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Wrecked a Rental!

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tony barnhill

tony barnhill

Great Pumpkin - R.I.P
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Raining here in North Carolina all day...loaned a friend my rental car at lunch, a Saturn Vue, which he promptly wrecked!! He rammed a fire hydrant into the passenger door (door is made of plastic & foam)....punched a huge gash all way through the door!

I took him with me to the Avis office & had him fill out all the paperwork - told him to have his credit card handy just in case...however, because I rent so many cars from them & our contract says any of us old retired colonels can drive one of the rental car (plus,its self insured through the Army), the desk person just handed me the keys to a Chevy Trailblazer & said "have a safe trip."

Painless! took less than an hour to do everything.
 
You're the only person I know that could get away with that.
Oh, yea... and Have a safe trip.
 
I lost the keys to an Avis rental once. Now normally that's not a problem but I was about 300 miles from the place where I rented the car so when I called their 800 number for help they said that because the keys are "coded" to protect from theft they can't just have a new set cut locally.

Thats when the guy on the phone started trying to tell me that I'd have to have the local dealership get involved and that I'd probably have to pay to have it done and eat the cost.

I let the guy finish and then said well that was unacceptable & told him "ok, well here's what your going to do". Told him that when I hang up - he's going to call the local Avis rental agency in town and arrage for them to come & pick up and give me a new rental. While he did that I called the rental office back home where I rented the car and told them what was going on. When I told him what was going on & offered to fedex the keys to the local rental office where I lost the keys. Thay said not to worry about it and that they'd take care of it for me.

When I returned I asked if I owed them anything extra after losing the keys and they said "no Mr Duff, it's all be taken care of" and "have a nice day".

OBTW Did I mention I rent a "lot" of cars from these guys?
 
bret, way ta go! while in sav. ga. i noticed a flat tire on my rental at my hotel i was in no mood to change it so i called the rental place and told them about it, their response was "well change the tire" so i told them the car didnt have a spare they came out and changed it for me, id earlier hidden the spare in my hotel room, when i returned the car and paid for it i told the person behind the desk that they had a great idea supplying their cars with two spares, ill never forget the look on that kids face. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
Was TDY at a major convention center if Flordia, had a govt rental. Hotal came to my door one morning and mentioned that there had been a accident in the parking lot. Car was totaled and this was a very large car. Seems some lady went crazy. Hotel had called the rental place and my new car was waiting with keys at the desk. Shucks, I never even saw it.
 
I saw a guy Auto-Xing a rented Miata once.....

He was NOT sympathetic /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
Got another one.

I rented a car yesterday from Enterprise when I took a car to a dealership for service. I didn't see it at the time I walked around the vehicle but there was a little stone chip at the base of the windshield that I didn't notice until I was a few miles down the road. Because it was so small and I was going to be returning the car in a couple of hours (4.5 actually) I didn't bother calling them.

But when I returned it they started making a big deal out of this little chip. Now locally I rent from enterprise almost as much as I do Avis, but this was a rental place I'd only used a couple of times in the past so they didn't know me from Adam. Now my company has a deal with American Express that covers our rentals but according to the agent if I'd of taken their ("overpriced") coverage it probably wouldn't have been a big deal and started asking me to fill out the paperwork and give statements because despite my pleadings - there was no record of this stone chip on record.

So by this time I was starting to get a little heated and refused to fill out anything. But when junior decided to get his manager involved because I (in his words) "wasn't being helpful" - we called his manager over.

To the manager's credit he was at the top of his game. Much sharper than the young pup who'd been giving me a hard time over such a trivial issue. Simply made a couple of key strokes on the computer & gave me my receipt. Then said - not to worry Mr. Duff, it's all taken care of and sent me on my marry way.
 
Bret said:
Got another one. I rented a car yesterday from Enterprise when I took a car to a dealership for service. I didn't see it at the time I walked around the vehicle but there was a little stone chip at the base of the windshield
Click to expand...

I had a similar incident when I rented a car in Vancouver,BC...only I noticed the small crack in the windshield and had it noted on the original paperwork.

Rental company tried to charge my credit card nearly $900 3 weeks later...and only backed down after I got VISA involved...but I still lost money on the transaction due to the exchange rate variances.

<sigh>
 
Oh....I do remember one now....

Rented a Mustang in Maui a few years ago (it had 96 miles on it)

Returned it w/ <300 miles & 2 bald tyres.....No problems

(Must have been that Hanna run /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif )
 
WhatsThatNoise said:
Oh....I do remember one now....

Rented a Mustang in Maui a few years ago (it had 96 miles on it)

Returned it w/ <300 miles & 2 bald tyres.....No problems

(Must have been that Hanna run /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif )
Click to expand...

Must have been one of the special Hurst Mustang Cobra rentals back in the'60's. eh?
 
"Wrecked a Rental" ... quite the reversal from "Rent a Wreck", don't ya think? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
 
This is how it felt in some places....

(The road is 30 miles long)

321750352_8292168f06_o.jpg
 
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gifI think I'd rather do that with a dirt bike!!
 
Reading this thread (and hearing other stories from friends and family) I think it'd end up being cheaper and easier to just buy a beater car at your destination, drive it as much as you want and in the manner you want, then sell it when you leave. Seriously-scan the small ads at the airport upon arrival, then stop at the nearest Carmax on the way home.

-William
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]I think it'd end up being cheaper and easier to just buy a beater car at your destination[/QUOTE]

Let's see, I had a rental car in KC the entire month of February, have one here for 3 weeks, just reserved one in Europe for 5 weeks this summer, will rent 2 more later in year (Aug & Sep)...plus, had rental cars for 13 weeks last year...& I always get full-size cars so there's room for my luggage & 1 or 2 guys who might want to ride with me....all were/are from Avis - I believe they'll get over a tiny fender bender!
 
When i was Showing Vw's years ago. I saw a Guy come in with a Rented Brand new VW Beetle and won frist place with a cart he didn't even own.
 
I was up in CT a couple of summers ago in a Grand Am that my company rented from Budget. I got run off the highway on I-84 near the Newtown exit by an 18-wheeler. It was very scary as it was happening, and I thought for sure that the guardrail would fail and I'd end up in the oncoming traffic. The guardrail did its job, and the car was totalled. I have a couple of pictures I took at the scene. The other driver was charged with causing the wreck, and didn't help his case by changing his story three times.

They took me to a hospital in Danbury because I hit my head on the driver's window and was hurting badly. Turned out it was more due to stress than injury.

Budget was pretty easy to deal with. I was able to get another car from the closest Budget office. I called their 1-800# and they asked a couple of questions and asked if I would fill out the paperwork in the rental contract package and turn it in when I returned the replacement car at LaGuardia. I did all that.

My company reimbursed me for the taxi rides from the hospital to the wrecker company to get my stuff out of the car, and then to the rental agency. They seemed kind of odd about the whole thing, though, and it turned out that I was the first person ever to have something like that happen to them. It's almost like they didn't quite know how to handle it. Their insurance called me a few more times to verify my story, and I submitted copies of the police report.

That was the second wreck I've ever had. I've not been at fault for any of them.
 
Well truth is in my line of work we call rentals "ATR's" All Terrain Rental.

Granted I don't go out of my way to beat up my rentals but I'm less careful when hitting thos speed bumps in parking lots. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
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