A Pittsburgh family says they want answers after a racial slur appeared on the dashboard of their rental car.
Kevin Brown remembers getting the incredulous text from his grandson, who was supposed to be on his way to college in a rental car in August.
It wasn’t the text that got his attention, though. It was the photo that came with it.
As the Honda Accord turned on, its normally friendly welcome greeting that lights up on its dashboard was replaced with something else: the word welcome, followed by a racial slur.
“It’s a slap in the face. It’s insulting, and it’s just wrong,” Brown said.
For the past two months, Brown and his grandson have been trying to get answers out of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, where the Honda originated.
They said the apologetic team at the airport refunded Brown’s grandson and said the prior renter likely changed the message in the car’s settings.
Then, a letter showed up from the corporate office suspending the grandson’s ability to rent cars because of an unpaid balance.
Brown said he was irked because none of the communications included an apology or a promise to check dashboards in the future.
“We’re going to check gas… not only scratches and see if there was anybody smoking or if there was a dog in the car, but we’re going to check the screens and make sure there’s no derogatory messaging on there to offend anybody,” Brown said.
Channel 11 reached out to Enterprise to ask if dashboard welcome messages were part of the checks when a car was returned. No one responded to the email Monday.
“We paid our dues and to still be considered less than human and not even be given a an apology and thrown that word in your face… it’s insulting,” Brown said.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW