Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car UK,Enterprise, Enterprise UK, www.enterprise.co.uk Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car UK,Enterprise, Enterprise UK, www.enterprise.co.uk Dover Kent

A well-orchestrated SCAM from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Dover

As you can see from the email list, I have decided to reach out to quite a wide range of recipients, including Watchdog, Trading Standards, Citizens Advise, our local MP, several newspapers (both locally and nationally) and the CEO of Enterprise himself, because something really needs to be done about this obvious scam of the little people. I am really hoping that someone can help us because we really do not know what to do. We are a humble family and we just do not have the money to overlook this well coordinated attack which has left us feeling very let down by a service provider and team we trusted.

It is really quite unbelievable, the actions of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car team in Dover to deceive us into this rental agreement, details of which I have laid out below.

After researching online, I have found many thousands of complaints across many platforms some echoing the situation I find myself in. I believe that this many complaints must command deeper investigation from trading agencies, as clearly something is wrong. Some of the complaints are truly horrifying; one notable complaint detailed a man having £3500 withdrawn from his account…

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/enterprise.html (some are USA complaints but still representative of the brand)

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.enterprise.co.uk

Just by typing “Enterprise Rent-A-Car SCAM” into Google, you can easily see just how poorly thought of this company is. It is truly shocking.

On Saturday 2^nd July, I arrived at the Enterprise Office in Dover at around 10am. We (my partner and my son), went direct to the office and were handled by a staff member called Aaron, his employee ID is: E247QD.

I presented my documents and was asked the usual questions. I paid for the car, around £45 plus the £200 standard deposit. We were then taken to the forecourt and presented with our vehicle, which was a Nissan Note, the vehicle registration of the car is: KS63 YUH.

Although Aaron was very friendly, talking lots and engaging with us, this is actually where things started to get a little strange.

As anyone who has rented a car probably knows, prior to driving off the forecourt, you have the walk around, where you and the company representative walk around the car checking for damages. This is when my alarm bells started going.

Whilst walking around the front of the car and the driver side of the car, I noticed several scuffs and scratches. Every time I pointed them out, “Aaron” simply stated, “these all fall within damage parameters”… When I asked what that meant, he simply said, they have a tool to check any scratches or damage, if the size of the scratch falls within a certain size, its considered acceptable and non-chargeable. At this point Aaron also said, “Also, do not worry about damaging the alloys, we understand damage to alloys can occur”.

Very odd I thought.

Anyway, we continued looking at the front of the car, more scratches were not being noted on the document despite my pointing them out. Each time I attempted to walk to the back of the car, Aaron would point something out on the front of the car and get my attention.

Aaron then presented me with the contract and asked me to sign it. Not a single mark, scratch or scuff had been noted, Aaron said it was fine as they were all within acceptable parameters.

At this point my partner who had been attending to my son at the back of the car, stood and said, “Babe, there is some damage at the back too”, pointing to a part of the back of the car. Aaron again said, yes this has all been looked at and all is within acceptable guidelines.

So, although alarm bells were ringing, I had no reason to not trust this friendly guy and my service provider so I signed the contract and off we went.

The journey consisted of a direct drive to Nottingham from Dover. Parking in a private garden/drive (with no other cars) for the night, and a drive straight back the next morning (stopping off once for petrol).

The car was collected by a different Enterprise representative from our location in Folkestone, Kent. This is when things started to get really concerning.

As this new representative approached the car, she started saying, “Oh, there is something here”, but she had started saying this words and walking to the “something” whilst to the side of the car and then went DIRECT to the back of the car and pointed to some damage. My partner could barely believe what she is was seeing.

She actually laughed out loud. It was a pathetic attempt to be subtle and an obvious attempt to try and pin something on us.

My partner said, “You have to be kidding me, I clearly pointed this out before we took the car”. The representative said she will investigate and drove off in the car. Note, this was at around 11am on the Monday 4^th July.

Fast forward 24 hours. We have heard nothing from Enterprise, our deposit was not returned (usually returned instantly).

I called the Dover branch at around 9:30am on Tuesday 5^th July. The representative that answered the phone, took my details then placed me on hold.

After a few minutes he came back and said, “Sorry, we have found damage on the back of the car. The car has been sent to a garage to be fixed, the deposit has been held and we will be withdrawing £1000 from bank account right now”

WHAT???

Yes, you read that right… I am now £1200 down, for something that we clearly pointed out prior to taking the car, something we have no idea about, something there is no evidence off… I just do not get it. I was thinking, “this is absolute madness” and ofcourse was very angry.

I instantly went online, and found endless reports of people having false damages put on them and even reports from Enterprise staff saying that it was common practice to help boost figures for their department.

So from my point of view, the game was obvious:

1)      We were clearly given a car with damages

2)      We were clearly told those damages were not worthy of reporting

3)      We were told to sign a document with no damages detailed (because they were acceptable)

4)      The collecting representative made a feeble attempt to act surprised when she saw the damage in the first attempt to pin it on us

5)      The Dover team, held our deposit without any communication with us

6)      The Dover team put a car into a garage with a view to charge us an indefinite amount without any communication with us (no text, call, email)

7)      The Dover team placed the car in a garage without showing us or producing any evidence of this so called damage

8)      Enterprise charges us an additional £1000, for something we clearly had absolutely no part in

A very WELL ORCHASTRATED SCAM. A very clever series of well-practiced events that are clearly occurring companywide across the UK and internationally.

It is a disgrace and something needs to be done.

As an absolute minimum, I want the following from Enterprise:

1)      My deposit returned in full immediately (we have done absolutely nothing wrong)

2)      The £1000 charge reversed immediately (this is outright extortion)

3)      A written apology for this complete waste of time and stress you have caused us

I believe a full investigation of this company should occur. It is outright disgraceful that they can get away with this kind of scam and manipulation of trusting customers.

I hope someone can and will help us. The little people at the bottom are always getting screwed and it is just not fair.

Anthony

support@which.co.uk; watchdog@bbc.co.uk; pressoffice@tsi.org.uk; feedback@citizensadvice.org.uk; charlie@elphicke.com; rebecca.smith@KRNmedia.co.uk; phil.hayes@KRNmedia.co.uk; joe.kasper@KRNmedia.co.uk; jowen@thekmgroup.co.uk; dfarrant@mediaforce.co.uk; editorial@kosmedia.co.uk; info@dover.uk.com; lesley.finlay@KRNmedia.co.uk; antony.thrower@KRNmedia.co.uk; dean.kilpatrick@KRNmedia.co.uk; support@scambook.com; guardian.readers@theguardian.com; secretary@ombudsmanassociation.org