universal orlando hotels initialed by an Alamo employee universal orlando hotels stating there were no damages to the vehicle when I returned it.
So that's how it ended. Alamo dropped universal orlando hotels the claim after he offered to show it pictures and a signed receipt. I really like the "just a chip" line, and have no trouble believing a claims person said it.
"First, when they discovered I had pictures and an initialed 'no damage' receipt, universal orlando hotels the cracked windshield became a chip," he says. "Second, before now I never even considered taking pictures of the windshield. After this incident, I m not only going to photograph the body of the car and front and rear license plates universal orlando hotels but also the windshield and all the windows."
But seriously, this one takes the cake. They re not even TRYING to hide that it s a scam anymore! Vague form letter that they clearly send out en masse, no dollar figure or description of the damage, just an in-your-face demand that their victim accept responsibility for something, with an ominous universal orlando hotels threat of voiding coverage if they don t capitulate.
And the best part is, when they got busted DOH! They just crumbled and blatantly ADMITTED it! Oh, yeah, well, it s just a [cough cough] chip, not even worth the $600 we were trying to squeeze out of you I guess we re caught, so we ll just stop trying to rip you off now is that OK with you?
I d consider reporting this to the police and attorney general this sounds like an insurance scam to me. They are hoping you ll give up your insurance/credit card info before sending any details, so they can file a claim and have it settled before universal orlando hotels you even have a chance to dispute it. I ll bet they get a high enough rate to make it worth it, even if they have to drop a few like this.
I wonder if the proper response to these damage claim is a strongly worded definitive letter, something like There was no damage to this car at the time of return, as confirmed and documented by your employee YYY and my personal photographs. Please close this file immediately and reply confirming such. If you dispute this finding, send all supporting documentation, which must include dated photographs from the time of return, within N days. Perhaps our resident lawyers can help wordsmith something better.
I ll be the first one to say that you own damage that occurred while the car was in you care. However, this case points out that there s no downside to the rental agency coming after a renter for questionable damage. All they have to do is say sorry and move on. This one needs a look by an AG office.
Sadly I rented this week and due to a screw up by the rental agency, I was pressed for time. I also was going to end up leaving the car in an after hours drop off so I paid the insurance eventhough I m covered by three separate universal orlando hotels policies universal orlando hotels for rental car damage.
It appears that someone should be speaking to Alamo about this. Does this location send out a form letter universal orlando hotels to all customers and hope they will pay out. I think some sharp-eyed investigative reporter could make quite a story out of this. I wonder if there was really universal orlando hotels was an estimate for repair as stated. Shawn, Derrick and Crystal have some explaining to do.
I d like to know who the 5 people are who, currently, have voted that the process is fair. Because if you think the above situation is fair, then you basically believe universal orlando hotels a company should be allowed to say and do whatever the hell they want to a customer and get away with it.
Other than the entire damage claim process by rental car companies is a total scam with overly inflated prices universal orlando hotels for repairs and added items that have no bearing on what it really costs to fix the issue, the thing that bothers me the most is it is always weeks after you return the car that the damages letter is sent to you. Even if the damage you cause is to the underside of the car and is not obvious at return, there is no reason the claim should not be sent to you within 48 hours if not sooner.
The rental car company universal orlando hotels claiming it takes time for them to determine universal orlando hotels who to send the bill to (not for this incident, but others have stated this) is total bull. They know exactly who had the car at any given time. I completely believe that what happens in many of these cases is the next renter or two do take out the insurance coverage but in order to not have to pay for the repairs themselves, the rental companies find the most previous renter who did not take out the insurance and blame the damage on him or her. If there is over 1 mile on the odometer more than when you returned the vehicle, the damage is not your responsibility because that means someone else drove it and therefore could have caused the damage.
One rental company I have rented universal orlando hotels from charges the renters for damage and then doesn t fix it and attempts to charge the next renter for the same damage universal orlando hotels it happened to me when I got the same car twice within a two month period and both times they wanted universal orlando hotels me to pay for the same damage! Luckily universal orlando hotels I had filled out the damage form and gotten it signed before leaving universal orlando hotels the lot each time. I have not rented from them since.
I think someone needs to take it a step further and sue Alamo and the other car rental agencies for making false claims of damage against renters (assuming that s legally possible, maybe it is under bad faith, I m not a lawyer so I don t know). Making clear to the car rental agencies that there are negative consequences for them if they keep jerking around customers other than those customers not renting again (which isn t much of a consequence since those customers usually do it on a one-time basis, not an ongoing basis) might help put a stop to their games.
1. Call Alamo and ask what the damages are. When they say, Cracked windshield tell them to send you the bill with documentation. (But be sure NOT to agree to pay, or make any admission universal orlando hotels that you own the damage.)
I am a conservative, keep the government off our backs sort of person, but I ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that a Federal law is needed to regulate this aspect of the car rental business. There need to be standard procedures, forms, and maybe even insurance policies, and an absolute prohibition against charging for any damage unless said damage is noted before the renter leaves the premises. There also needs to be a prohibition against universal orlando hotels charging the renter for anything beyond his control, like the clutch failure case Chris recently had. While such a law wouldn t help when renting outside the US, it would clean up the business universal orlando hotels here.
Since reading your column, Chris, I have been taking pictures of the vehicle before leaving the lot. When I was in Vegas last spring, there were so many dings and scratches, I actually asked for another car. I will now take more detailed pictures AND have the rep sign off that there is no damage (or that specific universal orlando hotels damage was already there). This is very timely for me. I have a funeral to go to next week and will be renting a car. Rental car problems would just make it a more difficult trip. Thank you.
I certainly take pictures of my car when renting, but honestly universal orlando hotels how much do they help. Here they clearly were not needed, the check in receipt with No Damage was FAR more important. universal orlando hotels I don t see why a car rental company would ever accept universal orlando hotels photos as evidence if it comes down to it.
A) Photos of the car with damage which you presumably took when checking the car out. Unless the rental agent happens to be in the photo (or perhaps the yellow copy of your rental agreement), wouldn t Alamo just say Nice Photos you must have taken these just after your accident
Just curious does anyone get into these kinds of problems with the real car rental companies? I use Avis (I m willing to pay a little more for a top-flight experience, quality cars, quick service, etc.) and I ve never ever had anything like this happen. The only time I ve had issues universal orlando hotels like this is with the Cheap Charlie folks, when I m trying to get a really low price. universal orlando hotels Alamo, Budget, Enterprise, etc. I ve pretty much given up on using them because the stress and frustrat