Question on other rental companies

I recently rented a car from Budget. It was so quick and painless I was shocked. The woman took my license and credit card, asked if I wanted DW/SLP, I said "no", she said "sign here, your cars in space #61" and handed me the keys.

No hassle, no phoniness, no handshakes, no DW sales push, no sell-up push. It literally took 2 minutes to get my car. It was great.

My question is do other rental companies push their employees to sell DW/SLP as aggressively as ERAC does?

PS- I highly recommend Budget.

At Hertz and Dollar. I would think that they are expected to sell, but I think they are compensated on an individual basis..maybe. You're absoultely right. It is painless and easy. It's much more simple from a customer perspective. However, I will play devil's advocate on this one. From a business standpoint, erac is smart in pushing the coverage a little harder. It does generate a good amount of income. However, the amount of pressure that is placed on the selling of dw can lead to shady sh1t. Businesswise, the competitors may be losing money short term, but they piss less cusomers off. Erac generates more money, but piss more customers off. But it's a numbers game. Erac knows they will piss people off, so they throw free rentals and discounts at the people they piss off.
But I do recommend to all customers to go to competitors...much less bullshit to deal with, and odds are you will get a car that has had it's regular oil changes when it should...

My new company has a corporate account with Hertz, I was very impressed with the experience. I had always bought in to the bs that the competition is a whole other world and the customer service is terrible, blah blah. I rented from the Cleveland airport location, free upgrade to a jaguar (didn't have my car) they did make an attempt to blind sell me which may have worked if I hadn't worked for enterprise. The car was immaculate, full of gas, parked and waiting for me. Returning was a breeze, just drive in, hand the ticket to an attendant who checks off the gas and take it inside. No hard cdw push, scare tactics, "your cars in the wash bay, it'll be just a few minutes" "the guys that do our oil changes don't turn off the light" "the brakes sound like that on this particular model" It's true they don't make the money erac does, but as a consumer that doesn't concern me. What should concern E is HLE, I've noticed a discernible difference in attitude at my local E branches, an unwillingness to deal, match internet rates (i was told recently they wouldn't book the internet rate on an SUV they were trying to gouge me for, I had to do it online) I explained to them I used to work for E and would do it all the time, still no budging. Either E has gotten a little to comfortable with their position or the improvement in the job market has forced them to hire less quality employees. Either way, if I was offered the type of experience I received at Hertz at the airport locally for a similar price, I'd go Hertz.

I think ERAC is going to have some troubles in coming years whether they will ever acknowledge it or not. From what I understand the key to retaining market share in areas where HLE is coming in strong is to "outbid" HLE for real estate and contracts with Dealerships etc. Lowering rates while increasing costs squeeze margins. The "quick fix" is to bang on employees to sell up more and sell more CDW.

When the market is able to get a car from HLE without all the "BS" that they get from ERAC the "cheaper" price won't matter. ERAC would like employees to believe that hammering DW sales and sell ups is GREAT customer service. I never agreed. I think options are great, but never felt good about trying to bend someone over.

ERAC needs to take some time and ingest thier mission statement starting with top mgt and align the values thru the rest of the corporation. If not, HLE and others can make a dent.

Wasnt Budget and Alamo filing for bankruptcy not too long ago??

My experience with other companies is they take no ownership in what they are doing...I felt like I was just another customer in a convenience store versus a customer at the hilton when I or family members of mine rent from ERAC.

Ever see the "other guys" winning customer service awards from consumer rating agencies? Its ERAC who has the best service and usually lowest rates! I love when ERAC trys to sell me up....I usually get the car I want for a lower price than if I would have reserved if for! Im not the cheap boring renter here!!

Alamo closed all their local branches and stuck with just the airports..I think.
As for ownership, I personally don't need to feel or be treated like a prince when I go rent a car. I just want the keys and the car, and I'm outta there. Not everyone cares about the things that make up the 'erac' differnece'
As for the awards--Who cares? Any retail job can have people working for them with solid customer service skills. Those awards are overrated.

Your point is valid, the folks at Enterprise tend to have more personality and handle you with a personal touch. However, for most people, especially business travelers that is a secondary concern after having the car you reserved clean and ready to go with no hassle in a timely fashion. Enterprise has to have outgoing service oriented employees to do the dance. I think we all remember being 10-15 cars in the hole, management hanging out back in the office and keeping us at the counter to chat up a bunch of pissed off customers that would probably just as soon jab us in the eye with a pencil that listen to inane chit chat to cover up the fact we were not living up to our promises. I used to be told to tell people cars we being washed and turned around from out back, or on the way from other branches, these were most of the time complete lies and I would ask "That's great, but what happens five minutes later when we still have no cars and now we're liars x 2" The response "just gotta pray for some enterprise magic" ridiculous. Again, customer service is a great thing, and for special needs customers, and those unfamiliar with the rental process or reimbursement issues they are a benefit, but for people who have rented a car before and are on a schedule they are horribly lacking because you just never know when you show up if you'll have a car or not. I will give credit to the staff at an airport location, when as an employee my flight was delayed several hours past their closing time, the manager rented the car to me over the phone and parked it at the back of the lot with the keys in the visor with the contract...saved my tail, I wasn't 25 yet and couldn't rent from the companies that where open late. That was truly above and beyond and not the only example of what fellow employees will do for one another in that company. I used to tell my fiance that if she was ever in trouble just find the nearest enterprise and go there and they would help her, and I still believe that.

I am all about AVIS!! I had the same experience in and out in 2 seconds. I asked the Avis manager about the way their corporate views their LDW sales. He said it helps to get them promoted but not really. It is their corporate policy not to be aggressive because they understand how much it ticks people off! I didn't have to do a dumb "walk-around" either. Thank GOD!!!!

"I didn't have to do a dumb "walk-around" either. Thank GOD!!!!"

If anyone is knowledgeable about Avis' policies concerning cars returned with damage, I am curious as to how they justify charging someone for damages when they don't even do an inspection with the customer before the car is rented.

Rented a van from National.

Offices clean and well presented - not a shack with exposed wires.

Employees courteous and friendly, not dressed in suits (but you know, I DIDN'T CARE).

Asked if I wanted coverage once - to see how far he would push I said no - didn't ask again.

Car preps (not trainees) were cleaning the cars.

Walk around was quick.

Return took about 2 minutes to check the van.

Quality service.