Reader P. works for one of those big national car rental companies, on the customer service front lines. She has some insights for how to get on the good side of car rental employees, how to make sure the car you ordered ends up where you need it, and the potential hazards of online reservation systems.
1. If you make your reservation online, PLEASE GIVE A PHONE NUMBER AND/OR EMAIL ADDRESS!!! We would love to confirm your reservation with you, but we’re not mind readers. The reservation/rental system I am forced to use is DOS-based (oh! the shame!) and leaves a lot to be desired as far as being user-friendly.
2. If you make your reservation online, be proactive and call the station where you’ll be picking up your vehicle to verify that the reservation went through and that your desired car will be on the lot. Should you have to do this? No, you shouldn’t. But what’s the harm in giving a heads up so that potential difficulties can be headed off at the pass?
3. We don’t grow cars on our lot. Our cars are constantly moving to and from location depending on demand. “Specialty” vehicles ñ things like 15-passenger vans, minivans, or high-end cars like sports cars, Infinitis, Lincoln Navigators and Town Cars, etc. need at least one week lead time to ensure you can reserve one.
Additionally, just because the online system allows you to reserve a certain type of car, it does NOT mean we actually have that car at the station you want to use. Please ñ call us and confirm.
4. Regarding availability ñ right now, a lot of car rental places are very tight on inventory because of the credit crunch, the general state of auto manufacturers, etc., so finding that “perfect” rental car might be even more difficult.
During peak times ñ holiday weekends, vacation months, special event days ñ”specialty” vehicles like minivans, 15-passenger vans and high-end vehicles may be very scarce or even impossible to obtain.
5. Be a pal and let us know when you aren’t going to honor your reservation. This isn’t such a big deal on a one day rental, but if you have a reservation for a week or for a specialty vehicle, please do the Christ-like thing and call and release the vehicle so we can possibly rent to someone else.
6. Regarding minivans and 15-passenger vans ñ a lot of rental franchises require a minimum rental period ñ especially during the summer months when people are taking vacations. Do not take this out on your local station; they have rules they have to abide by and are not doing this just to ruin your day.
7. Regarding truck rentals ñ I’m sorry that you have to rent a big old truck to move that big old widget you got for free on Craigslist. Yes, I realize the truck rental is costing you more than the widget. Yes, I recognize the cruel irony of this, but life is like that sometimes.
8. Speaking for my station, you must be at least 21 to rent a car. Renters 25 and younger are subject to an additional $25 per day surcharge. Again ñ I’m not doing this to cramp your youthful style, dude ñ it’s a rule of my boss. This also means that no, you can’t rent that fancy car for your senior prom, but your mom can (you still can’t drive it, though ñ sorry)
9. Regarding coupons/discounts ñ you generally have to bring the specific coupon with you when you pick up your card. Saying “I work for AT&T” doesn’t cut it ñ sorry. If that were the case, ALL of my customers would work for AT&T. If you *do* work for a company that has a discount with a rental agency, it is best that you make your reservation through your company, not in person, if you want that discount. If you’re using a coupon, please read it carefully. Some require a minimum rental period. Others require a certain class of car. I can’t give you what your coupon doesn’t provide for.
10. Regarding insurance on rental vehicles. I am required to advise you that insurance is available (loss damage waiver, additional liability policy, etc.). You are NOT required to take the insurance. HOWEVER ñ you must be aware of what your credit card or personal auto insurance does or does not cover. I cannot tell you this ñ don’t say “I have Allstate ñ what do they cover?” I haven’t a clue ñ sorry. I can say that, generally speaking, your auto policy/credit card does NOT cover rental trucks, and in a lot of cases, this includes SUVs and minivans. It’s your responsibility to find out ñ not mine.
11. When you do make a reservation online, whatever rate you requested is the rate that my system processes. I do not choose the rate – you did when you asked for unlimited mileage or a car seat or a GPS or asked to take the insurances available on a rental. Sometimes I can amend these items, but it can possibly affect your rate for the negative.
12. At my station, if you want to rent a car for someone and you aren’t here in person, you will have to fax me front and back of your credit card, front and back of your driver’s license and a signed statement authorizing the use of your card for this rental. Additionally, the person for whom you’re renting will be considered a secondary driver and a $25/day fee will apply.
13. Regarding debit cards: when you rent, depending on the type/length of rental, our system is going to get anywhere from a $200 to a $400 authorization on your card. This means $200 – $400 is going to be *frozen* on your debit card until you return the vehicle and your transaction is closed out. At least 2 times a week, this conversation transpires:
Customer: Can I rent a car with a debit card?
Me: Sure. We’ll take a $200 – $400 authorization/freeze on the card.
Customer: Oh. I only have like $23.47 in that account.
Me: (head asplodes)Translation: The customer wants me to let him drive off my lot in a $45,000 car with absolutely no guarantee or deposit on his part. And no, we don’t rent on a cash deposit or a check.
Any questions for P.? Leave them in comments and we’ll pass them along.
RELATED: Uhaul Dealer’s Tips For Happier Renting
(Photo: Osbournes Life)
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I work for a rental car company. Some of these tips are merely facts. I apparently don’t work for the same company as the author, but the rules tend to be the same across the board.
While calling to ensure you’re getting the car you want might sound like a good idea, if you’re booked in anything besides a luxury, hybrid, or specialty, there is no need to call. My company cannot guarantee you’ll get that 2009 Nissan Versa you had your heart on. You might get a Hyundai Accent, who knows!
But I would add something to the list: We have to ask the questions we ask. It’s not that when we offer you a bigger car we think the one you’re booked in is crap, we just have to ask. With all the downsizing going on everywhere, even a silly thing like not trying to upgrade a customer could eventually cost us our jobs. So please be kind to us. I am not offended or upset when you say no. I just have to do my job.
Wow, when the customer is less than stellar on our part of the rental experience, the worst that happens is that she (rental worker) is on the phone an extra 10 minutes. When the rental company doesn’t come through, we’re 1) stranded with no car, 2) accused of damage, 3) left waiting for hours, 4) out money… so I wonder who should be giving out the “tips” in this article?
My finest rental moment came when I lost the key to my rental car down a storm drain when trying to unlock the door. I was only issued one key and the “enterprise” from which I rented had no extra key to my car. I was stranded. I called and asked what I should do – the worker said she didn’t know! Tell me this is the first time in history that a customer lost their key. Surely there is a protocol to follow? Nope.
Rental main office had no ideas, either. They said they’d call the magic home office key farm and find out if they had a spare – they’d call me back in 72 hours! huh, if I didn’t need my stuff or a car for 72 hours I guess that would work out just fine. How funny that this was a never-to-be-anticipated problem for the rental car company to be faced with.
I have never come close to getting a car even resembling what I ask for when making a reservation. Last summer I reserved a 4-door sedan to move people around, and all Enterprise had was a 2-door coupe. Once I reserved a compact, but instead got a 6-wheeled diesel pickup, 16 ft long that was impossible to park. The low point was when my mother became fatally ill in a distant city, all Enterprise had for me was a rickety 4 cyl Korean model with hand-cranked windows and so little power I was almost killed on the freeway. I see other people driving off the lots in cool cars: HOW DO I GET ONE OF THOSE?? Reserving in advance DOES NOT WORK.
Another tip is to go over the car with a fine toothed comb. just rented a car over the weekend and when I brought it back they discovered a previously undetected scratch. This is a rental car with 40k miles on it and scuffed up body work. I signed the waiver when I picked it up because I was in a rush and they are trying to ding my Amex now for damages. Total BS, but they may get away with it because of the waiver I signed.
Debit card? Really? The last few times I tried renting with a debit card they treated me like I was obviously trying to steal the car. They ran a credit check on me, and since it wasn’t 100% stellar, turned me down. Then when I pointed out that my account contained twice the amount they wanted to hold they told me, “But it’s a *debit* card, you could just go withdraw all that money from the bank and the hold would be useless!”
Uh. Right.
Some random observations (from a guy who rents cars 30+ times a year):
1. car rental is the only business where the quoted “per day” rate is ~30-50% of what you will actually pay. Cities all over North America have added “screw out-of-towners with hotel and car rental taxes because they don’t live or vote here”. If you are quoted $20 a day on priceline, expect to pay $40-60 when all is said and done. It’s a little better in Europe, not much.
2. Recently I have noticed that the “hourly” rate is almost the same as an extra day – so after spending 45 minutes getting lost in Newark trying to buy gas, I was hit with $67 for an extra hour on a rental that was $80 /day. So don’t stress, 31 minutes is about the same as 23 hours if you are late, may as well have the extra 22.5 hours.
3. I’m convinced rental agencies have an “a**hole” button on their systems. I you are never getting upgraded you must have been mean to someone once. I had a boss who could be a jerk – we would alsways get upgraded to convertibles, SUVs, etc. and even though he travelled 45 weeks a year, he was *always* given the beige Taurus.
And by the way, don’t bother ever renting in Manhattan – every single location of every company I have ever used is awful. Take a train to one of the airports.
1. If you make your reservation online, PLEASE GIVE A PHONE NUMBER AND/OR EMAIL ADDRESS!!! We would love to confirm your reservation with you, but we’re not mind readers. The reservation/rental system I am forced to use is DOS-based (oh! the shame!) and leaves a lot to be desired as far as being user-friendly.
Translation: We (the “company”) are too damn cheap to update our systems to provide excellent customer service and a superior rental experience. DOS based systems in a business environment where agents have to interact directly (i.e. face-to-face) with the customer. Are you kidding? That’s shameful.
2. If you make your reservation online, be proactive and call the station where you’ll be picking up your vehicle to verify that the reservation went through and that your desired car will be on the lot. Should you have to do this? No, you shouldn’t. But what’s the harm in giving a heads up so that potential difficulties can be headed off at the pass?
Translation: Your DOS based systems and shoddy business processes are deficient and can’t support your business and the level of customer service you SHOULD be providing. If the “company” had a freakin’ clue what they hell they were doing and weren’t so damn cheap, they would have appropriate business processes and systems in place. The harm in me calling is that I lose 10 or more minutes of my life dealing with your incompetent rental representative to do something that I’m paying your piss-poor company to do in the first place. Also, don’t tell me what to do! I’ll call if I please. Perhaps I don’t want to expend more of my resources to “head things off at the pass” and would rather deal with it “when we cross that bridge”.
3. We don’t grow cars on our lot. Our cars are constantly moving to and from location depending on demand. “Specialty” vehicles – things like 15-passenger vans, minivans, or high-end cars like sports cars, Infinitis, Lincoln Navigators and Town Cars, etc. need at least one week lead time to ensure you can reserve one.
Additionally, just because the online system allows you to reserve a certain type of car, it does NOT mean we actually have that car at the station you want to use. Please – call us and confirm.
Translation: We haven’t a clue how to run our business and will make promises we can’t keep because our front end system interface (i.e. online reservations) is nothing but smoke and mirrors enticing you, paying customer, into a hellish car rental experience. Again, don’t tell me what to do! I’m tired of you suggesting that I need to do your job for you while I pay you for it!
4. Regarding availability – right now, a lot of car rental places are very tight on inventory because of the credit crunch, the general state of auto manufacturers, etc., so finding that “perfect” rental car might be even more difficult.
During peak times – holiday weekends, vacation months, special event days -”specialty” vehicles like minivans, 15-passenger vans and high-end vehicles may be very scarce or even impossible to obtain.
Translation: We’ll seize any opportunity (e.g. credit-crunch) to justify the lousy customer service we provide and deflect any customer service complaints. General state of the auto manufacturers? If you’d of bought more of their vehicles to ensure that you actually could provide the vehicles you promise, the auto manufacturers may not be half as bad off as they currently are.
This is pathetic and now I regret wasting my time typing this response.
Sounds like P. works for Enterprise.
Better yet – skip the car rental when you stay in bigger cities and use pub trans. Or, get a hotel within walking distance of your destination.
Car rental sucks – the business model runs on luck. You’re lucky if they have a car for you, you’re lucky if you get service, and you’re lucky if they don’t bend you over a barrel for a scratch, miles, or fuel.
Makes me not want to rent a car at all. We can’t guarantee anything so the customer needs to verify. What a crock! I hope their kidneys fail!
DOWn, baby, DOWn!
didn’t stop Hertz in downtown Manhattan failing to get me a car for over 5 hours despite having made the reservation online earlier that week.
in the end I had to catch a train. It was very good of them to not only offer no compensation, but not to apologize either.
What’s more, there were at least half-a dozen other people in the same boat as me.
nice work
One tip I abide by that seems to always get me great service at the rental counter is to sign up for whatever “Frequent Renter” program that they have. Hertz has upgraded me a ton of times just because of this, and even if I’m a first time renter with other companies, they’ll go the extra if you’re with the rewards program. Nothing like a free upgrade to make your day! Plus no questions about insurance, etc since it’s all ready on record with them.
Also, and I know that this is a stretch for a lot of you, but being nice to the person who is working the counter gets you a long ways. Like you, they have a role to play in this journey we call life, and everyone’s role is as important as the next (well, I withhold judgment on some in the financial industry but that’s for another thread). Sorry, losing one’s job makes you a tad contemplative.
I used to go to Las Vegas fairly regularly for work and pleasure. My favorite trick whenever I was traveling alone was to always reserve the cheapest class of car available and to make sure my flight arrived in the afternoon.
Didn’t matter what company I booked with, by about Noon, they were always out of the cheap cars and I would score a free upgrade of at least 1 class level.
Another reason to call to confirm your online reservation? To make sure you, the customer, actually made the reservation correctly. I’ve had countless customers come up to my counter getting upset when I don’t see their reservation on my list and they haven’t bothered to bring their print out. Come to find out they either made it for the wrong day, the wrong location, or even the wrong city! I even had one guy who couldn’t even spell his name right on the reservation so I couldn’t find it.
Next, please do not make a reservation through an online discount site and not read the fine print. They will tell you online the rules and regulations for the company you wish to rent with. Such as whether they take debit cards at all (some still don’t) or whether a credit check is required if they do. (And yes you still need a credit card to pick up the car even if you already paid for it. We need verification that you can pay if you decide to keep the car longer than your reserved time or if you decide not to bring it back full.) They will also let you know whether a hold on your credit card is required. Or they will just tell you to call that location to verify their requirements. So don’t come up to my counter, shove your reservation page in my face and claim that no where on that page does it say that we don’t take prepaid debits cards. Because all I will do is silently take my highlighter and highlight that specific sentence on your paper and hand it right back to you.
And yes, maybe it’s not the ‘right’ thing to do but if you come up to my counter with an attitude and act bitchy with me before I even have the chance to help you, I will not be inclined to give you the nicest car or best service or be willing to help you in any way if there is a problem. I’m just human that way. Sorry if that upsets you, but just being nice and polite can really take you a long way. It’s a nice relief from the rest of our customers.
My favorite rental story… Milwaukee in December, reserved a compact, got a PT Cruiser convertible. It was ten degrees outside, but we thought it would be good for a laugh and a few pictures, so we went with it without bitching. It was all fun and games until we got on the freeway going towards Green Bay, and discovered in the worst possible way that the washer reservoir was filled with good ol’ pure, un-de-ice-inated water. After a few near misses, lots of foul language, and some Ace Ventura style driving, we managed to get to a gas station and rectify the situation. To the company’s credit, when we returned it and I explained what had happened (in only semi-colorful language), we wound up paying roughly half price. It could have been a lot worse.