Credit card overcharged for a rental car from last month. What do I do?

May 15, 2012 7:48 PM

Getting overcharged for a car rental from last month. How do I fix this?

I was going over my credit card statement and noticed about $100 in rental fees that shouldn't be there. When I called up the manager and inquired about the charge, he said, "Yup, you rented it for a week...Thur to Wed." I actually rented it on Thur. afternoon and dropped it off Saturday afternoon, about $30-$40 worth of rental. They normally charge around $18/day if you order it ahead of time. They were closed on Saturday and I put the keys in the drop box as they requested. I know I have to dispute the charges on the card, what else do I need to do?
--They don't put any kind of deposit or hold on the card, just the amount of the rental, so that's not what the $100 is. This particular location doesn't have a lot of hidden fees either like the airport. Anyway, he's told me I rented for a week. I have a nice car and only rent when I'm driving lots of miles so as to not rack up my miles. I wasn't on vacation either. There would be no reason for me to keep the car for a week.

Now, where is my renter's agreement...

posted by Prairie to Grab Bag (9 answers total)

Although this strikes me as somewhat unlikely, it is not impossible that a week's rental was cheaper for you than a three/four day rental. This has happened to me before during high demand periods.

It seems clear to me that you need to know what you agreed to when you rented the car.
posted by saeculorum at 9:00 PM on May 15, 2012

File a dispute with your credit card company.
If you've got proof that you were overcharged, they'll take care of it as a matter of course.
posted by madajb at 9:04 PM on May 15, 2012

If they were closed when you dropped the car off you won't get credit for the return until they processed it in the next day. So there is one extra day. So you had it for 4 or 5 full days (if they were also closed Sunday) and there is no way in hell you are renting a car that actually goes forward under it's own power for $10 a day or less, so I don't think your $40 number is realistic. $100 for a 4-5 day rental or $100 for a week are both very good deals. I don't think you have anything to complain about. They probably did just give you a weekly rate because it was cheaper. You can ask about that, but I doubt a 4 or 5 day rental is going to be less than $100.
posted by COD at 5:42 AM on May 16, 2012

Yeah, I suspect the daily rate added up to more than the weekly rate so they charged you for a week. Do you have your copy of the rental agreement? I happen to have one right in front of me for a car I'm currently renting (from Enterprise - it appears to be a standard agreement for the company), and it says "If Vehicle is returned during non-business hours ... all rental charges incurred through the time an employee of Owner checks in Vehicle are Renter's responsibility."

You dropped it off when they were closed on Saturday, then they were probably closed on Sunday, so effectively you had the car until Monday. That's five days. And often the weekly rate is about equal to the five-day rate.
posted by mskyle at 6:10 AM on May 16, 2012

"The keys in the drop box as they requested" indicates to me that they often get cars dropped off after hours or on days they are closed. So I would not consider any extra rental time after the keys were dropped.
posted by Gungho at 7:29 AM on May 16, 2012

//So I would not consider any extra rental time after the keys were dropped.//

SOP for rental car companies is that the car is returned when they check it in. It worked that way when I worked for Budget 20+ years ago, and it still works that way today.
posted by COD at 8:29 AM on May 16, 2012

Sounds to me like you had a verbal understanding you were being charged until the time you dropped the keys, while the contract likely says otherwise.
posted by Goofyy at 9:08 AM on May 16, 2012

You would think that in this day and age of extremely cheap ways to log physical items (RFID, Bar Codes, Mag Strips, etc) at least one car company would take advantage of them and advertise how they don't rip you off by charging you for days they weren't open.
posted by shepd at 9:28 AM on May 16, 2012

I get what you all are saying about dropping off after hours and being charged for Sunday. I've used this place a lot and dropped cars off on Saturday evenings, Sunday mornings many times. I never got charged for the extra days, just what was ordered (i.e. Thursday at 6:30 p.m to Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
posted by Prairie at 10:02 AM on May 16, 2012