A steady stream of complaints from consumers charged for rental car repairs flows into the Consumer Rescue helpline each week. Most of these rental car customers are sure someone else caused the damage they’re being asked to pay for. Unfortunately, many of the bewildered travelers have no proof to support their assertion.
Then there’s Avis customer Emma B.
Emma’s was one of the strangest car rental complaints I’ve ever received. Given that I’ve investigated thousands of unusual cases during my decade of work in Consumer Advocacy Land, that speaks volumes.
Like all the rest, Emma was sure the car rental company was billing her to repair a vehicle she didn’t damage. However, unlike the others, she had an unusual and undeniable piece of evidence to prove she was correct.
I’ll tell you about that proof in a minute.
First, let me tell you about her battle to defend herself against nearly $2,000 in rental car repair bills. Her story is a cautionary tale for every traveler embarking on a trip that involves a rental vehicle.
Even with concrete evidence that someone else – someone with full insurance – crashed the car just before her rental, that didn’t stop Avis from charging Emma to repair it.
Here is her distressing tale. (*Emma has asked that we not use her full name.)
Surprise! Avis has a damaged rental car for you. Is this OK?
Last spring, Emma used the Avis website to make a one-way rental car reservation. She would be driving the vehicle approximately 800 miles from Plano, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia.
In the Avis lot, Emma immediately noticed damage to the front right side of the car.
“The damage to the rental car was significant,” Emma told me. “The employee there told me they had documented the car’s condition as well. He told me [the rental car]was drivable and I could take it. It seemed that there were no other vehicles available at that moment.”
The employee handed Emma some documents and she snapped some photos of the damage to the rental car. Then she hopped into the vehicle and started driving East to Atlanta.
This Avis customer wisely took pre-rental photos of the significant damage to the front end of the rental car.
A one-way car rental ends in a surprise repair bill
When Emma arrived in Atlanta and returned the rental car, she had no inkling that a problem was on the horizon. That is until an attendant pointed out the significant damage to the front end of the vehicle.
“I explained that the Houston location had told me the previous customer had crashed the car,” Emma told me. “They said ‘Ok’ and I left.”
Emma never imagined what was about to spin out of this unusual situation. But just a few days later, she began receiving requests from Avis to pay $1,970 to fix the smashed front end of the vehicle. The rental company included photos of the car, highlighting the pre-existing damage as if it had just been discovered.
Initially, Emma assumed that Avis would correct its error and send the bill to the driver who had caused the damage. But several months later, the debt had been forwarded to Sedgwick, the company that handles collections for Avis. In a poorly worded message, an agent attempted to clarify that Emma was accountable for paying the car’s repair bill, but unfortunately, many details were incorrect, including mistakenly identifying the rental as international.
Thank you for taking the time to contact Avis Customer Service regarding damage charges on your international rental. We apologize for any inconvenience this matter has caused and we are happy to assist you with this matter.
We understand that this occurred at the PLANO S/ N DALLAS in (CITY, COUNTRY) on 4/8/25 and your rental agreement number was *****.
Your information has been processed. In regards to the charges matches the time you returned the car, unfortunately charges are valid. [SIC]
We appreciate your patience and thank you for choosing Avis.
Emma’s next stop? Consumer Rescue.
Asking Consumer Rescue to investigate
When Emma reached out to Consumer Rescue for help, she was flabbergasted. She was a regular customer of Avis, she had been assured that the damage on the rental car was documented, AND most importantly, she had documented the condition of the vehicle before she drove off with it.
But Emma had something else — a powerful piece of evidence that proved she didn’t cause that damage. It was a document that Avis wasn’t aware she had in her possession.
The Avis attendant in Houston had accidentally given Emma a copy of the previous customer’s Vehicle Incident Report. In that report, dated the day Emma began her drive to Atlanta, the driver admitted to having an accident just before returning the rental car.
“I hit a pole at the gas station. I have full coverage insurance,” the other Avis customer wrote in her statement.
This customer was on a business trip and had LDW (Loss Damage Waiver) coverage on the vehicle. That detail was also included in the Vehicle Incident Report. LDW pays for nearly any damage a driver might cause to a rental car.
So why was Avis asking the next customer along the line to pay for the rental car repair?
That’s what I aimed to find out.
Why is this customer being pursued to repair this car?
I hoped to get Emma’s case resolved ASAP. It was causing her a tremendous amount of anxiety.
Since I know the Avis and Sedgwick team to be highly responsive to the cases I bring to them, I was confident Emma’s battle would soon come to a positive end.
The misdirected VIR virtually guaranteed it.
Hi **** I have a super easy case to resolve today, but it is also super weird.
Emma **** picked up a rental vehicle at the Plano location of Avis on April 8, 2024, and it had quite a bit of fresh damage to the front end. An employee told her it was all documented and that she didn’t need to worry about it. She took pictures of the damage, and bizarrely, the Avis representative handed her the Vehicle Incident Report with the name of the previous renter who had just returned the car. That customer admitted to striking a pole at the gas station. The VIR shows that **** ** had full LDW coverage.
Emma drove the damaged car to Atlanta and returned it to Avis there. Since then, she’s been receiving demand letters to pay $1,979 to repair the damage despite the fact that she has the incident report created by Avis showing that the previous renter had an accident.
The odometer in the accident report shows 16,769 miles on the vehicle. Emma’s contract shows the rental car had 16,769 miles on it when it was handed over to her, damaged. Emma would like this repair bill assigned to the Avis customer in the VIR who caused the damage. Emma also has a full video of the state of this vehicle as it looked on April 8 on the lot in Plano that I can share if needed; however, I think it is clear without that video that a mistake has been made assigning this repair bill to Emma. Thank you!
Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer advocate
Good news: Avis is dropping the rental car repair charges
I was correct in my assumption. Very shortly Avis let Emma know that it was dropping all the rental car repair charges.
Hi Michelle,
As an update, I just had customer service at Budget Group/Avis call me to tell me they are closing out the claim. They will mail me a Close Out Letter as well.
Thank you for the help!
Emma B.
You’re welcome, Emma. This is exactly why Consumer Rescue exists!
How to avoid getting charged for someone else’s rental car accident
Every day, car rental customers send their help requests to Consumer Rescue after being charged for damage they didn’t cause.
Related: I’m being charged for damage to a rental car I never drove!
Here’s how you can create an impenetrable shield against getting smacked with surprise rental car repair charges.
1. Do not accept an obviously damaged rental car
Travelers should never accept an obviously damaged rental car. That means thoroughly inspecting all aspects of the vehicle before you drive through the lot’s gate.
2. Document the condition of the vehicle with your camera
Make sure to inspect less obvious areas of the vehicle that may contain hidden damage. If you don’t document it, you might be on the hook to repair it.
- The roof: Are there any dents or chips up there?
- The undercarriage: Is it clean? Are there any signs of an impact?
- Under the hood: Is the insulation intact? Are there any signs of erosion on the battery or damage to wires?
- The dashboard: Is there a full tank of gas? Are there any warning lights lit? Does the odometer reading match your contract?
- Interior of the vehicle: Is it clean? Is it free of unusual odors (even pleasant ones)?
Related: Enterprise says Mickey Mouse damaged my rental car! Why do I have to pay?
3. Download Consumer Rescue’s free rental car inspection checklists
Consumer Rescue makes it super easy for you to document the condition of your rental car — before and after your reservation with our free (printable) rental car inspection checklists.
I can guarantee that if you thoroughly document the condition of the vehicle in this way, it will be virtually impossible to pin a giant repair bill on you later. That is, of course, unless you actually damage your rental car.
4. File your documentation away for infinity
Recently, I’ve tackled cases that involved car rentals that were completed weeks, months, and yes, even years prior to the incident report being sent to the hapless customer.
Often car rental customers will contact me and explain that they did all the right things and still ended up with a repair bill for damage they didn’t cause. When I request the pre- and post-rental photos which will presumably vindicate the traveler, some have bad news for me: They’ve already disposed of their evidence
Related: Budget wants $2,324 for a rental car I drove two years ago
The final step to protect yourself against unsubstantiated rental car repair charges is to keep your evidence indefinitely. Put it in a folder and file it away forever. Imagine the surprise of a car rental franchise intent on billing you for damage you didn’t cause when you whip out your ironclad evidence that includes a full vehicle report of your own with supporting photos.
Related: Help! Hertz billed me $1,050 to repair a rental car I drove 7 months ago
The bottom line
Of course, none of this should be necessary. However, as a consumer advocate who fields these complaints every day, I know it is.
Car rental customers are being asked to pay for damage to vehicles at a rate I’ve never seen before. As in today’s case, many of these claims are easily proven to be false accusations. That is as long as the customer has taken self-protective steps before and after the rental.
Many car rental customers mistakenly believe companies cannot charge them for vehicle damage without substantial proof. However, unsuspecting travelers receive surprise rental car repair bills every day. Ignoring the bill will send a customer to collections and the Do Not Rent list.
To avoid facing a hefty rental car repair bill, it’s important to take precautions and protect yourself. If you don’t, you could end up paying for someone else’s expensive mistake. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, founder of Consumer Rescue)
