Enterprise Rent a Car Fraudulent Damage Claim Handling Panama City, Florida

I rented a car in Jan 2011 while visiting Florida on vacation. While it was in my posession, a small (1/2" dia) tree branch fell and dented the top of the driver's side rear quarter panel. It was a dent about 1.5 - 2" long and probably about 1/8" deep. There was no paint damage, and it was something that the Dent Wizard / Dent Doctor could easily fix for $100-200.

Being an honest person, I told the rental rep about the damage when I turned in the car so that they could start a report and fix it. I have a CC with rental protection, so I expected that it would be fairly easy to get fixed / resolved. I contacted the CC company and my insurance company and started the process on that end.

From the start, Enterprise would not send and of the paperwork required by the CC company - and their "customer care" people just kept giving me the run around. I chased them for 4 months trying to get them to send it, with no response (they kept blaming it on the local agent). In subsequent conversations with the CC / insurance companies, they suspected that no claim would come. 

Fast forward to yesterday - Feb 3, 2012. I get a letter from Enterprise demanding payment. The copy of the claim they sent shows that an estimate was done on 12/30/11 - more than 11 months after the car was returned. Furthermore, the "repairs" that they are trying to collect had nothing to do with the actual damage. They are trying to collect for a replaced bumper cover on the rear of the car - 3 feet away from where the actual damage occurred.

I called their damage recovery number (the ones that had been giving me the run around) and told them that they are making an incorrect claim. The person I spoke with transferred me to my "claim rep" who was conveniently on vacation. I called back and talked to another rep (who was no more helpful than the first) and told them I wasn't paying anything until they straighten it out.

Because Enterprise waited over a year to send me anything, the CC is now saying they won't cover their portion, even though they agree that I made an effort to get the info they needed. Turns out they never did any work to follow up with Enterprise, and I'm expecting that Enterprise probably never tried to contact them either....

This all seems just too convenient, that they "process" the claim and send notification just after the co-insurance claim period expires (1 year). I'm going to send the info I received yesterday to the CC company and my insurance company, so we'll see what happens. I can guarantee that I will never rent from Enterprise again, and I will fight this. I'm also going to look into other remedies, such as the BBB, State Attorney General(s). They also may have an insurance / mail fraud charge coming their way.

Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to pay for the damages that actually happened (if they were ever actually repaired), but I will never pay for something I didn't do. Looking at other reports on this website, I'm not the only one they have pulled false / inaccurate claims on.