Enterprise Rent-A-Car Reviews

Pros

Depending on the people you work with at your branch, it can be very fun to come in to work. There are always happy hours or parties the company throws once or twice a month.

Cons

Hours are long. The pay does not match the amount of work they ask from you. You bust you butt to make customers happy and they still get mad at you.Upper management will always find something to yell at you about. For example, they tell you to get a customer going as fast as possible to minimize wait time, so usually we'll give them a free upgrade if there is 1 or 2 cars on the lot. Then upper management will come back and yell at you for giving a free upgrade to a customer paying a low rate.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop contradicting yourselves and have some respect for your employees you slave around for 12 hours a day.

Pros

You build a great network with all the MT's, MA's, Assistant Managers and Branch Managers.

Cons

Promotions are based on "performance" but it by far is one of the most political based companies I have seen, if you are not constantly being a politician don't think your going to get promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

More streamline communication between RVP through branch personnel

Pros

Quick Advancement if you buy in 100% and make this job your life.

Cons

Understaffed, long hours, hard work, extremely low pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Upper level management makes a TON of money in this company. These employees worked their way up during a time when the company was growing exponentially. The growth of the company has slowed tremendously and Enterprise needs to realize that their extremely high turn over rate is only going to continue to increase until they pay lower level employees fair salaries for what they are asking of them.

Pros

- You'll have some fantastic co-workers that will become friends. Enterprise hires friendly, out-going people who are typically young and hungry.

- If this is your first job out of school you'll get a crash course in sales, basic logistics, customer service and lots of motivational ploys and tools.

- If you enjoy selling and haggling or are simply very social and enjoy finding common ground with myriad strangers this would be another good fit.

- Most lower levels of management do a decent job of keeping things interested by attempting to make the daily grind competitive and fun to keep you engaged.

- In fairness I left ERAC in 2008 so while I believe most policies/procedures are the same they may well not be for better or for worse.

Cons

- You'll make some great friends in much the same way men who go to war together have a life-long bond because they've been through some rough times together.

- I had no problem with the working hours Enterprise required, but I took issue with many of the social events that they consider team building events, morale boosters, or a reward for your performance. After 50+ hours a week with my co-workers I'd rather spend my time as I choose.

- These social events are billed as optional and fun - and while some are entertaining, they are only optional in the sense that you will have knowing and willingly turned your back on networking/team-building activities. I also found it bizarre that in a company where half the people arrive at these events in company-owned cars the first couple rounds of drinks are almost always on your management team - no complaints, it just always struck me as an odd combination.

- Your job is to 'book everything' and then up-sell, down-sell, upgrade, redirect, sidestep and smile. You will literally sell yourself out of cars to rent - but per policy when the phone rings and someone needs a car in 5 minutes you are told to say 'yes' without fail and then find them a solution on the fly. And then when it takes you 2 hours to find them a car while they sit in your lobby, you need to sell them some insurance, explain that a Ford F-150 crew cab is just as easy to drive as the Honda Civic they were expecting, apologize that it is out of gas, and send them on their way ....... also remember to be nice ...... because they may get a phone call asking if they are 'completely satisfied' with their experience and any answer they give other than 'completely satisfied' is a failing grade for you and your 'branch'.

- The job can be fun at times but it largely mindless and repetitive; book a reservation, find a car, sell insurance. There are opportunities to move up in the rental side of the business as well as a host of other opportunities within the company - but understand you must sell sell sell at the first level to have any opportunity at any level beyond no matter what that particular job requires.

- Enterprise is a love/hate proposition for most - some love the selling and endless hustle; others feel like they're stuck in a hamster wheel on groundhog day. For me it was the second situation, but I worked with plenty of people who loved every aspect of it and are with the company 5 years later.

Advice to Senior Management

I cannot fault your model, it works and works well. While this business isn't run on any ground breaking model - sales and customer service - the idea of hiring slightly smarter and/or more educated people to execute that model is what sets Enterprise apart.

Pros

Fun Environment. Learn a lot of business principles. Great training provided. If you stick to the plan it can truly help. Market yourself within the business right when you begin.

Cons

They move you around way too much. You can work for twenty different branches in a given month. The actual job of renting cars is not so fun. Everything else is alright.

Advice to Senior Management

Management does an overall good job. The opportunities for advancement are their if you are patient. The hourly positions are not paid enough for the work that is completed.

Pros

I have freedom to try new ideas. The company is looking for people that are self-starters and they reward ambition and hard work. I am not a robot at this company. There is tremendous growth and movement into new markets and business lines. It's a great time to be a manager in this company.

Cons

There is always a tremndous amount of work to do and not enough time to do it. I find this makes me continually learn new strategies and efficiencies. I've never had a day that I was sitting in my office wondering how I was going to fill my day. This reality makes everyone work harder and brings peers together as a team. Guess that really isn't much of a con...

Pros

Enterprise has a great company culture that promotes training and development and rewards strong performance with promotion and financial compensation. There is a strong value system in place creating a company where customers and employees are truly appreciated and treated as the cornerstone of the company's success. The opportunities for growth and promotion are fantastic as the company hires almost entirely from within.

Cons

I personally have no complaints and have had a great experience. At Enterprise we work about 50 hours a week and being a rental company, we are open on Saturday's and some branches are open on Sunday's.

Advice to Senior Management

Please give your employees good feedback on their performance and make sure they are prepared and confident when interviewing for promotions.

Pros

I work in a decently large branch for my area. I started as an intern and worked my way up from there. I had a great team at my branch, all were so eager to help and teach me anything I wanted to know. They were very encouraging and helped me not only understand profit relationships, day to day operations, but also gave me great sales advice, and sales is a big part of working for ERAC. I love my manager and area manager, and everyone else in the area is great too. Fortunately many people who work for ERAC have similar personalities. You can move up in the company pretty easily as long as your sales are pretty good. Pay when you start out is a little low compared to other industries but once you're an assistant manager it can grow more.

Cons

Enterprise can be very sales-y and sometimes it gets annoying. When I first started I was more focused on customer service and my sales were ok, but you're encouraged sometimes to do some shady stuff to sell better. Not necessarily unethical but I didn't feel super comfortable with it. There are some people who work there who are so sales focused it gets really obnoxious. Also remember it's customer service, you're constantly working with the public...people who probably just got into car accidents and aren't exactly cheerful. As long as you don't take it personally you'll be fine.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is doing fine. I would recommend having salary more negotiable or even just raising the bar a bit, I'm always looking around for a job with better pay.

Pros

The culture of most branch offices is relaxed and other employees are easy to relate to

Cons

Dealing with customers on a daily basis definitely frustrating. Also, days are very hit or miss; one day could be great at sales and the next could be exceedingly difficult.

Pros

Ability to get promoted quickly. There are a lot of opportunities, employees are very close. Differs by region, but Northern NJ is by far the closest region when it comes to employee friendships

Cons

low starting salary, the hours are painful, sometimes working over 55 hours a week, and work almost every saturday morning.

Advice to Senior Management

increase pay, lower hours