It’s never great to have your car broken into. However, there is an additional layer of complexity when it’s a rental car. Unfortunately, this happened to me recently. In the spirit of turning unfortunate circumstances into learning moments, I am going to share everything that happened. That way you will know what to do if your rental car is broken into.
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Step 1: Report
The first step is to report the incident to the rental car company’s roadside assistance number. The phone number to call is often found on your rental car key fob or on a sticker on the window inside the rental car. Note that this is a different number than their general customer service line.
Provide the rental car roadside assistance personnel with as much information as possible about the situation. They will typically ask for the vehicle’s location and a description of the issue. In the case of a break-in, the car is likely mechanically drivable. However, they will still ask if you feel the car is drivable. In most situations, I would provide an answer that the car is not drivable. The last thing you want is to drive down a major road with glass falling away from your car or glass falling on passengers. The roadside assistant won’t push back on your personal feelings or assessment. If you determine that the you aren’t comfortable driving the car, understand that they will need to go through a process to find you another vehicle.
Step 2: Rental Car Insurance
While you are on the phone with the roadside assistance personnel, it is highly likely that they will ask for your insurance information if the issue is something that will require a claim. If you purchased insurance through the rental car company, this will be an easy answer. However, if you are using credit card insurance or personal insurance, you will need to find this information. If you don’t have the information, they won’t press you for it. Be prepared to sort this out later though. Rental car insurance is a whole post on its own. This will be a situation where you are likely to be grateful for having some type of primary rental car coverage. Otherwise, you will have to report this to your personal insurance policy. Many policies will charge a penalty or incur a rate increase when you report this.
Step 3: Obtain Alternative Transportation
In the case where the car is not drivable, you will need alternative transportation to continue your journey. First, the rental car company roadside assistance representative will check for rental cars at the nearest rental locations. When they locate available rental cars, they will reserve another car for you so that you can complete the remainder of your trip. The rental car company should arrange for your transportation to the lot. Sometimes, they will dispatch a car from the rental car lot to come and get you. Alternately, they could provide a link for a free Uber/Lyft ride. Either way, the transportation will generally be paid for by the rental car company.
Step 4: Tow/Pick Up of Car
If the determination was made that the rental car is not drivable, the roadside assistance representative will dispatch a tow truck to your location to get the car. The rental companies prefer that you remain with the car; however, this isn’t a requirement. Sometimes, it can take a while for a tow truck to arrive.
In my situation, it took two and a half hours for the tow truck to arrive. I was catching a flight, so I wasn’t able to wait. For that situation, you will likely be instructed to leave the car unlocked and put the keys under the driver’s seat. I called the tow company phone number that the roadside assistance representative provided me. This was an important step to ensure that they knew that I was not going to be there and that they knew where to find the car and the keys. I then left the car using the rental car provided Uber.
Step 5: Follow Up with the Rental Car Company
At this point, you are ideally done with the situation. However, I highly recommend following up with the rental car company the next day. Many policies, procedures, and systems at rental car companies are built based on “sunny-day” scenarios. This means that a rental car company knows how to end your rental when you check a car back in. However, they don’t know how to end your rental if roadside assistance takes the car. In my situation, the rental car company didn’t end my rental, and they kept racking up charges for multiple days. It took several calls to customer service and the company’s loss prevention department to sort it all out. While everything will get worked out, I recommend trying to head this off. You don’t want to deal with certified letters claiming that you have stolen a car and need to return it immediately.
I also recommend that you take screenshots of all communications during this process. It can be very helpful to keep information on when the tow company picked up the car, who they were, and other various facts like that. If necessary, these screenshots can provide proof that the roadside service of the rental car company got the car and when you surrendered the vehicle to end your rental.
Bottom Line
A rental car break-in is always frustrating, especially when you have to spend an hour or two dealing with the initial reporting and obtaining a replacement car. Fortunately, my recent experience with a rental car break-in went smoother than expected. The rental car company was very helpful in the moment. Unfortunately, their systems can be a little lacking after the fact. If this happens to you, keep all documentation of the process so that any follow-up paperwork and customer service transactions won’t create more headache than it already is. Also, while we never think something will happen when we have a rental car, this is a reminder that having insurance on rentals cars is important through one avenue or another.
