Teter's Exxon & Deli

I selected Teter's Exxon merely on the basis of convenience, as it was located in the closest proximity to the storage facility that I had used to hold my personal belongings while in between homes as I closed on my house. We were looking for the lowest cost move, but decided on the convenience of a U-Haul as we figured we could move everything in 1 trip. Teter's is located about a mile from the storage facility, which is only a few miles from the house I had purchased, so I knew we could save on fuel costs, etc. as the whole move would be less than 10 miles round trip on the truck. When I filled out the paperwork, the clerk asked me if I wanted to pay for the additional insurance in case anything happened to the truck. Knowing I was traveling a very short distance on small-town roads, I was not concerned about any accidents, and opted to forego this added expense. We then went out to look at the truck that I would be using. She handed me a pretty standard looking rental form that had a diagram of the truck and asked me to note existing damage to the vehicle. One look at the truck she gave me should have been enough of a warning- the truck was so banged up and beat up with such an excessive amount of damage that I had to actually document "far too much existing damage to document accurately in space provided". The whole side of the vehicle was dented in and scratched, it was a mess. I asked if there were any other trucks available, but this was it in the size I needed. So, we took it, with the form as accurately documented as possible with a clearly written disclaimer that there was no reasonable way I could be expected to document the extent of the existing damage because it was far too great. My husband drove the truck from the parking lot to the storage facility, we loaded up my belongings, then drove the few miles down the road to my house, parked on the paved concrete driveway, and unloaded the truck into the carport, then returned the truck, all within a few hours. When we returned the truck, it was just getting to be dusk, and it was the weekend, so the office was closed. We parked it where we had been told to leave it, dropped the key into the night deposit box, and headed home, thinking it was a pretty smooth move. Then, first thing Monday morning I get a call while I was at work from the apparent owner, rudely demanding to know how I am going to pay for the damages to her truck. Confused as to what this call was in regards to, I questioned her, and she again spoke very rudely and insisted that I was lying and that I knew exactly what she was talking about. She stated that I had caused significant damage to the truck while it was in our possession, that there was a big dent in the side, and various other damages. She also claimed that I had left the lights on and that the battery was completely dead and she had to pay $65 or some ridiculous fee to have it jumped in the morning. I explained how short of a rental we had, that I was absolutely sure it was returned in the exact same condition as we had left it in, and suggested she must have me confused with another customer. She became virtually irate and ranted on about how these trucks are her "babies" and she knows "every dent, ding and scratch on them". To which I replied that she then obviously knew how much damage was existing on that truck. She said none of her trucks looked like that. I began to think this "owner" was crazy. She claimed the cab was filled with dirt and ants were crawling all around it and that I must have left food sitting out in it (this was the end of October, and there were no ants when I got in, or out, and no food was in the truck while we had it in our possession). She also claimed there was mud throughout the truck (again, concrete to concrete move, and it was a very dry spell in the weather on top of that). Anyway, I refused to pay for what she said the damages were as I knew I was not responsible. She went ahead and charged fees to my credit card I had used for the deposit for the rental. After attempting to resolve this with the owner, she continued to state that I had returned a truck to her in unacceptable condition and assessed several hundred dollars worth of fees. I was able to resolve the majority of this claim through a dispute opened with my credit card company against the unauthorized charges, but overall she had attempted to assess about $500 in fees above and beyond the regular $30 or whatever rental fee. And the kicker? She stated "if you had purchased the optional insurance, this would have been covered". I don't know if this is a typical scam they try and pull, or what, but all I can say is I would tell anyone to stay away from these crooks and take your business elsewhere.