NH
Nathaniel Hudson-Hartman
Feb 15, 2026
My partner and I had to travel to my hometown to handle some family crises, so we decided to try renting from Budget, to stick within our finances, even though we had been cautioned to go with Enterprise. The associate only offered the fuel option, but not any additional insurance protection, which I didn’t even know was a thing until I got to a more reputable rental company the next week, but we’ll get to that a little later. Additionally, they had two staff on hand and no one else in line, so they very well could (AND SHOULD) have gone out with us and done an inspection of the car. Saturday night the 10th we were heading down the NYS Thruway, on our way back from visiting my parents, minding the speed limit, when all of the sudden the rear driver-side tire blew, sending my partner & I “fishtailing” and hydroplaning out of control. We were terrified as we spun around backwards and went over both lanes of the Thruway, and right into the guide rail on the driver side. After skidding against that rail for a few moments, we spun back around and back over the aforementioned two lanes of traffic until we slowed down and got over to the shoulder. By the Grace of a higher power the worst of what we felt was shock on that night.
Soon after we were greeted by NYS Police & a local tow operator. Both of them on that night helped shine their lights on the blown tire and agreed this car was unsafe to drive and that we should have never been put in it. The trooper specifically told my partner & I that he was not going to write a ticket since he could clearly see the bare tire with wear bars visible, and said on-scene the accident wasn’t our fault. The agent I spoke to, Samuel, said just to go to the counter and we’ll be able to get a replacement. The next day we went back to the airport, but the person at the counter said they needed a copy of the motor vehicle accident report. Samuel neglected to mention that in our phone call, and we were turned away after having to pay for two rideshares to get there and back.
We came back the next day (Monday the 11th), report in-hand, and explained what had happened and asked to speak to the manager. The manager, William (employee # 36722), came out and the first thing he said to us was, “so I guess you have something to say to me?” I told him we were involved in an accident and that it was due to a bare tire. Rather than offer empathy, compassion, and understanding, William the manager became combative and argumentative, and at no point said he was sorry even for what had happened to us. This inspection was either not done or incomplete, and resulted in us having our safety put at risk by ABG’s negligence.
William got even more agitated and uncooperative. He told me over and over that I was making “assertions” and “opinions” and that he didn’t agree with them. He raised his voice at me and when I asked to speak to his supervisor, he refused and said, “no, I’m not going to do that. You can call customer service and if they say you can talk to my supervisor, you can, but I’m not giving you their information.” How are these acceptable practices???
After being humiliated in the public setting with other customers and associates looking on, I called customer service once again and explained to the rep (Michelle- Case ID: 7869 8201) what had just happened, and that I desperately needed a replacement. They said I could go to an alternate location (Jefferson Rd, Rochester) and that they had contacted the manager and confirmed both availability and authorization for our replacement.
After paying for yet another rideshare to get to the Jefferson Rd office, Not only did the manager not have any rentals to give us, but they said they had no record of even having been contacted!
This review was all to say that we went to Enterprise and they couldn't have treated us better. Inspected the car and the tread and made us feel humanized again. They could have spat in our faces and I still would have given them 10 stars thank you so much.