Travel Troubleshooter: Renter gets billed $515 for missing head restraint and hat shelf

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: Enterprise Rental Car in Munich has charged me for damage to the car I rented last year, but I returned the car exactly as I rented it. Enterprise sent me a letter with a claim more than a month after I returned the car. I wasn’t expecting this email and didn’t read it. A month later, Enterprise charged my credit card $515. Not knowing what the charge was for, I called Chase to dispute it. I then reached out to Enterprise, and a representative informed me that there was a claim for my last rental.

Enterprise claims that I took a head restraint and a hat shelf from the car. This is entirely untrue and must be a mistake. The company sent photos of a car with a missing head restraint, but there wasn’t any identifying information, like a license plate or even the date that would prove it was the car we rented. Also, I returned the car at the end of July, and the claim is dated for September, which is more than a month after we returned the car.

How can I defend myself against this false claim?

— Josephine Donatelli, Scotch Plains, New Jersey

ANSWER: If you removed a head restraint and hat shelf from your rental vehicle, then you should have to pay for it. But was it your rental car?

Here’s the right way to handle a claim: First, Enterprise should have contacted you to let you know that some items were missing from your car and given you the opportunity to return them. If you didn’t, it should have sent you a bill — not charged your credit card. And the claim should have contained pictures of the car, the license plate, and an invoice for replacing the head restraint and hat shelf.

Instead, Enterprise charged you, then sent a claim with insufficient information to substantiate it. I think if you get an email from Enterprise or any other company, you should consider reading it. You might have had time to fight this claim if you had responded to the first message.

I would like to think that this was one of those “lost in translation” issues — just a big misunderstanding as a result of translating your claim from German into English.

I think your credit card dispute might have gone your way. Enterprise charged your card without permission, and it sent you insufficient evidence. But more importantly, the claim is implausible. What would you do with a head restraint and a hat shelf? Were you going to carry those on a plane with you and take them back to New Jersey?

I’m not taking sides here. If Enterprise could prove that the items disappeared while you rented the car, then you are responsible. But based on the documentation it provided you, it couldn’t.

What an odd case. You could have appealed this to one of the Enterprise executives whose contact information I publish on my customer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email might have encouraged the company to revisit your case and either furnish you with the information you needed or drop the case entirely.