Subrogation Management Team (SMT) is an insurance collection agency that is contracted by many of the large car rental agencies to collect not only insurance payments, but also other bogus fees such as diminution of value, loss of use, and "administrative" fees.in my case, I rented a car from Dollar in Billings, MT and during the course of my week-long rental, it suffered hail damage from golf ball sized hail. When I returned the car, I notified them of all the damage and gave them the name of my insurance company and the claim number I had already filed, since I opted not to take the additional coverage offered through their company.
A week later, I received a threatening letter from SMT asking me for damages in the amount of $3556.97 (which my insurance company has offered to pay in full), loss of use for 9 days @ $51.06/day for a mid size car! = $459.54, diminution of value for $1367.10, and an administrative fee of $450.00!!! Total charges were $5833.61.
Every dealing I have had or my insurance company has had with SMT has been abusive and bullying on their part and they have used questionable tactics such as threatening to ding my credit for non-payment, etc., yet when I and my insurance company have asked for substantiation of the charges, SMT tells us that under Montana law, they are not required to furnish that information! Excuse me, why would I pay for charges that cannot or will not be substantiated? If they don't have anything to hide, why won't they comply?
My insurance company is now in the process of securing legal representation to fight these charges that SMT has imposed and threatened us with. SMT only knows how to bully and bilk innocent people out of hard-earned money. This was hail damage, an act of God, and certainly nothing I did to the vehicle, yet they are out for blood without being willing to substantiate the charges. Diminution of value is a bogus charge, especially if the vehicle is being repaired. Hail damage certainly did not damage the long term effectiveness of the vehicle or its vital parts such as the engine or the frame. Having the vehicle repaired is a cost of doing business and should not incur any "administrative fees".
As for the loss of use, I am sure that the amount of time that this vehicle is out-of-commission for repairs will cause them any loss of revenue since there are probably many vehicles sitting on the lot waiting to be rented. And as for loss of use, I only paid $30/day to rent the vehicle, yet they are charging $51.06/day. This vehicle will require nothing more than a visit to the Dent King and will not have to be out of commission for more than a half day, IF in fact they choose to repair it at all.
How can any company be allowed to charge for bogus charges and then refuse to substantiate them in writing? How is this allowed? If they don't have anything to hide, why won't they furnish what we requested? What are they hiding??? I sincerely doubt that any court of law would require a customer to pay for charges that they either can't or won't provide to substantiate the charges.
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