Work at Enterprise Rent-a-Car — Reviews by Employees

I just left ERAC this week. The Taylor family bought National/ Alamo RAC 2 years ago and I was part of the transition which completed August 1,2009. I am a 20 year veteran of the RAC business and have been through many transitions. My experience with the ERAC people was very positive. I hear about many 1 year employees complaining about working too many hours and poor pay or enviroment. Get over it you lazy college educated, I have not proven myself, but I think I am somebody dreamers. I have a great college education and I have found that if you work hard you will be rewarded. Your education does not give you a right to advancement or $$$'s, your performance does and ERAC tells you that right up front. Yes, you will wear a suit and tie and you will be expected to do manual labor, that is told too you up front, that's the nature of the business and something you should have researched up front since you are so educated. The traveling customer is very difficult to deal with and the Home City customers frequently are dealing with a tramatic situation. ERAC develops you to deal with these customers and it's your job to make sure they are completely satisfied. If I had started my career with ERAC I would probably be retired with a fat bank account, as I work extremely hard and committed to doing a great job every day. That's the expectation, no secrets, no tricks, just get the job done. I left ERAC for personal reasons and would not hesitate going back if my personal situation changes. Thanks to all the ERAC people that have been supportive of me for the last two years and all my other coworkers during the transition.

So, im getting out of college and my brother works for ERAC and he is going to help me get a job there. This is why. My brother hated it at first. He was making nothing and working way too hard and no energy to do anything.But hes a great sales person and got promoted really quick. Well hes worked there for about 4 years now and is in fleet management. He loves the job meeting new clients, going golfing with them, traveling, and all the above. So now he loves his job. He almost left 2 times because of other job offers, but his boss matched what the other company offered and with commisions, hes making 150 this year. His base salary is over 80k a year. Last month with commisions he made 17k. So I am going into the job knowing what I am in for. Also, if its not for me at least I can have it on my resume because its a big plus. Im only 24 so a year trying it out wont kill me. To sum it up, this company can be a great place to work for. I think you have to be very personable and fun inside and outside of work though because a lot of managers will help you out more if you are like that. And like many people said, its a sales job. Big commissions are the goal because they can exceed your salary. I may not be cut out to be a big sales guy, but its worth the try. Time to clean out some cars hahaha.

pay-starts horrible...have to separate yourself from the competition.
benefits-dont really know.
respect-seems like a lot of really cool people work there to become friends with. Customers at first I hear can break you down.
career growth-seems great if you know how to sell

ERAC (at least in 2005/2006) was a good first job for someone who really didn't have any idea what they wanted to do, but needed a paycheck to get out of their parent's house!

The job required long hours and customer service skills (i.e. dealing with people who will be angry at you) but, gave you a nice crash course into the real world. By that, I mean - if you want to better yourself - you will have to put forth the effort, cause no one else is going to do it for you.

While I used my year and a half with the company to find myself a better job in a field I was more comfortable with, I also had friends who were able to get themselves promoted within the organization by learning the tricks of the trade and being able to navigate through the inner office and corporate politics.

Pros:
1)If you need a job (and want to work for the job) it is a great job for a post-college student.

2)Will act as a 'real-life' boot camp.

3)Due to the nature of the work - you will meet a lot of people (sometimes on long car rides) and you will have the opportunity to practice your networking skills and (of you are lucky) find yourself a higher paying job or at least test the waters.

4)A fair amount of company functions - which can be fun.

Cons:
1) Archaic dress code due to a conservative corporate culture. You will have to buy cheap business clothes to keep from going broke.

2) You have to watch out as upper management will try to dissuade you from better yourself outside of work (i.e. they don't want you to get a higher degree on your own time or get certified in a trade)

3) It is a retail job - you will always have busy work to do and it is hard to find a day off.

lots of hours, hard work, sucky customers, fun people

ok so i work at enterprise. and i dont hate it. i'm not in HR. i'm a manager. i like my job. i dont love it. i get paid more than all my friends right out of college at entry level positions making barely 30k a year. benefits are cheap. i pay like $13 a week... and thats only cause i'm a smoker. yea i work a lot. mon - fri 7(sometimes earlier)-6 (sometimes later) and i barely get a lunch break. but days fly by. i have fun. yea sometimes customers suck. they do anywhere you go. but sometimes they are great too. my branch is like 20 min from my house... theres one 5 min away too. there is a lot of room to move up quickly. i've been with the company less than 3 years and i'm already a branch manager and lately people have been getting promoted left and right.
but heres the bottom line... if your lazy and have no motivation and just want to be average... this company isn't for you. if you want to succeed, want to make money, want to "see your name in lights"- then yes... you can make it far in this company...

hope this helps.

I have been employed with Enterprise for approximately 45 days. It has been an amazing experience. I love my co-workers, upper management and opportunity for advancement. I may have only been with ERAC for 45 days, but I have already noticed the trends of the ones that do not move up within the company. This is a sales and customer service job! The ones who don’t make it or that don’t get promoted are the ones whose ESQi score is low and don’t explain the value of our Damage Waiver. Before you comment about Damage waiver, there is a huge value behind it. Before I worked for ERAC I had a car that was in the shop for warranty work. There was an ERAC in that Dealership. I got a car that the Dealership paid for and I was told about the Damage waiver. All my friends said not to get it. Its a rip off. Well I got it anyway. I was driving down the highway and there was a truck in front of me. The truck was pulling a trailer. To make a long story short, there was a bump in the highway and a rock about the size of a soft ball fell out of the back of the truck. When it fell out, it bounced and landed on the hood of the rental I was driving. It put a huge dent in the hood and scratched the paint. I returned the damaged car and did not have to pay a dime because I got the Damage waiver.
So for everyone that thinks they had to pressure people. Its not pressuring, its helping!

Next, my roommate got fired from Protection One for the dumbest reason. He was a new hire and on a 30 day probation. He was the top sales rep so after 30 days the said they would take him on. At that point, they give you 24 hours to take a drug test. What they did not say is that there was an alcohol screen to. So he was excited that he got the job. He got off work and wanted to celebrate because he had the next day off an just had to take the drug test. We drank that night! He went to take his drug test TODAY! They told him that he failed because it showed up positive for Alcohol. He was very upset. I was at work when he told me. So I told my Area Manger, our Recruiter, our HR, and My Regional Rental Manger. They told me that that was absurd and for him to apply online. They are now going to be interviewing him tomorrow. I do not know of another company that cares so much about their employees. I stand behind Enterprise and am working hard to progress.

Well, its been a few years since I worked for Enterprise (8)- but I honestly have positive memories. After reading the majority of the posts here, one might certainly think otherwise. Ok, so it was my first "real" job out of college & I thought the pay was fantastic for a single guy with few nasty habits and even fewer monthly bills. The hours were pretty long, about 10 or 11 hrs each, and lunch breaks were nonexistent. there was alot of downtime daily and you got to bs w/coworkers continually. lots of little "breaks" getting out and driving to and from destinations/customers etc. I found management, local and regional, to be good people. overall, it was a young company and managment seemed to reflect that reality. For the right person- young and single- this is a good entry-level job and can provide good advancement opportunities. like any job, you only get out of it what you put into it.

I graduated college with a business degree, not really sure what I wanted to do with it. At first, I took a boring desk job at a large financial corporation, and I ended up hating it. I quit after 6 months and moved on to Enterprise, where I've been for the past 3 months.

Maybe I'm happy with Enterprise because I'm always comparing it to my first job...and I'm well aware that the work environment at Enterprise is EXTREMELY laid-back and fun. It's pretty sweet that we get to get out of the office so often during the day (getting cars that dropped, picking up customers, swapping cars with other branches, etc). It's even more fun because we're always driving a different type of vehicle, and we get to find out which cars/trucks we like the best. I seriously never dread going into work, which is strange. In the beginning, I'd feel a little nervous if I knew we had a lot of deals first thing in the morning (and no cars), but I've seen that everything ends up working out somehow.

Some reviews mention that it sucks to have to clean cars in your nice clothes, but I really don't mind the "dirty work". I've always had a high work ethic and I like to keep busy and work hard. The hours don't even bother me (maybe because I only have a 20-minute commute). An 11-hour day really isn't bad, considering you get a full hour off for lunch. As for work/life balance, I'm pretty satisified with it. Every night I have a couple hours between work and bed; I'll either work out, see friends, or just relax during that time. No big deal.

Since I've always had part-time customer service jobs, I'm used to working with the general public. I expect to have angry and/or rude customers, and sometimes it bothers me a little. Usually, though, it's pretty easy to just let things go and remember that there are just as many nice customers who will come in.

It's true that we have goals to meet (selling coverages, getting corporate and car sale leads, getting sell-ups), but I like that aspect of the job because I'm very competitive. Although, I'll admit that it bothers me that we're allowed/encouraged to jack up our rates randomly; I'm still adjusting to that because I like to be fair. It just doesn't seem right that we'll have one customer pay $50/day for a full-size car, and then the next customer is only charged $30/day for the same car class.

Other than that, I really don't have anything negative to say about this job so far. Again, I've only been there 3 months...but so far, so good! I don't know how long I'm going to stay with the company, but I'm just going to do my best and see what happens. Sure, the salary pretty much sucks, but the overall work environment more than compensates for that. If you're on the fence about taking a job at Enterprise, I think you should give it a shot, as long as you're a hard worker and not a complainer.

It's been two years since I was employed at Enterprise. It's one of those jobs that I'm glad I did it, but never want to do it again. Here is my personal take on this company - churn and burn. I think the negatives are apparent by reading most reviews. But...there are positives for both the company and the associates. If you're right out of college and can hold a half-way decent conversation in the interview process, you are almost guaranteed a job making ok starting money (think about it, if you could make a bunch more, why did you submit your resume in the first place?). The potential to make some serious money is there, I knew 27-28 year olds who became area managers getting close to six figures. But, the best part of this job is using it as a resume builder, but you have to stick with it for a year or two and show that you can have some dedication. Recruiters all know how many hours you put into this job and those who show they could stick with it for awhile, get a promotion or two are valuable to other businesses. I was able to land another job as a project manager and doubled my salary because of Enterprise.

Not a bad job, I worked as a porter. Not somewhere I would have worked past 21, but they are for the most part organized and fair.