So, picture this: I rented a car from Avis/Budget back in February, and returned it a month later in March. When I grabbed the wheels, I made sure to snap some pics and even took a video, just in case. Fast forward to a few days before the due date, and boom, a flat tire. No biggie, I returned it early and even gave it a good clean – washed and vacuumed the heck out of it, because who wants to pay extra for cleaning, right?
But then, a few months down the line, I get a letter in the mail claiming I owe some cash for cleaning – what? I called them up, and turns out, it was a mix-up, and they dropped the whole thing. Phew. That was a relief… or so I thought.
Now, over seven months later, another letter arrives. This time, they’re claiming I owe a whopping $2100 for damage to the bumper. Hold up, I never laid a finger on that bumper! Total scam alert, right? The kicker is, just a while back, I was clearing out my phone, thinking this whole mess was behind me, so I deleted those precious pics and videos. Talk about bad timing.
So, here I am, freaking out and plain pissed about this whole situation. I need to know – is this for real or what? I gave them a ring, but the guy handling my case was busy. They promised to email me their so-called evidence, but guess what? It’s nowhere to be seen in my inbox. And of course, this bombshell drops on a Friday afternoon, so I’ll be stewing over this all weekend until I can get some answers on Monday.
Update: I decided to give the standard customer service line a buzz instead of the central recovery unit. They couldn’t find any evidence in their files, and just like that, the scratch on the bumper was history. But when I asked for an email confirmation, things got fishy. The rep had to dive into a “different system” to check, and surprise, no record of any claim there. Huh, smells fishy, right?
I’ll still give the central recovery unit a ring on Monday to double-check if they got the memo. Lesson learned – snap all the pics and videos you can at pick-up and drop-off, and for the love of cars, never delete those files for a long, long time. It