Enterprise Rent a Car

[Zonny]

I've often recommended Enterprise as a decent place to rent a vehicle. We don't own a car, so we do rent on a fairly regular basis, especially in the summer. In fact, we just dropped off our latest rental on Sunday. They've always given us a decent rate.

I called today to book another weekend rental for later this month. I wanted to pick up Friday, drop off Sunday as I generally do for a weekend rental, usually costs about $100 or so.

They told me that they don't do Sunday dropoffs in the summer, as they can't rent the car again on Sunday since they're closed and it's prime renting season. I told them that I'd just done a Sunday dropoff on the weekend, that was the second one I've done since July. They told me that they have minimum three day rentals in summer (those other ones were for a week+). He said that his 'system' wouldn't allow him to rent it for this period of time.

To rent for the weekend with a Monday dropoff (I'd be at work on Monday and it would sit in the driveway), they were going to charge me over $200. I said no way.

I've rented from them for several years, so many weekend rentals I've lost count. For a weekend I ALWAYS pick up on Friday, drop off on Sunday. Maybe they're mad at me for price-matching with Budget last week? Or maybe they're upset that we went to several beaches in the car last week and of course there was sand when we were done!

Anyhow, I went on the Budget website and rented it there (and just out of curiousity I went to the Enterprise site to see if I could rent Friday - Sunday. Sure could!).

Strange how some companies change the rules on us, isn't it? We're regular customers, ALWAYS rent from there, and they might have lost us now.

[win-star]

Sometimes it depends on the person too ... try calling in again or if you are close, drop into the centre to try booking in person

[Zonny]

Yes, that's true, DH is going to try calling tomorrow.

[mulock]

I used to deal with Enterprise quite a bit through business, but then I began searching around for coupon codes and that turned me onto AVIS (for a few years), and then that eventually led to Budget, which is who I use now....and am blown away at the excellent service and prices.

[Zonny]

I like dealing with a company who knows who I am when I call, that's part of why I deal with them regularly. They know where to pick me up too.

The price has to be right of course too, so that's also a part. But if they give a price close enough to a competitor with great service, they win. And they have won the last few years.

Earlier this month I found a coupon code online for Budget that gave me a full size car for a week for $250+tax. The similar deal was at least $75 more with Enterprise, so after I booked it with Budget I called Enterprise and they PMd with no problem. This really is their prime renting season, the prices do go up in summer, fair enough. Our annual rental fees are probably what most people spend on gas.

Overall, I like dealing with this company and familiar faces who do the right thing by me time after time. But I don't like their changing the rules on me without warning.

One I WON'T rent from is Discount. DH and I were going away for a weekend, and had arranged for a pickup near our work. We waited and waited, finally called them and they said that they couldn't get there, that there were streets closed (Tall Ships were here at the time) and that we needed to make our way to the rental office ourselves. We thought this was fair enough, it was probably busy downtown, that closed streets sounded legit. But we took a taxi to the rental office, and it really wasn't busy and not a single street was closed. We were over an hour behind schedule by the time we got on the road. They gave us a small discount, but it wasn't enough. At the time they had low-end cars (no power windows or power locks) and the price wasn't good enough to not choose another company.

[Shwa Girl]

I've often recommended Enterprise as a decent place to rent a vehicle. We don't own a car, so we do rent on a fairly regular basis, especially in the summer. In fact, we just dropped off our latest rental on Sunday. They've always given us a decent rate.

We just got our car insurance renewal and I was upset at the increase.
Like your idea of renting instead of owning.

Since you don't own a car, what do you do about insurance on the rental?
How do you do a big grocery shopping trip?
Is the public transit in your area good?
About how much do you spend on rentals + transportation each year?

We are looking for options to the car insurance rip off.
Thx.

[matrix82]

If you don't own a car, so you don't have your own insurance, you can get insurance added to your credit card, for either free (such as car rental insurance is included on the gold visa through rbc) or pay a small fee through your credit card company (like $30 a year). Or you can just buy insurance through the rental agency.

[Zonny]

The insurance on the rental, we have a credit card that covers damage on the car. HOWEVER, I don't think this includes third-party liability, and not everyone is comfortable with that idea. You might be better off to take the insurance through the car rental company ($10-$25 a day).

Big grocery trip - well, that kind of combines with your question about transit! Around eight years ago, we were looking at buying a friend's car. When we added up the costs though (ESPECIALLY the insurance), as well as other factors (environment, having to take transit to work anyhow because parking is so expensive down there)realized that it would be cheaper to own a house! We bought our house with the idea in mind that we would be car-free for as long as possible, so we made sure that there were lots of transit and shopping options very close to home.

We have a major grocery store about a 10-15 minute walk away. There is a bus that will take us there right across the street (as well as several other buses that stop there during the evening rush hour), and a bus that stops about six feet from our driveway. The bus terminal is pretty close to the grocery store too, so I can generally manage to buy a very large order of food when I just have to get it as far as that bus terminal. If I time things right (and I generally do!), I can catch the bus home that drops me right at the driveway.

Yes, there's a lot of planning involved! And there's times it sucks when you have to go somewhere and it's pouring rain or snowing and the sidewalks are covered with ice. There's times, especially in the summer, where I feel that our DS misses out on things because we don't have a car to hop into. There's no transit that can get us to the beach for example, or the zoo, so those things have to wait until we have a rental for the weekend.

Costs - for starters, we need bus passes, so $75 each for DH and I, and tickets for DS. Totals maybe $1700 a year.

we rent for maybe two or three week-long periods, which costs about $300 each time (plus gas of course). And at least a half dozen weekends, @ about $100 each. So ballpark, maybe $2000 a year more. When we were looking at car ownership, our insurance quote was more than that (we're considered 'new drivers' since we haven't had insurance here). That's another thing you need to consider - I think that if you let your insurance lapse for awhile, 18 months I think, you're back to square one and charged as a 'new driver.'

So we probably spend about $4000 - $5000 a year on transportation. But some of those costs like bus passes we'd have anyhow, or we'd be spending at least that much on parking downtown, plus more gas.

Hope this all helps!

[schnarr84]

as someone who was an assistant branch manager with enterprise, i can sympathize with them not wanting to allow the sunday drop off. he is right, they cannot rent the vehicle on the sunday they are closed and they are running a business after all so they want to maximize revenue. they will usually allow this when they are having a slow week, but when it is busy they would rather go for the full 3 day rental, as someone else will book it if you dont. look into the weekend special, pick up friday drop off monday. its 3 days, but usually around 25$ for a midsize car per day which is very reasonable. plus, the service at enterprise in general is the best in the business.

[Zonny]

as someone who was an assistant branch manager with enterprise, i can sympathize with them not wanting to allow the sunday drop off. he is right, they cannot rent the vehicle on the sunday they are closed and they are running a business after all so they want to maximize revenue. they will usually allow this when they are having a slow week, but when it is busy they would rather go for the full 3 day rental, as someone else will book it if you dont. look into the weekend special, pick up friday drop off monday. its 3 days, but usually around 25$ for a midsize car per day which is very reasonable. plus, the service at enterprise in general is the best in the business.

Yes, we used to do the weekend special, but would drop it off on Sunday, worked great, was about $100 for a full sized car. But they told me that they are not doing the weekend special in the summer.

To maximize revenue is of course what every business wants to do. But if other rental companies aren't doing that, they lose revenue when I go to the competition. In my case, I won't be renting from them in the summer, and probably won't switch back in the fall to be honest.

[pebbles11]

i used to work at enterprise and it is all about the money. when cars are in high demand, rates go up and the deals go away. it is all about maximizing profits. also, when people brought their cars back full of sand we would often hit them with a charge for cleaning. watch out for that.

[marstec]

If you like Budget, you might want to check out the Costco website. Click Member Services and you can go to car rentals, which will redirect you to Budget. We've always done it this way when renting during our vacations. I do have extra insurance with my credit card, so I decline the CDW which can almost double your rental costs.

[Zonny]

Thanks for the info, we do have a Costco membership. I'll check that out! We have insurance through our credit card too.

[FallenPixels]

as someone who was an assistant branch manager with enterprise, i can sympathize with them not wanting to allow the sunday drop off. he is right, they cannot rent the vehicle on the sunday they are closed and they are running a business after all so they want to maximize revenue. .... plus, the service at enterprise in general is the best in the business.

I have had terrible service from Enterprise in the past, we use them for work, and I have used them personally but we stopped using them for both when my boss was on the phone with them and the rep was swearing at someone in the office while on the phone. Very unprofessional and rude. Another time we called to say that we would be late dropping the car off and he asked 'are you kidding?' no we are stuck in traffic on the 401 and have been for 2 hours nothing we can do about it. Like Zonny, I always recommended them, but now, forget it.

Budget will match their prices, let us drop off any day, even when they are closed and are super polite

As far as maximising profits, sure you maximise it that day, but you lose a repeat customer and their referrals, you probably lose more than the $25 you get for that night

[Zonny]

Budget will match their prices, let us drop off any day, even when they are closed and are super polite

As far as maximising profits, sure you maximise it that day, but you lose a repeat customer and their referrals, you probably lose more than the $25 you get for that night

Yes, I pointed that out to them when I emailed their HO. While it saves them a buck today, I've started going to the place up the street who doesn't have such silly policies. And chances are, I'm not gonna go back to Enterprise. I rent cars quite a lot, they're losing a few thousand dollars a year by not going out of their way to appease a long-term customer.