Paper receipts seem a bit quaint in the digital age; heck, even wallets are made out of 1s and 0s these days. But sometimes, a receipt is worth a heck of a lot more than the paper it’s printed on, as one Canadian couple found out when Enterprise sent them a bill for nearly $10,000 (Canadian) after returning their rental car.
The claim? They’d filled their rental car with diesel rather than gasoline before returning it.
The couple from British Columbia rented a Dodge Durango last April from National (an Enterprise brand). Before returning it to Edmonton International Airport, they stopped to fuel it up, adding 48 liters of gasoline (more than 12 gallons—about half a tank in a V6 Durango). They dropped it off without incident.
A week later, they were contacted by Enterprise to inform them that their rental had been filled with diesel, rather than gasoline, and that because they were in possession of the vehicle when it allegedly happened, they owed Enterprise $9,500 CAD to cover the cost of repair.
Filling up a gasoline car with diesel fuel rarely results in serious damage. If the mistake is discovered right away, it’s usually a matter of just draining the fuel tank and perhaps replacing the fuel filter and pump, but if the diesel is ingested further into the car’s fuel system or engine, everything has to be purged of any residual fuel. That can get expensive, and evidently, Enterprise wanted to stick the couple with the bill.
But sure enough, they had their receipt—receipts, in fact. Apparently, the fuel pump shut off prematurely the first time around, forcing them to top it off. And the detailed receipt showed not only the time and date of the fill, but the fact that they had selected gasoline.
Moreover, after being contacted by Enterprise, the couple contacted the gas station to ask whether a screw-up was even possible. They were sent a photo clearly demonstrating that the pump they had used (also documented on the receipt) didn’t even have a diesel fuel dispenser.
That’s no guarantee that what they pumped into the car wasn’t actually diesel; fuel trucks goof that up more often than you might expect. Still, it was enough to demonstrate that the couple hadn’t done anything negligent. The fact that they made it to the airport at all invites more suspicion of Enterprise’s accusation; the station was nearly 25 miles from the airport. If the tank had been half-filled with diesel, there would have been signs.
On top of that, the Durango is equipped with a fuel filler that would prevent diesel nozzles from fitting. Taken together, this all should have convinced Enterprise to drop the claim, right? Nope.
Instead, the couple had to go to the media to bring pressure against the rental agency. When pressed to comment on the situation, Enterprise instead dropped the claim.
The moral of this story? Keep your receipts, or at least take a picture of them. That tiny slip destined for the trash can may be worth a lot more than you realize.
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