Enterprise Rent-A-Car Review

Overall 3.72 of 5 view all 153 reviews

LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

Scratch This One Off the List

budget-conscious, dependent on daily vehicle use, married to a Gearhead

Pros

Service, Convenient Locations

Cons

Service, Small Selection of Cars

APR

2007

Enterprise Rent-A-Car —

Intro
When the minivan needs to be fixed, my husband always tells me to take it in on a day when I don't need it. Yeah, right, when would that be? I run the carpool alone, both drop off and pick up, along with running the kids after school to a variety of different activities. There isn't ever a day when I don't need it. I decided to wait and hold out until Spring Break to get my minivan fixed, but they couldn't fit me in until the end of the week on a Friday, and then couldn't get it finished until after the weekend. I needed some transportation in the meantime, so we decided to get a rental car.

Choosing Enterprise
Enterprise Rent-A-Car has multiple locations, and happens to have one a few blocks from my home, and another on the same block as my car dealership where the minivan was being serviced. I've used Enterprise before when getting a car fixed on two separate occasions, although it's been almost 10 years since the last time. We decided it was a good time to try them again.

Service
I called the Enterprise Rent-A-Car location that is closer to my home, and told them I needed a car while mine was being serviced. After learning the location of the service place was very close to their other location, the representative at Enterprise called the other location to find out the best way to handle this rental situation to make it easier for me. She took care of everything, including finding out how I would need to handle paying for this, since my extended warranty coverage on my minivan covered rental car fees while it was being serviced.

Once I arrived at Enterprise to rent the car, I was helped right away, but a rush of customers came in directly after me. My extended warranty would cover the price of renting the most basic of economy cars, and we were shown an economy car we could rent, or others we could upgrade to. We chose a four door sedan that would be only an extra $5 per day. The prices seemed in line with other rental car companies. We never choose to get the high-priced insurance on rental since our regular insurance plan covers that. The Kia Optima that we chose did seem beat up some, despite the fact it was a 2007, and we waited ten to fifteen minutes while they got it ready for us.

The Return
When the service on our minivan was complete, we returned the rental to the other location of Enterprise, and that was when they discovered a huge fresh scratch on the rear back of the car. We had walked around the car before we rented it to look for any scratches, dents, etc., and this hadn't been there then. We also knew we hadn't noticed this huge scratch on the driver's side of the car. They asked us to pay for the damage since we hadn't noted it there earlier, but we were insistent that we hadn't done this damage to the car.

The disagreement was left open, and we haven't heard anything since. Either they've decided to eat the charges of fixing it, or we'll be getting a huge bill in the mail one day for it. Either way, it leaves a bad taste in our mouths. While we had been getting good service up until we returned the car, we were certainly left with a lot of questions at this point, regarding how and when this scratch had gotten there. I'm usually not one for conspiracy theories, but it certainly makes you wonder if this is done to cars that aren't in the best of shape when the renter doesn't opt for additional service. I would have recommended Enterprise to a friend after our earlier experiences, but the end of this most recent experience with Enterprise leaves too many questions for me to do so.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is not recommended by LauraBelle

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Comments about LauraBelle’s Review

This just happened to me ...

My insurance paid for me to get a rental while my vehicle was being fixed. We walked the car beforehand for "damage larger than a thumbprint" and found nothing. A week later (on a Friday), I turned the rental in to another Enterprise. We walked the vehicle to look for damage, and we - again - found nothing.
Today, Monday, the Enterprise representative called me saying he missed a ding on the passenger side door, and that I would be responsible.
Isn't that insane? We walked the vehicle upon turn in on Friday and all was well ... now on Monday there is a scratch and I'm at fault.

What should I do????

Your giving a bad review because you didn't take the extra coverage, then get two scratches on the car while you were renting and they wanted you to pay for it... Guess what, Damage is your responcibility. I have rented for enterprise many, many times the worst I can say is I have had to wait when they get a few people in line at the same time. .

I won't use them again-they are a bad company to do business with.

buy damage waiver next time....

Something like that happened to me, too! They had the new girl inspect my rental on the way out (it may have even been her first time...) And the manager inspected it when I returned it. He reached down and pulled out the front fender. I'm not kidding! He reached down and started yanking it out and said that wasn't supposed to happen and that I must have done some damage... It all seemed very fishy, but I still had to pay a $250 deductible for my insurance.

Hope this works out in your favor!

I have to tell you - I had one terrible experience with them -awful. I was going and will do a quick blurb because this experience in FL was fantastic. jo