Saturday, October 8, 2011

Take on the rental car deposit



After going 7+ innings an throwing 121 pitches, the manager has pulled the starter after yet another disappointing start and gone to the bullpen and summoned the big right righty.   He's carrying a 4.56 ERA, a 2.23 WHIP and a 2.1 walk to strike out ratio along with his sizable waistline but he still instilled fear in women, children and Tim Yen


I know you travel a lot and probably have some thoughts about rental cars, but here's my impression....
 So my car was delivered to me with a dent and the dealership said they would have to fix it for me on their dime.  They got me a rental car from Enterprise and that's when it all went downhill.  The woman from Enterprise met me at the dealership where I dropped my car off.  I have a nice, new Chevy Cruze which gets good mileage and even though I have only one step up from the base model it has certain creature comforts(bluetooth, radio controls on the steering wheel, XM radio, USB input).  Enterprise gives me a Jeep Compass which probably has a sticker at least 10,000 more than mine.   It had no steering wheel controls, no XM, no input at all, and a radio that seemed older than my Jeep Wrangler which I bought nearly 10 years ago.  It was dirty on the outside and the inside had a faint smell of smoke despite the no smoking sticker.  I feel bad for anyone who was suckered into buying one of these pieces of crap and it has soured me on the whole brand.  I am Mr. Buy American, but Ford and GM have made really good strides recently in design and Jeep is the same old crap.  Back to the Enterprise experience.  The woman tells me she needs a copy of my driver's license and a credit card which they are going to put a 250 dollar hold on.  I asked her why they need a deposit when the dealership was paying the rental?  She immediately said, It's OK I will only make it for 50 dollars.  Again, I asked why a deposit at all since payment was guaranteed by a dealership who uses their business on a very frequent basis.  She said, it's to ensure that I don't take off with their "Thirty Thousand Dollar Vehicle."  First of all anyone that pays 30 grand for this piece of shit is a moron.  Second of all, If I were the type to steal a car, I just bought this car for 50 bucks.  I think the threat of being arrested and put in jail and raped repeatedly is security deposit enough for most of us.  What they don't tell you is that they take this money and it sits in their account earning interest for the company.  They eventually return the money to you, but keep the interest.  A true security deposit on a rental should be kept in a separate account and returned to you with interest.  Multiply my 50 bucks with all the rentals Enterprise does worldwide and what a scam.  Finally she tells me the gas tank is 1/4 full and I would have to return it to them 1/4 full.  Fair enough on the surface, but when you think about it, I have to gas up almost immediately and it's not easy to fill a tank to exactly 1/4.  Almost everyone is going to put in more than 1/4 and return it to Enterprise with more than 1/4 tank.  It's virtually impossible to do that.  If they gave me the tank full it's easy to fill up.  Now I return it with 1/2 a tank and they get a 1/4 tank free that they didn't pay for an don't reimburse me for.  They will pass that car on to the next rental and that person will no doubt be scammed again.  Overall I rent a care about an average of once every three years, but I would never recommend Enterprise to anyone.  Just an awful experience and a very slimy company.  


Sent from my iPhone

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