Enterprise Rent-a Car Unauthorized to take money from my account Pompano Beach Florida

First of all, the above poster, Sanje -- I don't even think YOU know what you're talking about. She paid with a debit card. Chargebacks are FAR different with debit cards versus actual credit cards. Please stop talking.

As for you, Cynthia, I think I can shed some real light on the situation for you. I think what probably happened here is that you gave one of our employees a debit card without the employee realizing or asking if it was debit or credit. Our system really messes up your checking/savings account if we charge it as a credit card. Now that being said, here comes the slightly confusing part: the Enterprise employee actually DID NOT "charge" you. What they did is perform what's called an "authorization". This is meant for us to know whether you have the available CREDIT balance necessary to rent our car, plus an additional $100 to $300 dollars. Debit cards do not have any available credit, they only have actual cash funds (the real money in your bank account versus the money you COULD spent on a credit card, aka your credit LIMIT).

When you try to do an authorization on a debit card, at least with our system, it's trying to pull from a credit line that doesn't exist, and instead messes with your balance. ONCE THE DEBIT CARD HAS BEEN RUN AS A CREDIT, it's totally blocked from our system for 24 hours, hence why the employee said s/he could not rent to you. Sorry, that part was actually out of his/her control. It also DOESN'T show up in our system, because we process it as an authorization, NOT a sale, but again... because it was a debit card and NOT a credit card, things went boom. Unfortunately, getting your money back is NOT as easy as calling up your bank or Enterprise and asking for a refund. Because the whole transaction is just plain messed up, it *USUALLY* takes anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months to get that money back. Getting the money back is actually a combination of Enterprise and your bank's fault, so don't hold us entirely responsible.

What we could have done wrong is not asked you probably if you were giving us a CREDIT or DEBIT card. Some people think that because at some retailers you can use your debit card as a credit card, that if someone asks you "credit or debit?", you automatically say "credit", even though it REALLY not a credit card. The question the employee really should have asked is "is this card LINKED directly to a CHECKING OR SAVINGS account?", in which case you *should* have answered "yes".

So for everyone at home keeping score, let this be a lesson to you: if someone asks you WHAT KIND OF CARD IT IS, you need to respond truthfully to the best of your knowledge. WHAT KIND OF CARD is different from WOULD YOU LIKE TO *USE IT* AS A DEBIT OR CREDIT. Therefore, since all of us internet readers were not present at the interaction between Cynthia and the Enterprise employee, we CAN NOT say one way or another who was in the right or wrong here. A few scenarios could have happened:

- The Enterprise employee did not explain the DEBIT/CREDIT situation correctly, in which case I am sorry for the trouble s/he caused you on their behalf
- Cynthia wanted to use her debit card as a credit card, not realizing the implications, which in itself can be an honest mistake, but in the case, the mistake that caused the problem.

Now as far as Enterprise charging you for the vehicle because All-State did not authorize the additional days, that really is something you need to take up with your insurance company, not us. For consumers at home, Enterprise DOES NOT take money from your account until you drop off the car at the end of the rental, UNLESS you have been delinquent on your payments for an extended period of time (varies by region, I know mine is ~1 week). Cynthia, if we took money from you, if was because you didn't return our property when you said you would! And as a policy owner, it's YOUR responsibility to know your insurance company's policy on length and restrictions for renting cars. We are not insurance agents, we DO NOT sell insurance [NO, WE REALLY DON'T!! We do sell protection products and waivers.. DO NOT CONFUSE THAT WITH "INSURANCE" PEOPLE!!!], and we CAN NOT interpret your insurance policy. We only do what the insurance companies tell us to bill to them, and then after that if you still have our car we give the opportunity to return it so you don't get billed personally if you don't want to. If you were billed without being in the branch, it was because of delinquency. What they told you is true! If All-State doesn't pay them, how are we supposed to get paid??? Let's be honest, we ARE a for-profit company! We don't give handouts. If you rented US your car, and we used it past we said and then didn't pay or bring it back, wouldn't YOU want to get that money?

Regardless, I hope everything worked out in the end, albeit if it were a few months until things got resolved, and if it truly was Enterprise's fault I hope you don't let one employee out of our near 100,000 employees ruin your experience with us for the rest of your life. I can guarantee you that if you went back in there tomorrow, we would at the very least give you the best rate you'd be able to find, as it is a company policy to match or beat our competitor's prices. I can't guarantee you'll have the best customer service, because I just don't work in that branch, but again, we will satisfy you on price! Now that you know how the whole credit/debit thing works too, you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever in that respect!

"and to make things worse my car was never delivered to my home." Why should it be delivered to your home? You should have gone to the repair shop to inspect your vehicle there and signed the proper paperwork. That way, if something wasn't repaired properly it would have been noted and could have been corrected. You also would have had a vehicle and not needed to rent one.

Secondly WHY in the world would you rent a car TO GET HOME? That makes no sense what so ever. If anything, you might have asked enterprise to drop you off or taken a taxi or called someone to give you a ride, BUT RENT A CAR? There's got to be more to this story. They did however use that as an excuse to get your bankcard number to run it. I suspect that once it got declined the "hold" placed by the rental company was still there which caused the negative balance on your account.

Two weeks ago, the wife got rearended by some stupid b***h talking on her cell phone. I took the car into the body shop. Enterprise picked me up at the body shop and took me to their shop to pick out a vehicle. The b***h's insurance company paid for the car rental. When they called me and told me the wife's car was ready, I drove over and inspected it and signed off on it. THEN I drove the rental over to enterprise and finished out their paperwork and had THEM drop me off at the body shop to pick up the wife's car and drove home. THAT'S the way it's suppose to work.

If it has been less than 120 days from the date they charged your card you can dispute this charge through your card issuing bank. Rental car companies are bad for getting Credit card information and charging supposed "damages" and "mileage charges" on consumers credit cards. The thing is, ALL the major credit card associations (Visa, MasterCard, Discover and AMEX) strictly forbid this practice unless the company informs you of the amount of the charge and gets your permission to charge it to your card. I deal with this first-hand every day as a chargeback representative for a major credit card processing company. While I am normally on the merchant's side in a chargeback situation, I am also obligated to inform merchants when they are violating operating regulations. And this one certainly is if they are charging your card, which was NOT given at the time of the rental contract. Contact your bank and file a chargeback. Tell them this is an unauthorized transaction and you want to dispute it. While they won't be responsible for your overdraft fees, the merchant will have to provide proof that they have your written authorization to charge those rental fees to your card. If they cannot, which would obviously be the case here... they must pay back those funds immediately!