
Frederick of Dublin, CA on Sept. 21, 2000
Yesterday my elderly mother and I were dropped off at the Enterprise car rental location in Turlock by the local body shop while our car was in for service. The Enterprise rental agent named "Mike"(he would not disclose his last name) proceeded to take us to a car repair shop to pick up our rental car, a Chevy Malibu that he said was in for an "oil change." The car was parked outside the repair shop. This seemed rather strange because I have never experienced this procedure from Hertz or National or any other car rental company.
After I signed off acceptance of the rental my mother and I proceeded to drive 40 mile north to town of Stockton. At first the car seemed ok. However, as I started to accelerate to 55 mph a truck was attempting to come into my lane and I immediately applied the brakes. The car steering wheel shook violently and the front end shimmed to the right into the #2 lane. Luckily the car in that lane avoided hitting us. I took my foot off the brake and regained control until I could safely slow down to 40 mph and move to the right hand lane. Even at 40 MPH the car seemed unsteady when brakes were applied.
We managed to get to our intermediate destination, Stockton and immediately called the Stockton branch of Enterprise to report a safety problem with the car and to request a replacement for our trip home some 70 miles away in San Jose. The receptionist at the Stockton Enterprise told us she did not have any cars available for us in any of the 4 locations in Stockton and that she would call me back on my cellphone.
One and a half hours later, having received no phone call, I decided to call Mike at Enterprise in Turlock to request immediate action on the safety issue with the Chevy. He put me on hold and contacted Kevin, branch manager of the Stockton Enterprise location. Mike came back on the phone and said that Enterprise had no cars available but the he would direct us to a Firestone repair shop for a "quick brake job" on our rental car and that our wait at Firestone would not take more that half an hour.
I explained that I had rented a car from Enterprise and not a brake job for the unsafe car. I demanded that immediate action be taken to avoid an accident and informed him that my elderly mother was suffering from the 106-degree temp outside and needed to be driven home ASAP to take her medication. Mike put me on hold again and spoke to Kevin. Mike informed us that "they would take care of it" at Stockton.
On the way to the Enterprise location I called Hertz and requested a rental car, which they said was available at their North Stockon location and placed it on a hold for us. My intent was to drop the car off at Enterprise and asked to be taken to Hertz. When we arrived at the Enterprise Stockton location Kevin, the branch manager, seemed unconcerned about safety issue with the car and asked if I and my elderly mother would go with him to Firestone brake shop to prove that the car was safe. This conversation was occurring outside the Enterprise office in 106 degree heat while my mother is sitting in the car with the ignition off.
When I informed Kevin that my mother was suffering in the car and that Hertz had a car available, he informed me that he had talked to Hertz and that they did not have a car available. He also stated that he could not offer my mother and me a ride to a "competitor." Noticing my mother's weakening condition I became quite angry at Kevin's delaying tactics. Kevin offered a Geo Metro and we declined the car insisting that we be taken to Hertz. Kevin had a retort for every issue I brought concerning the situation at hand. It seems that this Enterprise location had been through this before.
As he walked away from our car in 106 degree heat with the rental contract in hand Kevin stated that he would charge my credit card for the rental and that he would not take us to Hertz. Our only option was to rent the Geo Metro. I was finding it quite difficult to control my anger. Finally after 15 minutes of Kevin's abusive behavior someone at Enterprise authorized a similar mid-size replacement car to our Chevy. For my mother and me it seemed that we had finally gotten out of Kevin's prison.