Andrew rented a car from Enterprise, which told him online it would charge $37.71 for a one-day rental. When he showed up at the branch, Enterprise said he’d have to pay more than three times that amount because he wouldn’t be allowed to drop his car off until two days later.
He writes:
I recently rented a car from enterprise online via their online reservation service. I was told that the rental would cost $37.71 for the day. When I got to the branch, the whole story changed and my price was changed to $129.11. They claimed that I could not drop it off on a Saturday and that I would need to pay for three days, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I needed to drop the car on Saturday since my flight out was leaving.I could have refused the rental, however I would have a difficult time renting a car elsewhere without a ride. They wouldn’t even honor my daily rate in my online reservation.
I tried to speak to the assistant manager, manager, and a phone rep and nothing could be done other than refusing their terms set forth once I got there and paying a cancellation fee.
What would you have done in Andrew’s situation? It’s easy to say you would refuse the rental and take your chances elsewhere, but it seemed he didn’t have much wiggle room.
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I don’t know what I would have done once I got there, but I like to check in advance if locations are corporate-owned. It’s been my experience that the franchises are much more likely to pull this type of nonsense.
I’ve never met an Enterprise location that hasn’t gone out of it’s way to screw me over as much as they could get away with. Unfortunately, they are also almost always the only ones available when I actually need to rent a car.
I have to say that I rented from the Denver Airport location last month, and I have never had such a great car-rental experience. Fast, friendly, great car, great bus service, no unexpected charges.
A+++ highly recommended.
Thank you, Denver Airport Enterprise franchise Branch Manager.
(Kidding. At least I hope so.
)
He’s actually the assistant manager! lol
Assistant to the manager, perhaps.
that reads like e-bay feedback. QUICK SHIPPING!!!!1
I had one experience with them and that was too many!
My local enterprise keeps screwing my over by giving me “free” upgrades from an economy car to a Ford Expedition. Seriously. I just want a small 35 mpg car to get to work while mine is in the shop, and every time I end up driving a 12mpg boat and paying more for gas than I payed for the rental.
I agree. When looking to rent a vehicle to drive to Vegas, we found this flaw with our local car-rental company, and chose a corporate location the next town over. The price was a bit more, but facilitated our 6:15 pm pickup and allowed us to extend our trip an extra day by calling over the phone.
I tend to avoid non-corporate locations simply because they usually don’t accept coupons/discounts. Kills two birds with one stone.
True, true. Except our local Enterprise (which I have to use because they have a contract with my employer), is a franchise and they only charge the per-day rate even though they’re closed Sat/Sun. So, they have absolutely no idea if the car is being returned Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Theoretically I could keep the car for another day for free and they’d never know – they only charge for the days in the reservation. If I were to try to book the same car on the website without my employer’s contract code I’d be told that I can’t return a car between 6pm Friday and 8am Monday and the price would be adjusted accordingly.
I can totally understand why the other place doesn’t wan to run the risk…but then it should be clear on the website, and if they can’t honor the contracted price then they should waive the cancellation fee.
In this day and age when everything is open late and 7 days a week. It’s still shocking to me that Most rental car companies and Banks still operate like it’s 1950.
How about you rent it and drop it off Saturday and do a charge back on your card.
Won’t work. It is an authorized charge
Except the charge violates his printed, contracted rate he received prior to renting the car.
But not the printed contract he would have to sign before they let him drive said car off the lot.
A quote is not a contract – the contract is the paperwork he had to sign to drive the car off of the lot, agreeing to the higher charge. You might win in the court of public opinion, but you wouldn’t in any other. It’s an authorized charge, and it’s a valid contract at the higher rate.
I agree with all of the other comments on hours/days though – opening late and closing early might be cheaper for the business, but it’s a PITA for most of their customers.
IANAL, but isn’t the price quoted on the website akin to some form of “good faith” contract or something of that nature? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
Merchant agreements have performance requirements, especially AMEX. I always use AMEX when traveling or buying something over the interweb. On the rae occasions that I have had an problem, AMEX reversed the charge I heard no more about it.
I’m thinking along the same lines……seems to me, a website quote would be akin to an “advertised price”…if we go into the supermarket and have an ad that says “item x costs y” and then they try to charge z, the consumer gets to say “no way, uh uh” and gets the advertised price. How is this different?
If it wasn’t a contract – then how is he being charged a fee for backing out.
Except they make the printed “quote” a contract by not allowing him to back out without a penalty, thus his actions were taken under duress. Not only could he do a charge back, but he could file a small claims suit.
No way an mediator wouldn’t hand enterprise their ass over this. (not sure about other states NJ is mediator before judge, if you go to the judge and you don’t solve your differences with the mediator, you’re in a world of shit)
Except he would have then agreed to the new rate, had he signed the new contract.
I’m not saying that Enterprise aren’t douchebags for pulling this on him (they are) but a rate quote ain’t good for nothing if you sign a new contract with a different rate. Chargeback would fail.
Unless he manages to rent the car without signing any sort of agreement to pay $129, he wouldn’t stand a chance filing a chargeback.
It does not matter what you signed. All he has to do is send in the reservation and say they charged him more.
He will win the chargeback easily.
Easy to explain. It’s cheaper to staff an office 5 days instead of 7.
I’ve heard this one before. And it’s cheaper to staff an office for 0 days instead of 7, so what?
I agree. I’ve never understood why banks are only open during times when the vast majority of working people CAN’T get to them. And lately banks where I live have started closing even earlier- my bank used to be open till 6, then it went to 5, and I recently found out that they’re now closing at 4:30. WTF, banks?
A lot of banks justify this by staying open “late” on Fridays and opening for 4-5 hours on Saturday morning.
Still crappy.
Yeah. You’d think they’d open and close LATER.
You know, instead of “7am to 4pm” … shift the whole thing by 4 hours, so that the tellers are open “11am to 8pm”. The EXACT same number of hours, but, more-accessible to working people (either during Lunch, or, after work).
ugh, please no. my work shift is 11-8 and i’ve never get another errand run again!
Yeah, but who actually needs to physically go to a bank in this day and age anyway? In the past 20 years I bet I’ve been to the bank 10 times. Twice to get loans and the rest to get silly things like $1 coins and $2 bills to annoy fast food people.
Most bank patrons, I would imagine, are people who deal with banks as part of their job. That and old people. Or Luddites. Both of whom will disappear given a few years anywway.
We go all the time to access our safety deposit box. I bet we are at the bank every 2 – 3 months for passports, paperwork or whatever. We are lucky though, our bank is open until 8 pm every night.
Actually MOST car rental places are open 24/7. The ones that cater to insurance and local car repair tend to only open during the hours you pick up or drop off a car for service. Airport locations are open all the time. Most banks are open 24 hours. They have these new fangled deals called ATM’s, and the internet. The vast majority of transactions can be handled with them. I love how people decide how to run another’s business. I wonder if your boss said you will work 7 days a week or that we need to hire somebody for those other two days and therefore YOU will not get a raise. Just because you WANT it, does not mean you have a right to it.
I live in Chicago where we have no shortage of car rental companies and the only ones that are open 24/7 are airport locations. You’re assumptions are absolutely wrong. MOST car rental locations are not open 24/7. Period.
True for NYC and LA too, if you aren’t at the airport forget about returning or picking up a car after 5 or 6.
depends on where you are. i’m in a state capital and not only are the car rental locations, even at the airport, NOT open late, the airport itself is closed by 11pm. technically they close at 10pm but there are usually flights arriving late.
that doesn’t mean the car rental places stay open until the flights are in though. my former employer, an airport area hotel, used to get a lot of business from people arriving at the airport after 10 and not being able to pick up their car to get to their downtown hotel. they’d call us because we had 24 free shuttle service
I would think a taxi would be cheaper than an extra night at the hotel….
it’s not an extra night, they just switched hotels
no where I live not one place around me is open on Sunday (car rental)
Bravo, my good man/woman!!! You sir/ma’am, are a true patriot!
How dare anyone tell a business they can’t become a monopoly, engage in anti-competitve behavior, collude with other companies to price fix, etc.
One day America may even operate in a actual free market (where companies are free to collude on pricing, can strive and actually become a monopoly, allow people to become indentured servants and eventually have one company own and operate every aspect of the entire economy!!!)
What at all does your comment have to do with the one you’re replying to?
I know people are arguing that he cant do a chargeback if he signed the paperwork that is completely untrue. My mother years ago had a contract with someone for laser eye surgery for my sister. She had paid a deposit and would pay the balance when she arrived. They tried to charger her $100 more than the original contract. My sister had taken time off from work and drove quite a distance for the procedure so my mom wasnt about to walk away but didnt get anywhere arguing. She signed then as soon as she got home she called and attempted to contest the additional $100. She ended up getting the FULL amount back except for the $100 deposit she had made a few months earlier.
Companies cant bait and switch and thats what they did here. They put people in a tough situation knowing they arent going to walk away because they really have no choice.
Doing a chargeback doesn’t mean it is legal or right, and doesn’t mean the company can’t refer you to collections.
All it means was the CC company was willing to not pay the other company on your behalf.
“How about you rent it and drop it off Saturday and do a charge back on your card. “
Just because you don’t like a policy doesn’t mean that you can change it and not paying for something when you know up front your gonna be charged for it is called stealing. Please don’t encourage that kind of self entitled and dishonest behavior.
Not knowing the exact locations of everything involved, it’s hard to make recommendations. Cab, maybe? Even if it wouldn’t have saved a dime, I would have done that rather than submit to a bait-and-switch.
How far away were the other car rental locations? I’m wondering if a taxi ride and another car rental would have been cheaper.
Many car rental companies will pick you up… I can’t imagine that many would turn you down if you told them you’d be picked up in front of Enterprise…
That’s what I was thinking… It couldn’t hurt to call a couple of other locations.
Sounds to me like Enterprise pretty much had him by the balls. I probably would have done the same thing. And scratched Enterprise off my list of rental companies to work with in the future. The last time I rented from Enterprise they did some wonky things to me, too, but not nearly that bad.
I have taken to printing out all online reservations. Not that this means they will certainly honor the agreement, but it gives me more ammo in cases like this.
In this case, presuming I had a cell phone and a little cash, I would have gotten the number for another rental car agency and taken a cab.
There’s almost always some kind of fine print. I have never been able to get a final price in writing until I dropped the car off.
I gave up renting with Enterprise after my second experience with thirty wonky car classifications. First time I reserved a standard/midsize class car. I’m here expecting a Ford Fusion or Pontiac G6 (the car they advertised). Instead they gave me a very bare bone compact size Mazda3 that had crank windows. Who knew they still make cars with crank windows. Although I complained they didn’t anything larger and I would have to wait for a few hours until something returned.
Second time was a couple of months ago. Took my car in to the body shop and insure covered 80% of my rental fee due to a claim i submitted. Knowing what happened last time this time I would reserve something larger in a full size. But since insurance was covering most of it a premium size would be only $3/day more for me so why not. So im thinking maxima, avalon, taurus, or lacrosse (car that was advertised). You know something nice but not a luxury brand car. Enterprise brought my rental to the body shop.
What did I get? A 4cylinder Honda Accord LX with cloth seats and steel wheels with plastic covers. WTF. Granted Accords are nice cars but I wanted something nicer than what I have (btw, is an Accord V6) just to try out for a couple of days. I complained and they said that’s how they classified that accord. I took it bc I didn’t want to wait for a new car. Raised a complaint to enterprise corporate and they traded me with a better car but it still lingers enough now that they lost my future business.
I’d rather drive my 4 cylinder Mazda 3 than a 4 cylinder G6.. the G6 just feels slow and the 3 has much better handling.
Call your credit card company, explain the situation, and tell them you have not signed for the car yet. Request that they note this on your account for the pending chargeback, and what they recommend you do. They may tell you to sign for the car or go somewhere else. If you go somewhere else, file in small claims court with Enterprise for the cost difference between the two locations.
Just to clarify – I have done something similar before. Renting Avis one-way Chicago to Philly, my Mom’s reservation claimed to have unlimited mileage. At the airport, they tried to make her sign a form saying she agrees to pay $.40/mile or they won’t rent us the car. I had her call up the bank, explained the situation, and they said to sign it and dispute it when we arrive in Philly, making a note in her profile that she signed under duress/bait & switch/etc. Since we had the original reservation in her email, we won the dispute.
Wow, I had never ever thought of doing this. This is the right answer in my book. Call ahead to your CC before charging so they know you were under duress when signing the contract. Absolutely brilliant.
That’s weird; I’ve made online reservations with Enterprise for a Saturday, and it calculated for the whole weekend. That’s just their stupid policy.
I would have called another Enterprise location, told them of what was going on, and asked if they would honor your reservation. Then have them come pick you up.
I’ve never heard of a car rental place not letting you drop off a vehicle on a Saturday. This has scam written all over it.
I really don’t understand how the branch can play these kinds of games with you when you have an online reservation made at that location. Needless to say I’d be taking this up with corporate.
And this is one time where I would encourage the OP to contact his credit card company about getting a chargeback on the cancellation fee. They clearly did not offer the agreed-upon service and have no legitimate claim to a cancellation fee.
The Enterprise here in Cleveland plays this game, too. They’ll quote you a daily rate, and only inform you that you can’t return the car on a weekend once you’re there to get the car.
In my experience, Enterprise seems to pull this EVERYWHERE, save airport locations. But, most of the “neighborhood” locations tend to be scammy. And I’ve never been to a nice Enterprise, either. They’re always disgusting and the cars tend to be just a notch above lemons. Unfortunately, they’re cheap, so bodyshops and car dealerships LOVE to use Enterprise while my car is being worked on.
I admit I haven’t rented a car in a number of years, but I never had problems with Enterprise in the past. In fact they were always my go-to rental place. Sad to see they’ve been reduced to scamming people.
Trust me on this one: corporate won’t do squat about it.
I used to rent from Enterprise for work trips. Enterprise started pulling similar stuff on me – closing their offices on weekends and claiming I’d have to pay for the days they were closed if I returned the car after closing, and trying to charge rates other than my employer’s negotiated rate, and adding in stuff nobody requested. The only location open on weekends is at the airport – very inconvenient, and Enterprise wouldn’t pick me up to take me to that location. Enterprise also would make me stand in long lines to get my car even with a prepaid corporate reservation, and wouldn’t give me the car type I reserved even when I repeatedly called in advance to tell them that I needed a sedan, not a sportscar, not a van, not a pickup or SUV.
Finally I got permission from my employer to use my own car and collect a mileage check – it just wasn’t worth the hassle.
Wait a minute… Enterprise wouldn’t pick you up? Isn’t that, like, their corporate motto?
They’ll pick you up from anywhere EXCEPT an airport.
That’s a really awful way to treat a customer, and it looks like they lost one for life.
blow them up and ride the bus/taxi
This is why I try to do as little business as possible at airports. Get something to eat or get magazines, yes. Rent a car or buy luggage, no.
Why couldn’t he return it to them exactly? Was this at an airport enterprise? Were there not any other car rental groups? I always am told I have to pay a high amount, but I usually drop the car off earlier than I needed it for and the rate is lower when I do. The only time I had problems with Enterprise was with one in San Jose that was closed after 8pm, which was when my flight was coming in.
The Enterprise near me is closed on Sundays, and their rental reservation system blocks me from doing a Sunday return. I wonder why it didn’t do it in your case. At any rate, if you have a written agreement with Enterprise indicating the terms under which you were supposed to rent, then you should win this easily. Phone call to corporate, short letter demanding a refund, and then small claims.
Having rented from Enterprise many times there are a few things that do not make sense.
1. The online system tells you if a location is open on the weekend. If he had a “flight” as he claimed, he likely did not rent from an airport location. (These are usually cheaper because airports charge for the “service” of shuttles.
2. There are no cancellation fees on rental reservations. You can reserve a car every day and not show up. YOU ARE NOT BILLED.
3. Your daily rate of $37.71 does not include taxes or “fees” that local governing bodies may have added to the rate.
I would suggest looking at a copy of the rental reservation would help me believe the story.
“1. The online system tells you if a location is open on the weekend. If he had a “flight” as he claimed, he likely did not rent from an airport location. (These are usually cheaper because airports charge for the “service” of shuttles.”
This isn’t always true. Where I live, it is far cheaper to rent from the airport rather than neighborhood locations and I’ve never had a shuttle service charge to get from the terminal to the rental location. I’ve also found discrepancies online between what was posted and what was the actual practice at a specific location.
I didn’t say the shuttles charge YOU. They charge the rental car company for the right to use the airport property. Let me know what city you paid more for an off airport rental than one at the airport through Enterprise.
2. There are no cancellation fees on rental reservations. You can reserve a car every day and not show up. YOU ARE NOT BILLED.
Unless he paid for the car up front through Expedia or Travelocity or something….
“I recently rented a car from enterprise online via their online reservation service.”
I can only discuss the facts in evidence. The OP says he did it at the Enterprise site. Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, Hotwire etc charge upon confirmation of the rental. At that point there would be no reason to have a separate contract with Enterprise.
I stand by everything I said.
I think you’re correct. I’ve reserved cars online from Enterprise and they didn’t require me to give them a credit car number. I flaked on the rental (didn’t even call to cancel) and was never charged, nor given a hard time on a subsequent occasion when I did rent.
Overall my experience with Enterprise has been OK. Not spectacular, but they did allow me to take a rental into Canada from Seattle without paying an extra fee.
Yea I was thinking similar things having used them before. I hate them and had them give me similar shit but I believe my local place allows you to drop the car off when they close.
But you can rent the car online, I Do this all the time since I have a discount through my job where you have to rent online. Thus I do believe that he rented from a franchise who didn’t want to honor that price.
I used to manage an Enterprise branch. They live and die by their customer service levels. We used to write off whole rental amounts. I would have talked to the branch manager to see what he could do. All Enterprise locations are corp. owned.
The website says the branch hours when they book so the customer should have noticed something off.
I’m confused… I’ve rented from Enterprise several times. I’ve not had to return a car when they’re not open, but I’m familiar with their website, which says you can return the car while they’re closed, and you’ll only be charged for the time you have the car. It does also say that you *are* responsible for any damage found on the car, so if someone wrecked into it between the time you returned it and the time they inspected it you’d be responsible for that, so you’re taking a chance there, but you shouldn’t be charged actual rental fees for that time.
The Enterprise we used to rent from at work would charge us for the entire weekend if we dropped it off after hours. Eventually we switched to another company that more than bends over backwards for my job’s corporate office.
i have rented from enterprise for years. this has been their standard policy for weekend rentals. i am surprised that they allowed him to make the reservation online. most of the time though they have a 9.99 a day weekend rental rate. the only major company that i am aware that lets you drop off on the weekend is avis. i rent a car at least once a month with enterprise and they have been nothing but the greatest when it comes to customer service.
Bring your confirmation printed out, and hopefully that will help things.
In his situation I probably would charge it to a card, and then issue a partial chargeback IN ADDITION TO speaking directly with corporate about the situation. They made waive the fees, and if not the CC company will. Also, contact the BBB and State’s AG office.
The quoted price should be honored.
Bring your confirmation printed out, and hopefully that will help things.
In his situation I probably would charge it to a card, and then issue a partial chargeback IN ADDITION TO speaking directly with corporate about the situation. They made waive the fees, and if not the CC company will. Also, contact the BBB and State’s AG office.
The quoted price should be honored.
Bring your confirmation printed out, and hopefully that will help things.
In his situation I probably would charge it to a card, and then issue a partial chargeback IN ADDITION TO speaking directly with corporate about the situation. They made waive the fees, and if not the CC company will. Also, contact the BBB and State’s AG office.
The quoted price should be honored.
This just all sounds pretty fishy. I’m guessing the OP used an off-airport location to save some bucks, and then found out that off-airport car rental isn’t really set up to handle air travel. A lot of off-airport rental car places aren’t open on the weekend. They’re in business to serve car repair places, which are also closed on the weekends.
The other thing that sounds fishy is the cancellation fee. I made a reservation with Enterprise just last night, and I know for certain that their website doesn’t even ask for a credit card number. There’s nothing to stop me from canceling the reservation with no penalty.
I was also pretty surprised at the price they charged. A friend who does weekend rentals from Enterprise nearly every weekend says that she can usually get a rate somewhere between $9 and $20 for the whole weekend. I’d guess that this particular Enterprise location figured they had the OP by the balls, so they might as well squeeze…
Awesome post! I enjoyed your dissection, and perceived mild disgust, with the OP’s “story”.
I also liked the end:
“I’d guess that this particular Enterprise location figured they had the OP by the balls, so they might as well squeeze…”
It is odd how you refrained from dissecting the corporation’s attitude that you “guess” may have been at the heart of this entire issue.
Bravo, Captain Corporate!!!!! :bigclap:
One time I was driving to the airport, two hours early for my flight from Denver to Philadelphia. It began to rain and the wipers on my Avis rental stopped working when I was on the highway. I tried driving slower but about 10 miles from the airport, I gave up and decided it was too unsafe to drive. Pulling over, I spent about two hours with various people from Avis, Highway Patrol and a tow truck service to get my rental back to the Avis center. By that time, predictably, my flight had taken off without me. My airline asked for a change fee of $300 to move my flight to the next flight several hours later. Charging this to my personal credit card, I awaited in the airport for the flight and made it home safe. The next day I e-mailed Avis’s customer service center and complained and said that they owed me $300. They refused to pay me because I had previously told them I was going to drop off the car at 4:30pm when my flight was at 5:25pm and thus I was going to be late anyways. I explained to various people that I was certainly going to be early and arriving at the Avis center by at least 3:30pm. After threatening them to drop my business with them and having to prove that I had gone through the toll booths with clearly enough time to make it to my flight – they caved. From now on, I always check my wiper blades are working before taking any rental car.
I would have refu–
“It’s easy to say you would refuse the rental and take your chances elsewhere, but it seemed he didn’t have much wiggle room.”
shit. never mind.
Honestly, in a situation like that, unless there was a competitor very close, I think I would have just bent over and taken it, and then raised holy hell with corporate once all was said and done.
This has happened occasionally to me. I would not use Enterprise, call your credit card company to dispute the charge if you have the original documentation. Also, I would call the corporate office and see if you can get this refunded.
I had a bad experience with ERAC and tried to dispute it with the bank and they refused to help. So I got rid of that credit card account.
This is why I always go with Dollar. Enterprise is well known for these shenanigans. Dollar has consistently gone above and beyond for me. I traveled to Florida recently and had a Charger (or equivalent) reserved. I got to the desk at PBI and asked what else they could offer in that price range, and they bumped me up to a Lincoln Town Car for the same rate. We rode around south Florida in style that weekend (or I just looked like a livery driver, either way it was a smooth ride). On a prior trip I had been bumped up to a Subaru Forester from a mid-size (G6 i think) for no extra charge.
FYI Dollar is now owned by Enterprise
Dollar is not owned by Enterprise. Dollar is owned by Thrifty.
Almost every time I have used enterprise, they have tried to bill me for more than was agreed. I have almost always had to call them and get charges reverse. They are a bunch of crooks.
Enterprise, which I usually like, pulled a similar stunt with me last month. Not to the point of kidnapping — but they gave me a car with a serious electrical fault, and when I left the faulty car at their store on Sunday with a note on my account explaining why, they still charged me for Sunday and part of Monday.
It would have been helpful for the OP to mention whether he was dealing with an airport location. Those locations are much better prepared to deal with folks dropping cars off at odd times. Even if there was a $50 surcharge to pick up the car from this location and drop it off at the airport, that would have been better than the extra $80 this location demanded.
Also? I woulda called 1-800-RENTACAR right there in the office to see if the reservations department could get a different store to come and pick me up from the apparently-rogue location.
I think from now on I’m taking pictures. Start taking pictures of the people who are unhelpful, rude, or trying to pull a fast one. If they think they’re getting away with something, they won’t think so anymore.
This guy and this place at this time said they wouldn’t honor my reservation. I want to see more posts like that.
I LOLd….I actually did this once. I was getting majorly hassled by a security guard at a concert for reasons that I am still unsure about, so I whipped out my digital camera and took a picture of him, with a close up on his name badge! He was much nicer to me after that.
I’d be tempted to leave the car in the hotel parking or some other random place. “You can have the location of the car once my bill is corrected.” I know, I know… but I’d still be tempted.
You’d be charged for every day its not back, and that’s if they don’t call the cops the second you tell them you’re not giving it back.
I know, I know. Maybe a raw chicken in the spare tire compartment. Maybe a couple quarts of transmission fluid in the oil or a crimp the fuel line. I don’t know, all of the above. For just a hundred dollars, I’d probably go with a chicken.
Sounds like the website doesn’t know the specifics of the location. If there is no one there to return the car then he can’t rent it. What would he do mail the keys back?
I’m going to Vegas soon and want to rent a car from FOX. Are they any better than Enterprise, worse? Anyone?
I’ve been screwed by Enterprise twice, in different parts of the country. I now no longer rent from them and make it a point to tell anyone considering a rental not to use them. I’m not sure if they were corporate owned or franchised, and frankly I don’t care. The bad behavior of these two have tarnished the entire brand forever in my eyes. And not just Enterprise but the other companies they own, National and Alamo. They’re all dead to me.
When all is said and done boycotts are really the only power consumers have.
When my poor little VW had a run-in with a baby deer my insurance ponied up for Enterprise and they of course only covered some really cheapo car, but that was fine by me. The salesguy actually said the car wasn’t “highway safe” and tried to push an upgrade. My husband then asked how it was legal to rent out unsafe cars, the sales guy backed wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down from his unsafe claims very quickly. Helps that my hubby is 6’4″ and often mistaken for a cop.
Why should he pay a cancellation fee if Enterprise wasn’t holding up their end of the agreement that required him to pay a cancellation fee?
I don’t understand. When did he return the car? They wee close don weekends and he wasn’t allowed to return the car until Monday but he rented anyway even though he was flying out on Saturday?
I think it’s all summed up with their new slogan … Enterprise, we’ll pick your pockets … DRY!
I rent from Enterprise all the time. They always have an after-hours drop box for the keys, but unfortunately the car is still considered to be in your possession until they retrieve the key, which is either the next morning or, in this case, on Monday.
Cancellation fee, who did you book this through?
Also chargeback. Use the reservation as proof, you will easily win.
Either rent it or don’t, do what you have to depending on the situation……………
I wonder… Did he sign up for one of those weekend specials accidentally? I did that once, but only needed the car Thursday/Friday. Wound up paying more a day cause I had used the wrong rate.
Having worked for a major car rental company, I will guess that when he made the reservation there was fine print telling him the rate was based on a three day weekend rental. He could keep it one day but the the lowest rate would be 37.71 times 3 days. You have to read the small print. All rental companies offer cheap rates on the weekends but require a minimum number of days. Since it’s a “sellers” market these days with rental companies, the consumer is screwed.
You reasonably relied upon their promises to your detriment. You have a contract by promissory estoppel.
Accept the rental. Pay previously agreed upon amount. Charge back the remainder.
My experiences with Enterprise have been rather scammy, I wouldn’t use them again. They were the closest rental place to my house, a 45 minute bus ride away. I had made a reservation on the internet, only to be told once i got there that their reservation system had broken and the only car they had was an older Dodge Neon. I had a lot of errands to run and didn’t have the time to go home and look up another rental place, so I accepted it.
The woman doing the car pre-check was incredibly hot, but not hot enough to distract me from the big dent she missed before trying to get me to sign off.
Sure, this stuff could have been coincidence – but why take the chance and go back again?
My experiences with Hertz were positive ones, but they were almost two hours away from my house by bus. I finally caved and bought a car.
The same thing happened to me at a rental place in Amherst, Massachusetts—a REALLY small college town. I didn’t realize that the rental place wasn’t open on the weekends. In my case, the guy was really nice about it and eventually changed my rate so I was paying the same amount as my original 2 day rental—he just spread that total amount over 4 days.
Their websites should be smarter and reflect the actual hours of the drop off locations.
I used to work for ERAC years ago.. One tactic that I have seen work over and over again, was to speak with the district manager. ERAC has high turn over at the local branches, and they dont’ care d@#$ about their customers. They over book their cars, and often depend on their customers to fulfil future rentals; meaning they will reserve you a sedan, online or on phone, and if they don’t have it at that moment, they then search the customer that currently has the car, and try to “switch” them out when your reservation comes up. If they are unsuccessful then they try to up-sell you with a nominal cost. If they can’t up-sell you because they don’t have a comparable car, then they resort to the “screw the customer” tactic. I’ve seen it time and time again.
As far as this guy getting screwed on a Saturday. That’s relatively new. They are usually only open half days on Saturday. Some branches will work with you on finding a solution, like putting the keys somewhere on the car, and they just pro rate your bill for the saturday. Often times however, it’s not about the customer, but about numbers. Each branch has a fleet of cars. and if on their books they are showing high numbers on their books beginning Monday of how man cars are NOT rented, then that’s bad on the manager and asst manager. Internally they push that. It’s what they call “sitting fat” too many cars in the inventory. So it could have been that.
Bottom line… call the office, speak to the manager, ask for the district manager’s name and phone number. And don’t take no for an answer of course.
Screw them, take a cab to Avis or Hertz.
If it were me, and another rental car place wasn’t available, I would have said forget it and just taken a taxi or cab. Not worth the extra money (unless he was planning on driving a long distance?).
It sounds like doing without the rental wasn’t possible. In that case, I think all you really can do is take the rental and then complain to corporate later.