On my next credit card bill I noticed a $125 charge from Dollar, 19 days after the car was returned.

At the car rental desk I was pressured to take the optional insurance, but I told them I had checked with my insurance agent and that I was covered. After 10 minutes of saying no she insisted on making a copy of my credit card. I let her and went on my way.
On my next credit card bill I noticed a $125 charge from Dollar, 19 days after the car was returned. I complained to Visa, and a month later I received a letter from Visa saying that Dollar claimed the car needed excessive cleaning due to pet hair, smoke and dirt). We don t smoke and we don t have a pet. Dollar refuses to remove the fee. Can you help? Joe Galindo , Anoka, Minn.
Answer : Dollar should have notified you of any cleaning charges when you returned the car, not as a surprise on your credit card bill almost three weeks later. Even if Dollar suspected that you d smoked a pipe next to your Great Pyrenees after a long day of hiking in the desert, it should have notified you promptly of the cleaning fee and offered evidence of your allegedly messy ways.
What kind of evidence? Well, photos would be a good start. A signed incident report, documenting the condition luxury london hotels of the vehicle might work, too. You didn t get any such proof, and neither did your credit card.
But in disputing this charge, you took a shortcut, moving straight to a credit-card dispute instead luxury london hotels of contacting the car rental company directly. I might have started with a brief, polite email to Dollar sent through its website, luxury london hotels and if necessary, an appeal to a manager at the local or national level.
A credit card dispute removes an entire level of appeal. Think of it as taking your small-claims case directly to a higher court. And speaking of court, your only real recourse after losing a credit-card dispute is to take your case to court. That probably wasn t practical, given the amount of your claim.
How can anyone with an ounce of sense even vote no on this one? If the charge is bogus, that means they are unjustly enriching themselves. I guess, at this time, the two no votes must work as TSA screeners and feel theft is perfectly fine.
I refuse to rent from any company that tries to ram their insurance down my throat. Have walked away from both a Thrifty and Enterprise counter before and never rented luxury london hotels from either company again. luxury london hotels Avis doesn t hard sell this (at least they haven t to me yet!) and I have no problem paying a little more if I have to in order to avoid the ridiculous hard sell.
I had the same thing happen to me with Avis. It turns out it was an employee who took the car for a bit of a joyride after my return and then tried to update the return mileage and in doing so ended up charging me a refueling charge. (I found out when I received an updated receipt the next AM by email.) When I called the location, the manager of the location luxury london hotels was a bit aggressive and surprised that I happened to call at that moment as she informed me of the cleaning charge luxury london hotels that she was preparing. After a brief discussion, she realized that I returned the car the previous evening and saw the initial check-in with the correct mileage and fuel level. She apologized and reversed everything. luxury london hotels (Even indicated one of the people involved on one of the check in s was a heavy smoker.) Were they trying to unjustly profit by charging a bogus fee? Nope, they made a mistake and corrected it. (Without getting my credit card company involved BTW.) I ve since gotten to know the manager a bit better and am confident she runs the operation ethically.
Also had a problem with Budget putting a claim in on my insurance for a damaged vehicle. They were surprised I had no recollection of the supposed incident! They sent me a police luxury london hotels report and the date of the incident was outside of my rental period. Same thing, they apologized and the mistake was cleared up. The had contacted my insurance company and then later contacted them back to make sure the claim was removed. (My insurance company had heard from me several times before luxury london hotels it was proven a mistake and, was no where near paying without a thorough luxury london hotels investigation per my request.)
I went through a similar bogus claim with Hertz Zurich a few years ago. I had taken their full comprehensive insurance on the Fiesta like I always do when I rent at Hertz but that time there was still a substantial franchise (SF 500) with it and they charged my Visa CC for its full amount a couple weeks after I had returned the car at Kloten where it was inspected and no remaks made about its status.
I can t answer since I really luxury london hotels do not know the answer. We can probably say that certain charges are bogus but I do not think that the question posed is answerable. I usually rent from Dollar and I personally have never had an issue with them.
I hope your kidding. It happened to you twice and you think they made a mistake. I don t buy it. If the rental car companies are going to make a claim for damage they should do it right on the spot. Once a receipt is given that should end any chance of them putting in a damage claim. If you can avoid renting a car do so at all cost.
The only way to stop this is for both parties to do a walk through of the vehicle and annotate any damage prior to driving off the lot and then again when the car is returned. Any damage should be noted at that time. If the rental company misses it, tough.
If the charge is a mistake , then it isn t bogus now is it? It is a mistake. A bogus charge is one where they charge you for something you didn t do and provide no proof of it. It sounds like in your example (the one where the employee tried changing luxury london hotels documentation), that was a mistake caused by a dishonest employee. However, in the OP case, being charged for a smoke odor when the person is not a smoker, and not backing down until a consumer advocate gets involved, that is a bogus charge they got called on.
Years ago we rented a car and had a flat tire. We called the company (were not that far away from the lot) and they sent a repair truck. No problem. When we brought the car back there was a large charge on the bill for the flat tire fixing. We protested it and although it took a long time, finally got a rebate. Long ago.
I have always rented from the top 3 rental car companies and have never had a issue with them. Sounds like a bogus claim and I would make them prove that you were responsible for the additional cleaning charge. Your credit card company should stand behind you and I would tell them that this is not true and let them investigate the claim
While I agree with most here that this is most likely an attempt at a scam I would appreciate it if you stop referring to All car rental employees as high school dropouts. I have a 4 year degree and am working at one of the top 3 for the advancement opportunities and wide variety of business experience. To assume that all car rental employees are uneducated scammers seems ignorant and rude.
Another lovely way that so-called reputable luxury london hotels companies have come up with to cheat their customers. It goes on and on. It hasn t happened to me, but I m sure it s only a matter luxury london hotels of time. I do smoke and occasionally will have a cigarette in a rental car, with the windows open of course. You d have to smoke many cigarettes to make a vehicle stinky. The current ethical rationale applies here: if we can make a few bucks on people who don t notice the charge on their credit card months later, that s a good idea. Disgusting.
Having the windows open only helps a bit. Are these nonsmoking rental cars that you smoke in? The person smoking also retains the cigarette odor and that gets into the car, so it is possible that a smoker has lit up inside the car, but the smell on their body and clothes lingers inside and it is foul!
In both your examples the rental company failed to perform normal due diligence luxury london hotels on the claim. In both examples the damage occured outside of the rental period something extremely easy to verify. This isn t a mistake as you claim, but entrenched poor operating procedure. This is something that should rarely happend with a legitimate company.
Yes, I think of bogus as an intentional untrue act to generate income. luxury london hotels In my cases that did not apply. I simply contacted the companies involved and they corrected it, no need to dispute the charge or get a consumer advocate involved.
But the OP in this case never bothered to contact luxury london hotels Dollar direct. Had I contacted my credit card company first in my case, I suspect I would have had the same result. Even Chris suggests the OP went out of order.
The Avis one involved the guy in the evening who checked the car in decided to drive it home and back the next AM. When he parked it, one of the other rental agents smelled the smoke and assumed it was from whoever dropped it off the previous evening me. THAT person then noticed the mileage and gas differed from what was recorded when I dropped luxury london hotels it off and corrected it. The evening agent smoked so much that the odor stayed on him and stayed in the car, he didn t even smoke in the car.
I checked the different rental companies sites and Hertz, luxury london hotels Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Alamo, National, Dollar, and Thrifty all maintain 100% smoke free fleets in the US. Unless you are renting from an off brand consistently or are renting cars internationally, you are violating the rules about smoking. And from your above comment I bet you would be the first to complain if you ere charged luxury london hotels a fee for smoking in a rental vehicle even though you freely admit to doing so. And then we wonder/complain why rental companies have such tough policies. Geez.
I voted no. While I think this does occur, answering yes suggests that the rental companies do this systematically. I ve never seen any evidence of that. While it s true that if this happens even twice (once each at two different companies), the answer is technically yes, but the spirit of the question suggests, I think, a no.
What s your problem? If you're having trouble with a business - any business - and you've reached a dead end, maybe I can help. Send me