Enterprise rent A Car False Claim Of Damage Bridgeport Connecticut

  On Saturday, 1/4/14, I rented a car from Enterprise at 370 North Avenue, Bridgeport, CT at 10:48AM. It was 15 degrees, with a wind chill of 10 degrees, and had been colder earlier in the morning. The Enterprise office was very busy, and was crowded with several customers. According to at least two employees, the pipes had been frozen since the day before and the hose used to clean off the cars was not working. The employees were rushing to get the customers into their cars, and hurried inside as quickly as possible to escape the cold weather. When it was finally my turn to get my car, an employee took me out to the car, and did a very quick walk-around. She attempted, and failed, to remove some of the snow from the car with her partially gloved hand, and actually laughed at her futile attempt, because the snow was frozen solid all over the car. In addition, the car was covered with ice, dirt, salt, and sand, making it impossible to see the color of the vehicle, let alone see any kind of damage. I could see that she was very cold and uncomfortable, and she assured me that the car was fine. I could also see that all of the employees were very busy, and were trying to get people in and out as fast as possible. I signed the paper, never thinking that I would have any problems. The employee was appreciative that I was so understanding, and did not demand that the car be cleaned, and she was able to go back inside the office quickly and get out of the frigid weather. It had snowed several inches between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon ( I have print-outs of the weather reports if needed). I was told that the car had come in Friday evening and had not been washed because the hose was frozen. I don't believe that the Enterprise employee did any kind of a return inspection when the car was returned on Friday evening 1/3/14, as the car was still covered in snow, ice, sand, salt, and dirt when I rented it on Saturday, and it would have been impossible to see any damage. In addition, the car had not been vacuumed, as I discovered when I got the car home and opened the back door to put something in the back seat. The car's gas tank was on "empty," so I had to put gas in the tank in order to get the car home. I drove the car a total of 39 miles over the three day period, 11 of which were the drive back and forth to the Enterprise location. The car spent the majority of the time during the rental period in the driveway of my single family home in Trumbull. I did not cause any damage to the bumper of this car. I believe that the damage to the bumper was already there when I rented the car, but was not observed by Enterprise employees because the car was turned in on Friday, 1/3/14 covered with snow, ice, salt, and sand, and it was still covered with those items on Saturday, 1/4/14, when I rented the car, making it impossible to see any kind of damage. By the time I returned the car on Monday, 1/6/14, the temperature had risen to 53 degrees, and it had been pouring all day. Most of the snow, ice, salt, and sand had washed off the car, and you could now see that the car was blue. I returned the car to the same Enterprise location where I rented it on Saturday, and was helped again by the same employee. I was absolutely shocked when she came back into the office and told me that there was damage to the car's bumper, and that I would be charged $487.97 for the damage. She had the nerve to look me in the eye and tell me that the car was clean on Saturday, that she had done a complete and thorough walk-around of the car before I left on Saturday, and that the damage was my fault. I was completely flabbergasted by her blatant lie, and couldn't believe that she would be so dishonest, especially after I had been extremely understanding about the terrible condition the car was in when I picked it up on Saturday. During this whole incident, I spoke to several employees who told me that the hose was frozen, and that the cars were going out dirty because they could not be washed. In addition, when I spoke with the manager and explained the situation to him, he said that he would look into it and get back to me, saying that he would do what he could to help me resolve this problem. I even suggested that he view the security camera footage from that weekend, which would have given him an accurate view of the condition of the cars, and which would have shown that the condition of all of the cars were as I have explained here, including the one I rented. I do not know if he did that, but when I finally did speak with him on Friday, 1/10/14, he was dismissive, offering no explanation, no compassion for my situation, and telling me there was nothing he could do. It is clear that Enterprise employees were negligent in their duties over the weekend of January 3-4, 2014, and that they are trying to hold me responsible for their negligence. Instead of taking actions to clean the cars, they cut corners to get out of the cold. Instead of taking responsibility for her own negligence in failing to do an inspection when the car was returned by the previous renter on Friday, 1/3/14, and failing to do an inspection before I rented the car on Saturday, the employee decided to take the easy way out and place the blame on me. It is very easy to see that I was wrongly accused of damage to a rental car that was not properly inspected due to the extreme weather conditions, making it impossible to see anything on the exterior of the car. I should not have been charged for any damage that was there before I rented the car. Sincerely,