I just got off of a very upsetting call with someone named Scott at the Enterprise Rent-a-car customer service line. I rented a car in Orlando last week for a few days, and I unfortunately discovered AFTER I’d verbally approved the total and left the Enterprise office to hurry to catch my plane, that the final charges included a $21.99/day damage waiver fee. I checked my contract with them, and the agent had circled several places on the contract for me to initial, the standard ones approving the condition of the car, and declining extra coverage, but he’d also circled the area in which my initials ACCEPTED the damage waiver fee that almost doubled the cost per day of my economy rental car. I’m fully insured, and would NEVER double the price of my rental car for a damage waiver had I realized what I was signing.
Now, I’m clear this is my bad. I SHOULD have read what I was initialing. I made an assumption that he was circling the standard places, and I shouldn’t have made that assumption. However, if the agent had mentioned the fee to me, or asked me if I wanted to pay for a damage waiver, I would have declined. In my opinion, any respectable business doesn’t try to trick it’s customers into paying more than they think they’re paying, especially if it wants to keep those customers.
When I called Scott at Enterprise Rent-a-car customer service, I told him I wanted to issue a customer service complaint, and see if there was anything that could be done. I realize my fee might not be refundable, but frankly, I just want some acknowledgment that tricking me into paying that extra fee isn’t a standard practice.
Unfortunately, Scott basically blew me off. He had the gall to say “Ma’am, that’s why I READ all the contracts I sign.” Excuse me? My point was that I’d expect a respectable business to not attempt to trick it’s customers into paying extra charges. I received no acknowledgment from Scott that this is not a standard business practice, and the very most he could do was transfer me to the Orlando office, with the disclaimer that “not that I think they can do anything, because you DID sign the contract, ma’am.” And if I was transferred to the local office because the national customer service agents are not empowered to handle customer complaints, that’s terrible customer service too. If I felt a waiter had mischarged my meal and went to the restaurant manager, should I expect the manager to say, ‘Hmm, I doubt he can help you, but your waiter’s over there, you can walk over there and ask him about it if you want.’? Of course not, the manager might ask the waiter about it in private, but the manager would never require the customer to confront the waiter directly.
Once Scott transferred my call, I hoped he’d put me through to the branch manager, but when I heard an automated voice tell me to press 5 to speak to an agent, I’d had more than I could take for the moment and hung up. I may call back later.
I’m lost as to where to rent a car now, as I’ve stuck with Enterprise because they’ve always been rated very well in particular for their customer service, and until now, my experience has always been good. Any recommendations?
jannamo says:
Just to be clear, I realize now that I should have asked for Scott’s supervisor while I was on the phone with him. No one on a customer service line is trained to respond to a customer with sarcasm and absolutely zero suggestions to help, but frankly, I was having a moment and not thinking too clearly.
January 29th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Jeremy Osborne says:
I called them up and had a bit of a chat with them about this. Not that you need defending, but it was fun to do. They should be calling you within “two business days” to apologize. Let me know if they actually do that.
January 30th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Robert Konigsberg says:
Janna you do not need defending, but that’s the best part of marriage, the other person picks up where you leave off.
I hope this follow-up phone call yields good results.
January 31st, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Mozilla and other open source customer service better than I expected : discover fire says:
[...] What’s different is most likely my expectations given the situation. I expect commercial corporations, like banks, phone companies, rental car companies, cable companies, to treat people appropriately and handle our complaints with interest and genuine care. I expect to deal with real people who I could potentially talk to again and again, and not just be shuttled around the system with a “complaint identification number.” After all, if they show they care, they might just get more money from me. Sadly, that seems to rarely be the case anymore, as even my wife has gotten into corporate customer service bashing on her blog. [...]
February 1st, 2009 at 9:01 am
Todd says:
I don’t like Enterprise mostly because when you rent a car they insist on walking out to the car with you and doing a damage inspection. Their entire rental process takes at least 10-15 minutes longer than most other companies. I much prefer to use Alamo or Thrifty, who are often cheaper and quicker. Hertz is very good but almost always more expensive.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:32 am
Charlie says:
A very similar thing happened to me yesterday. After we walked around to inspect the vehicle IN THE POURING RAIN, the rep showed me the contract. I was renting a cargo van and the rep told me that since I didn’t have a commercial license I needed to add the extra damage waiver. Then she asked if I was going alone and I said no so she said I had to add another insurance waiver for the passenger. Never was the word “optional” uttered or I would’ve at least known that I had a choice in the matter. So what should’ve cost $75/day turned out to be more than $100 not including gas!
I called them today to complain and the rep said I should’ve read the contract. I told him it’s difficult to read when there’s a downpour of rain that was washing over me and the contract. He said I should’ve just gone inside. It was my first time ever renting a vehicle so it’s not like I knew what I was doing. It was only afterwards when I asked a friend who has rented a van before about having extra fees that I discovered it wasn’t required as the rep implied. I totally feel they took advantage of the situation. And yes I did sign a contract but they should still not be allowed to get a pass on being deceitful. My next course of action is to place an informal complaint to their corporate office and see if there’s any follow up on their end. Fingers crossed.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:07 am