Business History Books » Business Plans » Enterprise Rent-a-car
Enterprise Rent-a-car
Question:
>Seeing Alamo lumped in with Avis and Hertz made me laugh. I’ve had >three rental experiences with Alamo (the last two were forced on me by >my *previous* employer), and they all were miserable. No cars >available, massive shoving of LDW down throat, finicky post-rental >inspections, etc.
I’m an Alamo regular customer- got "Express Service" with them, and everything. I’ve been asked about the LDW exactly *once*- after that, it’s been ignored ’cause they put it in the computer (don’t any of you people know how to say "NO" so people think you mean it?). I’ve never had a "finicky post-rental inspection" ever, and while the class I want isn’t sometimes available, I’ve been able to get a price reduction for a lower class, or an upgrade for free. I rent from Alamo all over the country, too (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, DC, Philly ….). -Kenny — Kenneth R. Crudup, Unix & OS/2 Software Consultant, Scott County Consulting 16 Plainfield St, Boston, MA 02130-3633 +1 617 983 9410 Fax OS/2 box: pkenny.tiac.net (when I’m online) Get Warp-ed! OS/2 3.0 is here NOW!
Response:
says… >Yes, I think we’ll stick with Avis, Hertz, and Alamo. We’ve never had
any problems with them. >Seeing Alamo lumped in with Avis and Hertz made me laugh. I’ve had >three rental experiences with Alamo (the last two were forced on me by >my *previous* employer), and they all were miserable. No cars >available, massive shoving of LDW down throat, finicky post-rental >inspections, etc. If I had a button in front of me that would make >all Alamo lots vanish, I’d eagerly push it now.
No actually it’s A-Lamo rent-a-car. Last month my idiot travel agent (oops, I mean one of my client’s idiot travel agent) booked two A-Lamo cars for me. The first one was in Colorado Springs where it was a dented van with 70,000 miles on it in serious need of a brake job. They charged me for two days since I arrived at 10:00 A.M. and returned it at 10:30 AM the following day. Real rental companies give you some grace period, A-Lamo does not. I also was told that A-Lamo doesn’t clean cars prior to rental… they just run them through the wash. I guess this accounts for the potato chips between the seats in the van. The second was in Kansas City where my car, a $60 a day mid-size which they "forgot" to fill up prior to giving it to me. When I pointed this out to the counter agent she told me to drive it around and have someone fill it up for me. Again, a real car rental company would have immediately given you another car with gas. No, actually they would not have given you a car without a full tank. A-Lamo isn’t cheap price wise, only in quality of cars, and counter service.
Response:
> >Yes, I think we’ll stick with Avis, Hertz, and Alamo… > Seeing Alamo lumped in with Avis and Hertz made me laugh.
Same here. I have never personally rented from Alamo, but I can recount numerous experiences when traveling with my family, or the reports of friends traveling on business who have made the unfortunate choice of renting from Alamo. The consistent story I hear is that LDW is coercively forced upon renters, and those who decline LDW are hit with charges for preexisting damage. It’s my guess that yield management requirements require that Alamo employees collect either way. The only time I’ve been on an Alamo lot in the last 10 years was when traveling with a group. The wait in line was over one hour, and once we got keys and a contract, THE CAR WAS GONE! I don’t know if it was misissued, misparked, or just plain stolen, but that’s the first and only time something like that has ever happened in my personal experience. Another hour wait before we got a car. Alamo has been very successful in recent years negotiating corporate rates with large companies. These corporate rates often "include" LDW, but once you get to the counter, I have been told that renters are subjected to hard-sell upsells–Gas Service "Option", PAP, PAI, you name it. My personal advice to anyone renting cars, based on my experiences with Alamo, is never to rent from them regardless of the rental rate offered.
Response:
This is a common practice at ALAMO but you shouldn’t have to pay more for the larger car. I recently had a week rental in Chicago and they saddled me with a Chevy Corssica (wretched car!) rather than the GEO I had requested. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > Newsgroups: rec.travel.air > I never had that problem. They asked but didn’t say a word when I > declined. Bigger problem is when they don’t have cheapest car available > — you can get stuck with a more expensive car you didn’t want. > | David Lublin — University of South Carolina, Columbia > | "If I had to work with only people I liked, I would have taken > | up lighthouse keeping long ago."
Response:
>Yes, I forgot to mention the hassle they gave us once the just washed, >still dirty spots car was in the lot. Right in the parking lot they told >us the info and we’ve never had such a threatening-like mention of we’re
Enterprise has one saving grace with me: they still rent cars to people under 25. Most of the rental car comapnies either won’t, or add a huge charge that nearly doubles the rate. Bob
Response:
I never had that problem. They asked but didn’t say a word when I declined. Bigger problem is when they don’t have cheapest car available — you can get stuck with a more expensive car you didn’t want. | David Lublin — University of South Carolina, Columbia | "If I had to work with only people I liked, I would have taken | up lighthouse keeping long ago."
Response:
>Yes, I think we’ll stick with Avis, Hertz, and Alamo. We’ve never had any problems with them.
Seeing Alamo lumped in with Avis and Hertz made me laugh. I’ve had three rental experiences with Alamo (the last two were forced on me by my *previous* employer), and they all were miserable. No cars available, massive shoving of LDW down throat, finicky post-rental inspections, etc. If I had a button in front of me that would make all Alamo lots vanish, I’d eagerly push it now.
Response:
:: writes:
: :: >Has anybody had any problems with Enterprise as far as having the LDW :: >(loss damage waiver) shoved down their throats? I had this done in Happened to me just yesterday in NH and I am shamed to admit I couldn’t stand the pressure and I took it just to get the agent off my back. I am so annoyed I almost hope the car will be damaged to justify that. @ Yishay & Yaara (Y&Y)
Response:
: writes:
: >Has anybody had any problems with Enterprise as far as having the LDW : >(loss damage waiver) shoved down their throats? I had this done in We had a similar experience in Virginia. As he led us out to the car, the agent hit us with the scary scenarios about how much it would cost us if the car were damaged. When we still declined the LDW, he looked at us as though we had lobsters crawling out of our ears (to paraphrase Jean Shepard). We will never rent from Enterprise again. — John G. Bay Hughes STX, 7701 Greenbelt Rd., Suite 400, Greenbelt, MD 20770 http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Q: Should people who cannot grasp the difference between "it’s" and "its" be allowed to vote? A: No — Dave Barry
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -(jamester) writes: >: Has anybody had any problems with Enterprise as far as having the LDW >: (loss damage waiver) shoved down their throats? I had this done in >I used Enterprise when I was in Binghamton NY last summer (actually their >rate was pretty good..$20 a day approx) and drove the car to New York City. >When I returned the car a couple weeks later, they noticed a slight dent on >the hood and they nailed me for the repair. $100!!! I told him that I was >lucky the car wasn’t stolen when I parked in Brooklyn so then he made me >sign millions of paperwork and told me that I wouldn’t be liable for it. A >month later I was still billed for $100 and couldn’t dispute the charge >since somehow they had my signature on a credit card slip..for $100. >I’m not going back to them anymore, for sure. I hate it when they start >inspecting the car you just rented and try to find a slightest flaw and make >you liable for it. Many other rental agencies simply take the car keys and >give you the bill. A 2 minute deal! (and you get FF mileage for it too) >James
Yes, I forgot to mention the hassle they gave us once the just washed, still dirty spots car was in the lot. Right in the parking lot they told us the info and we’ve never had such a threatening-like mention of we’re liable for this, liable for that. Again, my husband wanted to give up the whole idea of renting from Enterprise but we were already so late that I just wanted to get going. So instead… we inspected that car really good, something we’ve never done with a rental before. We found little dents in the front, and in the back, and a teeny scratch on the lower part of the windshield. They DIDN’T WANT to write it on the paper saying it was too small and we insisted, also insisting their signature next to the notations. Yes, I think we’ll stick with Avis, Hertz, and Alamo. We’ve never had any problems with them. Joyce
Response:
writes: >Has anybody had any problems with Enterprise as far as having the LDW >(loss damage waiver) shoved down their throats? I had this done in >Seattle to the point it was so excessive I complained and got my entire 4 >day rental for free. It also happened recently in San DIego. I declined >the insurance and they tried to pin prior damage on me upon my return. >Enterprise managers are rated by their superiors by how much LDW they can >sell. They often are pretty low in rates though, competing with Dollar as >far as I can see. >Dave >San Diego
We had problems with Enterprise Car rental in Billings, Montana. Our 3 week vacation in June 95 was wonderful other than the first two days. The first day we were to fly from Milwaukee to Colorado and Colorado to Billings using United. Well, one plane was United and one was United Express and since the first plane was late and we were at the other end of the terminal our family ran through the airport like the family of "Home Alone". We saw our plane backing out and results were 8 hours stranded in Denver. (If it was just us two adults, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but with the kids it was terrible. We rode the shuttle train over 20 times for something to do, looked at lots of shops and played a lot of cards.) United did give us vouchers for both lunch and supper but it didn’t solve all of the problems we encountered. We were supposed to land in Billing in the afternoon, around 12. The next flight out of Denver was 7-something. Enterprise closes at 6 p.m. (Yes, I know, this isn’t Enterprise’s fault.) They didn’t open until 9 or 10 am but we had planned on being to Bozeman by then. So, what happens. We called Enterprise from the hotel. They knew we were coming, (and knew we were coming early Sat. from the phone call from Denver.) but they sent this brand new employee who apparently doesn’t know Billings. Our car rental confirmation did not have the individual address of the Enterprise office and there are more than one address. The confirmation sheet said something like "over 100 offices". The hotel shuttle person called the telephone number and asked where the office was. He confirmed the address, I was there when he made the call. We were dropped off and unloaded at a car lot for new and used cars, a nice size lot. The Enterprise person was being paged, and paged, and paged. When the Enterprise person was finally found, he said he didn’t know anything about us. He called a different office and that’s when this new person showed up about an hour later. She admitted that she "gets lost easily"! When we finally got loaded up in the car (husband, 2 kids, and myself), she drove us back to her office. Not directly back, mind you; she passed up her mall and drove about 3 blocks down and turned around through a small business parking lot waving to the people inside with the comment "I turn in here so often, they’ll start charging me". This isn’t the end yet. When we got to the Enterprise Office, our CAR WASN’T READY!! It was being washed. The young lady who drove us said she’d go in the back and continue the washing and send the other person out to us. The woman said it would be ready in a few minutes, and my husband, an easy, calm person was furious. (It was now close to noon.) The woman made a big mistake then… She said we’d have to pay more for the car since we were traveling out of state (WY). I said wait a minute, the only reason we went with Enterprise and not Hertz, Avis, or Alamo as we have in the past is because Enterprise was supposed to have unlimited mileage and we had made our plans clear that we were visiting Montana & Wyoming. She insisted and … I’ve never seen my husband so angry. He shouted all of their faults and demanded that they take us to the airport where we’d go with a name brand car rental. The woman backed down. We left Billings about 1:00 after stopping for sandwiches to eat on the road. After the United and Enterprise, our vacation went fine. I just want to say also that we’ve never had a bad vacation and this is not the usual occurrence. But it also taught us that we will always go with a well named car rental that is either at the airport or one that the airport shuttles. I know my husband will never give Enterprise another chance. We did write to both United and Enterprise and also to our travel agent of our complaints. United sent us $100 certificates so I think they did well for compensation. Never heard a word from Enterprise.
Response:
Has anybody had any problems with Enterprise as far as having the LDW (loss damage waiver) shoved down their throats? I had this done in Seattle to the point it was so excessive I complained and got my entire 4 day rental for free. It also happened recently in San DIego. I declined the insurance and they tried to pin prior damage on me upon my return. Enterprise managers are rated by their superiors by how much LDW they can sell. They often are pretty low in rates though, competing with Dollar as far as I can see. Dave San Diego
Response:
: Has anybody had any problems with Enterprise as far as having the LDW : (loss damage waiver) shoved down their throats? I had this done in I used Enterprise when I was in Binghamton NY last summer (actually their rate was pretty good..$20 a day approx) and drove the car to New York City. When I returned the car a couple weeks later, they noticed a slight dent on the hood and they nailed me for the repair. $100!!! I told him that I was lucky the car wasn’t stolen when I parked in Brooklyn so then he made me sign millions of paperwork and told me that I wouldn’t be liable for it. A month later I was still billed for $100 and couldn’t dispute the charge since somehow they had my signature on a credit card slip..for $100. I’m not going back to them anymore, for sure. I hate it when they start inspecting the car you just rented and try to find a slightest flaw and make you liable for it. Many other rental agencies simply take the car keys and give you the bill. A 2 minute deal! (and you get FF mileage for it too) James