Reason #2: The "No Charge For Extra Vapors" Policy:
It's bad enough that the typical American car rental experience
involves the hated gasoline refill rip-off, in which you can either
purchase a full tank in advance and then "bring it back empty" (in other words,
the gas you bring back will be re-sold to the next customer, again and again,
etc.), or agree to have them fill the tank afterward at some ridiculous price
that would embarrass even Dick Cheney, like $5.99/gallon (yes, seen it recently
at a different car rental company). While Enterprise Rent-A-Car only marks
up gasoline by about $1.00 per gallon, they still play the game to the
customer's maximum disadvantage.
As if that weren't bad enough, they've also found a way to
extend this infuriating ritual one step further, by frequently renting you a car
that the previous customer has, in fact, brought back with an empty tank.
For two of my last three rentals, they've rented me a car
that was out of gas. The first of these involved my driving down to San
Jose, and I had to make an emergency gasoline stop, forcing me to be late for a
meeting.
Just two days ago, the Dodge Dakota Quad Cab 4WD Pickup that I
was forced to take was so low on gas that I actually got only 6 blocks from
the rental location
before the gas warning light came on, right next to the indicator light telling
me the truck was also out of wiper fluid. Apparently, as part of their
service and inspection process between customers, they chose to deliberately
ignore both the "You're out of gas" light and the "You're out of wiper fluid"
light. With customer service like this, I hope they soon get a chance to
ignore the "You're out of business" light.
Of course, I had to make an emergency stop for gas, and was late
for yet another meeting.
On a previous rental, I was driven by the rental guy to a local
gas station, where he could pay to fill the tank in the car he just rented me.
Total Time Lost Per
Rental Due To Reason #2:
10 - 20 minutes
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Reason #3 >>
More on Enterprise car rental at the Failing Enterprise home page. |
