Come on... next thing you know, someone will be claiming that a colony of killer bees infested a fifth wheel.

Oh wait...

I rented a car from Hertz in Hawaii and had an ant infestation as well. However, I demanded a refund on the spot.

Do you think they fixed the problem or just passed it on to the next renter? :)

did they take photographs of the alleged "few ants" which allegedly "crawled on the dashboard" and the alleged "large ant colony" which allegedly crawled "out of the inside of the car door"?

and for that matter, is there any evidence other than the poster's own testimony that those ants didn't get inside the car as a result of his or his passenger's own actions (or inactions)?

What makes this exclusively the car rental company's fault? if anything, the poster saw the ants and failed to get the car cleaned, thus potentially subjecting the next renter to the problem. :(

just askin'/sayin

@MadameX: Thats what I was thinking...

@ptrix:

i honestly dont see how anyone could induce a large amount of ants into a car accidentally

I don't necessarily think that Enterprise is negligent here..even if the car were cleaned, that doesn't mean they would have found the ants...it's just one of those weird things. But if I were Enterprise, I'd want to keep the customer and would happily refund the rental charge.

I think he should be glad that Enterprise isn't trying to bill him for having the car cleaned or fumigated or whatever they did or say they're doing to get rid of the ants. It wouldn't shock me one bit to hear that they're blaming him.

I'm thinking this ant infestation epidemic is sweeping across the US. Just yesterday at the car dealership where I work (in the south east) we had to set off a bug-bomb inside a GMC Envoy to get rid of the ants.

Granted, the car was a total disaster inside and the carpet looked like it had super glue spilled all over it and then rubbed together to create that authentic matted look. I'm just wondering how you can let your vehicle get so bad that ant's take up residence.

I think the real issue here is that the ants rented the car first, and Enterprise just double-booked it.

Refund? Bah! I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

Here in Hawaii, the problem in rental cars is usually cockroaches. In my experience, Thrifty has been the worst. Not fun.

Aloha, [beatofhawaii.com]

@ptrix: if the rental-car company did not adequately clean the car out first (and believe me, they don't always), the previous renters' slovenliness might have led to the ants.

I once rented a "smoke-free" car from Enterprise and it was abundantly clear that some idiot had smoked in it, but the car had been cleaned to try and get the smell out (which is nigh impossible). I didn't have any breathing problems from it, but when I mentioned the issue to Enterprise, they gave me a free upgrade for next time and a profuse apology. Hope OP gets a better result out of Corporate.

@MadameX: beat me to it.

@n0ia: I parked my ride on mower for a week in a place I don't usually. When I started it up again, after ten minutes, all of these ants strarted streaming out of the engine compartement. A lot had eggs/pupae with them. I think I read that ants are attracted to batteries/power. There has been a big problem w/fire ants swarming traffic light control boxes and telco boxes in the south.

I used to work for Radio Shack Service. We got a lot of door alarms (photo beam things that trip when you break the beam. Used a lot for a BEEEP when someone walks into a store) returned to us, and they always were infested with bugs.

I always thought they were attracted to the warmth of the transformer.

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: I've heard this also. I once had some ant visitors move in to a Marshall Plexi I used to have. Almost ruined one of the best. guitar. amps. evar.

@n0ia: that was my thought. I can't imagine the inside of a car is a habitable place for ants. Then again, whether it was an actual colony, or just a hundred ants that hitched a ride (maybe parked next to an ant hill and the ants were going after some food left in the car), it doesn't matter, the end result is the same, you have ants in your car.

I would file a BBB claim, assuming you actually have proof that they promised a refund.

@beatofhawaii.com: Yes - that happened to a friend of mine. Cockroaches streaming out instead of ants. I'll take ants, any day.

@ptrix: At first I thought your post was in jest... After reading the whole thing, I realized you're just a nut. Quit blaming the OP.

Chargeback FTW.

THEM! THEEEEM! THEEEEEM!!!

I blame the original OP for 1) not booking the car from a local mom and pop company and 2) failing to bring along adequate insect repellent on a trip.

Also, I think Enterprise is missing an opportunity here. Everyone loves ant farms... and rental cars.... Just put clear plexiglass on the doors and interior and charge extra for the experience.

Jeesh! Do I have to think of everything!

Just joking on that OP thing... lighten up folks!!! :-)

@badhatharry: I'm still LOL'ing, wow.

He reacted pretty calmly to the whole situation. I would've most likely freaked out and driven off the road...

I've been lucky most of the times I've rented. One time my dad rented a minivan and they did not clean it out before they gave it too us, it had half eaten peanuts and peanut shells in the cup holders.

If that shit happened to me I would probably need to get some therapy, I hate ants they totally freak me out. But then again if I saw ants walking across the dashboard I would probably get in a accident and total the car.

To Carey: too often, Consumerist posters make the chargeback sound like a piece of cake. I don't know if it is with Amex, but with a US Bank Visa, as I recently learned, you need written proof of the inadequacy of any service or you'll get rebilled. What's more, those @sses at US Bank closed my chargeback case and rebilled me because *the merchant* didn't send in paperwork documenting their side of the story within the time limit. But then I complained, the merchant happened to finally come through *late* and then they said I needed written proof. To the OP: I hope you have a better experience if you file a chargeback. It might be useful to tape record them promising you a refund if you can get them to say it again and record it legally where you are / where you're calling.

Ah, so that's where I lost my bag of sugar. Sweet delicious sugar.

@agency: Yeah, chargebacks are the panacea people make it out to be. Worst Buy scammed me a couple years back and I lost the case with Citibank even though I had proof. It is a useful tool, but it is far from guaranteed...

I meant aren't...

Also,

There is NO chargeback code for this type of situation. The OP needs something in WRITING from the merchant stating that credit for $XXX.XX is to be issued (a credit slip). Without this, it is a service issue. The customer paid for 2 days rental, and received 2 days rental. Oh, and also VISA does not accept voice recordings. Save that for small claims court.

@Applekid: Hey, where'd you get the sugar for that tea?

I rented from enterprise once before. Never again. I got a car with 1/8 a tank of gas, dirty dirty windows, and stank of stale cigarette smoke. They refused to give me a new car and refused a credit or the like.

Enterprise is a crumby operation.

Complaints like this one need to occur while renting the vehicle, not after the fact. IF returning the car was not an option, then the OP really needed to be more aggressive when the problem occurred. Photos these days are so easy to acquire and would do a lot more to bolster the claim.

Boy, do I hate it when a bunch of aunts smuggle themselves in our road trip. HATE!

I had some ants take up residence in my car when I started parking under a certain tree at school. My car wasn't full of food wrappers, so I never figured out why they invaded. I just stopped parking under that tree. That would certainly suck to find in your rental car though.

I had a colony of ants move into my S2000 one hot weekend. On the drive to work, I saw pretty much what the TFA said - a few on the dash, then they started swarming out of the center console, pupa at hand. Odd thing was they stayed on the center console and left me alone and I had an uneventful remaining drive to work with thousands of new friends.

Temps were forcasted to be well over 100F that day, so I parked on the top of the parking structure, in direct sunlight. When lunchtime came, there was not a single ant to be found in the car.

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy:

They are attracted to the heat, more especially so in the winter months. They also like things such as leaf piles and wood objects. Have to say something for ants, they know how to make themselves at home, and do it quickly too.

I'd like to thank all the posters above who finally voiced the true successes of disputes and chargebacks - difficult to win at best with most of the scenarios presented here in consumerist.

I processed Visa check card disputes and chargebacks for a large bank for several years. The only realistic chargeback for the above situation would be credit not received - however, only if the cardholder (OP) has physical proof of a credit, like a credit slip. Just getting a promise from someone over the phone never works, because it would eventually come down to Visa arbitration having to decide who is telling the truth, and they will never make a decision like that. Sometimes a bank will try a defective or wrong service dispute for something like this, but, again, it comes down to undeniable proof the merchant was at fault - an ant infestation could never be traced back undeniably to one party or the other.

What many people that have won disputes don't realize is more often than not, the disputes consumers file are invalid (as far as the regs and rules for the card they used, not the validity of the claim), but are often paid by the bank and taken as a loss to satisfy the customer. The majority of fraud (lost/stolen/unauthorized) disputes filed fall into this category, because a chargeback cannot be initiated unless there is proof of merchant error.

For the OP, I would encourage him to work the EECB angle the best he can. A chargeback in this case would probably result in continued frustration and lack of results.

I rented a car in San Diego, my daughter and I went shopping and she noticed some ants crawling on her pants leg. We thought it was the store, but then when we went back to the car, she opened the door and the doorframe was literally full of ants. We immediately took the car back to the rental agency and they gave us another car on the spot.

@ShadowFalls: This was about three weeks ago in the northeast US. I wish it was cool.

You guys are all wrong. Enterprise issued a Press release the other day:

July 31, 2008

ST. LOUIS - Enterprise Rent-A Car is improving the car rental experience while helping to save the environment. Enterprise is introducing a new program in selected markets across the United States that will provide our customers with some of the cleanest cars of all the rental fleet. Enterprise Rent-A-Car has contracted with top insectologists to create an artifical ant colony inside each of our rental vehicles. Harry Automan, Director of fleet management says "installing these ant colonies will accomplish several goals:
1) Create the cleanest cars among our competition - Anytime a customer drops a crumb of food, our highly trained ants will continuously scour the vehicle and pick up any crumb of food and carry it away.
2) Help the Environment - By having the vehicles cleaned by ants, we will no longer need to vacuume the vehicles after every customer, reducing electricity coinsumptiion and helping the environment.
3) Help cut costs for Enterprise - Enterprise estimates that deploying our ant fleet will allow each rental branch to reduce staff as we will not need to have a person to clean the interior of each vehicle.
4) Provide in car entertainment - What better way to pass the time then by watching a colony of ants match around your car and try to make obstacles in their marching path to see whether they will climb over the obstacle or walk around it."

Early feedback from our customers is positive with comments like: "The Kids LOVED it, they were smashing potatoe chips and sprinkling them on the floor of the car just to watch the ants clean up the crumbs" and "Watching the ants really helped pass the time while driving 7 hours through rural Montana, rather than focusing on the road, I could drive and watch the ants busily working"

Enterprise Rent-A-Car insectologists are working to create other features for our vehicles using insects. Current projects under development include:
1) Vehicle theft deterent using killer bees
2) Customer clothing cleaner using moths
3) In-car audio systems using cicadas

About Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Founded in 1957, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is headquartered in St. Louis and serves customers in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, and Germany. Enterprise is North America's largest car rental company in fleet size, number of locations, and annual revenue, ranking No. 18 on the Forbes Top 500 Private Companies in America. Enterprise has ranked highest in customer satisfaction among airport rentals in eight out of the past nine years, according to J.D. Power and Associates Rental Car Satisfaction Study. Enterprise is owned by the Taylor family, which acquired the National Car Rental (nationalcar.com) and Alamo Rent A Car (alamo.com) businesses in 2007. For more information about Enterprise, visit enterprise.com.

***DISCLAIMER, The above Press Release is NOT REAL, it is intended for entertainment purposes only. I Rachacha freely give up any and all ideas mentioned in this post to Enterprise, so if Enterprise likes these ideas, go for it, they are yours to develop.****

@badhatharry: Gold! You win.

@Rachacha: Yeah, but just wait until the ants unionize and demand higher wages and vacations. THAT will wipe the smirk off of Enterprise's face QUICK!

I didn't read this article. The photo oozes so much awesomeness that what's written can't possibly compete...

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

Seriously I've heard of cars with bugs in them, but this is over the top. How do you not notice this at all enterprise? It's not only simply foolish to let it slide, but dangerous. If I'm down the highway and I see a few dozen of these little creepy crawlers on me, I'm liable to panic and becoming a road hazard.

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy:

Yes I know, just pointing out they have this sort of behavior more often in winter months. Ants also like to choose places that do not absorb so much water either. Sometimes though, they choose random places without good reason or cause...

Enterprise is a really, really shady company. Had a car die, and the rental I got from them, the tire blew out on a deserted highway the next day. They made me pay for a replacement tire - my insurance company wouldn't cover it, it was below the deductible - but Enterprise had other incorrect charges I had to dispute.

In dealing with them, I discovered this fantastic website:
[www.failingenterprise.com] It was started by an angry customer, but many people inside Enterprise also participate and can probably help you. The "bleed green" stories are pretty sad.

They treat their employees as badly as their customers, it seems.

On behalf of Enterprise, I apologize for your situation and hope that the issue is resolved favorably. I am not high enough in the company to hold any influence, but I do understand your situation.

To clear a few things up:

Enterprise locations are run pretty much independantly. While corporate tries to police locations and remove managers who are money grubbing idiots, they can't always. As for the way they treat employees, I will only give you this...

My husband and I (both Enterprise employees) are going to the theater tomorrow with our co-workers. A few months ago, we went to the symophony. Last month was a baseball game. We are both very happy with the company. They treat us very well.