We have been faithful Enterprise customers for several years, and until now have always been pleased with the service. Yup, I'm not the only YELPer to start with this. My bad experience 22 October 2015 will be my last for the MKE location, the nail in this coffin was that corporate failed to even respond to the complaint. My wife and chief of staff made this reservation, we rented enough to be regulars. We were on a tight schedule, so the plan was for me to end a class five minutes early and hustle over here on the 80 county bus (exactly on time thank you Milwaukee County Bus driver), and just to make sure she called someone here to confirm that the husband (me) could pick up the car even though the reservation was under her name (we don't have the same last name). The fellow at the counter working the long line was the manager, I know because he told almost every customer in line (maybe a new promotion). When he got to me, he told me he couldn't honor the reservation because my wife has a different last name than I do, even though I showed that we have the same home address (driver's license) and he could see that we were both regulars. I don't know if he didn't approve of my wife not taking my name, or he didn't like the way I looked but either way I felt I got some humiliating and shabby treatment. He interrogated me as if I were lying, demanding to know "who told you this? What was her name?" and repeating that he was "the manager." He made me stand to the side of the line, talking to me like I tried to pull some sort of fast one, because I wouldn't take the car on double the rate my wife made the reservation under, and I couldn't immediately get her on the phone. Eventually she finished her class and returned the call, and he had to talk to her on the phone to "confirm" the reservation, so half an hour behind schedule I finally made it to the rental car in the garage. I was flustered and shamed by my treatment at the counter, told the garage crew about what happened and they both acted surprised, saying that there shouldn't have been a problem with my wife making the reservation but me picking up the car, even with a different last name.
The reason I mention "the way I looked" is that the only other person to not get friendly treatment was an African-American gentleman (also wearing a suit by the way) who had his credit card declined. Mr. Manager acted like it was the first time this had ever happened, but what I had just found out is that new credit card security measures meant to defeat identity theft default on declining out of state charges. Since Mr. Manager wasn't being helpful, I suggested my fellow darker skinned customer call the credit card toll-free service number and tell them he was out of town and they should immediately approve the charges. He also had to step out of line to do this, I think he also felt embarrassed by the hostile treatment. Maybe it was a coincidence, but all the other customers were White.
If you've never experienced this sort of mistreatment, I'm really happy for you, I don't wish this on anyone, but if you have then you might know how unsettling it is. I know I told the paperwork guy in the garage that I declined all the unnecessary additional coverage (you should know that most major credit cards cover your insurance when renting a car), and I thought I initialed it that way, but I ended up getting charged for the full added coverage which coincidentally doubled my daily rental rate, bringing the final cost up to what Mr. Manager in front was trying to get me to pay by not honoring the original reservation rate. Maybe it was an accident, but when we found out on the credit card bill we were shocked, we had the rental car for an extended weekend so it wasn't an insignificant amount of money.
If you're flying in and out of MKE, I advise that you pay slightly more for better service at one of the other major rental car companies (all their lines are shorter), and you might just end up saving money. If you live locally and like the Enterprise rates, just avoid this location, the downtown location never did me like this. You really want to avoid this place if you're not White or your wife didn't take your last name. read more