A Pittsburgh family says they want answers after a racial slur appeared on the dashboard of their rental car.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t the text that got his attention, though. It was the photo that came with it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“It’s a slap in the face. It’s insulting, and it’s just wrong,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Then, a letter showed up from the corporate office suspending the grandson’s ability to rent cars because of an unpaid balance.<\/p>\n
Brown said he was irked because none of the communications included an apology or a promise to check dashboards in the future.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to check gas\u2026 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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\u2026 it’s insulting,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
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