Enterprise Rent a Car Be aware of the rocker panel scam Berkeley California

In the morning of Oct. 2nd, I went to pick up my reserved car at Enterprise in downtown Berkeley. I bought a liability insurance but DECLINED the Damage Collision Waiver (CDW) sold by them because my credit card provides primary car rental insurance. After filling out documents, the male agent brought me to the car and asked me to check if there is any obvious scratches on the car while he was checking the gas inside of the car. I looked around and pointed out a few small scratches to him, but he said those are fine.

The next day, in the morning of Oct. 3^rd, when I returned the car, the female inspecting agent looked around the car carefully and she almost ended up not finding any damages. While the inspection was almost over, she suddenly bent down and said that the passenger’s side rocker panel, which is the car frame on the passenger's side undercarriage, was dented and said I need to pay for the damage. To be honest, I can’t tell if it’s called a dent or not since I have never paid attention to the undercarriage.

Because the dent is only on one side of the undercarriage, it’s not likely due to bumps on roads. I’m very confident that the car didn’t bump into anything during my drive. However, she claimed that since I can NOT prove that the dent was there before driving off, I’m responsible for the dent. (Lesson learned: Not only check the car but also undercarriage before driving off. Have better take pictures of the car since you don’t know if you will be blamed for anything that you may not have done while returning the car.)

I ended up compromising since I did NOT check the UNDERCARRIAGE of the car before driving off and my credit card insurance will cover it. When I went back to ask for photos and accident report for my insurance in the afternoon of same day, Oct. 3^rd, the male agent told me he can’t provide me these since it will be taken care by some other “professional” staffs.

However, after looking up online, I just realized it could be a scam since so many people are accused by the same issue repeatedly from Enterprise. The plausible scenario is that they know a normal person would not look for the undercarriage of the car, and they can pin it to someone who doesn’t buy their Damage Collision Waiver, so that they can save their cost of repairing without reporting to their insurance company. It’s hard for me to believe that these kind of tricks are used by a company like Enterprise. Will avoid renting a car from Enterprise in the future. If I really don’t have a choice, I will inspect the car very carefully and take photos before driving off. Don’t forget checking the undercarriage.