National Car Rental - You Won't Believe This UPDATE

[littlestar]

Hi All,

Thought you guys might find this interesting. We went to Hawaii back in APRIL and as usual used National and Alamo for our car rentals. Didn't have any problems we thought. We stayed the 1st full week on Maui. Returned our car at the airport. The attendent did the usual once over - walked around the car, popped the trunk, checked the gas gauge, wrote the mileage down. And printed our receipt. We were good to go. And we were on our way to Kauai for the weekend.

Well, we opened our mail Friday, August 5th, and we have a Damage claim from National Car saying we damaged that car. They've got a picture of a dent that wasn't there when we turned it in. Luckily, we still have our receipt from the attendant that checked us out. We're turning this over to our insurance company to handle. We also used a Platinum Disney Visa card to pay for the car, but there may not be any protection with that because Visa wants the claim turned in within 20 days. August 5th was the first we learned of any Damage claim.

The next time we rent a car we are taking pictures of it before and after. This is kind of spooky. Tiffany over on the transportation board has posted a similar experience with National, only she received her bogus claim from National a month after her trip, not four months later like us.

This makes Disney transportation or towncars even more attractive to me. I want a hassle free vacation. Our September trip to BWV is using Magical Express, thank goodness. Now if I decide to rent a car for a day I'm probably going to worry about it the whole time.

 

[sunkissed212]

wow - isn't there some kind of statute of limitations on the time period for which they can file a damage claim? I'd say that 4 months is a little extreme. I mean, how many people rented the car between then and now - any one of them could have damaged it (or even an employee!).

I'd fight that one tooth and nail. And, I'd make sure to have all of your checkout documentation so that you can prove that the car was "ok" when you dropped it off and the attendant signed off on that.
good luck!

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

What a hassle! Glad you have your documentation handy.

 

[DVCLady]

Delete

 

[Muushka]

Wow. That deserves an AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH.

Please let us know how this is resolved.

 

[seashoreCM]

Don't sign the papers accompanying the photograph saying you authorize the charge. If they charge you anyway, you may assume you have 20 days from the time you learn of the charge which is 20 days after you get the bill but you should dispute the charge with the credit card company as soon as possible and the reason is that you say the damage did not happen while you had the car.

If it took the rental company that long to tell you about the damage, either the credit card company should take off the charge upon notice from you, or start the 20 day clock that much later.

You did the right thing to turn it inot your insurance company, better yet add the notation that you are disputing that the accident happened.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

By the way, if you lose a dispute with a credit card company you can still sue the merchant who put on the charge.

 

[PlutoPony]

This type of thing has been posted a couple of times on the Board recently with National. Wonder what's going on with them - and are other rental companies trying the same thing?? Is the receipt they give you when the car is returned sufficient to refute the damages/charges? If this is a new "trend" would it be worth it to notify whoever oversees car rental concessions at airport authorities?

 

[littlestar]

Sorry transportation board. I posted this on the DVC member community board just to give a heads up to DVC members about what happened to us using National in Maui. And warn my fellow DVC members to save their receipts and be careful.

Looks like it got moved over here to the transportation board. Sorry about that, as I had already posted another thread here about it.

 

[Muushka]

I'm glad you posted it on the DVC board, I never visit the transportation board.
Hmmmm, maybe I need to do that occasionally!

 

[laurabelle]

Isn't this like the 3rd thread lately stating that National (and in response, other car rental co.) have done this??? This is crazy! I've only rented cars twice from them and have had no problems...so far. The last one I rented was in June, so maybe I'm not out of the woods yet! I don't think I saved my receipt either. Thanks for those who posted all of these reports...it's a real eye opener!

 

[RAD]

I've used National only twice, the second time they pulled the you damaged the car upon checkin, I put up a big stink and said no way and they backed down. I also forgot a pair of expensive sun glasses in the car that I didn't notice until I got home (I know I had them driving to the airport since it was sunny out but I took them off when I got in the garage). National said they didn't have any glasses turned in from the car. Needless to say National never again.

 

[littlestar]

Well, National decided to drop this claim. I talked to them twice and they said we had been with them for years and they weren't going to pursue it. Thank goodness.

From now on if we ever rent a car again, we WILL take pictures of it with the digital camera before we ever leave the airport. Just to scary to be blamed for something that somone else might do after you walk away.

 

[DebbieB]

Isn't this like the 3rd thread lately stating that National (and in response, other car rental co.) have done this??? This is crazy! I've only rented cars twice from them and have had no problems...so far. The last one I rented was in June, so maybe I'm not out of the woods yet! I don't think I saved my receipt either. Thanks for those who posted all of these reports...it's a real eye opener!

If you are an Emerald Club member, you can get copies of receipts by logging onto your account.

 

[Muushka]

Well, National decided to drop this claim. I talked to them twice and they said we had been with them for years and they weren't going to pursue it. Thank goodness.

From now on if we ever rent a car again, we WILL take pictures of it with the digital camera before we ever leave the airport. Just to scary to be blamed for something that somone else might do after you walk away.

Well that is good news. But it troubles me that it makes it sound like they are 'letting you get away with something' because you are a good customer-and not-oops, we made a mistake, you did nothing wrong.

Once again, thank you for posting this experience. We live...we learn.