Rental car woes

SCCutler said:
I should have been more nuanced in my comments; they apply only at reasonably large airports where, when you reserve with Enterprise through their GA portal, the only difference between eh rental experience is how much you pay. Example I most-frequently noted was Pensacola, FL (back when they had only one FBO).

If the FBO arranges for rental cars, I always use them, and I don't begrudge them getting a cut, either.
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Funny, I'm heading to PNS today and had just rented a car through Enterprise when I responded to this! Love flying there and staying a few days...got married on the beach there several years ago now. You can rent a car for the FBO directly through the website there now though. Seems like last time I went, you had to call the office at the FBO. The trick USED to be renting the vehicle for the main terminal and having the FBO staff drive you over there. Oddly enough, it was their suggestion to do that last time I was there and they were happy to do it! They told me they could've believe how much vehicles at the FBO cost vs. the opposite side of the airfield. I priced both this time around and it was actually cheaper to rent the vehicle at the FBO rather than the main terminal...it was only by like $5 a day, but still!

I'm speaking more of smaller airports that are a little out of the way where Enterprise definitely has to deliver to. Sometimes it's worth a few extra dollars if I know someone is following up to ensure the vehicle is delivered.
 
So I sent an email to the CEO at Enterprise and everything was refunded very quickly. Its amazing how sometimes you have to go all the way to the top to get the right thing done.
 
jd21476 said:
So I sent an email to the CEO at Enterprise and everything was refunded very quickly. Its amazing how sometimes you have to go all the way to the top to get the right thing done.
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Very cool, good job..
 
The only time I've had a problem was with National. Arrived at the airport - Toronto? - on a later flight and they had rented all their cars. This wasn't an off by 1 problem since there were 14 people waiting there, no cars.

My memory was of calling some internal travel agent and in about 5 minutes, they had adjusted my hotel to something local for the night, confirmed a car with another company in the morning and cancelled the National reservation. I took an airport shuttle over and in the morning, I had a turbo challenger for $8/day delivered to the hotel. You can't make a car payment on a challenger for $8 day.

Sometimes a travel agent earns their money all at once.
 
Rented from Hertz got hit in the rear. Did not have their coverage but the credit card covered the repair. Then Hertz billed me for the days of lost revenue when the car was being repaired. The credit card company refused to pay for this charge. Of course the person who hit me had no insurance. My own car insurance would not pay for the time Hertz's car was out of service. The lady who hit me vaporized. The DA says if she is ever pulled over again she will go to jail. Ended up costing me 1000 dollars. Never Hertz again
 
Stemme said:
Rented from Hertz got hit in the rear. Did not have their coverage but the credit card covered the repair. Then Hertz billed me for the days of lost revenue when the car was being repaired. The credit card company refused to pay for this charge. Of course the person who hit me had no insurance. My own car insurance would not pay for the time Hertz's car was out of service. The lady who hit me vaporized. The DA says if she is ever pulled over again she will go to jail. Ended up costing me 1000 dollars. Never Hertz again
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Did they charge the $1000 to your credit card? If so, couldn't you have just disputed the charge? It's hard to see how that amount would have been worth it for them to take you to court over it.
 
I did not pay in the beginning and they sent it to collections. Just wanted rid of the hassle.
 
jd21476 said:
So I sent an email to the CEO at Enterprise and everything was refunded very quickly. Its amazing how sometimes you have to go all the way to the top to get the right thing done.
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I learned that lesson growing up. We had ordered a jig saw from Allied Radio back in the 1960s when I was in junior high. They send us a carton of three with a bill for the extra shipping (3 weigh more than 1, no surprise there). We sent the extra two back and requested that they remove the bill for the extra shipping. We got a letter back saying thank you for your honesty and we'll credit your account. The next month we got a bill for the extra shipping. We sent them copies of all previous correspondence and got a reply saying oops. We'll fix it. The next month, another bill and a note threatening my credit rating. That got Dad mad and he sent a message to the President of Allied Radio, with a copy of all previous correspondence. We got a telegram back saying "It has been taken care of". Never heard another word.

So I remembered this when I was in college. My fiancée (no my wife of many decades) and I were going to a rifle meet (I was on the WSU ROTC Rifle Team) in Reno and stopped there on our way to the Bay Area for her to meet family before returning to Reno for the rifle meet. All the gas stations in Reno had signs up saying that chains were required over Donner Summit on I-80. I pulled into a Shell station as I had my dad's Shell credit card and was told by the attendant that I wouldn't get a mile out of Reno without them. As he was out of the non-lug reinforced chains he sold me a set of lug reinforced chains for the non-lug reinforced price. Well, bare and wet isn't what even CalTrans calls "chains required" conditions and I didn't take them out of the box. My grandfather gave me the chains from his old car because he wasn't ever going to drive in the snow again and I did use them going back to Reno. I pulled into the same Shell station when we got back into Reno and tried to sell them back to the attendant for the same price he had charged me for them. He refused and said that I owed him the extra cost of the lug reinforced chains. Nope, I hopped in the car and went to the rifle meet and then on to Pullman. We sent a letter to the President of Shell Oil asking which of the Shell stations in town we should return the chains to and got back a reply that said, "Keep the chains. Your account has been credited".

The lesson? Don't bother with underlines. Go straight to the top.

Oh, and I rent from Hertz. I haven't had any problems to speak of with them.
 
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I tried to get a last minute rental in Phoenix, was quoted $1,200 a day lol, and I’m not even sure the car existed.
 
AA5Bman said:
I tried to get a last minute rental in Phoenix, was quoted $1,200 a day lol, and I’m not even sure the car existed.
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Ouch! I tried to rent a car there last March and it was "only" $600 a day. I told them, before hanging up, that I wanted to rent it, not buy it!
 
Zeldman said:
Allowed to carry a gun, arrest folks and entrusted to enforce laws but can't buy bullets....:lol::lol::lol:
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I remember when some states had different minimum ages to buy beer depending on the alcohol content. If you got carded as a 19-yer-old and denied purchase of a six pack of some 4.5% alcohol ale, you'd just put it back and buy a case of something with 3.2% alcohol.
 
This thread reminded me of a car rental I need for fall 2022 for a couple week trip. I always get best rates making reservation 10 months ahead. With USAA discount is pre pandemic rate I paid in 2019.
 
I used TURO last week for a rental car in las vegas. It's an app where you rent someone's car. It came sparkling clean and full tank of gas. It worked out really well as they delivered the car to the North Las Vegas airport right to my feet. No bussing around or lines or BS. The convenience factor was off the charts. Super easy and reasonably priced for a BMW 3 series. Not sure the crotchety old men on here could get out of there ruts to try something new, but its a good service and I will use it again for sure.
 
Captain Sweet T said:
I used TURO last week for a rental car in las vegas. It's an app where you rent someone's car. It came sparkling clean and full tank of gas. It worked out really well as they delivered the car to the North Las Vegas airport right to my feet. No bussing around or lines or BS. The convenience factor was off the charts. Super easy and reasonably priced for a BMW 3 series. Not sure the crotchety old men on here could get out of there ruts to try something new, but its a good service and I will use it again for sure.
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Good to hear. With the way rental cars are getting I'm looking seriously at using turo for our winter trip. It seems like enterprise has closed 2/3 of their branches and largely stopped delivering cars. For some reason hertz prices their minivans higher than any other class, so I can get a van through turo for 1/4 of what hertz charges.
 
As a counter-example...

We were in coastal Eastern N Carolina for a bicycle event. On the way to our rental digs in Bath, NC after a dinner in our Honda Clarity, we hit a deer.


That was last Saturday. We scrambled on Sunday to make arrangements to get the car to a body shop Monday and to get home. Budget had a one-way rental to Knoxville in a Kia Soul. Arriving at the Greensboro Airport, Budget provided us with a Kia Sorrento instead. Nice car and got about 30 mpg on the trip home Monday afternoon/evening. Total cost for the rental was $145.11 with unlimited miles, so really no woes at all to complain about.
 
I was just quoted $430 for two days in Austin, TX. We will not be going. I'll go somewhere else before I pay that for a car.
 
flyingron said:
I've been pretty good at GA terminals in getting the car. I can't tell you the number of times I've caught Enterprise padding on extra days to my rental after the fact. They are always good about removing them, but you need to watch this situation (be it institutional fraud or just incompetence).

I've had more issues with the Big 3 (HERTZ/AVIS/NATIONAL) at airline terminals. I won't even mention the complete and utter two-hour screw up at LAX one year. Usually, it's just the screw up of Avis or Hertz not providing what is supposed to be my express service (#1 gold or preferred).
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That's funny.

Travel and rent heavily. Enterprise is the only company who has EVER padded days on my rentals, and they just did it to me again at Double Eagle, Albuquerque.

Added multiple days to an overnight rental. :(

I wonder what the corporate culture and/or incentives are that it happens at multiple locations with just this company.
 
DesertNomad said:
I was just quoted $430 for two days in Austin, TX. We will not be going. I'll go somewhere else before I pay that for a car.
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Wow! Big increase!
I was just in Austin and paid $255 for 4 days, including all the taxes, fees, recoups, and other BS fees that increased the rental price by 50% (National). Pickup/return KAUS, I refilled the car with gas before returning it.
 
One of the things I've learned about renting cars these days, rental car companies have no inventory tracking system. They have no idea what cars will be returned where and when. They take reservations without any guarantee of having a vehicle available. I've been fortunate to always get a car recently, but on one trip we had an issue with a car and tried to find a location to swap it out. It took several days until we lucked upon a location that had an extra car that day. One location told me they would love to help, but they have 16 reservations that morning and only 6 cars on the lot. All they could say is keep trying, in case a car gets turned in.

Their only solution is to raise the rates, to reduce demand to accommodate their reduced supply. Without getting into Spin Zone discussion, who knows how long this and the many other supply disruptions will last.
 
One of the handiest tools I make sure is in the airplane is a folding segway or xiaomi scooter. Many of them have a range of about 20 miles, and will take you places in a pinch fully charged in the event you get an unwanted surprise.
 
midwestpa24 said:
One of the things I've learned about renting cars these days, rental car companies have no inventory tracking system.
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Yep. Back in October, I flew Delta into OAJ (Jacksonville, NC). Most of the rental Websites said there were no cars, but Budget said, "yep." I even got a confirmation email. When I arrived, a guy at the airport Budget desk called and said, "sorry, we gots no cars." He said that he'd been trying to call people all morning, and couldn't get them. They were going to show up expecting a car, and they wouldn't get one. At any price.

I wouldn't have that guy's job for love or money. Getting yelled at all day.
 
Captain Sweet T said:
Not sure the crotchety old men on here could get out of there ruts to try something new, but its a good service and I will use it again for sure.
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Weird flex, neighbor. Have used them since they were called Relay Rides. Great for when you want something other than the standard Hyundai junk that the rental agencies are pushing.
 
When flying GA, I always reserved a car through the FBO. I figured they had more skin in the game. Back when I was doing a lot of commercial flying, I just went through the rental company, which was Budget. I was a member of their club, etc., and there were always plenty of cars at the big airports (at least back then). I really never had any significant problems.
 
The OP for this thread (which has been 2X necro-revived, BTW) was a rant about Enterprise in Hot Springs, AR. Ironically, that is exactly the same place that served me well last week.

I made an online reservation with Enterprise, specifying the in-town location since I couldn't specify the airport FBO, and then I phoned the nationwide GA number to change that to an FBO pickup and return, which worked just fine and did not change the rate. That GA number for Enterprise is (855) 233-8990. All in all, Enterprise did a good job.
 
Oh yeah, and there is funny Seinfeld scene about exactly that. I've had Enterprise do a "no show" on me. Twice, with no comms. In DC a couple weeks ago Budget substituted an "upgrade" (no extra charge) but the Florida tags on the car were expired. I decided to not notice, and hoped maybe FL just wasn't using stickers anymore. if I was stopped, I'd call Budget, tell them their car was impounded and get an Uber. I did call Budget but I don't think the rep really understood what the issue was. The call was dropped and they didn't call back. I think maybe two-out-three times the class of car I reserved wasn't available.
 
"wasn't notified of her court dates" - that part smells fishy - it can happen, but not THAT many times. She was a no-show in court.
 
Sundancer said:
"wasn't notified of her court dates" - that part smells fishy - it can happen, but not THAT many times. She was a no-show in court.
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How are notifications of court dates delivered? Do they use something like certified mail so they can prove that the notice was delivered?
 
NoHeat said:
The OP for this thread (which has been 2X necro-revived, BTW) was a rant about Enterprise in Hot Springs, AR. Ironically, that is exactly the same place that served me well last week.

I made an online reservation with Enterprise, specifying the in-town location since I couldn't specify the airport FBO, and then I phoned the nationwide GA number to change that to an FBO pickup and return, which worked just fine and did not change the rate. That GA number for Enterprise is (855) 233-8990. All in all, Enterprise did a good job.
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I guess I would consider doing "a good job" does not include making your customers know the magic dance of creating a phony on-line pickup location followed up with an 800 call to get their car at the intended destination.

(then checking to make sure they didn't tack extra days onto the bill)

But that's just me. o_O
 
Palmpilot said:
How are notifications of court dates delivered? Do they use something like certified mail so they can prove that the notice was delivered?
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Usually (I think) you get a court date when you are released/bailed/bonded whatever. The dates can change, so they ask you to give them a phone number/contact info, and your paperwork has the contact info for the court, too.
 
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