storewanderer

Rented at Enterprise. Airport location. Second or third time this year. Have National Executive Elite linked to account and saved a few bucks (literally a few bucks) by booking Enterprise.

At counter the agent did the Enterprise thing, lot of questions, etc., but then the odd thing was the demand for a second phone number. I said I only have one phone number and he said that isn't acceptable they must have a second phone number. I again said I have one phone number no land line. He said he can't rent to me unless I give him a second phone number and suggested the number of a spouse, sibling, parents, boss, workplace, anything. Basically at that point I got the vibe I could tell him literally any phone number and he'd just put it into the system.

Then the next odd question was where is the vehicle going to be parked overnight. Not a big deal and I had no issue stating where I was staying, but don't these vehicles have GPS anyway? Why are they asking this? Don't they know where the vehicle is at all times anyway?

Other weird thing was they asked me to confirm my date of birth (this was while he had my ID in front of him - which has my date of birth on it). Again it isn't a big deal but why...?

Is this a policy of Enterprise to demand two phone numbers now? What is the point?

AutoSlash

First day on the job?

randix

Was he a male and did he wear a white shirt and carry a clipboard? If so. I last saw him at an Enterprise location in the year 2000...

jizen

Sounds like fraud department would be a better fit for this agent.

storewanderer

I've found in recent years with the National linked to the Enterprise reservation, Enterprise transactions go quickly... they seem to cut the questions when they see my status and profile already all filled out, so this was strange.

m907

I think some Enterprises just make stuff up.

SpinzCity

I've only rented once where the agency asked where I would be staying, and that was in Portugal (not with Enterprise). I thought of telling them I would be travelling freely without making advance reservations, but instead gave them the hotel. They then asked the exact unit number (this was a complex with multiple buildings) which was suspicious. After a 10 day rental, overnight before the morning I was to return the car the front door had been badly keyed - - a long, deep scratch through to the metal running the length of the door.

Although there were 21 identified scratches and mars on the car when I picked it up, they made sure to charge me a fat fee for this 22nd scratch. It's then I remembered that years ago, when we had stayed at this same complex in Albufeira, that reception had told one of our group not to rent there - - because of precisely that.

My credit card company's insurance would cover it, but I wrote them encouraging not to pay these pirates, for the reasons described.

stevemustangred

Sounds like the fraud department should be called to find out why this person needs to know where the car is being parked overnight.

BugsyPal

Enterprise besides often pushy up sell pitches from CSR (who often won't take no for an answer) is famous for some time now asking odd sort of questions at time of rental. Have been asked in past if vehicle was being driven out of town, will it be parked on street, and so forth...

Can only guess since Enterprise often deals with different sort of customer than say National they have larger issues with fraud and theft. Hence all sorts of strange questions which amount to car rental version of asking "did you pack this suitcase yourself?".

m907

That is part of it, and I think the other part is opportunities to upsell. I recently rented at a neighborhood Enterprise and was asked why I needed a minivan. I said I was hauling furniture so he pitched me on their insurance for the contents of the car.