Enterprise Rent-A-Car review: Rental agreement RID-6858 beware of Enterprise (also Alamo/National)

I was presented the vehicle – a red Duster Daschia license plate ZG 4076-EU - on a busy, a hot asphalt active street in front of the Rijeka Enterprise office under bright sun with temperature at 36 deg C. I was asked to inspect the car and take pictures of all the damages on the car. The existing damages on the vehicle were very extensive. It would have required at least 50 pictures to capture all the large and smaller scratches and larger dents. There were very long scratches on the right side of the car extending from above the front right wheel all the way to the back wheel, with a deep dent both on the door and also above the rear right wheel well. And under that type of bright sun, pictures do not capture scratches effectively.

The request to document every single scratch places an unfair burden and responsibility on the customer, particularly in those circumstances. I immediately asked if Enterprise could provide a less damaged vehicle of any size but was informed none were available. These damages, if viewed from front to back of the vehicle would easily explain the relatively mild scratch on the side view mirror which was not documented by Enterprise or me at pick up. Actually it is amazing how good the side view mirror looks given that the car clearly had a major "side swipe" accident along the entire right side of the car which has not yet been repaired.

I was the only driver and did not have any accidents or contact with any other vehicle or object. I have rented many cars in my life and luckily have never damaged any. I paid the 8 euro/day extra CDW coverage offered by Enterprise which was already covered by my credit card but declined the upsell pressure for bumper to bumper coverage which would have tripled the cost of the total rental. Over the years I have used Enterprise and have had normal/appropriate levels of damage inspection . Enterprise has a new focus on insurance upsell and damage transfer to the customer. So I would avoid these companies if at all possible.

Providing the customer with a vehicle in such a damaged state and not having a replacement when requested is already a problem. But adding the expectation and responsibility to the customer to photograph all the large and dozens of small damages in blistering heat and bright sun on a busy asphalt street is absurd, and absolutely unfair.

This is even more unfair when compared to the return inspection which was done in the shade of the garage by a woman with her ruler in one hand and iphone mag light on in the other. I have attached a photo in the sun of the large dents and scrapes along right side of the car and a second photo of the alleged damage captured during return inspection in the garage. They charged me 293 euros for that scratch and sadly they could have charged me for many of the other existing scrapes and scratches … but maybe they are saving those for future customers. Very sad display of customer service.

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