Car Rental LAX to San Pedro - Alert to All... Please read.

[gopher's girl]

Even though I am a very easygoing person but this was a hassle and a cab would have been cheaper, faster, and less stressful. I will try to be fair in this review of renting a car at LAX and dropping it off in San Pedro.

 

I picked up a car at the LAX Enterprise - this is not at the airport but you have to take a shuttle to the car place. For every other provider the shuttles came by every 10 minutes - maybe less than that. We waited over 40 minutes for the Enterprise shuttle. It only came after we called them and complained that it was taking too long. Ridiculous.

 

Once at the office, they told me that I would have to pay a $40 drop charge to drop the car at the San Pedro office (this is the one on Harbor Blvd. - across the street from the ship but not really close enough to walk with luggage or older or younger people). I complained a lot and they dropped the fee to $25. I'm trying to work this out with the corporate office now because when I made the reservation they said there would be no fee.

 

When we went to get in the car the rep gave us a story about how the smaller cars were not available and I would have to pay $3 more for a larger car. We complained again but were left with the choice of pay the $3 or get no car. We paid. That was stupid but we needed a car (we flew out the day before and were staying at a hotel, and taxis didn't go by where their office was - it was on a road that looked a lot like a "back street")... so we took that car. The next morning we dropped it off at the San Pedro office and the car checked out ok and they apologized for not being able to remove the drop charge because we had a contract from the LAX office and not the San Pedro one. They said that they get all kinds of different stories from people at the LAX office. Hmm.

 

So then we had to wait 30 minutes for their "complimentary" shuttle to the ship. It was raining so we waited. The guy who drove us was very nice, but unfortunately he had a lot of trips to make because there were tons of people waiting for the shuttle at the office.

 

When I got home I had a nice letter telling me that I had damaged the car. If the car is damaged they are supposed to tell you that when you drop it off... in this case I had the car OK'd by the agent there and everything was fine until after I left - then they recorded a problem - I didn't do anything wrong!! I am also working that out with the loss office because they think it is shady. I'm sure Enterprise has a good reputation in most areas but I would avoid the hard sell at the LAX office. I hear Hertz is nice.

 

I hope that this helps at least one person. Even if you use Enterprise (and chances are most people will not have a problem) I hope that you at least walk in educated.

[spongerob]

I hear Hertz is nice.

 

Yes, they are. I brought back a Toyota Solara (brand new) from its first trip off their lot with no driver-side sheet metal and all kinds of other damage after being sideswiped by a tractor trailer rig. Amazingly, the car was still driveable (way to go, Toyota!) but I had to exit the passenger side, no mean feat for those of you don't know me. The return guy just looked at it and said, "I've seen worse, glad you're OK," and sent me on my way after he got the police investigation report number.

[elliair]

gopher's girl: WOW!!! What a horrible experience. Maybe you should give Enterprise this website and this thread to look over. I'm sure they don't like getting bad publicity like this. We've always used Hertz and never had a problem with them.

[JimandLouise]

Hi,

 

Same here with Hertz, we used them without a problem. When we dropped the car in Lomita, they ordered a cab and knocked the $10 or $15 it would cost for the cab off our bill. They couldn't have been nicer, and no additional fees.

[Deb in Cali]

Gopher's girl.

 

Did they give you a sheet signing off that the car was in acceptable condition when you returned it? If I remember correctly this is standard procedure for most rental agencies.

 

I rented with Enterprise last summer in Spokane. WA. They were great. I recieved an upgrade since the car that I was in was in accident just prior to me picking it up. :eek: Some Russian guy was doing a lot of explaining!.

 

So I recieved an upgrade without charge. They cannot charge you for an upgrade, if you didn't request it. It is their problem if you had reserveration for a paticular type of car and they don't have it available. What then is the purpose of the reservations? You might inform them that their method is called bait and switch oh and BTW it is illegal. You might send a nice letter to the Better Business Bureau of LA, and your travel agent

 

You can also check with LAPD (with the licience # of the rental car on your contract) to find out if there was an accident report filed. This could be VERY important if you can prove that the car accident happened after you returned car. I' am willing to bet that the kid parking the car blashed it in and decided to blame it on you. If you paid by credit card, I would put a stop payment on this until you get it resolved.

 

Good luck you are going to need it.

 

.

[cruznliz]

We had a mixed experience with Enterprise at Hobby/Galveston drop off. My daughter and I were economizing and I booked the cheapest little cars and were upgraded at no charge both times. Yippee!! I think they have very few little cars because they aren't requested too often.

 

Anyway, I did have a problem. I rented the car on a Friday for a Saturday morning return. When I received my December credit card bill it showed a weekend 2-day charge. I immediately called Enterprise (you have to deal directly with the Hobby location). They admitted the error and said the charge would be corrected. Of course my January credit card bill has already arrived and it wasn't corrected yet. I called again and they said the original young man I talked to wasn't working there anymore. They again admitted the error and said the charge would be corrected. We'll see....;)

 

I guess with any business you have to beware. My husband was ready to forget it, it wasn't a lot of money, but heck I worked hard getting a cheap rate and I don't think they should charge me for 2 days when I only contracted for one day. Biggest lesson: save ALL the paperwork!! :)

[Colo Cruiser]

We have done the LAX to San Pedro through Enterprise twice and never had a drop fee. I hope this is not a new trend, but it would not surprise me. I hope it gets straightened out. I know that these rental desk people get extra money for everything extra that they can tack on. Does sound like a scam. If enough people complain about this to the corporate office of Enterprise maybe that will work. :)

[Coral]

Definitely a nightmare! Good luck in getting this figured out and let us know how you make out.

 

I have only rented from Enterprise 2x and I just didn't feel comfortable with them. My experiences were nothing like yours though - thanks for posting your experience.

[ahracer]

I travel alot and there is one rental car company I refuse to use and that is Enterprise.

 

Hertz and National have always taken very good car of me.

 

Scott

[bev r.]

gophergirl:

 

We had a similar experience with the Thrifty's at LAX this spring. First they wanted us to upgrade for a fee on a minivan, as they claimed that the minivan we ordered would not hold 5 people and luggage. After we received our van, it too had some damage (small dents) that my husband insisted on a new vehicle. The second vehicle was not much better. The service person was quite aggressive in the selling of the insurances. I will certainly not be in a hurry to rent with these folks, after the service we received.

 

Hope things work out for you.

[Toto2Kansas]

That is awful, sorry to hear about what a hassle you had.

 

We had just the opposite experience with them. Rental shuttle took only about 10 minutes. Picked up the car and were upgraded for free to a larger vehicle as they were out of smaller ones.

The entire process only took about 30 minutes from the airport shuttle to driving the car out of the lot.

 

Drop off was so smooth and they drove us in the vechile we returned in San Pedro back to our hotel without having to wait at all.

 

Maybe things have changed in the last year. But the end of 2003 we couldn't have asked for better or speedier service.

[Lisa63]

We had a situation a few years ago with a different agency in which they told us the car we had returned had been banged up pretty badly. Knowing that we had not done any damage, my husband asked them for the number of miles on the odometer. It was about 2 or 3 miles higher than what was shown on our receipt from when we returned the car, so we were cleared.

 

Hope it works out for you, and sorry that it put a damper on your vacation.

[gopher's girl]

Hi everyone - I am hoping that I get a call from them tomorrow - they should be clearing me due to a discussion earlier today - sounds like the rental office entered the claim in the computer system long after I checked out, and they are supposed to enter the claim before closing out the rental. I will keep you posted. Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts. Its nice to have a little support from the boards :) Make that a lot of support.

 

I said that I try to be easygoing and fair... my family has rented from Enterprise many times in the Pennsylvania area and we have never had a problem, but few people come here to vacation - I wonder if this is more prevolent in vacation areas.

 

Again, I will keep you all posted. Have a great night!

GG

[bcs819]

Wow. Hope everything works out for you. We used Enterprise for the Diamond in September from LAX to San Pedro and I raved in my review about how it may have been the best car rental experience we ever had. We (me, actually) wrote a letter commending the whole experience. Sorry it didn't go as well for you :(

[Cruisin' Chick]

We don't usually rent cars but the really bad experience was with Alamo in Miami a few years ago. Didn't get good info (more on the misleading side about rates even when I gave them pretty exact times we were picking up/returning...they still didn't tell us we would be getting charged an extra day's worth for a few hours), they didn't explain very well where to catch the shuttle, they didn't have enough cars for all those coming from the cruise ships (like that Seinfeld episode...you know how to take the reservation...).

Last summer with Enterprise in Seattle, it was kinda mixed but they tried to work with our sked (Sundays involved). Also we asked for a full sized car for our post-cruise stay there but the smallest car was a SUV. We didn't get charged any extra (I don't know if it costs more). We're not SUV folks (we like our sedan) and this car just cemented our feelings about not liking SUVs.

[GloriaF]

our rental car experiences are pretty limited --

 

we did rent cars on each island in Hawaii from Budget and had good service.

 

twice I've rented recently to take a road trip from home, and both were OK. once from budget, and once from enterprise. the time from enterprise was handled by my neighbor who has an inside connection. it seems the cadillac dealer owns enterprise in my town, and the neighbor sells cads. so I got the dealer rate -- still high.

 

A couple of things I've learned:

 

1. the car must be returned by or before the same hour you took it or you will be charged an extra hour or day.

 

2. after day 4, it becomes cheaper to rent for the week. 5 or 7 days cost the same as the weekly rate.

[jnc411]

Sorry you had such a bad experience with the rental car, I usually don't rent cars unless I am in Hawaii and then we use Dollar. I live here in the LA area and my neighbor uses Enterprise quite often, she thinks they are wonderful BUT she is not using the office at LAX , so that may be the difference. As for LAX airport, sometimes we have to use it and it is a ZOO , day or night , weekday or weekend , it doesn't matter. If at all possible we use Long Beach or Orange County airports, it just makes life easier. But all this being said they are working on making major changes at LAX , then who knows what it will be, it has to get thru the city council and voting process, so I don't know if they can all agree on anything :)

I hope this didn't ruin your cruise, were you here during our two week rain storm ? If so that isn't how it usually is, right now it is 85 degrees out side and sunny.

Cori

[gopher's girl]

Hi Cori :)

No, it didn't come close to ruining the cruise because I didn't let it! I was there during the rain and "cold" and got a kick out of watching people wear mittens at 50 degrees. It's 22 here in Philly and we got snow today, so 85 sounds so nice! It rained when I was in San Diego last October too - seems like I bring the rain so I'd better stay away.

GG