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“Ultra-Picky on Damage”

Written on: 15/04/2012

Picked up a car at Heathrow - service was absolutely outstanding. Until I took it back.

They have a policy whereby if a dent or scratch is smaller than the size of a golf ball, you will not be charged. Car was covered in rain and damage was on passenger side door and completely invisible when I took the car.

Had the car for a few days, took it back and damage - smaller than the size of a golf ball (measured with their special card) was present. Might have happened when I had the car, probably didn't - I was on my own and never even looked at the passenger side. Lesson learned.

To cut a long story short, they were going to charge me £600 for this miniscule dent (!!!) which was reduced to £100 when they found I had taken out the extra insurance on check-in, despite comfortably being within their golf ball sized standard. Their rules went out of the window basically and I was left £100 worse off with no recourse - I had a flight to catch after all.

Companies like Hertz and Alamo will give you the benefit of the doubt in situations like this. Six years of regular car hire and this is the first time I've been charged for damage - which I shouldn't have been charged for anyway even if I was responsible for it, which I'm almost certain I was not.

First - and last - time I'll use Enterprise. Avoid, avoid, avoid.