| rev:text
| - My sister and I made a trip to Madison from Texas, to visit our ailing grandpa, who is suffering from terminal cancer.
After looking at rental rates online, I called Enterprise's 800 number and was helped by a nice woman, who helped me secure two separate reservations with same day pickup/drop off on each - I only needed a car to get me to Madison from the airport and one to take us back, borrowing our grandparents' while in town as needed.
Since I was using a debit card (I don't do debt AKA credit cards) and was an out-of-state driver, she advised me that I might want to call the Madison location ahead of time and see what additional paperwork they'd need. She cited that they may require a copy of a utility bill with my name on it, and a larger deposit. No big deal. I've traveled for over 10 years as a debit card user and have previously put up $500+ for deposits. So before I left for Texas, I called this Madison location as instructed. And I called. And called. And called. No one picked up. I decided that I'd just bring a few bills with me in case they asked for them and packed my bags.
My sister and I picked up our rental at the airport and kept it for 4hrs, before dropping it off at this location, where we were greeted by Nicklaus. After completing the drop-off, I mentioned that I had another reservation in a few days and stated that I would be paying with a debit card, and was an out-of-state driver with round-trip tickets. I also told him I'd tried calling multiple times but no one ever picked up, to which he replied that they get pretty busy and it's kinda a one-man show type setup; understandable, but not my problem.
Nicklaus explained that I wouldn't be able to rent the car I'd reserved, grabbing a sliver of paper from a stack on the counter, reading off the written rental requirements like a credit card, deposit needed for debit cards, valid driver's license etc. I told him that I brought bills in my name as proof of address, had round-trip tickets and mentioned that if I needed to pay a larger deposit, it wouldn't be a problem.
He couldn't take my money.
I asked him, if I could just cancel my reservation and then have my sister make one instead, since she had a credit card. He said that since my reservation was made over the phone, he couldn't do it; I'd have to call them to cancel or just leave it alone and it'd be fine.
Ok... He suggested that I should extend my first rental (from the airport) and keep it all week, until I flew back. I told him that I wasn't interested in paying $100/day, and explained that that's why we'd only planned our rentals on arrival/departure dates. Then, he started talking about how he could make a reservation in my sister's name and add me as a driver for an extra $5. What? Why? I explained about three times before it sunk in for him, that I didn't care who drove or who paid, but that we JUST needed a vehicle to get us back to the airport.
He finally understood and took down my sister's info, before telling us that we were good to go, but at this point my sister and I didn't trust that he could handle this simple task. I verified the cost she'd be charged against what I'd previously been promised and asked if we'd be receiving an email confirmation. He said, oh yeah I can do that, reading off her email address for validation. We thanked him and left, noting later that evening that we'd yet to receive an email confirmation. At this point we were wondering if a reservation had even been done or if there'd be a car available when we returned.
I called back the next morning, after I had her double check her spam folder for it, and Nicklaus answered. After letting him know we never received an email, he said he'd "resend it". I put that in quotes, because after we received our "confirmation" email, it was made clear that an initial email never occurred, nor did a reservation. She finally received a hand typed email, containing a single sentence - nothing like I'd received upon my initial reservation and he'd made up a fake reservation number. We're convinced that Nicklaus is not only lazy and inept, but is fully committed to running this place into the ground.
We picked up a car on the day of our departure. They charged her the correct amount, but it reeked of cigarettes and had a mystery stain splattered along the ceiling. Note: my sister has since complained to corporate and received a full refund for her rental. I washed my bags and took a shower as soon as I arrived back home, to get rid of the lingering odor. I thought you charged a cleaning fee to folks who smoke in these vehicles. At a minimum, cracking the windows and Febreezing the crap out of the interior goes a long way. Gross.
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