[voice of truth]

A fellow co-worker and friend of mine was getting ready to move out of the country and needed a car for a week. He decided to rent from Enterprise due to location. The pick-up branch is only 1/4 mile away from our office. He also knew that I used to work for Enterprise, and against my wishes, still decided to rent there anyways. He called the national reservations hotline at 9:30AM to book a compact. The pickup was scheduled at noon. I drove him to the rental office at noon and, of course, there was no car. They asked him to wait 10 minutes while they sourced a car. Every 10 minutes, my friend would ask the rental clerk for an update and wondered why they wouldn't accomodate a free upgrade because they couldn't deliver as promised. This lasted for 40 minutes AFTER the promised reservation appointment. The rental branch could not offer a valid explanation as to why the reservation wasn't honored. The only excuse was "Well...national reservations doesn't check with us before they book. We didn't have time to prepare for the reservation." They had 2 1/2 hours to prepare. There are 3 other branches within a 10 mile radius and at least double that amount within a 20 mile radius. This also demonstrates the lack of communication between the national arm of the company and its local branches. We wasted our entire lunch hour on a rental that should have taken only 10 minutes to fulfill.

My advice is to call the local branch to confirm your reservation after you call national reservations and have the branch add notes to your reservation that you cannot absolutely afford to wait more than 5-10 minutes for your rental. Better yet...rent from Hertz or Avis. They do not have these issues as often. I've rented from all these companies while traveling.

Needless to say...that won't be getting a completely satisfied rating on the ESQI(customer satisfaction) call.