storewanderer

I had a rental with Enterprise recently. Although I have had a lot of rentals at Alamo and National in the past 5 or so years, this is my first rental at Enterprise brand in that time period. I had an Enterprise-specific coupon that I needed to get rid of.

I made the mistake of saying too much to the Agent. Perhaps multiple too muches.

When the Agent asked for me to take the additional coverages they offer, I declined and I advised him that my Chase Sapphire Preferred would serve as the Primary coverage for damage to the immediate rental vehicle. The Agent stated they do not accept any card other than the AAdvantage Card for that purpose (??). He then asked who is my insurer and what is my deductible, so I told him my insurer and the deductible amount. A minute or two later he gets around to swiping my card. I watch him swipe it and I see he fakes the swipe and then he tells me the card is declined. I check my phone to see if I have a fraud alert from Chase and there is nothing. I tell him there is no issue with the card. He refuses to swipe the card again stating he is not allowed to swipe a card twice. He tells me I need to use another card. I give him another card. He then says to me "now that you are using this card you will not have that coverage that Chase offers you, do you want to add our basic or extended protection to the contract?" I declined and advised him I would change the card when returning the vehicle. He said "no sir, you cannot change the card, once we swipe a card once and it declines, we cannot swipe it again."

He ends up having to swipe the other card I gave him twice too because his swipe reader was not attached to anything it was just dangling next to his keyboard. I called him out on why he was able to swipe that card twice and he goes "the first time it didn't read so we can swipe it again when it doesn't read."

I was then told it would be a wait for a vehicle. There were about 10 other patrons ahead of me waiting for a vehicle.

I sat down and made a couple of calls.

First I called Chase and asked them why they declined my attempted charge at Enterprise. Chase advised me there had been no attempted charge at Enterprise and no issue with the card.

Next I called the national Enterprise customer service to ask about their policy regarding not swiping a card twice. The representative stated if they swipe a card and it declines for any reason, they cannot swipe the card again for 24 hours. However, they can change the card when I return the vehicle and she had no idea why the agent at the counter told me differently.

I returned to the counter and asked to speak to the manager. I advised the manager of the situation. The manager told me that I could switch the card upon return that is no problem. So okay. Fair enough.

Got the car (after a wait of about 55 minutes).

Upon return, to change the credit card, I was told I had to go inside and stand in line. 20 minutes in line to change the credit card out and it authorized no problem.

I find it funny how the experience can be so bad with Enterprise. I could have rented Alamo or National at this location (who had the same manager as the Enterprise...) and based on my observations the experience would have been so much better; those counters had minimal lines both at the time of my pick up and return, and people who I saw waiting for cars there only waited 10-15 minutes.

jmastron

First of all, I would be very cautious about assuming that you can change the card on return and be covered for damage that might have occurred during the rental. Or that the agent would be able or willing to change the card at that point. Or that they wouldn't pull the same "oops, declined!" thing.

And yes, the fake swipe sounds like a scam. I would have insisted that they actually swipe my preferred card this time and show me the decline error, or walked out at that point and rented from someone else even if it would cost more. Too many red flags at that point.

It's too easy, once they social engineer you into giving them information on your deductible etc, to conveniently find that the damages on return are just under that amount...

tom911

Agree with you there. The fact that Chase uses the word "initiate" sends a signal to me they want that cedit card on the paperwork from day 1.

IAHtraveler

Exactly. They don't want you to be using a card with better cash back/benefits, get into an accident and then only charge the card to Chase when you need their coverage. When I had an accident with AmEx coverage, I had to send in the paperwork from when I picked up the car showing the AmEx was on the contract.

To the OP: I would document this with both Enterprise nationally (in writing/email) and also the Better Business Bureau. This is fraudulent business practice and should be stopped from happening again because we all know this agent will do this to other people.

fairviewroad

I hope it was a pretty fantastic coupon.

jackal

Agree. Enterprise takes customer complaints very seriously, and branch management's financial compensation (and all employees at the branch's future promotion prospects) are inextricably linked to customer satisfaction scores.

A complaint will likely go quite far (much further than, say, at Hertz, where customer service is useless half the time...).

storewanderer

I appreciate all of the input. I did not even think of the issue of the original contract having a different card on it than the Chase Card... this would definitely not work for a damage claim with any credit card, even one that is just secondary.

I essentially screwed any card from paying any part of the damage, I suspect, by using the alternate card at the time of pick up then changing the card to the Chase one at the time of return.

Hopefully no damage surprise will come as nothing was found by Enterprise upon return and I had a careful walk around with a few things "noted" when I picked it up.

storewanderer

It was looked into by location management and the corporate Accounting department and determined that the initial card I tried to use "never declined."

They took this issue very seriously. I am quite impressed with their speed of response and how they looked into it.

This is why I will continue to rent from their brands that offer user friendly counter bypass options (National and Alamo) in the future.

garykung

File a complaint with the state's Insurance Commissioner when the rental location is located.

Regardless - the Enterprise employee wanted to force insurance coverage.