Am I responsible for a flat tire of a rental car?

[Chris Marget]

In <2n34ep...@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu> ns...@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu (Naiming Shen) writes:

While I think that perhaps you should be responsible for the flat, $44 is
ridiculous. I get my flat tires fixed for FREE. (Damn good thing, since I
get 'em about every 3 weeks). If you're wondering whether something is
wrong with the tire, that should be easy to tell... Did the tire
spontaneously pop, or did you run over a nail? OTOH, if you got the flat
tire, then contued to drive on it and ruined the tire, then you probably got
off easy.
$0.02
Chris

>I got a rental car from "Dollar Rent A Car" in California last
>month. I didn't pay the rental company
>collision waiver insurance since I was using AT&T Universal card
>and that should cover the insurance. The second day on the highway
>I got a flat tire. I spend almost half an hour in the rain to
>change to a spare tire and I went to the "Dollar" the second day
>to get the car exchanged. Yesterday I got a bill from the "Dollar"
>saying I much to pay them $44 for the repair and one day down of the car.
>I think when I got the car, the tire could have had problem, why should
>I be responsible for this? I am wondering if you guys have had any
>similar experience which I can use when talking to their customer
>service next week and what is the car rental industry's general
>policy towards the flat tire issue. BTW, AT&T told me flat tire
>is not collision and they would not pay for this, but they didn't
>think I should be hold responsible for the flat tire. Thanks.

>naiming