The Consumer Complaints Blog

ROBBED by Enterprise rental cars! Buyer Beware! I know this is long but please read it if you ever plan to rent from enterprise. It could save you hundreds of dollars.

My name is Ray Barton, I live in Suffolk County NY. I have recently had awful and frightening experience with Enterprise rental cars in bohemia, NY, that is unbelievable. I went to the Company website on Thursday July 22 and made an online reservation for a midsized car for weekly rental at $332. Unable to make it down there, I made a new reservation on Friday the 23rd at around 1pm. The website took all my information and I printed the reservation out, which says nothing on it about rental requirements except restrictions for people under 25 (or 23, whichever it was).

I arrived at Enterprise about 5:30 PM on Friday July 23rd all ready to rent my car. The gentlemen behind the counter hammered away at the computer and set up the rental asking for a driver’s license and Major credit card. I handed him my license and my company Visa Debit card. The gentleman (I believe named MATT) tossed the card at the counter and says, “I can’t take this”. “What?” I reply. He said policy states that it has to be a credit card and debit is no good. “So what do I do?” I ask. He say’s “I can’t rent to you.” Now becoming visually angry I asked him why it doesn’t say that on the site! And prod him further asking if there’s nothing I can do. He acted as though he could really care less. I storm out of the office stating that they just wasted my time. Leaving quite angry, I call the corporate headquarters where I am told that I need a Pay stub and a utility bill, and then he can rent to me but has to take a $400 deposit. Aggravated, but willing to accept that being understandable, I have no choice but to wait until Monday because it is now 5:45pm and I’ll never make it back by 6pm when they close. I live quite a distance away so it’ll have to wait.

First thing Monday morning on the 26th of July, I call headquarters again and ask if a Geico bill will do for the utility bill, they say it will. I call the Bohemia branch around 10:30am and explain the situation, telling them what corporate had told me. “That’s fine he say’s, bring it down and we’ll rent you the car.” I head down to the branch; See the same gentleman from Friday, give him the company debit card along with my pay stub and Geico bill in hand, and the rental goes smoothly. I get a $332 weekly rate and he tells me he has a Hyundai Sonata ready, but an impala coming in about an hour if I’d like to wait. I tell him I’ll take the Sonata and we do the paperwork. He even tells me that since I had a problem on Friday he’ll put down that the tank was empty even though it was full so at least I get a free tank of gas. He charges $400 to my card as a deposit and I leave with the car around 12 noon.

I drive the car for the week without incident, and return the following Monday, August 2nd to return the car. Everything goes fine until the guy says that the charge will be $786. What??! I exclaim, I had the weekly rate. He tells me I have had the car for a week and three days so at $149 per day for the extra three days, the total is $786. I explain that I took the car on Monday and am returning it Monday, that’s one week. He tells me (are you ready for this?) that I took the car on Friday!!! I know when I took the car! I calmly explain what happened and that I was there on Friday but had to come back. I told him why I came back Monday (with my business partner as a witness, I might add) and he insists that the paperwork says 7/23 so that’s when the car left. Now, I did sign the rental form. The form does say 7/23/2010 in tiny dot matrix computer printing, but I didn’t notice that the date was wrong, Even if I noticed the date I probably wouldn’t have realized that it was the 26th and Friday was the 23rd.

The salesman say’s he has to take it up with Matt (manager, and the guy I saw both Friday and Monday) when he comes in so, he will hold on to my copy of the receipt and when it is settled he’ll give me a call. I wanted something to show I returned the car but he refused to give me a receipt unless I was willing to pay the $786.

Two hours later, I check my bank account and see that in addition to the $400 deposit they took on 7/26 (MONDAY), they also took $300 out on Sunday and an additional $86.97 about a half hour previous to my checking. Infuriated, I call the branch for an explanation and the guy I speak to says “sir, you took the car on Friday, it’s impossible for you to have not taken it until Monday. Well, I am not accepting that, so he puts me on hold to get Matt, who is also the manager (and the guy who helped me). Matt picks up and say’s, “Sir, you picked up the car on Friday and you are being charged for it!” I am appalled, how on earth can they be charging for three extra days?! How can they think I took it on Friday when I didn’t even decide on a car until Monday? If I had taken the Impala, it would be easy because it didn’t come back until Monday so it would have been easy to prove. Needless to say I have been charged $786.97 for a $332 weekly rental.

I called your corporate headquarters and spoke to someone there named shelly who took my info and told me they would put me on hold, call the branch, and if we got disconnected, she would call me back. After about ten minutes I was disconnected, called back and was told nobody named shelly works there!!!! It’s now 8:00 pm and still no call back.

My only assumption is that Matt was angry that he had to rent to me with a debit card and is purposely lying about it to screw me. How can he not remember the events above only one week later?

I am not going to give up. I’m going to spread the word and file complaints with consumer affairs and the BBB as well as the Enterprise Regional office. First of all it’s a lot of money, second it’s really the principal. I am having my attorney draw up a law suit, I have sworn affidavits from two people who were with me and three others who know When I got the car, and I’m getting my money back from the branch or from the corporation. I will spend $100,000 to get back my $400 so it would be best for someone over there to check the security cameras or whatever it takes to fix this mistake. I have better things to do than try to screw a rental company out of $400!

I’m posting this everywhere so that Buyers BEWARE, and check the dates on any rental agreements they sign and most importantly STAY FAR AWAY FROM ENTERPRISE!!

They are franchises so they can screw you and the corporate office cannot do a thing. Beware!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Imagine leaving your Toronto (any city) office for a luncheon, or a late-night soiree at a local hotspot, and instead of seeing hundreds of varying makes, models, sizes of individually owned cars, you see similarly marked, small, quiet, AC powered taxis. AND, not just sitting idle wasting time at the curb waiting for the next fare. They are all over. In fact, there are more of them than regular privately owned cars on the road. There are in fact so many, that as soon as you raise your hand, one quietly and seamlessly slides up to the sidewalk and wisks you off to a destination 5 kms away for a modest $10.00.

The city has thousands of these. Most owned by one of several different modernized privately owned taxi fleets. The fare prices are modest because the city has reduced the licensing fees (taxes) that used to run taxi companies hundreds of thousands, to a modest level to help ensure a return on investment to the taxi company owners. Sure, City loses some tax revenue but saves not having to spend another billion on TTC.

The cars typically cost $15,000 and with insurance, maintenance and a driver, can easily run $40,000 per year to operate. However, with a min start fee of $5 and $40 per hour thereafter, drivers are kept on the road all of the time making more fare money + tips. Instead of a typical taxi with 10 fares a day grossing $250, these cars are constantly on the go – 20 hours per day @ an average of $30-$40 per hour. Even if these are higher than expected, it’s over $200,000 per year per vehicle.

Keeping taxi costs lower, providing a more efficient, pleasant ride would result in this becoming a widely accepted method of economical public transportation. Not to compete with TTC but to provide an option, especially for late nighters.

Oh yes, it would also help boost the entertainment/restaurant business, most of whom are barely hanging in there with the scourge on drinking these days. Ever had to take a taxi from downtown to a 905 destination at 1:00 am. Trip takes about 30 minutes and puts a $100 hole in your pocket.

Anyway, could it work? Are there holes in it? Would I be willing to invest in it? (yes). I’m certainly not a transportation expert but I think the idea deserves merit and thought I would share it with you.

Thanks for listening.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

We have a problem with a booking at Hyatt Place Albuquerque Uptown that was made through Hotels.com. The booking was mistakenly made for Aug 26 and 27, 2010, but was intended to be booked ONLY for Aug 25, 2010.

The mistake occurred because the online form provided by Hotels.com used an auto fill for the date of the stay, and we did not realize the website had chosen the date of the stay for us.

We immediately called the customer service number listed for Hotels.com to correct the problem. After being on hold for about 13 minutes we talked to a man with a foreign accent that was very difficult to understand. He said he would refund one day and correct the date for the other night. He put us on hold for a few more minutes. We were very happy that he said he would take care of the changes.

The man came back on the phone and said he was going to transfer us to customer service to make the revisions. We were put on hold again but were relieved that hotels.com was going to make the right decision and help correct the innocent mistake.

After another lengthy wait a person who sounded very much like the first person we spoke with spoke to us. We once again explained what had happened and how we immediately called to correct the mistake. We told him that we were just transferred to him. He said no, that he was the only person to talk to us about this call.

After explaining the situation yet again, he said he would not modify the reservation. He said he would cancel it but we would have to pay the full amount regardless. He said that hotel charges them and he would not refund any money or change the date to the correct night.

We called the hotel – Hyatt Place Albuquerque Uptown and the hotel general manager named Shenaz Mehta said that Hyatt could not make the reservation change or refund any money because hotels.com pays them.

We would like to continue staying at the Hyatt chain in the future if they resolve this situation. We will never use hotels.com ever again. We travel often and feel that not caring enough to correct an honest mistake will cost them thousands instead of one or two hundred dollars.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

On May 22, 2010 I contacted Bell Express Vu loyalty department regarding an offer I had received from Rogers. The idea was to get my $103 bill down. After talking with them I accepted a deal that was offered. Imagine my surprise when my first bill was $481.80.

The deal I was offered included bundling with my home phone. The following is what I was told on May 22, 2010.
· My current TV package would be reduced to $73.00 including taxes
· My home phone would continue to be $34.15 plus taxes
· A free rental HD PVR for 12 months

· A purchased HD receiver at $199.00 of which I would receive a $100.00 credit on my first bill. Total cost $99.00

The above would be approximately $225.00 for the first month bill.

When my bill arrived for June, I contacted Bell on June 18 to discuss the amount of $481.80. After 45 minutes of being told that I should pay the $481.80 and it would be fixed later I asked for the cancellation department. Instead of cancellation I was passed to the loyalty department. Agent 6033286 told me that I shouldn’t pay the $481.80 and that the billing errors would be fixed on the next month’s bill. She agreed with the approximate price of $225.00

On July 20, 2010 my July bill arrived. The amount on this bill was $431.57. If you add the approximate $225.00 that the first bill should have been to the approximate $107.00 for satellite and land line the total should be around $332.00.

On July 21, 2010 I proceeded to call Bell and asked for Express Vu cancellation. After 20 minutes of speaking to a person and explaining the situation I was told they couldn’t help and that I had to talk to the people in bundling. After 10 minutes with bundling, where I had to repeat the entire saga again I was told they couldn’t help and that I had to talk to the people at Express Vu. At this point I asked for cancellations. I was transferred to the loyalty department. The person who took this call did not want to listen to what I had to say. She had no interest in the June bill and only wanted to talk about the July bill. She repeatedly stated that she didn’t want to discuss “past problems”. After 45 minutes on the phone she finally said she would look into the problem and call me back within 30 minutes.

One hour later I got a call back. I was told that the bill was accurate and that the “purchased” HD receiver was $199 with no discount. Also the line item on bill that says “refund” is actually a deposit charge. A very strange use of the English language. Once again I asked for the cancellations department.

This time I spoke to somebody to whom I once again had to start at the beginning. After telling them I did not want to speak to anybody else and that I no longer trusted the word of Bell employees he actually gave me a cancellation date for the account of August 21. I asked for two boxes to return the rental HD PVR and the “purchased HD receiver”. I was told that they would send me a box for the rental HD PVR but I now owned the second receiver at a price of $199.00. I explained it was a purchase at $99.00 and not $199.00. This seems to be an extreme version of ‘bait and switch”.

I am extremely disappointed with Bell as a corporation if they feel this is an acceptable way to treat customers.

I have no issue paying the agreed costs for Express Vu and the landline, but under no circumstances will I pay for an HD receiver that was sold to me at one price and then billed at another.

Dave (last name protected for privacy)

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I found your site because I needed to tell someone about the experience I had dealing with Toronto LX Limousine. I booked a reservation online with this company and then found out that I no longer required their service. I felt that not confirming the reservation was enough to cancel the deal, as is the case with most services.

After receiving a phone call the day before the day I originally intended to use this company’s services, I was told I had to cancel by responding in an email. So I did this, 24 hours in advance.

Despite this, I was billed $261.61 for not canceling 72 hours in advance. I hardly think that the administrative costs of 5 minutes worth of phone calls totals $261.60!!! I called to try and resolve the issue and tell the owner “Joseph” that he was stealing from me and that his business practice was a very short term strategy. He basically told me there was nothing I could do because he had my credit card information already. He then continued to say he doesn’t need to worry about my business, and brag that his company is worth $2.5 million. Well Joseph, that’s because you’re stealing from people Joseph! Shame on you!

I know other people have probably experienced this same situation and I don’t think it’s fair that companies take advantage of the “fine print” to steal from customers with good intentions. If anything, I hope I’ve at least succeeded in warning others not to make the same mistake in having good faith in transportation companies like Toronto LX Limo.

Sincerely,
Andrea (last name protected for privacy)
< !adsense-->
Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.