Comments on: Rental car agent blows smoke up my backside, redux

By: Is a backlash against self-service kiosks underway? » Upgrade: Travel Better

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:03:20 +0000

[...] person behind the counter can try to scare or convince an easily manipulable customer into spending more of their money. A kiosk is less [...]

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:52:11 +0000

At Enterprise they do not tell you that there is a drop-off key box on their premises for after-hours returns.

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 01:19:56 +0000

Thanks, DB.

Maybe somebody needs to record these car rental upselling interactions on tape.

If anyone records their experience with upsells (or any other customer-service fun) at the car rental desk, I’ll post it.

By: DB

DB — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:38:14 +0000

PS: Thanks, Mark, for reporting on this garbage. If it’s widespread in the car rental industry, it’s a scam. I hope you and others call more attention to it.

How about: You earn business (including repeat business and referrals) by providing value for money spent, and a good experience, with a resulting great reputation, vs. earning money (for the short term only) by upselling, games, tricking, gimmickry, manipulation, and outright lies.

Maybe somebody needs to record these car rental upselling interactions on tape.

By: DB

DB — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:31:50 +0000

Upselling, and selling quotas, are so not OK. The guy was no doubt under pressure from his boss, who was in turn under pressure from his or her boss, etc. to sell sell sell, customer satisfaction be damned. Or lose his job. The same short-sighted evil that plagued the late AOL and the moribund Jiffy Lube which effectively forced their employees to lie, trick, and deceive, to make “numbers,” or lose their jobs.

A clerk at the San Francisco airport in the late 1990s said, regarding the least expensive model, which I was inclined to rent, “Personally, I don’t think it’s a safe car.” WTF?!?!? I thought to myself, “Well, how can you in good conscience work for a company that rents out unsafe cars?” He worked for one of the big companies, I don’t remember which, I but I think it was/is “the green one” (National, maybe? — but not Enterprise) I strongly suspect his “opinion” had everything to do with trying to trick me into something pricier through use of literal scare tactics. Total sleaze. And I blame the company for promoting this kind of behavior with “numbers” pressure. Stoo-pid.

While I don’t rent cars very often, I have had good experiences so far with Enterprise, and have not been subjected to upsell pressure or tricks.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:15:43 +0000

The practice is rife, worldwide.

I always decline, but frequently get a better car than I or my company has paid for.

Also, I find the list additional taxes and insurance wearing and would love to find an all-in package online such that nothing further is payable either on collection or return of the car.