Car Rental Company Charges $500 For Phantom Hail Damage, Refunds Customer

By Andrea Flores

DENVER (CBS4) - A Denver woman says she paid $27 a day for a weekend car rental, but when she got a bill for more than $650, she says the Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 22nd and Broadway almost got away with charging her for hail damage she says never happened.

Holly Clymore said a mistake by Enterprise almost cost her $500.

"I picked up the car on Friday and I drove it down to Colorado Springs, Canon City, and on to Telluride," said Clymore.

Clymore said she returned the rental without a scratch late Monday night, but a call from Enterprise about significant hail damage Tuesday morning left her looking for answers.

"I was obviously very confused because I don't remember going through any kind of hail on my drive," Clymore said.

Clymore went back to see the damage firsthand, but said what she saw in person couldn't explain the bill she received next.

"I expected them to just charge it for the rental portion, but not to charge the $500 deductible until they had made a claim with my insurance company," Clymore said.

Clymore went back again, this time with her roommate Ali Butler, to take a closer look at the damage she said didn't exist.

"He told us we had to have a trained eye in order to see it, that I was unable to see it because I had an untrained eye," Butler said of the Enterprise representative.

CBS4 reached out to Enterprise Rent-A-Car after the interview. They released a statement admitting Clymore's card never should have been charged in the first place.

"This incident was a miscommunication on our end. As we were proceeding through our claims process, we discovered our mistake in identifying the hail damage on Ms. Clymore's rental car and immediately refunded her credit card the next morning," the statement reads. "We were mistaken in not properly communicating this to Ms. Clymore. We hold ourselves to a much higher standard of service, and we apologize for the error."

While Clymore said she's happy to have her $500 refund, Butler said she still has some advice for renters.

"Enterprise has a pretty sweet slogan of 'Enterprise, We'll Pick You Up,' but honestly we just feel like 'Enterprise, We'll Just Pick Your Pocket," Butler said.

Enterprise claims they realized there was no hail damage to the car Tuesday night and refunded Clymore's money Wednesday morning, but simply forget to tell her.

Enterprise has offered her a free car rental to earn back Clymore's trust, but she says she hasn't decided if she'll take them up on their offer.