Enterprise wouldn’t replace Melissa’s rental car even after a mechanic declared the tire on her current car “unrepairable,” and warned that it would be unsafe to drive 400+ miles back to New York from Rochester on a donut spare. Enterprise told Melissa to spend the day repairing the car at a garage at her own expense. Melissa, who was recovering from surgery, asked to swap her broken car for one that worked, a request Enterprise repeatedly denied.
Melissa writes:
I have a rental car from Enterprise in Manhattan. I rented the car on Sunday, August 17, in order to visit my parents in Rochester, NY and to have a necessary medical procedure performed there. After driving to Rochester, I noticed that the tire on the car had become dangerously low. I contacted my local branch on August 18 to see what could be done. I was told that I would have to go to a garage myself, wait for them to fix the tire and pay for it at my own expense. I did not have time for this, nor did I think the cost was my responsibility. I asked if I could simply receive a new car. Apparently, because Rochester and Manhattan are in two different “zones” they cannot switch the car without the Manhattan manager’s approval. I called the Manhattan branch, where I was again told that I needed to fix the tire at my own time and expense. The evening of August 19, I called the Customer Service number and spoke to a representative, Drew. He said that because the Manhattan branch was closed, I could not switch out the car at that time.
Three days after arriving in Rochester, I was still in possession of a faulty car. Since I am only in the area about 5 days out of the year, my schedule was jam-packed, and I did not have time to go to a mechanic. Also, one of the reasons for not owning a car is that I did not want to have to deal with car repairs. This morning, August 20, I underwent a medical procedure requiring anesthesia. Because of the medication I was given, I am not permitted to drive for 24 hours. After arriving home (I was driven by my mom in her vehicle), I decided to call Enterprise again to try to get the problem resolved. I spoke to Barb, who connected me with roadside assistance. A representative from AAA was sent out at approximately 2pm. He inspected the tire and determined that it was unrepairable and replaced it with the spare. However, the spare is only a temporary “donut” and so cannot be driven 400 miles at highway speeds to Manhattan.
I again called Enterprise customer service at 2:45pm on August 20. I explained the situation, and was connected to what I believe was the Manhattan office, though I was never told. However, as I was trying to explain that I could not drive to another branch because of the anesthesia, the representative became confused and hung up on me. I called customer service again, and was again disconnected. On the third try of the hour, I was finally connected to a very helpful individual, whose name I believe was David. I explained the situation for what felt like the millionth time, and he tried to work out a solution. I was told to go to a branch 12 miles from my parents’ house and I would receive a new car. However, after explaining again that I could not legally drive until Thursday, I requested that Enterprise “pick me up” as they advertise on TV. He said that the distance was too long, to which I replied that there was a closer branch. I was told that my mother, who was not authorized to drive the car, could drive to the closest branch without an issue, and they would give me a new car. However, after arriving at the Brockport branch I was told that I could not get a new car and that I would have to go to a service station and have the car repaired. I explained that I did not have time for that, and that another branch with an available car should bring that vehicle to my location. This request was refused. The only other option I was given was to drive to the other, larger location tomorrow and hope they give me another car.
I do not own a car, in large part because I do not want to deal with the hassles of owning a car. I rented a car so that I could drive between Manhattan and Rochester and also so that I would not need to borrow my parents’ car while in Rochester, since I have a busy schedule and they work. I have already spent three days calling different representatives and waiting for a mechanic to change the tire. Unfortunately, since the problem was not resolved sooner, an Enterprise representative would need to deliver a new car to me because of my medical situation today. However, this is not merely an issue of poor customer service, it is also an issue of safety. The mechanic determined that the car was unsafe to drive back to Manhattan. It is possible that the problem could be resolved by getting a new tire, however, I do not believe it is the customer’s responsibility to take time out of their vacation to repair a car that was faulty to begin with. I am shocked that such a large company has such a dysfunctional rental car system, especially a rental company that prides itself on customer service and “picking up” the customer.
I am extremely dissatisfied with the level of service that I have received. I am struggling to understand why it is so difficult for a rental car company to swap out a customer’s broken rental car. Unless this matter is resolved to my satisfaction before I return to Manhattan, I do not intend to rent from Enterprise in the future.
Your time and safety shouldn’t fall prey to Enterprise’s bureaucratic incompetence. Try using Enterprise’s email format to reach higher-ups who can order their subordinates to respect common sense and replace the busted rental.
(AP Photo/James A. Finley)
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@drdom: I rented from Enterprise ONCE. Once. Los Angeles, not too far from Topanga. Had my car totalled and needed a loaner. The rep walked around the car and had me sign off on the overly detailed forms about the car’s condition. I get in and drive off. Look over on the passenger seat and it’s COVERED with individual staples – like someone had a party with a staple remover and a file cabinet full of documents. Obviously, at least that Enterprise location isn’t big on cleaning up their cars. Thankfully I wasn’t driving with someone in a nice outfit or bare legs.
That was about 16 years ago now, haven’t given Enterprise a dime since. Second the vote for Hertz – maybe pay a little more than the low-end companies (often not with AAA), but they treat me well, often get free upgrades, the cars work or they make it right, and I’ve never had a filthy or dangerous interior like I experienced at Enterprise.
Enterprise seems to be the “Uhaul” of car rental companies, and although there’s probably all sorts of wiggle room in their fine print to put problems with their cars onto customers, they could have found some way to offer more than no help to this lady. Boy, I’m glad I’ve stuck with Hertz.
For all of you recommending Enterprise as being cheapest, I recommend carrentals.com. They survey all the major rental car companies for their best rates for a particular rental. It’s extremely rare for Enterprise to be anywhere near the cheapest.
BTW, I rent on a regular basis for business travel, and I’ve never once had a rental car company tell me to have something fixed at my expense and they would reimburse me. It’s either been that they’ve sent someone out to fix things or sent out a new car. Hell, Avis even sent out a second set of keys for me when I was stupid enough to lock my keys in the trunk of one rental. And yes, they were the cheapest company for that particular rental (I’m a cheap bastard.)
Earlier this summer on a vacation in San Francisco, I rented a car from Enterprise for about a week. The total I was initially quoted was about 250. When we returned the car, the guy came out with a receipt for 100. I bit my tongue and assumed he had just made an error, but sure enough, my credit card only had the 100 charged to it. I was happy about it but it does not give me much confidence in Enterprise’s organizational skills.
@tmweber: There is a button one can click which takes off all the insurance options when estimating charges. Most of the time they leave it checked so the amounts will print out on the contract and they can try to sell them to you (if un-checked, the amounts won’t print). Inexperienced folks will often forget to unclick it when giving estimates, and as in your case the final figure will vary wildly.
The thing about ERAC is you never know whether the person helping you has been there 20 days or 20 years, as there are no name tags and sometimes higher-ups would come by and type up a few contracts. As you might imagine, the experience varies wildly as well
@BeeBoo: Amtrak schedule from ROC to NYC for today:
Train sold out
Train sold out
Upgrade option available– buy $147 bedroom seat
Train sold out
Fare is normally $92 one way coach, 7 hour 33 minute trip
@scoosdad: What got cut off at the bottom of my comment was, that Amtrak is great if you can plan ahead but it’s not something you want to depend on using if it’s last-minute in the Northeast.
Having just traveled from Wrentham MA to Rochester NY with no driver side window, I can’t say I’m impressed with Enterprise’s roadside assistance. We lost the window during a smash-and-grab at the Wrentham Premium Outlet Mall (another story). While the Enterprise rep on the phone was friendly, she was of no real help. Our only option was to drive from Wrentham to Albany NY to exchange our van for another rental.
Mind you, this happened on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. As we approached Albany we took a vote and decided to continue to Rochester with the broken window. At least the staff @ Wrentham Premium Outlets helped us clean up the broken glass and vacuumed out our van.
After reading through the other comments on this post I’ve had nothing but pleasant experiences with Hertz; I rented from them when on Nantucket and received a free upgrade from a Nissan Sedan to a Subaru Outback. Will rent from them again!
As far as taking Amtrak? I’ve had mixed results when taking the train, with delays up to 5 hours.
I can attest to some of the comments in this thread about Enterprise employees getting paid overtime. I know there were a few branches that had some problems in the past but as a whole, ERAC pays its employees for overtime past 40 hours in a week. As another note, almost every rental employee and an Enterprise rental desk has a 4 year degree, it’s a requirement of the job and seemingly of the economy as of late.
As to comment on the OP’s situation. It becomes very difficult for Enterprise to determine whether your problem was caused by you or if there was a problem with the tire. Enterprise is the largest rental car company in the USA and there are tons and tons of customers who try to rip them off.
I would have probably just replaced the tire and asked for a reimbursement when I returned.
A lot of companies are staffed with people who simply don’t care. In the end, if something happens, the firm is to blame and the employee is absolved…
@Pylon83:
In some states, they won’t accept the liability of replacing one worn out tire. In the OP’s case, I was assuming wear out, not a sliced sidewall. Most state laws require a minimum tread depth and reputable shops will not touch a car if it will leave with any tire outside the legal limits.
As for being a pushover, not hardly, but I do know that it is a dumb idea to replace one worn out tire.
I also know this is a rental, which is why I recommend telling Enterprise to shove it and fix the tire themselves.
I had a similar experience…I rented a truck from Enterprise and drove approximately 300 miles, the entire time it felt as if I was hydroplaning. Upon getting to my destination I mentioned that to a coworker of mine, upon inspecting the tires there was approximately 4 inches of exposed steel radial and the individual wires were jutting out as far as an inch. It appeared that the camber on the front end was horribly misaligned. Knowing that my tire could blow out at anytime I called Enterprise, I told the representative my situation and that I would be unavailable due to the fact that I was working and on business the entire day, and that someone should arrive and switch vehicles with me as it was their error in the first place. She told me that she would talk to a supervisor and placed me on hold. I waited on hold for 45 minutes, then she simply hung up on me…unbelievable. I called back and told them my situation again, and how I was previously treated. The next woman that I talked to was very reasonable and connected me to a local office. The local office told me they would like to see what they could do regarding the situation and would call me back in 15 minutes, an hour goes by and no phone call. So I initiated the call, and was promptly put on hold, I waited and waited, another 30 minutes on hold. I picked up another phone and called them again and the guy asked if he could put me on hold, being very aggravated at this point I firmly told him no, that I was tired of being placed on hold and dealing with their poor customer service. So he dealt with me on the phone and again refused to provide an alternate car for me, that I would have to take the truck to be repaired on my own time, so after arguing with him I said fine, I would take it to get the tires replaced. I drove to the tire place and walked in and told him that I had an Enterprise vehicle, the clerk at the front desk told me that due to a dispute that they had with Enterprise they would no longer be providing them any tire replacement/repair services. Now being far more aggravated, I placed a second call, and I told them how pathetic their service is, etc… So the guy feeling somewhat humiliated had an escort come out and show me the way as I was not even remotely familiar with the area, upon arriving to Enterprise I had to wait over an hour for a replacement vehicle…
I haven’t rented from Enterprise Rent-a-car before, but have rented 26′ box trucks from the truck division. I had a less than steller experience with a broken down truck which cost me about 4 hours of wait time when the replacement truck broke down.
Needless to say, if I were the OP and the tire going low was truly not my fault (didn’t hit any potholes or boards or anything like that), I would rent a car from another company in rochester and Enterprise would find their car on the side of some dirt road in the country. I would then send them the bill for the replacement rental.
It’s just common sense to replace the tire at the companies expense.
One can find horror stories about any car rental company. The vast, vast majority of the time, these companies do an OK job. This based on 25 years experience with many different companies and common sense.
Mule
I have had great experiences with many rental services, but im my opinion, just buy a Winnebago.
Wow, I mean, just… wow.
If you need a company that can support your medical lifestyle, you’ll need to inquire with them in advance. If I have a meal at a restaurant and start choking on it, I don’t expect anything past one of the employees having read the Heimlich maneuverer check sheet in the employee break room to help me. If I were going to be in an incredibly frail state and expected to be waited on hand and foot, I’d have my lunch in the nursing home. Or at home with family.
Moral of the story: If you’re in this sort of shape, don’t rent a car. Use the taxi, or, better yet, if it’s a one-off thing, get your family/friends to drive you around.
Taxi = They drive to you.
Rental Car = You drive to them. At least when dropping it off. Except in special cases.
Sorry, but really, unless you are in the desert, there’s a garage under 10 minutes away that will be happy to put one new tire on in way less than 15 minutes. And since you had a partial flat, you didn’t even need to worry about driving on the toy wheel if you hadn’t futzed about, you could have just (at a reduced speed) driven there!
I am 99% certain Enterprise would have reimbursed you for the cost of the tire. And if you didn’t have the ~$75 for the tire & service, I expect Enterprise would have (smartly) not rented to you in the first place.
As for places that will only repair 4 tires at once, I’ve never heard of such a place in my life, ever. And, being the cheap bastard I am, I phoned TWO DOZEN places with tires not only in my city, but also the major city a 2 hour drive away (Conclusion: It was cheaper, gas wise, for me to drive for 4 hours and get the tires done there, by about $100, so I did it). I ended up getting all 4 tires done only because they were so damn cheap, but I was quoted for just one.
I have to hop in here and say that Enterprise is by far my favorite car rental company. I don’t know how they do it, but the morale and attitude of their staffs has been remarkably high every time I’ve rented from them, in at least six different cities. I just turned in a rental of theirs today, and all three employees I dealt with were genuinely nice, friendly, and respectful.
That said, as the former employee pointed out, they’re not really a national chain the way Hertz and Avis are, so if you’re going long distance, things can get complicated.
But they’re my go-to choice. Admittedly, I’ve never had to test them with a big problem – but I can tell a story about my parents and a bad set of tires from Hertz that makes this one seem kinda tame! I think muledoggie is right – there are horror stories out there for any big company.
I don’t know what rental company it was, but my parents once had a rental car’s fuel pump go out while on vacation and the rental company expected them to have it towed to a shop, wait for it to be fixed, and pay for it to be repaired. They were in some out-of-the-way place where there were no local dealers for that make of car and it was going to take at least a day just to get the part.
My dad told them where by the side of the road they could find it, called his credit card company and disputed all charges, and rented another car from somewhere else. AMEX for the win.
@god_forbids: Wow. That the business can even remain working with that level of organizational separation amazes and frightens me.
@Pylon83: It isn’t “relevant” that she’s incredibly sick and can’t drive? It’s absolutely mind-boggling to me that people believe “customer service” should have NOTHING to do with the customer’s individual needs. Is there such a thing as an unreasonable request by a customer? Yes. Did she make an unreasonable request? No. Was she given contradictory information multiple times? Yes. How anybody gets from such clearly demonstrated bureaucratic incompetence to blaming the OP is beyond me.
You know, I’d love to see a show like Dateline do a story on crooked car rental places. Have them rent a car, use a hidden camera and then park and take pictures of the car (for proof). Then, drive on one one of those stationary things (kind of like a dyno, so the car has some mileage on the odometer but hasn’t actually gone anywhere). Have them take the car back to the rental place, wait for them to tell them there’s damage on the car, and then show them video of what they actually did with the car and see how they justify it (and see how many car rental places do the same thing).
@Byzantine: uhm, most cars today are typically sold with donut temporary spare tire for a several reasons- 1. save car mfg money, 2. reduce weight for corporate fuel mpg goals, and 3. probably due to the fact that mechanics don’t rotate 5 tires anymore (does anyone remember the VW Jetta??? ad with the two mechanics in awe over the full size spare?)
Most trucks/suvs have a full sized tire (probably for handling/weight/towing liability) but only on a “cheapo” wheel that doesn’t match the rest of the vehicle’s wheels such as a painted black or silver steel wheel when the vehicle has aluminum or chrome wheels. I was amazed that my now ex-wife’s high end 2001 Dodge Durango SLT AWD came with a matching alloy rim spare but when the ex-inlaws bought a lower end SXT 4WD Durango it had the same alloy rims as the SLT but with a cheap steel full size spare. Swapping this spare tire with a worn tire is a way to save money when replacing the tires- only have to buy 3 new ones…
That said , most cars have the space for a full size spare. The donut spare is one of the first things that I replace with a full size spare when buying a used car. If the vehicle has steel wheels usually with a junkyard sourced wheel and cheap used tire, or if it has OEM alloy rims I try to source a junkyard rim but put a good tire on it to rotate through the rest of the wheels.
One thing to note is always inspect used cars/trucks for spare/tire changing equipment. Many lower end used car places seem to either remove that stuff as part of their business model or buy auction cars without the equipment included.
After the two times of a trying to explain reservation means reserving a vehicle (the last one involving calling corporate, them telling the local people to get on the ball, and still not getting a vehicle), I refuse to do business with them ever again. Hertz is more expensive, but I have never had issues with them. Enterprise I always had issues with, every single time. It is worth the extra money to use their competition just to not have to deal with their nonsense.
I rent a car almost every other weekend and my first choice is Enterprise. I’ve never had issues with them at several of their shops in the Toronto area. Good rates and good small economical cars. Once the car was pretty dirty and they offered an additional 15% discount on the spot. The only problem with Enterprise is that they are never open on Sundays.
Avis is my #2 choice and I am very happy with them too. In Calgary, they offer a discount if you show them your monthly public transportation pass.
Hertz used to be my #1, but I stopped going to them because they are consistently 25% more expensive and it became harder to find/receive discounts. Plus, the CDP code I received from work (I work for a huge Global US company) for personal use is 20% MORE expensive than with no code at all. That has really put me off for years.
To the OP,
oops, to the OP, I get your point of view, but sometimes sticking to principles causes more trouble than biting the bullet.
@mariospants: “A rental car is transportation.
A rental car with insurance is entertainment.”
– I hate that expression.
Six months after the original post; I am appalled at Enterprise.
I had an experience with them in Boise, Idaho a couple of years ago where my reserved vehicle was not avaailable for several days when my car was supposed to be in for body work. I was able to walk back to the dealership and retrieve my car until they had the vehicle. Then they tried an upsale to a larger (and the only available) vehicle and pushed insurance.
Needless to say, consumers have better choices than to do business with Enterprise.