So Berk and I are spending the holidays with the family in Norfolk, VA, and all is well. But the trip down here…that’s a different story. I’d be remiss if I didn’t warn you all never, ever to rent a car from Enterprise Rent A Car. My Monday morning went something like this:
THE PLAN: Pick up car from Newark International Airport and get on road by 9:30am.
7:30am: Leave apt., Get on A train to Penn Station.
8:00am: Pay $30. Get on Amtrak to Newark Airport.
8:25am: Train stops in Downtown Newark
8:30am: Train arrives at airport. Get on Newark monorail.
8:55am: Arrive at rental car stop. Wait for Enterprise off-site bus.
9:15am: Bus arrives. I find out from bus driver that, despite my twice-confirmed reservation, I’m not allowed to rent a car from this Enterprise because I didn’t just get off a plane. No boarding pass, no car. But I’m told that the Enterprise in Downtown Newark (where I’d been an hour earlier) will honor the reservation.
9:25am: Get back on Newark monorail.
9:55am: Get back on Amtrak.
10:00am: Arrive in Downtown Newark.
10:10am: Arrive at Downtown Newark Enterprise. I wait while they give the suit in front of me the full customer service treatment (“You want to upgrade? Sure! We’ll just drive an Altima right over.“), etc. etc. When my turn comes, they look at my reservation printout like it’s a dead animal. They tell me they have no cars to give (despite upgrade of aforementioned suit) and that they can’t honor the reservation. I call the Airport Enterprise back to see if the car in my name is still there. They tell me they gave it away and that the only thing to do is try to make a new (read: much-higher-priced) reservation with an Enterprise somewhere else in the Tri-state area.
10:15am: I get very irate.
10:20am: The Kraken is released.
11:00am: To get me out of their hair, they finally ship me to a third Enterprise, in the Newark environs.
11:40am: The third Enterprise honors the first reservation at the first price, and I leave Newark in a Ford Focus, headed back for NYC (to pick up Berk and my friend/co-rider Amanda.)
Of course, getting back into the city is no picnic then, but you get the idea. Suffice to say, I’m never doing business with Enterprise again, despite the friendlier folk at the third franchise.