OT: Is working for Hertz any better?

Well, after being invited to a second interview with enterprise, and getting a call from Hertz on the same day, I'm kind of in a bind.

Does anyone have any experience or know of anyone that has worked for Hertz? If so, what was their opinion of them.

Thanks

I hear Hertz is a better company, but expect long hours, washing cars and crappy customers.

DONT WORK FOR EITHER COMPANY....THEY ARE BOTH CRAP! PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE...RECONSIDER! I AM SURE YOU ARE AN INTELLIGENT HARD WORKING INDIVIDUAL.YOU DONT NEED THESE JOBS.WALK AWAY NOW!

I worked for ERAC for almost 4 years. I hated it by the time I left. And where did I go - HLE. They came for me; my car washer at ERAC got fired after working 7 years for them and having 1 accident. He contacted me at home - since we were friends and said we have an opening - do you want to interview. I thought for over a month about it. Did I want to leave one car rental company for another - aren't they all the same?
I figured I wanted out of ERAC and needed a paycheck - why not try it. It could be no worse. I was hired as an assistant manager (I was only still an MT at ERAC, even though I had helped 3 others study and pass the grill - they always came up with a reason why I couldn't and my numbers were strong.)
Trying to change my bad ways to good ways was hard at first. At Hertz we have a rulebook, policies and procedures and they must be followed - or guess what you get corrective action.
After only 3 months with Hertz I was promoted to Branch Manager in an HLE. I love it. I compete with my old manager who told me that I don’t have what it takes. I have taken accounts from ERAC and kept them. We offer better services to our customers. We don’t force feed the customer coverage’s…we have a product display on the counter that explains what each coverage will do for the customer and let them make educated decisions for themselves.
We do still have the difficult customers who do not understand they do not own the car, they must pay for it and when they run out of money on their credit card they must return the car. $200 did not buy you the car.
We do still have the customers who just do not listen to their insurance company, the body shop or us, when we tell them the insurance company will only pay a portion towards your rental. You will be responsible for only the taxes, since you have a flat amount.
We do still have the customer who picks the car up at 8 am and returns it 2 days later at 6pm so they are charged for 3 days. And they just to not understand why, they are back on the “day” you told them. But, they didn’t hear you tell them a time.
And we have the employees who have no work ethic and do not realize what it takes to run a branch and be profitable for the company and yourselves. Being in retail and working car rental means 45 hours minimum a week, for everyone in the office. It also means that the manager (myself) listens to their employees and find out what their needs are. They have a school meeting for their children, it is their wedding anniversary or they just want to go home early on a certain day – then I must take the responsibility to figure out how to get them out of the office and to cover for them.
Hertz gives you 2 weeks vacation your first year (if you start before March of that year). You get paid Holiday’s off in most HLE’s – depends on the market you work in. After 1 complete year of work you get 5 sick days. In the state I work in – my medical and dental package is much better. And if you need to talk – we really have an open door policy all the way up.
That is what makes Hertz so much more different then Erac.

HLE Manager:

When I left E, the spin was that HLE was a third time loser in trying to penetrate E's market. Could you address what HLE Corporate is saying as far as what they are willing to do to make this work?

Thanks

A good friend of mine finally left E after 9 years of service and it was about time. The kicker is he turned down several opportunities in other industries to stay in rental car and became a City Manager w/ HLE. I'll admit up front this is all second hand information as I have never worked for them, but he claims it's better. He tells me unlike enterprise it's totally revenue driven because it's a public company so customer satisfaction is important but right now it's more about grabbing market share and increasing profit, a more pure way to be evaluated in your performance vs. some random phone survey. I have a hard time believing it's much different other than it's a change of company and faces but i must admit this guy really does seem to like the rental car industry and his goal was always to be a City/Area manager and he was unfairly put into situations where this would not be realistic. He's getting what he wants with a different company so good for him, I will be interested to hear how he feels about the difference between the two companies once he's been on the job for awhile. He has told me that the company is nearly entirely made up of ex erac people that would like nothing better than to kick the sh&t out of erac, perhaps this will be the time that Hertz will make it work.

Thanks for the responses so far guys. Now I'm really confused. I plan on turning down enterprise, but I'm still unsure as to whether or not to turn down hertz.

To be quite honest, I never wanted to work in the rental car industry. As a recent college grad with a B+ average, I'd much rather work elsewhere, but since the job market is not stellar for college grads right now, I didnt want to pass up an opportunity. I figured the worst case scenario would be me working for hertz while still trying to find a better job.

HLEManager: The offer I applied for said that the job included a company car. Are there any catches to this offer such as having to work for a specific amount of time?

I hear that during the first year as brm of a Hertz location, that your commission is guaranteed...making all seem well during that year. But after that your on your own in commission. With Hertz doing cut-throat tactics erac did back in the day and throwing lucrative offers for rent to steal erac dealer/bodyshop business...usually that means nothing for profit..and commission.

Again this is what I hear thats happening from a person who was in an interview with hertz, and the hertz rep had to interrupt the interview to explain this to a disgruntled hertz employee who suddenly was making zilch.

Oldschool: Corp does not address what they are going to do to go "after" Enterprise. We are not going after anyone; we are going into a market. It is no different then a grocery chain opening up in your neighborhood that already had a grocery store. We are competition and that is all. In the state I work in we are not out lying to our accounts and telling them we will do things that we cannot do. At ERAC they loved to “spiff” the accounts cash. At HLE we require you to file out a form with a social security number and if you make over $600.00 we report it to the IRS. We do not lie or cheat to get an account. We are up front and honest. We let our customer know what is happening and if something goes wrong we fix it to the best of our ability without making excuses. We follow the rules and we are just in the market to be a real company with ethics and integrity.

Samplewig: You ask if you really get a company car. Before I can answer that I would need to know what position you applying for. If it was MT, assistant or car washer the answer is no right off the bat. If it was for an office job, or branch manager and above the answer is a yes.

Pedlei: At Hertz branch managers do not make commission. Our MT’s and Assistants make commission off their optional sales. We do make bonuses and these are quarterly.