TL;DR: Do not trust the vehicle classes shown as available at Enterprise in Paris, TX. I reserved a…read morepremium vehicle specifically for comfort and fuel economy on a long trip. When I arrived, they didn't have one. An employee told me he had NEVER seen a premium vehicle at this location and had already told management they should remove the option from the website. I got a Chevy Trailblazer instead. Management never returned my call, the area supervisor never returned my call, and corporate offered scripted excuses. Apparently, your "reservation" here means taking whatever happens to be on the lot.
I reserved a premium-class vehicle for two specific reasons: comfortable seats and highway fuel economy. Instead, the only vehicle available was a Trailblazer, a clear downgrade for my purposes and a vehicle I never would have selected for this trip.
Had Enterprise been honest about what this location actually carries, I would have simply rented in Dallas.
What makes this unacceptable is what I learned at pickup. The employee told me he had never seen a premium vehicle at this location and had already told his manager they should remove that category from the website.
Think about that. Customers are allowed to reserve a vehicle class that, according to an employee, this location apparently doesn't normally carry. Management had reportedly already been made aware of the problem, yet the option remained available.
At that point, this stops looking like an unfortunate inventory issue and starts looking like a business practice: get the reservation, get the customer through the door, then give them whatever is available.
I requested a call from the manager, who wasn't there. It never came. I contacted corporate customer service and received scripted explanations. A message was supposedly sent to the area supervisor requesting a call.
That call never came either.
I spent roughly $600 on what became a four-day rental, including an extra day because this location doesn't offer after-hours return. For that money, expecting Enterprise to provide the class reserved, communicate beforehand if it cannot, or at least return a phone call is hardly unreasonable.
Apparently all three were too much to ask.
I've rented from Enterprise before and never experienced anything like this. Managers in Bentonville, Arkansas handled subsequent issues professionally enough that I'm not writing off Enterprise as a company.
But Enterprise Paris has absolutely lost my business.
One additional point needs to be absolutely clear: the employee who was honest with me is NOT the problem. He was candid about a known issue and, according to him, had already raised it with management.
If I learn that he suffers retaliation, discipline, reduced hours, termination, or any other adverse treatment because he was honest with me, I will take that personally. I will document it, escalate it as far within Enterprise as necessary, and pursue every appropriate corporate, consumer, regulatory, and public avenue available. If he chooses to challenge any retaliation through an attorney or other lawful proceeding, I will gladly preserve my records, provide a truthful statement, cooperate as a witness if appropriate, and assist him in every lawful way I reasonably can.
The counter employees aren't my complaint. My complaint is management that apparently knows customers can reserve vehicles this location doesn't realistically stock, doesn't correct the problem, doesn't communicate before pickup, and then can't be bothered to return a phone call afterward.
Enterprise Paris doesn't have a vehicle problem.
It has a management problem.
