Anyone ever have probs with Enterprise?

[LucyLou&BobWho]

Hi folks,

DH and I are going down to WDW and renting a car through Enterprise. Has anyone ever had any problems with them? Just wanted to check to see what I should be on the lookout for.

Thanks!

 

[BobH]

Sometimes Enterprise will limit your milage and charge extra for milage above the limit.

 

[SB in KY]

They are one of my least favorite rental agencies...it has been a few years, but we had a not great experience (dirty car that smelled of smoke....told us it was "the only one available" and it would be a 2 hour wait if we wanted that one cleaned...also they do this creepy walk around inspection and make you sign a paper saying the body of the car was in perfect condition...if you point out scratches or minor dings they always have some hokey reason why that doesn't need to be noted on the form....I am always paranoid that they will claim you did damage or something...although they never have)

Plus they are not located in the airport terminal....shuttle, long wait (at least when we used them)...hope your experience is better than ours.

 

[manning]

if you point out scratches or minor dings they always have some hokey reason why that doesn't need to be noted on the form

And I always do that hokey thing of putting it on the form.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Indeed, I had the same hokey thing about "Nah, its all good, no need to note it." I did anyways.

The car I got was a Ford Escort (Do they even make those things anymore?). It was in poor condition. Interior was full of stains, and smelled. The car shook and vibrated when idling, and didn't handle very well when moving.

The worst part was, they tried to charge my credit card $300, depite the fact that the guy assured me they would not charge anything to my card. (This was a Free rental provided by my dealership) I got a call from them on ym way home, saying they were having problems processing my credit card. I told them it was a free rental, and was to be paid by the dealership. They told me that they would charge me $300, and then refund it when I brought the car back. (Which of course we all know takes like 3 months)

NEVER AGAIN.

 

[macraven]

run like crazy away from enterprise. i used them once and that was enough.

the car i rented had some minor scrapes, scratches and some dings.
i had the employee list then on the check out sheet before i left. good thing as when i returned the car, a different employee tried to blame me for the marks on the car. he did not or could not find the original sheet that indicated how the car appeared when it was released to me. i had my copy and had to argue against his claim i put damage on the car. it took me an hour, but no charges for damage was added to my cc.

the little shuttle vehicle from mco to enterprise does not hold many people. the times it runs made it necessary for us to leave disney much earlier than planned in order to check the car in and catch their free shuttle. we were tied up two hours at the enterprise rental until we could leave and be at mco.

never again would i use enterprise, even if they were giving out the cars for free.

 

[Jestocost]

I honestly don't believe that asking the question "has anybody had a bad experience with XYZ company" really helps determine which company to use. You'll almost always get a few people who will chime in with their horror stories and no none who to counter them, since you haven't asked for that. Any company, in any industry, no matter how good they are will have some unsatisfied customers. Make this same post for Hertz, Avis, National or any rental car company and you'll get a list of complaints or problems.

As far as Enterprise goes on a more objective basis, the most recent J.D. Power survey of customer satisfaction with rental car companies shows that Enterprise scored exactly the industry average. Avis, Hertz and National scored higher, while Alamo, Dollar, Budget and Thrifty scored lower. Here's the release:

http://www.jdpa.com/news/releases/pressrelease.asp?ID=2003041

Enterprise has a completely different business model than the other three and that can result in more limited availability and other differences at airport locations. They're not set up to compete for "road warrior" business, they won't be as fast or as efficient, etc. In many cases, however, they'll take more time with renters and that can be a comfort to people who don't rent often. That's not always the situation and clearly YMMV.

 

[macraven]

you can never tell who works for enterprise and reads these boards.

an avis employee got very hot over a statement that was negative against his company. can't blame him.

 

[manning]

You'll almost always get a few people who will chime in with their horror stories and no none who to counter them, since you haven't asked for that. Any company, in any industry, no matter how good they are will have some unsatisfied customers. Make this same post for Hertz, Avis, National or any rental car company and you'll get a list of complaints or problems.

That's funny, never had this problem with Hertz. Matter of fact whenever I have dropped off a car at Hertz they never looked at it.

Sometimes I think enterprise is owned by Alamo, since this is what they do or did when I rented with them. Good thing I had a checkout sheet with them.

Hertz, Avis, National (haven't rented there since Alamo took over) I never had a hassle.

I wouldn't put it past Enterprise to put one of those GPS trackers in their cars. Here in the Chicago area if you take the car across state lines you get charged the premium rate (the mileage charge one).

One thing I like that Hertz is doing now is picking you up and dropping you off at your home.

no matter how good they are will have some unsatisfied customers.

The key word is some. Looks like the some's are starting to add up on this thread.

Anyone hear about the law suit in, I think Conn., where a rental company put GPS tracking units into their cars and had it buried in their contract if you exceeded the speed limit you would be fined by the company. I wonder if the state got a piece of the action?

 

[Jestocost]

Originally posted by manning
The key word is some. Looks like the some's are starting to add up on this thread.

My point being that if you ask for people to report on problems, what are you going to get? People posting their good experiences or their bad experiences? You have to consider the question asked when you evaluate the responses.

If I started a thread with the title "Post Here if You Hate WDW," would it be reasonable for me to use the responses as proof that everyone hates WDW?

 

[Regina]

We used them for the first and last time on our July trip. We rarely rent a car, but I needed to go to City Walk on this trip so we got one.

First, it's offsite and it was further away from the airport than what we expected.

Fortunately, my husband had the printout of the rate that he booked it at online, because it was showing a much higher rate in their system. That took awhile to fix.

Next, endless questions, politely asked, but endless. "Do we want an upgrade that's only $$ more, do we want the insurance that will protect us against XYZ, and our favorite, buying their "cheap" gas. We'd have to pay for a full tank, regardless of how much we used. (I can't remember how much they said it would be at the gas stations.) We declined everything, and found that gas was much less than they said it would be, and less than this "bargain" tank of gas they wanted us to purchase.

The car had that nasty deodorizer smell, and a couple of cigarette burns on the upholstery. I had them make a note that one bumper had corner damage.

From the time that we got picked up from the airport, till when we were finally driving away, it took an hour. Wasted time as far as we're concerned as it was due to asking us to agree to all sorts of add-ons.

We've used Enterprise locally and it was fine, but I'll never use them again in Orlando.

 

[BobH]

I have rented with almost all of the national car rental agencies. I have had good and bad experiences with all of them. I even own a used vehicle that I bought from Enterpise car rental and have been happy with it. All that being said I wouldn't rent from Enterprise without checiking to see if there are extra charges for milage. I once considered renting from Enterprise at Savannah International Airport. The rate was cheaper but there were milage charges for miles in excess of 600 miles which made the rental from Enterprise more expensive than National for me. I would make my decision solely on the cost of the rental or convenience (if you want a rental that can be picked up at the airport without taking a shuttle bus). Good Luck!