Normally, I’ve never had any issues with Enterprise and have always been satisfied with my rentals. Unfortunately, this experience was completely different.
I needed to rent a small pickup truck, so I reserved one online. When I arrived at the airport location in Charleston, WV, after driving over an hour, they wouldn’t let me pick it up because I didn’t have a major credit card. I was told only the airport location had that requirement.
They told me to reserve one at the St. Albans location instead. After driving another 30 to 40 minutes, I got there only to find out they didn’t even have the truck I had reserved, and they were getting ready to close.
I contacted Enterprise again, and their solution was to send me to the Beckley location, which was over another hour away. I drove there, and believe it or not, they didn’t have a truck either.
By the time I finally gave up and drove back home, I had wasted over four hours driving around, burned a lot of gas, and still didn’t have the truck I needed for that weekend.
Enterprise told me they would try to find me a small truck for the following weekend. When Friday came, I called again. They still didn’t have the Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado, or similar truck that I had reserved online, even though the website showed one was available and allowed me to reserve it.
Instead, they gave me a 2500 pickup. I tried to make it work because I really needed a truck, but it was far too large for what I needed. I ended up driving it home, parking it in my driveway, and it sat there for three days until I returned it because I couldn’t safely use it for what I needed. I was charged over $300 for a truck I never actually got to use.
The most frustrating part wasn’t even the lack of trucks. It was how little anyone seemed to care. I was given the runaround from one location to another, wasting hours of my time, a lot of gas, and money, and no one seemed concerned that they were sending me all over the state for vehicles that weren’t even there.
My advice to anyone renting from Enterprise is this: don’t trust that just because the website lets you reserve a vehicle, the location actually has it. Call the location first and confirm they physically have the vehicle you’re reserving before making the trip, or you may end up wasting your time, gas, and money just like I did.