We’re in San Antonio and had a reservation for noon to get a car and go to Natural Bridge Caverns. Get a voicemail this morning that car isn’t available. We can’t get the actual location back on the phone.

Call corporate number and they say another location has cars and will bring it to us.

Meanwhile original location calls back and has a Ram truck. We decline since we have the new reservation.

Literally 15 minutes before pickup time they call and say they have no car. Wtf!!!

About to lose our cash on the cavern tickets. Still on phone with enterprise. Will never use them again.

The rental car market is in complete disarray right now because I think they got rid of a bunch of cars during 2020 when stay at home orders began and the rental/travel market collapsed and now they are stuck because they can't find new cars like the rest of us.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The rental car market is in complete disarray right now because I think they got rid of a bunch of cars during 2020 when stay at home orders began and the rental/travel market collapsed and now they are stuck because they can't find new cars like the rest of us.

Yep, you nailed it.

Jim

In the best of times Enterprise was a shit show!

I used them once IIRC, then never again. I tried Hertz, which was good and I never had a problem, but then I switched to Budget and have now been renting from them for around 10 years or so.

I was a car wrangler for an Enterprise agency. My boss was a franchise holder. She couldnt make a go of it, because Enterprise would allow people to book cars online and then fail to deliver them to her for the customers. I was offered an office position but refused it when I saw the 10 year obsolete computer system. And this was a very busy location, servicing Wright Patterson AFB, Wright State University, the local dope dealers, etc.
They couldnt deliver cars before the scamdemic and chip issues. Has to be worse now.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I was a car wrangler for an Enterprise agency. My boss was a franchise holder. She couldnt make a go of it, because Enterprise would allow people to book cars online and then fail to deliver them to her for the customers. I was offered an office position but refused it when I saw the 10 year obsolete computer system. And this was a very busy location, servicing Wright Patterson AFB, Wright State University, the local dope dealers, etc.
They couldnt deliver cars before the scamdemic and chip issues. Has to be worse now.

This is the same business model used by U-Haul. Book and pay for a truck online, then get to the franchise location and find they don't have the size you ordered. It's a joke. Go Budget rental.

Finally got a car at another location. Had to spend $50 on an Uber to get there.

Last week we flew to Arizona. We could go to either Phoenix or Tucson. Plane fare was half to go to Mesa/Phoenix. The only problem was no cars at all in Mesa and only a few in Tucson. We ended up with a crappy Mitsubishi SUV with a lot of mile at about $80 a day. At least we weren’t walking.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
Finally got a car at another location. Had to spend $50 on an Uber to get there.

WHO paid $50 for Enterprise to comply with the reservation they accepted/created?

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I was a car wrangler for an Enterprise agency. My boss was a franchise holder. She couldnt make a go of it, because Enterprise would allow people to book cars online and then fail to deliver them to her for the customers. I was offered an office position but refused it when I saw the 10 year obsolete computer system. And this was a very busy location, servicing Wright Patterson AFB, Wright State University, the local dope dealers, etc.
They couldnt deliver cars before the scamdemic and chip issues. Has to be worse now.

This is the same business model used by U-Haul. Book and pay for a truck online, then get to the franchise location and find they don't have the size you ordered. It's a joke. Go Budget rental.

My previous job, 17-18 years ago now, U-haul came in and wanted to set us up as a rental location. They covered the advertising and phone line and whatever other "stuff" that was required for the first year.

Wasn't more than a couple months into it before it started to click that we were really nothing more than a answering service/reservation taker. We would get quite a few calls and got a good amount of reservations but very rarely ever had the equipment. People would show up expecting to pick up a truck only to find nothing available. We had way more pissed off customers than happy ones. It got to the point about 6ish months in, I actually started telling people straight out we could take the reservation but they would need to have a plan B as we could pretty much guarantee they would not actually get a truck, and make sure to call us before they head over so they wouldn't waste their time driving out. Thankfully most were actually quite understanding and appreciated the honesty.

After the first year was up, they came in and wanted us to take over all the related costs for things. We "kindly" told them to stuff it and had them take us off the list. We did actually get some extra money out of it but no where near enough to make it worth dealing with the bull.

quote:

The rental car market is in complete disarray right now …

I also hear prices are greatly inflated. Ihe rental car coverage I purchased on my insurance is only $30 a day. That used to be plenty for a small cheap car, but probably isn't now. I'll gamble that I won't need it.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

The rental car market is in complete disarray right now …

I also hear prices are greatly inflated. Ihe rental car coverage I purchased on my insurance is only $30 a day. That used to be plenty for a small cheap car, but probably isn't now. I'll gamble that I won't need it.

I rented an SUV in Hawaii 3 months ao and got it for $57.00/day for 15 days.

However, I had made the reservation a year before that and kept moving the date until I could get tickets to Hawaii on the same dates I could get the Condo.

They honored the original price, but then I'd paid a year in advance.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
Finally got a car at another location. Had to spend $50 on an Uber to get there.

WHO paid $50 for Enterprise to comply with the reservation they accepted/created?

Well we did. Didn’t have time to argue on the phone. But Enterprise is not on our list for rental cars any longer. We usually rent a car for about 2 weeks per year.

So we had a 1 day rental, Friday to Saturday. The place we finally got the car confirmed one day. They failed to mention they are not open on Saturday. We returned the car, luckily found a key drop off box behind the building (no sign but it was right at the Enterprise corner of the building).

Left the keys and went to the airport. Well surprise, they billed us for 3 days. Now Enterprise corporate won't fix the bill and they are waiting for the franchise to reply to them. 5 days so far.

had a rented Hertz car two years ago driving around the Black Hills of S.D. Hail storm comes along and puts a few dents in the hood... could see them if you scrunch down and look with the sun at just the right angle... If it was my car I would have not even called my insurance.... 2 weeks after returning the car I get a bill for repairs.... $15,500.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
had a rented Hertz car two years ago driving around the Black Hills of S.D. Hail storm comes along and puts a few dents in the hood... could see them if you scrunch down and look with the sun at just the right angle... If it was my car I would have not even called my insurance.... 2 weeks after returning the car I get a bill for repairs.... $15,500.

What was the outcome?

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
had a rented Hertz car two years ago driving around the Black Hills of S.D.....2 weeks after returning the car I get a bill for repairs.... $15,500.

Back in September a tiny rock hit us on I-70 and put a small crack in the windshield that was pretty large by the time we got home. At turn-in the next day I filled out all the paperwork, the Hertz guy said that particular windshield was out of stock. They still have not billed me!

We never get the rental insurance. My POV insurance will cover some and my Chase MasterCard the rest, but I can't file a claim until Hertz bills me.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
We’re in San Antonio and had a reservation for noon to get a car and go to Natural Bridge Caverns. Get a voicemail this morning that car isn’t available. We can’t get the actual location back on the phone.

Call corporate number and they say another location has cars and will bring it to us.

Meanwhile original location calls back and has a Ram truck. We decline since we have the new reservation.

Literally 15 minutes before pickup time they call and say they have no car. Wtf!!!

About to lose our cash on the cavern tickets. Still on phone with enterprise. Will never use them again.

had my Cooper S totaled for me (rear ended) in 2018,
called insurance etc etc, was told to give them (Nationwide) 20 minutes and they would have a car ready for me,

they being enterprise,

get to enterprise 2 hrs later (doc in th box visit, and lunch),
enterprise guy says nope, no one called, but managed to get me a car in about 30 minutes,

get home, after the drive (12 miles) and notice the rear bumper cover is loose on the passenger side (nissan econobox)

take it back, get another car,
this time I shake all 4 corners and all is go,
drive this POS Mitsu sewing machine for week, and the same thing, bumper cover is loose,
nope, ,we won't bring you a another car,
so I go back, and get a little Chevy that was just back from the body shop, overspray on the windshield, etc,, but the bumpers were fine,


when I turned that in (end of time allowed) I raised heck and got an apology, and an offer of a free weekend in a nice car,,


never used it,


couple years later a dude backs into my car,
same enterprise location,, after a call to confirm, says yes we have a car for you

show up 15 minutes later, sorry no car,
how about a pickup (bid dodge ram)
it's literally all they had, so I drive it home, telling them that I have an appointment in DC in a couple days, call me when a car comes in , I don't care what it is, but I am not driving a damn dodge ram to DC and parking it ,

no call, so I called, raised cain, and got a Ford Edge,


turned that in when my car was ready, and the manager of the branch was too busy being excited about his new office kuerig machine,,

so I said not wasting my time and left,



fast forward last month,
dropped my car off to get deer damage fixed,
get picked up from the body shop by enterprise,
get to the location (Same one used above) and auper nice guy goes over the paperwork and puts me in a practically new 2022 Mini Cooper Countryman,

no issues , no drama, with the car, or enterprise,

Last time I rented a car, I showed up 15 minutes before they opened. One woman running the whole place. Literally took her 20 minutes to get my online reservation sorted as she was handling the phones. I was nice. She was appreciative. she had her shitshow coming: 26 reservations, 19 cars. No cars scheduled to arrive that day (Saturday). That was Hertz.