Enterprise rental car - recent 2 experiences
Written: Dec 26 '03 (Updated Dec 26 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Best rates, pick you up on time.
Cons: Reservation system seems to be flawed or difficult to operate.
The Bottom Line: I'll go there again for their good rates but won't mention coupons until I get a quote.
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| ptiemann's Full Review: Enterprise |
This is just going to be a short comment on Enterprise Rent A Car.
A month ago, I went for a trip to Tahoe and didn’t want to do that with my own car, so I got their weekend special ($9.95 a day with 100 miles/ day or $14.95 a day with 200 daily miles). I chose the second one, stayed under 600 miles and the weekend indeed cost me only $45. At that rate you’re supposed to get an “economy model” like the Metro but it seems that I got upgraded – the vehicle was a Chevy Aveo. Comparable to a Ford Focus, but the Focus has more pep.
Enterprise picked me up at my house as advertised – the whole deal it was a great experience.
Subsequently I got a letter in the mail offering me 15% off my next rental.
Last Monday I called them again, asking for an economy model, 7-day rental from 12/27/ through 01/03/. I had checked on the internet first what the weekly rate would be – it said $161.49 and economy models were available in the location 2 miles from my house.
I simply rather make the reservation on the phone than on the web, I guess I still have more trust in people than in computers. I should have done other.
First the girl there tells me that they might not have any economy models. Their fleet does not have many of those small cars and there might not be any. Hm, in the age of computers, it should be possible to make an accurate prediction or? So I ask her to check her reservations. She mumbles something about they rented out one of their two “Economy models” and tries to talk me into renting a higher-class car, which would be more likely to be available.
I tell her I have all the time of the day and ask her to go check it out. She doesn’t like that but eventually she gets back to me and offers to put a reservation on for an economy model. She adds that if there won’t be any economy models available on that day, I will get upgraded to the next higher class at no charge. (I guess that’s what happened the previous time I rented from them.)
I then start to mention this coupon that I had received from them in the mail and she says that’d be ok, I should just bring it when I come in. All right, and that week would be 190-something, (I don’t recall the exact price any more).
“Umm, I saw $161 advertised on the web? Does this 190 included tax?” I asked.
She explained me that that internet price of $161 would not apply because it’s the holidays and cars are rare (???) and I should be happy with my $190; it would be a great rate. (Indeed, other rental companies quoted me $280 to $340 on the web)
Somehow I couldn’t help but suspect that she had padded the regular rate of $161 by the 15% that I was going to get taken off due to the coupon.
Later that day I cut the travel plans (skipping Grand Canyon) and will now just take my own car for a trip to Vegas. (It’s a lot more fun anyway.) Dutifully I called in and freed that prized, rare economy vehicle from its reservation so that they could give it to someone else.
The strange thing was, the guy didn’t even care to ask what kind of vehicle I had or what my phone number is. All I told him was “My name is Peter and I want to cancel my reservation” maybe I added “for Saturday”. He just said “Ok” and that was it.
Makes me wonder how their software works or what reserving a car over the phone actually does. You do get a confirmation number but when canceling it; they didn’t want to know it.
My summary is that Enterprise has good rates, local staff in Santa Cruz is friendly (I’ve rented 4 times from that location in the recent 3 years), they don’t give you a hard time on the car being dirty or anything but I might book on their web site next time.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ptiemann
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 - Top 50 |
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Member: Peter Tiemann
Location: Capitola, CA
Reviews written: 260
Trusted by: 2822 members
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