Enterprise Rent-A-Car review: Van hire

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After arranging to hire a Luton van for a house move and quoted £293.95 for 4 days hire, my wife and I arrived on the morning of the pick-up date to collect the vehicle.

Straight away I noticed the valeter on duty was racing cars around the car park and accelerating at speed and braking causing the vehicles to skid. I raised this with the staff onsite as I had noticed two young children in the carpark and was concerned, they might get hurt. The staff in the office advised the manager had asked him to slow down on a number of occasions but he just ignored her and there was nothing they could do.

When the staff member showed us the van I started to note existing damage to the vehicle and pointed out a number of damages on the vehicle, however the staff member said as it was a Luton van they were only concerned with damage above a certain size so the bits I was pointing out didn't matter.

We then returned to the office where the staff member then passed me a small tablet and asked me to sign in 2 x box's, which I did.

He then asked me for the payment and an additional £200 deposit which I had not been told of in advance the payment was now £493.95 which I paid on credit card.

Shortly after setting off on our journey, I struggled to see out of the window as the wipers were defective on the driver's side and smearing a solid line around 50mm thick across the window. When trying to see what was causing the smearing on the wipers, we noticed a crack in the window, and I mentioned this to my wife who was traveling with me on the journey and had also been present at the time of collection. We decided to photograph the chip & crack from the inside and call the branch. However, a recorded message advised the branch had closed. As the agent who handed over the vehicle had put our mind at rest when we started pointing out various marks on the vehicle, we decided the continue with the journey as the crack was something they would have been aware of and not concerned with.

When we returned the vehicle, I handed the keys to the staff member on the desk who walked out to the vehicle for inspection. At this point I noticed the same valeter from the time of collection who was now sat down in the office on his phone jumped up and made a hastily walk to the staff member who had started checking our vehicle. I stayed in the office but noticed the valeter pointing at various points around the vehicle in particular the front windscreen.

The staff member then returned to me and advised there was a chip in the windscreen. I advised about the chip\crack I had noticed but the staff member didn't seem to take this into account and said the chip I had photographed and called about was in the middle of the window and didn't matter but the chip he had found was on the driver's side and did matter.

My issue with this is that the windscreen was already damaged and defective prior to us taking the vehicle along with the windscreen wipers. Cracks and chips on windscreens tend to get worse with temperature changes and vibrations. So, I find it staggering enterprise are trying to make a claim to me for the crack on a windscreen that had already suffered impact damage.

I also note the smearing of the wipers was inline with the chip\crack on the vehicle window that the staff member had pointed out. We can clearly see the wipers have been struggling wiping over these cracks for a long time as the streak marks line up with the crack on the driver's side along with scratching along the same curve as the wipers move.

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