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[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

Originally Posted by Intern

I absolutely love the high amount of grammer errors that appear all over this site from supposed college educated people, don't you?

From the beginning, I've asked people to check their spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. before posting to help make messages more readable, and I've also asked people not to criticize someone else's errors, partially because English may not be someone's first language.

However, mocking someone for their "grammer" errors is a one-two combination punch I never imagined we'd have to deal with.

Congratulations.

Admin

[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

Originally Posted by Intern

I was happy to see that you responded to my comments from earlier. I just wanted to take some more time and go through some of the things you said earlier in response to my earlier comments.

"I can only conclude that you and I have different definitions of the word "reservation". I'm not asking you to have an unlimited supply of cars, just the one you promised you'd hold for me. And "safety stock" isn't a luxury, it's a promise you volunteered to make. Nobody forced you to offer and confirm the reservation." - Adminsitrator

I dont think that we do. You and I do have the same opinion when it comes to reservations. They should have the vehicle readily available for you when you do come into to pick it up. However, sometimes we may not have that particular vehicle do to some circumstances.

Except your list of allowable "circumstances" include the following:

1. You knowingly offered and confirmed reservations for far more cars than you had in stock.

2. You rented every car out as fast as possible to walk-in customers, even if it meant dishonoring a reservation later.

3. You were confident that once the customer arrived at the branch and saw their negotiating position was severely compromised, you'd have no trouble getting them to agree to whatever you offered them.

Originally Posted by Intern

Futher more I would like to tell you that I personally do not like the way the internet site is set up. It does not have the capacity to know what is happening at the branch. It has no idea when cars are returning or which vehicles are returning.

This is just astonishing. This fact alone earns Enterprise a site like this.

Originally Posted by Intern

The internet booking of reservations is somewhat new and some kinks need to be worked out.

So long as your definition of "kinks" includes:

1. It always says yes to every reservation, regardless of supply or demand.

2. No one in the branches will ever look at the output of this "reservation" system.

Are you sure you're willing to describe these as "kinks"? Is there anything that you won't spin?

Originally Posted by Intern

You are always better off calling the location and speaking with them directly. And yes, "safety stock" is a luxury, it allows a business to continue to supply a product when an unusual amount demanded of a product is requested.

I've never asked for Enterprise to keep cars around for an "unusual amount demanded". All I've ever asked for is that if you promise me you'll hold a car for me in return for my letting you know my plans in advance, that you honor your promise. Don't hold "an unusual amount demanded", just the one car you promised to hold for me. Are you unclear on this?

Originally Posted by Intern

However, you are right, the vehicle that you requested and reserved should have been there. And like I mentioned earlier we try to accommodate people the best we can.

There you go again. You don't "accomodate people the best we can". You accomodate people if you have cars in stock. Otherwise, all bets are off and all previous promises are irrelevant.

Originally Posted by Intern

99% of the people would love to get a bigger vehicle into an SUV or truck. Sometimes customers need that specific vehicle exclusivly. Similar to an airline they may happen to overbook a flight. They may upgrade people to take a different flight or upgrade them to first class at no charge. Most people would love the free upgrade into first class, some people may hate the upgrade to first class because of whatever reason. Mistakes happen, sometimes we screw up. The point is that when we do we try our best to make up for it the best way that we can.

If you wish to have the right to push any customer into a giant SUV or extended cab pickup at any time, and quietly raise their CDW cost by $70/week, then why don't you say that on the web site? Gasoline is expensive and financial district parking garages won't take these monsters. You're giving yourself more flexibility, at the customers' expense. Again, this is the "book, don't look; it will all work out" attitude.

Originally Posted by Intern

Except that you include yourselves in the category of people you wish to make happy. You're putting your branch's profit goals ahead of your customer's needs. You dishonor reservations because it increases your operating profit to do so. It's admirable to "do the best you can under tough circumstances", unless you're the one creating the tough circumstances. Don't ask me to make sacrifices because you intentionally overbooked to increase profit. - Administrator

Like I said, we are trying to make everyone happy, the customer and the branch. We are just like any other business in the world, we are infact trying to make money. No one starts a business because they want to break even or lose money. Business are around because they do infact want to make money.

Again, nobody's questioning your desire or right to make money. The problem is that you use this as a justification for lying to your customers. I want Enterprise to be profitable. Just stop lying to me and you'll be alright.

Originally Posted by Intern

If it just so happens that I have a vehicle that is available for rent that I could give to someone as a free upgrade then hell yeah im gonna do it. However, just as I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of people would love a free upgrade, typically people want to rent bigger cars like SUV's but dont because its too expensive, they must rent a compact car instead because its all they can afford. However, there are those rare cases where people rent the compact car because they want to get 30 miles to the gallon and love using the tape deck. As a company we try not to overbook.

But you do, and you've admitted it yourself. Your web site will approve and confirm an essentially unlimited number of reservations even if a branch is completely out of cars. You've said this yourself. Are you just repeating management phrases without even thinking about what you're saying here?

[quote=Intern]The best that I can do at a branch is run at 100%, and I do want to rent every single one of my cars. If I continue to book reservations beyond that 100% there is no way that I can satisfy their needs/expectations and it not only will piss them off but I may lose out on future revenues.[quote=Intern]Or it could be worse; you could earn yourselves a website like FailingEnterprise.

Originally Posted by Intern

"Do you realize what you're admitting to here? Enterprise takes reservations knowing full well that it's making no effort to actually have sufficient cars to meet them? How is this not bait-and-switch, or simply fraud? This is a serious question." - administrator

In response, yes I do know what I am saying here. I am telling you that I personally hate the online reservation system that we have and that the current way the online booking is set up does not take into effect what is going on at the branch. No its not bait and switch, this would require that I book a compact car for you and when you come to pick up the vehicle I let you know that all compact cars are sold out and you must take a truck or SUV AND YOU MUST PAY THE SAME PRICE AS AN SUV OR TRUCK. We on the other hand lock in the rate and give you a free upgrade. Also, if you were going to rebuttle with the Damage Waiver price difference I have you covered, at no time is the damage waiver price quoted to you on the internet.

This doesn't change the fact that the daily rate for CDW, at least here in California, is dependent upon the value of the car. If you give me a free (mandatory) upgrade into an SUV, the price of CDW goes up. Of course, you don't go out of your way to point that out to the customer, you hope they won't notice.

Originally Posted by Intern

I has a disclaimer stating the the damage waiver price can vary from city to city and for different vehicles. In no way would this be considered fraud, fraud requires that we have purposely misled a customer. The branch tries to put you into the vehicle that you reserved, we want to get you into that full-size car you reserved. Giving you an upgrade into a larger vehicle increases costs to the branch thus lowering operating profit. It doesn't makes sense to give you a free upgrade into a truck for the hell of it when I could have someone calling to rent a truck for $100/day. Like I said earlier, Enterprise is trying to make money. For all you know the car that was scheduled to be yours got into an accident or the renter wanted to keep it for another week. You dont know what goes on behind the scenes. Since you wanted to get legal and techinical you do realize that accusing a business of being fraudulent or of entering into bait-and-switch practices without any proof can be considered slander.

Let's go through the steps one at a time:

1. Enterprise offers me a reservation. The offer is this: If I tell them my plans in advance, to help them plan better, and commit to a car, location, date, and time, they'll reward me for this by holding a car for me.

2. I accept their offer.

3. I arrive at the branch, fulfilling my part of the deal.

4. The branch reneges on their part of the deal, and now that I'm physically there, my negotiating position is seriously degraded. They've made a promise in order to get me to come down to the branch, and once I've arrived, the deal I was offered disappers and I am offered a worse deal instead.

If you honestly feel this is not "bait-and-switch", then I want to hear your detailed explanation.

Originally Posted by Intern

What you had read was entirely unreasonably misinterprited. The quote used in your attack simply states that I 1) personally do not like the internet web site when it comes to reserving a car, 2) is solely used to reserve a car (the website does not walk you out to your vehicle, it does not have any other function to it other than reserving cars), and 3) currently, the design of the internet program is not up to date on the current inventory of the vehicles at the locations and cannot anticipate when a vehicle is going to return. You are way off base with your accusations of our business practices.

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that yes, Enterprise does this, but that you don't like it personally? That's honorable of you, but Enterprise still has a serious problem on their hands.

Originally Posted by Intern

"So what you're saying is that after I make a confirmed reservation I should call the local branch and ask them to reserve a car for me? Does this in the slightest way seem ridiculous to you?"- administrator

Yes you should and No I dont. If you are so concerned that you have to get a full-sized car and only a full-sized car then yes you should call the branch and let them know that an upgrade will no work in your case that it is absolutely necessary that you get into a full-size car. I think that you and I could agree that non-verbal communication done via a computer is not as effective as personal verbal communication done over the phone. Just calling a branch and letting them know the importance of the situation of getting a full-size car can only be benifical to you and your rental experience. Like I mentioned earlier, you and I should be able to agree that people love to get upgraded for free whether its an upgrade into first-class from coach or getting the pent-house suite of a hotel when they reserved a single room. Car rental agencies are the same. Rarely do people get pissed over a free upgrade. It may happen 1 in a 1000 times.

Again, without informing customers, you're reserving the right to "upgrade" them into a car that will significantly raise their fuel costs, significantly raise their CDW costs, and make parking impossible. I told my local branch repeatedly that I didn't want this and they kept pretending they didn't hear me.

Originally Posted by Intern

"If the gas tank were at least half full I wouldn't have a problem. What bothers me is driving six blocks, getting on the ramp for the San Francisco Bay Bridge (ten miles to the next gas station) and then having the warning light come on saying I am completely out of gas.

Enterprise apparently wants it both ways with the gas issue. They want to charge customers for the extremely overpriced "refueling service", because it's profitable, but then they don't want to actually have to provide any "refueling" or any "service". So if you bring back the car without a full tank, you pay extra because Enterprise has to refuel it, and then they just give it to the next customer who is the one to actually do the refueling. You're charging for a refueling service that you don't provide."-Administrator

It sucks when the gas is nearly empty, and your right, they should have put some gas into the vehicle before you left. But the fact remains the same that they told you what the current gas level was at and what level you needed to return the gas at.

Yes, they told me it had 1/3 of a tank and that I needed to return it with the same amount. And it was empty.

Originally Posted by Intern

One of the first things that they teach you when you learn to drive a car is that you should always check the fuel level and determine whether or not you can make it to your destination. Regarding the gas is a result of how life works.

So let me get this straight: After 20 minutes of ducking, dodging and weaving, refusing to give me a straight answer, they finally admit the vastly inferior Dodge Dakota Quad-Cab All-Wheel Drive pickup is the only vehicle in stock. I'm now very late, they tell me there's 1/3 of a tank of gas and I head for the bridge. At this point, you're ready to criticize me because I forgot to consider the possibility that the agent was lying when they said it had 1/3 of a tank?

Originally Posted by Intern

Please bring the gas back to the same level, that way we dont need to charge you for gas. However if you do bring it back with less full then hell yeah I need to charge you a higher rate since I need to take an employee from washing cars to pumping gas in the car you just returned. If it was extremely important for you to have a 1/2 tank or full tank of gas then request that your vehicle should be filled accordingly. If you are on a tight schedule then call over to confirm that or make an earlier reservation. To often to people think that the car rental process is done in just 2 seconds. Shit happens and sometimes things may take longer than expected.

"Shit happens" only when you refuse to take minimum reasonable steps. "Shit happens" is what weak people say when they're trying to avoid responsibility for their actions. Here's what happened:

1. Enterprise offered a reservation for a full-size car.

2. During that day, the branch knowingly rented out every full-size car in stock, thinking "it'll work out" when the reservation customer arrives.

3. I arrive. All they have is a giant AWD extended cab pickup with an empty tank. They duck, they dodge, they weave. They lie ("your car is ready, but it's not here"). For 20 minutes, I keep asking "What about my reservation?" and they never give me a straight answer.

4. Finally, the offer this giant pickup. I'm late and I'm desperate so I take it.

For you to excuse this with a "Shit happens" is pure responsibility avoidance.

But you know that.

Originally Posted by Intern

"If you really want to pursue this analogy, imagine renewing your car insurance and the insurance company quadruples your rate, explaining you're now covered as if you were driving a Ferrari. You explain you're still only driving your Toyota, and they say "Don't you understand it costs a lot more to insure a Ferrari?". Truthful, but completely missing the point."-administrator

Like I mentioned earlier in my first post, if I had walked you out to your car I would have sold you the protection for the vehicle at the same rate as a compact car. However, we are not obligated to have a set rate for you since it is explicitly written that quotes for the protection can vary depending on the vehicle and which location you are renting the vehicle.

And that's why a "free upgrade" can easily cost the customer an additional $70/week. Apparently you and I have a differing definition of the word "free".

Originally Posted by Intern

"Actually, I'm not. The current and former employees seem to be doing that just fine by themselves."-administrator

Yes you are. If you weren't then why would you go through the effort of having an anti-enterprise website.

When I first created the site, I never imagined that employees would be such big participants on the discussion board. I created it as a customer, and for customers. I never suspected these problems were so widespread and that so many employees were sick and tired of it also.

Originally Posted by Intern

It is clearly obvious that the overall design of the website took you hours to construct. The comments that I posted were from just a few days ago, but I can see that you immediately read and responded to my comments thus suggesting that you spend a good amount of time checking your website.

You extrapolated that from a single data point? Go back to college.

Originally Posted by Intern

You and I both know that when it comes to a large business that 100% of the employees are not going to be as dedicated and enthusiastic about the company as other. Some may down right hate the job. I just told you who was working for the company from the first post I had. You could just as easily put an anti-walmart website up or and anti-bankofamerica website up and current and former employees will bitch and complain about how crappy the company is. I think that your comments are weak based upon not taking into account the number of employees that have worked for enterprise rent-a-car over its existance.

"I've heard this from many people and it always surprises me. This sounds like "So, you figured out we're ripping you off. Well, it's your own fault for coming back." Is this the official Enteprise policy on people who point out unethical and possibly illegal behavior, to explain that the first time they noticed was their fair warning, and subsequent actions aren't Enterprise's fault because the customer should have known?"-administrator

As I mentioned earlier not everyone is going to have the best experience from Enterprise. It is impossible to satisfy everyone that comes through our door. It sounds to me that you are very direct and have certain expectations everytime you rent a vehicle. In a perfect world everyone would get exactly what they want and there would be no problems. But in reality things can go wrong, and in some cases we may not be able to meet your expectations. It does happen.

My objection is that you optimize your business so this happens way too frequently. Over the past 18 months, I have rented 45 times from another nationwide chain just a few blocks away here in San Francisco. For all 45 rentals, the car I reserved over the Internet has been there, with a full tank of gas, and the entire process has taken less than 60 seconds. You keep arguing that I've been expecting too much out of Enterprise, while this other firm seems to make everything work properly without any difficulties. The difference between your two firms is like night and day. What do you say to this? They never make excuses that "shit happens", because they just quietly deliver every time.

Originally Posted by Intern

Lets say that I rent you a car and it breaks down, the next time you rent that vehicle breaks down again, and the third vehicle you rent breaks down again. The odds are very slim but this situation could very well happen, I think that you and I could agree on that this has happened at least once in the existance of Enterprise rent-a-car. Do I expect this person to rent from us again a fourth time? No I dont, we have already made the first three rentals miserable enough for the customer that he will end up going to a competitor the next time. We try not to do this, believe me. We want our customers to be happy with our service so we can get repeat business and to continue to stay in business. I just want you to be happy when it comes to renting a car.

Except that you don't. Your most important goals are your branch profitiability and you optimize heavily for that, and if a customer doesn't like it, tough.

Originally Posted by Intern

If we are consistently not meeting your expectations then you may be better off from renting at a competitor. As much as we want to keep you as a customer we understand that we screwed up and you have been unhappy with our service the past couple of times. It almost sounds like you got to the point where you would be very upset over something so insignificant.

So insignificant? Have you even read the website? Ten reservations out of fifteen dishonored? If you consider this to be "insignificant", then you need to reconsider your career in retail.

Originally Posted by Intern

It seems that you are at the point were you would rent to have something happen so you could piss and moan about it. If thats what you are about then thats cool. For me, if I have a bad experiece or two with a business I simply do use that particular business anymore. Sometimes you should just walk away.

Actually, I kept thinking I wasn't "getting it", that somehow I wasn't understanding how the "reservation" process worked, or that maybe Enterprise had some unusual business model that I didn't understand. I kept going back because it was conveniently located and I was determined to figure out how to make things work there. I kept trying to work with them to understand what I needed to do and they kept spinning me. Of course, I didn't realize I never had a chance.

So there's a detailed response to your arguments. At a fundamental level you still appear to feel it's OK to lie to your customers so long as you can throw out a lot of distracting phrases and management platitudes.

You also seem to have what appears to be a fairly common interpretation of what good customer service is, which is to just keep spinning and spinning. Even casual analysis of your arguments shows they don't hold water, but this doesn't seem to even slow you down. It seems to be the Enterprise culture to just keep telling the customer whatever they want to hear until you close the deal.

Enterprise might very well be very successful and profitable, but now the Internet allows their customers to get together and share their experiences and realize it's the same scams and excuses everywhere. I'm sure it's got to suck when your customers start comparing notes on you like this, but one of the reasons free markets and democracy are so effective is that they expose and penalize this sort of unethical behavior so effectively.

I'm eager for Enterprise to rejoin the mainstream American business community. And you could come along too, if you'd like.

Admin

Bottom line is this: Erac does not run the biz or train employees to look at reservations as any type of guarantee for a car...EVER. They train the opposite "BOOK THE DEAL" It doesn't matter if the branch is 3 cars or 20 cars short for the amount of reservations the office has, it doesn't matter..."book that deal" !!!! Profits before service is a clear message being instilled. That's the Bottom line...and no employee can refute that. If Erac did GUARANTEE reservations, they would hold the size class reserved for the customer that made a reservation until the customer came in to rent it, and would only rent it to someone else if the original customer never showed up. (hell, for arguments sake....Charge the customer if they didnt show up for a "Guaranteed reservation"

ex. Lets say I am a corporate customer:, and I reserved a fullsize for noon on Wednesday. I have very important clients coming into town and I need a bigger car to accomodate them. It is 11:45 am, and I am ON MY WAY to the office to get it. I made the reservation a week ago, and confirmed it yesterday. In the mean time, Its WEDNESDAY, and guess what, there is only 1 car on the lot with 15 reservations left. (that never happens, right?) Luckily for me (and it WAS just luck) that one car happens to be a fullsize car...A Ford Taurus. At 11:50am, 5 minutes before I get there, the ford dealership calls from down the street. (You know, the one that has their own loaners but the branch manager has been working on them for months to get out of them, and shop is on the fence about it primarily because in the past Erac has had car availability problems...go figure! They hated it when erac would cart their customers all over town when they didnt have the cars they promised, and received many complaints about it) Anyway, They have a customer that broke down and needs a car. Where is that lonely taurus going to go? Will it be rented to the "pop fly" dealership customer, or would it go to the corporate client who made a reservation a week ago, and confirmed it yesterday for that particular size?

Here is what will happen: The trainee handling the call from the dealership will panic, put the dealership on hold, and ask management. Managers will most likely pick up the phone and say..."no problem, we have a Taurus, we will be right down." HENCE: The RESERVATION from the corporate client meant ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Profit is more important than service...HOWEVER, the ERAC MISSION says otherwise......summarized:

#1) Underpromise and Overdeliver.....CUSOTMER SERVICE IS ALWAYS FIRST
#2) Taking care of employees is 2nd
#3) If you do #1 & #2,......Profitability will follow

Now, I ask you Erac'ers.....would you agree that this is a typical scenario that happens thousands of times a day throughout the country?

Would you also agree that this scenario does not resemble in the LEAST what the mission statement claims?

If I am that corporate client, and I relied on ERAC to provide the service they promised me, shouldn't I be upset? I was SCREWED. So again....do reservations really mean I will get the car I planned to receive ? Nope.....You have just as good of a chance showing up at the counter with no reservation then PLANNING ahead. That is the real issue here....Reservations to a customer mean I will have what I planned to have. To Erac, it is a guideline. If I am relying on erac......I don't expect my reservation to be looked as a "guideline". That contradicts your mission statement!

[GP51Sux]

What's funny is that Ford dealership is going to probably pay some crappy TAPS rate like $20/day for 1 or 2 days, whereas your Corp customer is probably in the $30-$40 range for a longer period of time. But ERACs mantra of "grow your business" comes at the expense of another segment that they are trying to grow, the corporate traveler. Either choice in that scenario ends up with a phone call to the area manager, and then a bitch out of the BM, AM or MA that made the decision. Gee, wonder why so many employees there are jaded. A decision to do right by someone, or increase your service to an account, invariably leads to pissing someone else off. I think it is ingrained in the L3s and above that the ball is always dropped by the L2s and down, never listening to the actual situation or looking at the circumstances that they put their area branches in.

By the way, nice replies Admin. You are a very thoughtful person, and don't let some brainwashed college intern fire you up. ERAC will use him for a few years, continuously stroking him as the next big thing, then hustle him out when they have no more use for him.

[Intern]

Originally Posted by GP51Sux

By the way, nice replies Admin. You are a very thoughtful person, and don't let some brainwashed college intern fire you up. ERAC will use him for a few years, continuously stroking him as the next big thing, then hustle him out when they have no more use for him.

Im touched. Im assuming that you did read the part in my last ranting and raving that I am pretty much planning on quiting Enterprise when I graduate right??? And you think that I am brainwashed too??? That hurts my feelings. I would hardly consider myself brainwashed, I know I am the exception to the rule though. I know I am since I realize that for every one success story you have when someone makes hundreds of thousands annually you have 20 different people who simply didn't get promoted enough and left the company. You always have to take what someone says with a grain of salt and lower the expectations of success from what they tell you.

Congrats with your job after Enterprise. I hope they do a better job treating you. It sounds like you ended up staying with Enterprise way too long getting more bitter every single day.

Its obvious to me that recruiting is a bit of a joke, all too often are incoming employees shown glimpses of success stories and made to feel that they will get to that point. Now if those numbers that you posted were infact truthful than I would say that it does suck you didn't get promoted. However, you of all people should know that Enterprise promotions are based more from being at the right place at the right time. This fact is also true in the business world. Businesses just dont promote someone for the hell of it and create a new position for them, they must wait for someone to step down before you can promote someone to upper management. And we all know that just about everything starting at Area Manager and above is simply cake, making a shit load of money for really not doing much. Would you step down from a job when your making over 100k a year going from branch to branch just shooting the shit with your employees. Hell No.

The thing many seem to overlook is that what Erac wants and what many of the rental employees want don't always allign themselves. Erac wants to turn a profit. Period. They would like to offer good service, but have to be blind to think that the way in which they handle many things internally are going to consistently accomplish that. To Erac it is simply a numbers game. Get the customers in the door, and sell sell sell. Sell the friendly handshake and smile. Sell the many locations areound the city. Sell the name. Erac corporate has got to know that by telling everyone to come in to get a certain size car, that it will be inevitable that reservations will now always be met and people will get pissed. Erac knows this, but they don't care. They do it anyways because by playing the numbers game, they will surely make $ and that the employees will diffuse most situations. The situation that happened to admin is an oddity in that it happened so many times to the same customer. The branch employees act as firefighters to put out many of the fires that are ultimately created by Erac's sole purpose to make a buck. You have more trucks that compacts because Erac can turn more of a profit on the resale on an F150 rather than a corolla. They know that many of the rental customers will have to settle for the wrong size car, but the company doesn't care. From what I heard, rental is not their biggest moneymaking department anyways. Remarketing is. It is naive to think the comapny doesn't plan things this way. I've said it before...the company often times places their employees in problematic customer service situations and tell them to handle it. For the most part, the employees really do care and try to offer the best service possible, but they can only do so much. They have to play with the hand that the company has dealt to them. Intern keeps saying 'we' when describing what erac does for its customers. He really should say 'I' because he feels this way and not necessarily the company. Intern busts his ass to make the customer satisfied. He tries to accommodate the customer. He cares about the customer. But Intern can only do so much with what he has. If the branch only has trucks instead of standard sizes, I'm sure he's not thrilled about that, but what the hell can he do about it. He didn't order an abundance of Silverados and Rams. When he says he tries to accommodate customers as best as possible, I beleive he is doing just that. I know cause I was in the same boat as he was. From admin's perspective, which is simply a customer perspective, when you have so many rentals go bad, it pisses and annoys him. Rightfully so. The employees represent the company. But Admin did work at Erac. He was on the other side of the counter. Working there and renting there are different things. I believe that the majority of branch employees want to make the rental as smootly as possible, but when internal procedures and immature company culture controls how they can do that, you can only throw up your hands and sigh. To all customers: For the most part, the employees are not to blame. It is the fault of the industry and the fault of the company. It seems to me that some of these back and forths admin has found himself in lose sight of that. Anytime I've used the term 'we' when describing my experiences at Erac, I am not referring to the company...I am referring to the employees I worked with.
The company will not change. The rental employees have to realize this and do one of two things. Do what you can with what you got and expect to run into some poor service situations that you have to handle OR put your notice in and get the fuck out of both the company and the industry.

[Intern]

Admin, I think that it is clearly obvious that you and I could go back and forth on who we think is right and who we think is wrong. In the end it really doesn't matter. Im not right nor am I wrong. And you too are nither right nor wrong. You may think that Enterprise is the absolute scum of the business world and thats cool. I respect your opinion, you are definately intitled to it.

In doing some research I found out that Enterprise does roughly 27 to 28 million transactions in just the United States alone. Realistically is everything going to be perfect and meet every single person's expecatations. NO. You have been quite clear in that you were obviously one of the people that had a few bad experiences with Enterprise. And like I said sometimes shit happens, most of the time you can't control it just as sometimes the people behind the counter can't control it.

Now with the new rental "firm" that you are going to I have glad to hear that from your 45+ experiences everything has met or exceeded your expectations. But to be fair it is safe to also assume that maybe the customer before you was just so pissed off with them that it would eventually result in not renting from them ever again. So much that they too would want to create a website specifically to bash that company. Does this mean that your firm is a bad company. NO.

When it comes right down to it some facts still remain. Enterprise is ranked number one by J.D. Power Associates 5 of the past 6 years. Enterprise made close to one billion, yes billion, dollars more than number two Hertz last year in revenues. These numbers tell me that we, (exactly from what realitycheck said) the employees that deal with customers day in and day out, are doing something correctly. Does this mean that Enterprise is the best car rental agency in the United States? I would say yes, however, you would say no. You and I are nither right nor are we wrong. But it is clear that the vast majority of people that rent cars prefer to do that with us. It is also clear that Enterprise, like it or not, is going to be around for a long time.

I guess what I am trying to get at here is that every business is not perfect. Especially those that deal with millions of transactions yearly. And for whatever reason when something goes wrong just simply move on. Everyone has gotten screwed over or something has happened to really piss us off. But I think everyone moves on when they get to a point when they realize that they cannot change the situation and dwelling on it does nothing. You always have to pick and choose your battles. Is it worth spending your time to complain about a company that you have not incountered in a few years and never will for the rest of your life? Is it worth spending your time trying your hardest to do whatever you can to soil their name? Thats up to you Admin. In the end Admin I wish you the best. I just hope I never piss you off. lol. Peace.

Intern,
I agree with most of what you said. As for JD powers and Erac being ranked high. That doesn't make the company a caring organization, it simply means that the employees that Erac hires for the most part bust their ass to put Erac on top of that list. One of my problems with Erac, is that they generally don't recognize that hard work by their employees. I can tell you at least 10 solid managers and employees that I saw leave the company within a year time frame. These were people that would have made erac even better, and the company allowed them to walk right out because they setup a culture that promotes many of the wrong people. From what I've experienced, read, been taught, and seen, Erac is just another example of corporate America. Nothing more. The image of a nice family owned business has long passed. They are just a big business that wants to make as much money as humanly possible. They are 1 of many like that, but it doesn't make me want to work for them again any time soon.

Admin,

This competitor that you've been going to. I assume it's Hertz or Avis or someone like that. Maybe the reason they haven't got any of your reservations wrong is because they don't have nearly the marketshare as Erac has. This competitor may not get all that insurance and dealership business that Erac gets simply because they are playing catchup to erac in that market. This may translate to that competitor having more of a selection of cars available when you come in for the reservation. For all you know, maybe that competitor branch is booking everything similar to the way Erac does, but can meet those reservations because they don't have the dealerships and insurance customers sucking up a vast amount of those cars. There's a lot of what ifs. I can tell you that when I worked at the airport erac branch, I saw people that had reservations turned away by all the major competitors on more than one occasion. That tells me that those other rental companies overbook too. They play the same game as Erac does, but just don't get caught with their pants down as often because they are not as big as Erac is. I guarantee you if Hertz or whoever had the marketshare that erac has, customers very well could run into the same things you ran into.

With all that being said, I will say that Erac, the company, still sucks. That shit is never gonna change.

[Group98 groupee]

Intern,
First of all, you are a college student and you must not have much knowledge of the "real" world other than your experience with Enterprise.
Second, your comment about Liberal Arts degrees was way, way off base. I have a degree in Political Science, worked at ECRAP as a Business Analyst, and now work for another company here in St. Louis doing the same work for a whole lot more money and a lot fewer headaches.
The way that ECRAP does business has a lot to be desired and as for JD Power and Associates awards, those can be bought very easily. You may not know this, but Enterprise won an Urban League award just weeks after being sued for racial discrimination and making a large donation to them as well.

[Erac United]

Originally Posted by realitycheck

Intern,
I agree with most of what you said. As for JD powers and Erac being ranked high. That doesn't make the company a caring organization, it simply means that the employees that Erac hires for the most part bust their ass to put Erac on top of that list. One of my problems with Erac, is that they generally don't recognize that hard work by their employees. I can tell you at least 10 solid managers and employees that I saw leave the company within a year time frame. These were people that would have made erac even better, and the company allowed them to walk right out because they setup a culture that promotes many of the wrong people. From what I've experienced, read, been taught, and seen, Erac is just another example of corporate America. Nothing more. The image of a nice family owned business has long passed. They are just a big business that wants to make as much money as humanly possible. They are 1 of many like that, but it doesn't make me want to work for them again any time soon.

Admin,

This competitor that you've been going to. I assume it's Hertz or Avis or someone like that. Maybe the reason they haven't got any of your reservations wrong is because they don't have nearly the marketshare as Erac has. This competitor may not get all that insurance and dealership business that Erac gets simply because they are playing catchup to erac in that market. This may translate to that competitor having more of a selection of cars available when you come in for the reservation. For all you know, maybe that competitor branch is booking everything similar to the way Erac does, but can meet those reservations because they don't have the dealerships and insurance customers sucking up a vast amount of those cars. There's a lot of what ifs. I can tell you that when I worked at the airport erac branch, I saw people that had reservations turned away by all the major competitors on more than one occasion. That tells me that those other rental companies overbook too. They play the same game as Erac does, but just don't get caught with their pants down as often because they are not as big as Erac is. I guarantee you if Hertz or whoever had the marketshare that erac has, customers very well could run into the same things you ran into.

With all that being said, I will say that Erac, the company, still sucks. That shit is never gonna change.

Reality...actually I think I know why all of admin's reservations have been honored at this competitor. Everyone in the San Fran group knows this guy. Do you really think the competitor right down the street from the office that's highlighted on this site doesn't know this guy? Trust me...someone higher up in the company -- assuming its Hertz from what admin has said -- found out about this guy and is making that branch bust their ass for them. Honestly, we'd probably do the same thing if we thought we were kicking the competition in the balls because of it. I bet you'd get an interesting story about what they have to go through every time he rents.......