have you ever had an accident with a rental car?

[Deleted]

I did and am amazed at the outcome.

we didn't take the extra insurance. Relied on our credit card coverage and personal auto coverage. Didn't need either.

I backed into another rental ( same rental company!) and there was damage to both cars.

ours was dented, the other was dented and rear tail light broken.

The rental company decided not to follow thru with my insurance and closed the claim!!

yay!!!

[y4m]

I had a rental car broken into and it was a mess. The credit card needed 5000 pieces of documentation to cover it. Hertz basically went MIA and wouldn't give me the documentation for months. The credit card did eventually pay the claim, but I think I spent something like 10 hours of annoying effort to collect $125.

[mbcdefg]

We got a rental car for our recent trip; in order to park it in the hotel lot (actually it was a public lot that the hotel uses) we were required to use the valet service.

We went outside, called for the car, and turned around just in time to see our rental car smack into a taxi that had made a U-turn over a double yellow line.

The hotel concierge and the parking lot manager swore up and down that they'd take care of it. Of course, the next day when we went to talk to them, they had no idea what we were talking about. The hotel also charged us the full four-day parking fee and didn't even offer to waive the fee for the day that the accident happened. MH has been on the phone with the hotel concierge after the guy ducked his calls for days, who says that the best they can do is "maybe work something out with our on-site restaurant" if we ever happen to come back to the city (LOL); and with the parking lot, who still says that they have no record of this incident; and with Enterprise, who just wants SOMEONE to pay for it.

[mbcdefg]

Aug 27, 2014 9:10:47 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

mbcdefg, I'd escalate this past the hotel concierge to the manager, and I'd also put a stop payment on the hotel bill with my credit card until you get it worked out. Get their attention that you are serious.

You don't have any photos or anything of the accident? That sucks.

I think MH may have called the manager. He definitely alerted his CC to stop payment for now.

No photos of the accident, I just got one of the cab's license plate and its phone number/cab number. We also have copies of the taxi driver's license and insurance info, plus some other papers. I have no idea why we didn't take photos and escalate the situation while we had the concierge and parking lot manager in front of us. Lesson learned

The accident wasn't even bad ... the rental car's front bumper is just dinged up a little bit. It may even just need to be re-painted.

If anyone's going to San Francisco, do not stay at the S.carlet H.untington, lol.

[mbcdefg]

Aug 27, 2014 9:31:07 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Aug 27, 2014 9:26:59 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I think MH may have called the manager. He definitely alerted his CC to stop payment for now.

No photos of the accident, I just got one of the cab's license plate and its phone number/cab number. We also have copies of the taxi driver's license and insurance info, plus some other papers. I have no idea why we didn't take photos and escalate the situation while we had the concierge and parking lot manager in front of us. Lesson learned

The accident wasn't even bad ... the rental car's front bumper is just dinged up a little bit. It may even just need to be re-painted.

If anyone's going to San Francisco, do not stay at the S.carlet H.untington, lol.

If you have the can driver's license and company, maybe try reaching out to the cab driver? Perhaps he can verify your side of the story?

Well, he got out of his cab screaming that it wasn't his fault because "I honked!!!" (so apparently you can cross a double yellow line in a four-lane main street as long as you honk first?), so I guess he'd be all too happy to blame it on the valet.

I think MH is making some more calls today.

[cheezer]

We had a rental car for a weekend and one day noticed it had been hit. We think when we had been in the parking lot earlier in the day. We had absolutely no problems. We called, I believe H filled out some quick paperwork when we returned the car and were not charged for anything.

[y4m]

Aug 27, 2014 9:39:06 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Aug 27, 2014 9:31:07 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

If you have the can driver's license and company, maybe try reaching out to the cab driver? Perhaps he can verify your side of the story?

Well, he got out of his cab screaming that it wasn't his fault because "I honked!!!" (so apparently you can cross a double yellow line in a four-lane main street as long as you honk first?), so I guess he'd be all too happy to blame it on the valet.

I think MH is making some more calls today.

If you don't get satisfaction on this today, I'd write a review on TripAdvisor about your experience.  Or try to reach William Miller, who appears to run the hotel's public relations and talk about how you'd hate to have to write about it publicly so you wanted to give him a chance to fix it offline.  This is ridiculous and the hotel should be taking full responsibility for what happened when their guest's car was with their valet.

[arch01]

Aug 27, 2014 9:39:06 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Aug 27, 2014 9:31:07 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

If you have the can driver's license and company, maybe try reaching out to the cab driver? Perhaps he can verify your side of the story?

Well, he got out of his cab screaming that it wasn't his fault because "I honked!!!" (so apparently you can cross a double yellow line in a four-lane main street as long as you honk first?), so I guess he'd be all too happy to blame it on the valet.

I think MH is making some more calls today.

What about any security cameras around? How long ago was it?

[karinothing]

Aug 27, 2014 8:49:12 GMT -5 y4m said:

I had a rental car broken into and it was a mess. The credit card needed 5000 pieces of documentation to cover it. Hertz basically went MIA and wouldn't give me the documentation for months. The credit card did eventually pay the claim, but I think I spent something like 10 hours of annoying effort to collect $125.

Wow. I had a rental car broken into. They told me I could either go through my insurance or pay $100. I just paid $100 and was done with it lol. So I guess same result, I just decided not to go through the hassel.

[mbcdefg]

Aug 27, 2014 13:51:19 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Aug 27, 2014 9:39:06 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Well, he got out of his cab screaming that it wasn't his fault because "I honked!!!" (so apparently you can cross a double yellow line in a four-lane main street as long as you honk first?), so I guess he'd be all too happy to blame it on the valet.

I think MH is making some more calls today.

What about any security cameras around? How long ago was it?

It was 6 days ago.

They're not denying what happened ... they're just not stepping up to pay for it.

[ruthie7532]

We rented a car in Great Britain in 2009 and managed to flatten 2 tires and break an axle on a big pothole on a tiny road in the Lake District. Apparently this is pretty common on that particular road. The tiny town we were in couldn't fix our car, and we had to get to Glasgow for a concert the next day. The rental company sent a tow truck, which towed us several hours up into Scotland to a new rental place, where they replaced the car and sent us on our way. We had a fabulous conversation with the music loving tow truck driver, who gave us all sorts of pointers on how to maximize our experience in Glasgow. We hadn't bought the extra insurance, but our credit card company offered automatic rental protection and ended up covering a thousand pounds or so to the rental company for repairs. We had to pay maybe $200 for loss of use of the other car. Overall it was a pretty positive experience. It was a great way to meet the locals, though I don't normally recommend this method!

[brit1017]

We had a rental because DH's car had a tree fall it during a storm. He signed for the insurance, and I gave him some grief because we get it through the card he used to rent it. We ended up being so glad he did, because that night, some guy who was driving while on prescription meds lost control of his car (on a completely straight road) and crashed into our rental and our neighbors' car that were parked on the street in front of our house. Both cars were totaled. With the rental insurance, all we had to do was provide them with the police report, and they handled everything.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using proboards

[y4m]

Aug 27, 2014 14:41:09 GMT -5 @pennypie said:

Our rental's rear/side bumper got hit in a parking garage in LA. There was a black smudge and a dent in the plastic where it connected to the metal near the rear wheel. DH popped the dent out and we bought a $3 Magic Eraser to buff off the black smudge. It worked!

But it did scare me enough that I'll probably by the $14 rental insurance in the future.

Check your credit cards first.  Their coverage is often better, and will be void if you buy that insurance from the rental company.

[wildfloweragain]

My mother used the coverage her credit card offered instead of getting the extra coverage once. It was horrible. She got into an accident, they put the damages on her credit card right away. That amount was over her credit card limit and she got charged tons of fees while it got sorted out over the next few months. Her car insurance paid for a lot of it, but not the credit card fees.

[shortcake2675]

I backed into my step-dad's stupid mailbox. We used the Amex rental insurance. So far, we haven't gotten anything from Avis regarding the repairs or charges. It's been over a month.

[rikki]

Yes. I drove into a pole, tried to back up and then hit another pole. The car was stuck between the 2 poles. I left it there (8th floor in a parking garage) and went back in the mall (900 N Michigan Ave for those in Chicago) to find help. I rented it through work, so I have no idea what happened insurance wise.

[Mrs.Rad888]

I know I'm late to this thread, but I have a good story.

I had rented a car for a couple of weeks while transferring duty stations (Navy). I had gone to visit family for the weekend, and got a late start to begin my 7 hour drive. About halfway back, I'm on the freeway, and it's about 10:00 at night. I notice cars ahead of me hitting their brakes, so I had notice that there was something in the road to avoid. Luckily I had that heads-up, because when I got up to where the problem was, it turned out that a car had gotten away from a tow truck in the breakdown lane, and rolled across all the traffic lanes, to where I was in the fast lane. I had slowed way down, but still hit the car going about 25. It only damaged the bumper, but who knows how much damage? I waited for the Highway Patrol so I could get the accident report, and there were 3-4 other cars that were also hit. I got back to San Diego about 2:00 AM, and went directly to the car rental office and filled out a report.

A few weeks later, the rental company started calling me, hassling me about getting my insurance info. Turns out that the owner of the car was saying that the tow truck operator was responsible, and the tow company was saying they were only responsible for the car they were towing, and the owner of the car was responsible for the damage to all the other cars. I guess the rental company got tired of waiting for it to be resolved, and decided to come after me for the damage. After ignoring their calls for a couple of weeks, I finally called them back and told them that my insurance info was "the $14 per day I was paying for their coverage, and they needed to take it up with those guys."

[drloretta]

Yes, I was in a 3-car accident on a freeway. The guy who actually caused it drove off and was never found/cited. I did over $1K damage and my awesome insurance company (USAA) took care of everything.