GJ
Gilberto Velasquez Jr
Aug 4, 2026
Like a college co-ed relationship: Started off Great, Ended in Disaster.
Initially, everything was fabulous at this rental establishment, I was in a near-fatal accident, the idiot who hit me was at fault and was fighting it. So, it took a few days to get a vehicle though this place stepped up to the plate. So when I went to pick the car up, I kindly brought donuts to the manager's staff from the next door Dunkin' Donuts (and this good deed was worth nothing later) - I got in a nice SUV, and things went suddenly south.
The SUV actually died for no reason for a day. Would not open nor unlock, the Enterprise tow guy who lied about his arrival time (thrice, no less) could not figure it out and then finally it took him one hour to get the car onto the flatbed. He was dumbfounded.
Then more downhill we went. A whole new person at a different location was the only person to get me in a car, and she was visibly slammed, and she was at the Westheimer at Fondren locale. Working by herself, and apparently all Enterprise staff at the two Houston airports were "on strike" (no one said why) causing every Enterprise in the city to be chaotic.
So when I got a car, after not having one for a day, she whisked me in the vehicle, said "gas is on us!" (nice surprise) then away I went. Little did I know this set me up for near failure on returning this car to the original location. Sadly, it was a tiny red POS Toyota Corolla of the "no frills" vintage. I was honestly shocked it had power windows.
I go back to the same manager as I had the first time, and then he paces around the car (by the by, I had brought donuts again, and again, this should have been an omen) looking at it, studying it. And then, it happened. He goes "you dented the car" - which I did not. When looking at the car, there was no dent by the driver's wheel well. He then takes me out there. There was no dent. There was no scratches. There was no chipped paint. It looked like aesthetic curvature. He goes "Maybe you leaned against it!" as if he was a detective solving a case and I thought "Wait, am I 3-foot-tall person?" and I retorted with: "I am not 13 years old, I do not lean on cars for no reason."
He continued his claims of a dent, adamant I did it. I explained that no, this is not the case, there is no dent. He took pictures, uploaded them. I explained "You realize no one sees this dent but you, right? You are here in a shopping center lot. I have brought your team breakfast twice. You seriously think after nearly dying in a car wreck I would lean on a car? You are in an unsecured shopping center lot, blame it on a vagrant and be done with this."
"Sir, I have to log it against you, sir! The rules." I was fully shocked by this. As a former B2C manager myself, never in a million years would I have accused someone like this, especially if they fed my team twice, of something like this. Especially a phantom dent that did not exist. Whatever nonsensical ethical loop this chap was in was beyond me, but it made zero customer service sense. I was naturally irate, fuming with anger, but held it together. He filed against me. Gave me a paper and said to call the number on the paper.
Then, this manager had the audacity (this is where the story gets rich) to ask "This won't affect my rating, right? We're good, right?" I looked at him with utter horror, disbelief and shock. I was thinking "No, not really. Not after I fed your team twice and you saw the phantom dent no one saw." I just said "Sure, whatever."
Well, I finally got off the phone with their claims department they ruled in my favor.
The kicker of all this? Their team did not see a dent either.
And THAT is how you go from 5 Stars to 1 Star, Enterprise. Make note.