Charles City, Iowa – Yesterday saw a classic “he said, he said” situation at the ABC Rent-All front counter.
Bernard Bryant, a local contractor, entered the lot with a skidsteer he’d rented, a day before it was due back.
“It looked like he’d been using it in a demolition derby followed by a mud-wrestling match” said Timothy Joyner, ABC Rent-All’s owner, who was manning the counter at the time.
Although the contract showed that Bryant had declined the damage waiver when renting it, he continued to argue that he was “pretty sure” he signed the damage waiver, and that if the record didn’t reflect that, that it was probably the fault of Joyner or one of his employees.
Records within Joyner’s rental software indicated that Bryant had rented three times in the past, declining the damage waiver each time.
“Look, I definitely, probably got the damage waiver,” said Bryant. “I’ll be reasonable, though – if they don’t have it in their records I’ll pay for the waiver now. I’m just not paying for the damages that – by the way – were there when I rented it in the first place.”
After Joyner finished washing the mud off the skidsteer to more accurately assess the total bill for damages, he went to industry Facebook groups to ask other rental owners how they would handle the situation, despite already having made up his mind to make damage waivers mandatory in the future.