I have heard of numerous rip-off complaints about Enterprise in the past but never believed any of them as I had never had any problems. I've been renting from this particular Enterprise location for nearly 3 years (a couple of times each year) and always had pleasant people help me with my car rental. I have had some bad experiences with their cars being dirty on ill-equipped, but they always apologized and gave me a free upgrade the next time or something like that.
Now, I seem to have strong doubts about their practices. All these years, I always signed up for ALL of the insurance they provided. For the first time, I declined their insurance to make use of that offered by my credit card company. I had made a reservation well in advance for a full size car. Despite confirming my reservation a day in advance, I was made to wait for about 30 minutes and then driven to another location 20 minutes away to pick up the rental "compact minivan". It was raining and the guy did a quick walkaround during which everything seemed to be ok. He pointed out some small scratches on the rear bumper and said it was nothing. I took his word for it and presumed he would put it in the paper work (my fault! - never presume. Ask and make sure!). He didn't. After about a week, I returned the car and was greeted by a gentleman who went out for a walkaround and came in as if to complete my paperwork. He hesitated for a second and then asked me to come and take a look at the "damage" to the rear bumper. It felt like he was hesitant to rip me off but was trying his luck (he was lucky... I can tell you that). He said that the rear bumper was "mis-aligned" and tried lifting the bumper. It moved a little bit (hardly visible). I said nothing had happened and that I thought it appeared alright. He called his manager - a very courteous lady, who took a look and insisted that it was not there before I rented it.
I was so mad that I was at a loss of words. Adding insult to injury was the fact that they tried to over charge me for my rental. To be fair to them, they agreed to give back credit for the amount they had over charged. But considering the whole situation, I felt like they just wanted to rip me off had I not questioned the additional charge. The "damage" was described in the report as being a mis-aligned rear bumper with long spider cracks. They weren't long and they weren't spider-cracks (in my humble opinion). I consider myself to be a fair person and will be upfront about paying for any damages I caused. But I've been made to feel that this was a deliberate case where a car known to have some minor damage was rented out to a customer who had declined their coverage so that he could be ripped off. (Why else would they take me to another location and get this particular car???)
I DO NOT hold the employees of Enterprise responsible for this. I think they were doing their job. But I feel like its a foregone un-stated policy of Enterprise to rip-off unsuspecting customers by means of lax implementation of their policy to check rental cars properly when received from (prior) renters. They make you pay for damages done by prior renters.
As of this minute, my credit card company has agreed to pay for damages and Enterprise has already charged me a $500.00 "deductible" to my card. I'm very upset and disappointed with Enterprise. They have certainly lost a customer. I will NEVER rent from them again. It was as if they were waiting to pounce on a customer who declines coverage through them. Again, I don't blame the employees. Its just their way of functioning. If they miss the damage caused by a previous customer, they charge the next one - when they actually find the damage.
It is NOT about the money. I can afford the cost to fix the damages. It is the feeling that someone is insulting your intelligence that gets to you. It really did get to me and I will be going the Avis way in future.
Unhappy customer
NJ, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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