Q: My wife and I recently flew up to Knoxville, Tenn., to visit my family. We prepaid for a rental car through Alamo. The rental process was a little confusing and disorganized. We had to wait half an hour, and Alamo ran out of cars in our class, so it gave us a vehicle from Enterprise.
When we returned the car a week later, a representative walked around the vehicle and noted no damage. We boarded our flight and came home to Florida.
A few weeks later, I received a letter from Alamo claiming that I damaged the vehicle and that its employees had tried to reach me several times by phone. I received no calls or voice-mail messages from Alamo.
Neither we nor anyone else damaged the vehicle during the time of our rental. I e-mailed Alamo to let the company know. I received no reply, and thought the matter was either a scam or a mistake.
Today, I received a multipage letter saying I owe $1,885 for the damage Alamo claims to have taken place when I had the vehicle. The sum included repairs, administrative fees, loss of use and diminished value. Attached were four black-and-white photos that appear to show roof damage.
Can you help me get this sorted out?
A: You shouldn't have to pay for damage you didn't cause, of course. But how do you know you didn't dent the roof? Do you have pictures of the car pre- and post-rental?
Let's pause for a moment to note the absurdity of this situation. In order to avoid paying $1,885, you would have had to have taken pictures of your rental car's roof, pre- and post-rental.
