I went online to rent a car from Enterprise at BWI Airport. When I input the dates I neglected to change the pickup/dropoff times which were both listed as 10:30am. The rate came back at $95.97 for a 4 day rental of an economy car.
I noticed that I hadn't changed the pickup times so I changed them from a 6pm pickup and a 3pm dropoff and the price increased to $234.00.
I called Enterprise and asked and I was told by Pam that "It's all about supply and demand". We have more cars at 10:30am than we do at 6pm.
I am frustrated because there are times when I arrive at the rental counter at the designated time to pick up a reserved car and I am told that there are no cars available and I am forced to wait.
Bottom line, we as consumers are paying for these companies to match supply with demand, and when they don't succeed we are inconvenienced and forced to wait. Where in all of this does the corporation take responsibility for the cost of running a business. When I attended business school we learned how to react to supply and demand - and it did not involve passing all of the cost onto the consumer.
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