Confused, at best.

I had an unsatisfactory customer service experience with my car rental from Enterprise in Wenatchee, WA this past week. Although I normally would have blown the whole thing off, item number 5 in the list below really pissed me off and prompted me to send the following e-mail to Enterprise’s customer service. I’ve omitted the names here out of the goodness of my heart.

I was extremely disappointed with the service I received this past week at your Wenatchee location. Specifically:

1) On arriving at the airport, I called for a pickup to your location. I was told it would take 5 to 10 minutes. The pickup arrived 25 minutes later.

2) It was necessary to go to the downtown location to complete paperwork that could have been done in advance. This wasted even more time.

3) On the way to your location, the driver, who is apparently a new recruit right out of college, hit me with a barrage of questions about my business. What brings me to Wenatchee? Where am I from? Etc. These questions went far beyond simple conversation. The things he asked me were none of his business. And even one-word answers didn’t send him the message that I wasn’t happy about being grilled by him.

4) This same rental guy marked on my agreement that the car had 3/4 tank of gas. The car, in fact, had less than that. So I was obliged to return it with more gas than I got it with.

5) After returning the car to the airport the next day, I began receiving phone calls from someone named [omitted#1]. He left two messages on my cell phone’s voicemail system to say he was calling “about the car.” No specifics. I had no idea why he was calling and I kept missing his calls, since I was traveling and attending to other business in California. I began to worry that something had happened to the car after I dropped it off, but I had no time to return his calls to straighten the matter out. When I finally got through to the office this morning, [omitted#2] said that [omitted#1] had probably made a courtesy call to follow-up on the rental. What’s so courteous about leaving two cryptic messages on my voicemail with a callback request? Do you people think I have nothing better to do than to chat about my rental experience?

I will NEVER rent a car at your Wenatchee location again. And frankly, I’m unlikely to rent at any Enterprise location that is not based at the airport of my arrival.

The only positive thing about the experience was the car itself: the small Ford was comfortable, practical, and easy to drive and park.

You have no idea how items 1, 2, and 3 pissed me off. If it had taken 5 minutes more to complete the rental, I would have gone ballistic on the spot. I hate having my time wasted for no real reason. And being grilled by this kid right after the long wait really got on my nerves. I could have spent an extra $20 on a rental from Hertz at the airport and been out of there without any bullshit.

Postscript: after speaking to the Enterprise office in Wenatchee this morning, [omitted#1] had the nerve to call back. That’s three calls to waste my time. What is it about these people that they just don’t get it?

Update, May 27, 2008: Over the weekend, I received a bill from Enterprise charging me for 1 day plus 1 hour of rental time. I had the car less than 24 hours. So I had to waste more of my time calling Enterprise customer service to clear this up. Turns out, the idiot who checked me in swiped my credit card improperly, so they had no credit card on file for me. For some reason, they decided to bill me for 25 hours of use rather than the less than 1 day I had the car for. (They claimed I returned the car at 1 PM when, in fact, I was in Seattle getting on another plane at that time.) But my complaints to the main office seem to have made an impact. I was told to disregard the bill and that Enterprise would pick up the cost of this rental because of the screw-ups throughout. At least someone there understands customer service. But no, I’m not likely to rent from Enterprise again anytime soon.