Stupid People

I am tired of stupid people in this world.

Let's say you rent a car. You accidently scrape the driver's door against a concrete pillar. You check out the paint and there is no visible damage. When you return the car, you tell the clerk at the desk. You ask them to come and look at it. They do. They don't see any scrapage. You settle up your bill and move on.

Six months later, you get a registered letter that references a previous letter you never got. There's a $600 bill for the rental car. It seems they had to repaint the car and want you to pay for it.

When you ask the rental company if they put the car out of service after you reported the possible issue, they said no, we rented it to other people. But now, they say, there is a giant scratch on the passenger door and since you reported it, you must have done it.

First of all, the damage reported was for the driver's door so it has nothing to do with the issue.

Second, an employee of the rental company looked at it and said they didn't see any damage.

Third, the car was then rented to other drivers *after you*. There is no proof that someone after you did the damage. It's been six months since you drove the car.

So, you try to bargain with the company. They don't want to turn it into their insurance b/c there's a $250 deductible. Fine. You offer to pay that. Nope. Not good enough. You have an itemized bill so you pick and choose what could have possibly been caused from when you drove it. Nope. You need to pay the whole bill, including the two service charges because the repair place hasn't been paid while it waited for you.

When you ask why the car was not taken out of service, the answer is that they need the car in the fleet. That's not my problem. The car was put back in service, driven for 6 months and then you are expected to pay a bill? No way. So you turn it into your insurance company and pray that your insurance company is smart enough to laugh the car company all the way to the bank.

Here's the worst part. You know you will probably have to rent a car from that company again. That's what really sucks.