Complaint Review: Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Well, I filed my Ripoff Report on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday night, as you see in this report, Enterprise Rent-a-car's "social media" hounds sniffed it out.  It stands to reason that if Enterprise isn't renting cars Saturday afternoon and on Sunday but they are actively sniffing out complaints on the internet, something is up.  And we thought they were in the car rental business.  Silly us.  I suppose there might be something of an underlying reason why there are so many resources focused on squelching bad press and investigation but not keeping the doors open to rent cars.  That was an amusing thought to end the day with.

So, first thing Monday morning, I fired off the requested email to Care@enterprise.com with my personal cell phone number and a few hours later, while driving to a remote work location, I called the "Damage Recovery Unit" just to see if they might now be in more of a mood to discuss the problem rationally and perhaps come to some kind of an agreement.

It was clear right off the bat that they were in no mood to cooperate or negotiate.  Christy, I think it was, in Colorado went immediately into harrumph mode and voiced in what was surely the most dismissive tone she could muster "We've been down this road before".  Indeed, we had and I could tell we were going nowhere with the conversation so I ended it without much ceremony and went about driving to work in another town.

Some time later around noon I was digging out of e-mail jail on my work email account and I ran across a voice mail message our computer system converted into a email.  As is usually the case with computer conversions of voice to text, it was completely unintelligible.  So I called the number back thinking it was work related and introduced myself as I usually do, professionally, and lo and behold, it was the Regional Manager of Enterprise Rent-a-Car!  How did they obtain my work email address?  Hmm.

Well, I hadn’t intended to handle this during work hours so I mentally punched off the clock for a few minutes and started chatting with the fellow about the incident.  He relayed that he was familiar with the situation and, of course, reminded me he didn’t need to hear it again.   Instead of discussing the fact finding I’d embarked on, he wanted to assure me that Enterprise had closed their claim and pretty much left it at that.  Hmm. 

Unsure of exactly what he meant, we did talk a bit further and as best I could figure out, he was telling me the issue of Enterprise’s claim of damage that amounted to over $500 and about 3/8” of correspondence (and a month old unopened very thick envelope) was dead.  Kaput.  No more, nothing there for me to worry about.

Ok, cool, I thought, but words can be tricky.  I asked if I were going to receive correspondence that backed up what I thought he was telling me and he assured me I would and that I would no longer be called or emailed or snail mailed or in any way contacted about the matter going forward.  I told him that if what he said was borne out by reality, that I would update the Ripoff Report.

That afternoon, the Damage Recovery Unit in wherever they are, Colorado, I think, sent me a letter stating

“After further review, we have closed the above claim for damage/loss to our vehicle.

Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.  Our goal is to provide excellent customer service to our customers.  We appreciate your cooperation in this matter and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

The Body shop owner, Dan, who reportedly did the repairs would not tell me how many vehicles with the exact form of damage had been sent to them for repair, and I understand why; Enterprise was his customer and the shop does a LOT of work for Enterprise over a 12 county area of 6.5 million people.  He said they can paint upwards of 20 bumpers a day on some days. 

Who knows how many 7 inch bumper covers on rental cars have been damaged by an 8 inch curb in a world where the standard accepted curb height is 6 inches?  Who knows how many individuals or businesses or insurance companies have paid $500+ for damages to 7 inch Enterprise bumpers scraping ONE Enterprise 8 inch curb?
Rusty, the manager of the facility has no idea how many of his vehicles have been damaged in that manner.  When asked, he said “I’d have to look that up.”  “Yes, you would.” I agreed.  But I don’t think he did it.

Yet.

Maybe he will now.

Maybe Enterprise will install 6” curb stops, now that they know they are directing customers to park where the vehicles the customers rent will be damaged!

Maybe they won’t.  But if they won’t or they don’t, it’s well documented that they KNOW the problem exists.

Here is hoping that Ripoff Report dot com helped make this place a little better than they found it.  We should all strive to do exactly that.

Bottom line is I’m satisfied, but I’m still a little pissed off.  I think the writing was on the wall a long time before I deciphered it.  Corporate responsibility is something that we all have a role in reinforcing so don’t be shy.  Speak truth to power.  Sometimes it helps all of us when one of us speaks up.

Thank you Rip Off Report for the opportunity to use the power of the internet to tell my story and thank you Enterprise Rent-a-Car for doing the right thing, finally.  You need to work on those Damage Recovery Unit customer service skills, though. 

I sincerely hope that the recent and probably rather lucrative auto rental contract with my employer that I learned of yesterday didn’t have anything to do with the decision to close my claim.  Hmmm.  I may be a repeat customer for business rather than personal use.  You can bet I'll be looking for curb stops in the car rental return area and sharing my experience with 7 inch Enterprise Rent-a-Car bumpers and 8 inch Enterprise Rent-a-Car Rental Return Lot curbs.  Are you reading this Rusty?

Bobby,

Thank you for your post.  We would like to look into this further. Please email Care@Enterprise.com with your full name, contact information and any additional details of your experience.

When emailing, please list reference #130728-001079 in the subject line.

Thank you

Megan

Social Media Coordinator

Enterprise Rent a Car