Behold The $3,000 "Complimentary" Car Rental Of Doom
Here's a phone call you don't want to get a month after you dropped off your complimentary rental car — "Hi, there... This is Enterprise, are you planning on returning that car?"
Our story begins when a Chicago Public School teacher brings her Subaru to the dealership to have some work done. An employee from said dealership then drops her at a nearby Enterprise Rent-A-Car with a coupon for a free rental, according to the Chicago Tribune.
When the work is finished on her car and she arrives to drop off the rental — Enterprise is closed. No problem, says the dealership, just leave the car here.
Hennessy said she drove the rental car into the service area, handed the keys to a Subaru employee, then drove home in her Legacy.
More than a month later, Enterprise called her and asked when she planned to return the rental.
Shocked, Hennessy said she had returned it to Subaru of Schaumburg May 23.
Enterprise finally found the car on July 2—at a tow lot in Rolling Meadows. The rental-car agency told her she owed it for the tow, 37 days of storage fees and more than a month of rental charges.
The grand total: $2,871.
You can probably guess how this story ends. She paid the money, then tried to get reimbursed by the dealership. That didn't work, so she called the Chicago Tribune. Enterprise has now mysteriously agreed to refund her money, and the Subaru dealer has agreed to pay for half of the costs.
"I am very happy about the money. I deserve the money. I did nothing wrong," the teacher said. "I'm grateful to Enterprise for apologizing and doing the right thing. I think that Subaru should do the right thing. I feel they should take responsibility."
Complimentary' 1-day car rental costs woman nearly $3,000 [Chicago Tribune]
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Comments:
Yeah, When I get a free rental from RedBox, and the RedBox at the supermarket is broken, I usually just hand the dvd to one of the baggers...
There is no way I would ever pay that bill in the first place.
As a former worker at a Subaru dealer, we would offer to take them to the Enterprise lot to drop off the car if they were closed, and would follow up the following morning. I guess it depends on the dealer as to how this whole situation is handled. I'm glad they did the right thing in the end, though. I'm sure that the service manager is trying to piece togeather what happened in this case. Sounds like the car went for a bit of a joy ride. Would be interesting to figure out the extra mileage on the car.
Instead of taking the rental car from her, Subaru should have just given her another coupon so she could return it herself the next day.
I can't help but think that if I sent this story to my local metro paper (Atlanta Journal Constitution) that absolutely nothing would happen. She's lucky the Tribune still seems to have some kind of pull these days.
Good on her though for being proactive and getting results.
Sounds a bit like the alleged U-Haul scams going on last year - U-Haul employees telling van renters to drop off the vehicle in a vacant lot rather than the U-Haul facility because the facility was closed...only to have the renter receive a shocking bill weeks or months later when U-Haul alleges the vehicle was stolen from the unsecured lot and the renter is responsible.
I want to know what happened to the car after she dropped it off with Subaru. It seems like a good chunk is missing between "I gave the keys to a Subaru employee" and "the car was finally found in a tow lot."
@zentex: She did try to return it to Enterprise but they were closed. The Subaru employee should not have offered to return it for her if they weren't going to do so.
Part of Enterprise's "We'll pick you up" deal includes that they'll often come to get the car from your home if you can't return it yourself. It's not nice to abuse this service, but if they have the staff available, they'll do it (note: Only done this once personally, but for a corporate account they did this for every single rental)
Name, rank, and phone number of the person who said leave it at the dealer- maybe even a cell phone picture of the person with the car or at least keys to the car...
@zentex: Um, I'm not sure about your use of sarcasm. Are you a moron or just bad at sarcasm? Either way, you shouldn't try again.
Almost all decent dealerships have agreements with rental companies. I was a service writer at two dealerships. We would either shuttle the customer to the rental facility or a rental rep would come pick them up. Either way, the customer was allowed to return the car to the dealership. The rental agency then sent someone to pick up the car. Both dealerships used Enterprise. There is nothing abnormal about what she did.
@Segador: My guess is that it sat there for a few days before the dealer had it towed off their lot because they didn't think it belonged to anybody.
The guy that took the car from her probably dropped the keys in someone's inbox where it got covered up and forgotten
A likely scenario is that the service writer called Enterprise to pick it up and they forgot to get it. Sometimes, we would put the keys in the car and park it outside after calling. Someone trolling the lot that night could easily have peeked in and found a free car.
To all those who are blaming the OP: you're doing so out of TOTAL IGNORANCE of how the world works. If you'd get out of your parents' basement for just a moment, maybe you'd understand that this is how the system works. I had a rental while my car was in the bodyshop; Hertz brought the rental to my home. When my car was ready, Hertz said just to leave the rental at the body shop and Hertz would pick it up. That's just how business is done. Those of you who lead extremely sheltered lives would do well to clam up and lurk on subjects on which you have no experience.
Good for her for getting the media involved. It was absolutely not her problem, and definitely not her responsibility to call them and make sure they had received the car!
@econobiker: Nice thought, it means very little. The rental agreement was presumably in her name, not the Subaru dealership's. Ultimately, it is her responsibility. I don't think she is really at fault here, but in the end, having a picture of a dealership employee with the keys doesn't override her rental agreement.
@plyhard13: i didn't realize christian bale was on the consumerist. I like the new Batman movies, really liked The Prestige
This happened to me with U-haul after a month from the drop off. I went back to the U-haul I dropped it off and the truck was sitting in their parking lot where I left it so I took pictures with the camera on my phone and emailed them to U-haul and they finally stopped harassing me for their truck.
This is not the teacher's fault-- the suburu employee assumed responsibility, period. I'd make the assumption they have some deal w/Enterprise as well. In fact, when I've done the dealer/free lease thing I've left cars w/the dealer that belong to Enterprise as well.
Some flunkee screwed the pooch.
@Fresh-Fest-1986: Oh come now, nothing?? They have that regular "vote for your favorite comic" poll, you can get them to stop printing "Luann" or "Mutts" if you can just get the grassroots campaign behind you! Thats got to count for something.. right?
@JGKojak: I agree. The way some people on this board talk you would think that they write down the name, DOB, SS# and favorite color of every person they've ever had a transaction with.
"Wash your window for a buck?"
"I'M GOING TO NEED A RECEIPT AND PROOF OF PURCHASE"
MSN Live Map: [tinyurl.com]
Subaru of Schaumburg is located at:
911 W Higgins Rd, Schaumburg, IL‎
(black roofed building, 2nd entrance west of Jones)
Enterprise s located 4 buildings down at:
809 W Higgins Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60195
(corner of Higgins/Jones)
It looks like a suburban office/industrial plaza with no obvious tow away zone. It possible she parked in the lot next door, there is no clear distinction.
This reminded me to call the newspaper and make sure the charge they told me they removed, was in fact removed. I did the same thing with the uHaul I rented a few weeks ago. Never hurts to double check.
bring someone with you to drive your car when you take the rental back. seems simple enough. most rental places have a box where you drop the keys in and leave the car if they're closed, iirc.
subaru should have refunded her the whole amount if they told her they would take the car back for her. but if my name is on something like that, i'm making sure it's taken back properly.
@CyrusOpeth: Of course that's how it should work - but wouldn't you want to call Enterprise in the morning and make sure the car was returned? You cannot rely on anyone for anything anymore, period. If your livelihood is on the line, just follow up.
@plyhard13: When I had work done on my Cobalt around this time last year, the dealership contacted Enterprise on my behalf and within 20 minutes (the office was in the next town over) there was an agent in the parking lot with an '04 Focus that smelled like complete ass.
The car served its purpose and when my car was finally ready I was able to leave the vehicle at the dealership without the need to turn it into the local Enterprise branch. The consumer in this case did nothing wrong, and honestly Enterprise should be embarrassed it took them so long to locate the vehicle.
Normally every Enterprise I've ever used has a key drop. If you return the car after closing, you park the car, lock it up, and toss the key in the key-drop. I've never returned a rental to the dealership.
Well, that settles it. I'm emailing this article to my local municipal representative - who believes that Suburus never need fixing.
I had something similar happen with National Car Rental in September, but it was even more ridiculous. Short version of the story:
I rent a car in Philadelphia so I can work in southern New Jersey. A week later, the rental car won't start, so I call National. They (eventually) send a tow truck to take the car to a GM dealership (because apparently that's National's preferred garage). I rent a care from a nearby Enterprise for the rest of trip.
The next week, National tells my job that I didn't return the car they had towed. My job ends up calling random GM dealerships in New Jersey until they find the car, calls the rental office I picked up the car at, and tells the manager where it is. The manager apparently doesn't share this info with her supervisor, so National Car Rental starts calling me directly... for a month, until my job finally convinces them they know where the car is.
I'm now semi-legendary at work as "the guy who lost a rental car." Which is funny now, but a I spent a couple weeks wondering if I could get fired for running up my expense account with a month's worth of rental charges. And National is still my employer's preferred rental car company.
@JGKojak: I am also thinking that the dealership guy may have used the car for themselves and then ditched it.
Doesn't surprise me that they'd have bad customer service at that dealer. I went there to look at a WRX a few years ago, and could not find a salesman willing to help me for a good 20 minutes. I figured they weren't interested in my money and went elsewhere.
Why would she pay to have it out of the lot? I would not have paid and would have fought hard on that one.
That tow lot sucks too, had my car pulled out of there a couple times.
The kid probably took it and forgot about it, manager sees a car sitting there and has it towed. Not her fault at all, even if she left it at the wrong business, they are partnered in some way and she was told it would be ok.
@zentex:
The dealership I use has an agreement with Enterprise. When returning the rental car you are supposed to leave it with the dealership. They arrange for Enterprise to come get it there.
@MrPibbistheGreatestSodaEver: I don't understand what the confusion is, she was told explicitly by the dealership to leave it at the dealership. The dealership, not the consumer, is at fault here.
@IT-Chick:
Nevermind... reading the whole story I see they just charged her for it, she didn't authorize it.
This is why I'm glad I have a MINI. Take my MINI in for service, get a MINI off the lot. Return the loaner, get mine back. Simple, no third party, no worries.
My dealership has an Enterprise within a block. Exact same scenario has happened when the dealership pays for a loaner from Enterprise.
It bothered me to simply park the car in the dealer lot and hand in the rental keys when picking up my vehicle. What if one of the porters 'borrowed" the rental before returning it to Enterprise? What if another customer hit the car while it sat in the lot? So I asked the cashier to write on the paperwork "rental vehicle and keys returned". The receipt was time and date stamped.
This was a Friday afternoon. Enterprise tried to bill me for a weekend rental, because the car dealership didn't notify Enterprise to get the car till Monday.
I had paperwork to document everything and all charges were removed.
if you read the article it says the dealership and the rental place are next to each other
That didn't work, so she called the Chicago Tribune.
See how well that works when newspapers all go out of business. People don't recognize the watchdog function newspapers pay, both for a democracy, and in stopping abuse and corruption.
@MrsLopsided: i used to go to high school right across the street from those places. there's really no place around there to park that isn't private or municipal property (the police station and post office are in that area, and right next door is a land rover dealership), so it would have to have been in subaru's lot. there used to be a small shopping center a little ways up, but it would make no sense to put the car there.
the other thing to note is that specific subaru dealership has a reputation for being pretty shady. they're really only interested in sales, not service, and have hardly ever been accused of giving someone a good deal. a friend of mine went in a few months ago to buy a legacy and they were adamant about charging him sticker price for it. he walked out and went to a different dealership, who gave him a pretty good deal. i could easily see them dropping the ball on this one.
I did nothing wrong...I feel they should take responsibility
She didn't return it to the proper place OR Business, of course it NOT her problem
/sarcasm