Enterprise - Scotland

What happened to the tyres that they ended up flat? What was covered in the tyre insurance? I guess you didn't need to pay for the tyres?

I know it's a pain, but being two tyres down in the Highlands on a Saturday afternoon is always going to be a major hassle.

Unlucky.

It was on a small road in the highlands - all those roads were terrible. I had to get over at one point because of an oncoming car and that must've been when it happened. Got a little ways up and they felt weird.

That was all covered because we'd selected the tire insurance/coverage thing, so that didn't cost us anything.

It was that we were left stranded without a replacement car and couldn't get anyone who could help us to answer the phone. I couldn't get an uber or anything like that. Even the taxi guy that the hotel was able to get the next day - he was run ragged the day of the games with so many people.

I think the reaction of the cop and tow truck driver said it all though...

You've already posted this rant on Trip Advisor (post #13), although using a different user name.

What did the terms and conditions of the car rental say? DId they cover you for expenses like this?

Did you have travel insurance and could that have covered the cost of these expenses?

I've posted this today on as many sites as I can.

You mean, the agreement that said if you have issues with your tires, call this # that's 24/7 and someone will be there to help? And then no one answered?

I have never had a contract with any rental company where they agreed to pay for any expenses incurred due to problems with the car. That's why you get travel insurance.

Did you have travel insurance?

Hi Mardee,

I'm not really interested in debating or rehashing things with people outside of Enterprise. My review is intended to be a warning to others, that's all.

We paid extra for the tire insurance which provided a 24/7 number to call. We called that number for 4 hours (4 of us calling constantly), along with calling the Enterprise in Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, and any other Enterprise # we could find on-line, trying to get a live person. The only reason we finally got the tow truck driver was because the cop called the tow truck driver, once we pushed the SOS button in the car. The tow truck driver took the car to some garage, where it was going to be for at least 2-3 days, while we were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

The cop and the tow truck driver both commented on how Enterprise is when things go wrong, which I wish I would've known before renting a car from them. Maybe they're okay if you're renting solely for "in city," but if you're going to be out in someplace like the Highlands, I'd definitely choose another company.

It sounds like Enterprise's service wasn't great.

From my viewpoint, if I'd had an accident somewhere remote that rendered the car undrivable, I'd be steeling myself for a bad time, no matter which company I rented from. I think I'd probably have been Googling for someone local before four hours rolled around.

It's disappointing that nobody could take your call on a Saturday. Sometimes city centre rental offices have limited opening hours on a Saturday and Sunday and don't have staff after lunchtime. Was it a Glasgow city centre location you rented from? Was there any damage to wheels or alignment in the car that needed sorting out?

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, you're leaving yourself open to discussion of your incident when you post on a public forum like this one. I hope you can stick around and tell us more about the positives of your trip to Scotland in another thread.

It sounds like a real pain, but aside from the poor service from Enterprise, you maybe got off OK if the damage to the car didn't cost you anything.

Hi,
We did call several local garages - even if they happened to be open, they didn't have anyone available. Several had closed permanently (sounded like some retirements).

Nothing was damaged, but the tires and yes, we rented from Glasgow city center - the folks there during the rental process we're great. i think the big part of the problem is staffing. When we got to Inverness, the guy at the front desk pointed out that he doesn't have time to answer the phone - he's got a line of folks waiting for help and can't stop to answer the phone, so each time we were transferred to the "front desk" - that's what happened. I guess that's one way for Enterprise to save money - cut the staffing and not respond to customers.

My point in posting was to warn people about using Enterprise in Scotland - the cop's face and the tow truck driver's face said even more than their words. Sounds like they'd both had their share of Enterprise folks with issues.

Otherwise, honestly, everyone in Scotland was great, friendly, helpful and it was beautiful. We were thinking we'd go back, but now not so sure. The trains are great, but in the highlands, that's not really an option. The hotel we ended up staying at in Balatar (?) - wonderful people.

The worst part of the trip was dealing with Enterprise...and the midges when we were seeing the fairy pools.

And to another poster, yes, we had travel insurance through Allianz, but they don't cover most things that are going to happen. We had travel insurance for a concert in February ($9,000 cost) and had travel insurance (through a different carrier) and they didn't reimburse us either - I haven't found much use for travel insurance other than to spend more $.

I hope it doesn't put you off returning to Scotland. These things happen and it's always going to be tough for a rental company to react, even if they do answer the phone in a timely manner in the first instance. Replacement cars or the correct new tyres to fit are harder to come by in the Highlands, and it's always going to be a major blow to your plans if you take out two tyres in one incident and leave your car stuck by the side of the road.

Without meaning to sound patronising, it's important to concentrate on placing your car in your lane. It's something North American drivers often struggle with and is a really common accident. I'm assuming you took out two nearside tyres on a kerb or the ditch. I've driven on narrow rural UK roads a lot so it's not something I've ever done. If you have to squeeze through somewhere tight, get as much speed off as you can. My first instinct is to go to the brake pedal. If you do happen to contact something, it's unlikely to to take out two tyres at 5mph or 10mph, as opposed to 30.

Many on this forum have reported good car hire from Arnold Clark in Scotland. It may be worth considering them if you do happen to rent a car in Scotland again.

Yeah, I wasn't driving fast at all. Those narrow one lane highland roads don't really allow for that anyway - and there aren't any "lanes" to stay in, just lay-bys to pull over into if a car is coming the other way. It must've been when I first turned on the road - lot of construction was going on there.

Lots of places to visit on this planet and while I loved Scotland and wanted to go back, being limited to places based on trains makes it less desirable to return. Guess we could always hire a private car/driver like we did in Tuscany, but that was just for a day of wine touring, not for multiple days.

Ah don't let it put you off driving. 'Tis but a scratch. Watching out for the left side of the car is something you'll be doing now anyway! It happens. I was too cavalier with my parking just last week and scraped a wheel on my mother's car. I'm pretty out of practice with driving now I'm not doing it regularly.

There's lots of videos of people driving narrow and single track roads and using passing places on Youtube which may be helpful to watch.

Being able to set your agenda with your own car is definitely the best way to see Scotland. It's worth considering renting from Arnold Clark or another agency and not giving up on driving because of this.

If you are not willing to use buses then you are artificially restricting yourself.

There is a large and growing network of long distance buses as well as local ones. That is how many locals get about.

This forum is not good at reflecting that fact.

Scotland is not the state of Idaho when it comes to public transport.

Sorry that you had such a horrible experience with Enterprise.

We also had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere on the north coast of Scotland a couple years ago. We booked a rental with Arnold Clark through Celtic Legend.

There service was outstanding. And while the wait for the tow truck and replacing the tire consumed most of the day, we managed.

The surprise lesson for us was that not all rental cars come with a spare tire anymore.

to isn31c
Glad to say, I have no idea how the public transportation is in Idaho.

I'm still weary of things like covid, and while we're vaccinated, spending time inside something like a bus for hours and hours was not appealing. We did do a train from Liverpool to Glasgow and then from Edinburgh to London, but we did 1st class and assigned seats, so we were all seated together.

Earlier in the year when we went to Italy, it was just my husband and I, so when we did trains we tended to have our masks ready if there was anyone around sniffing/coughing, etc.

GerryM
I've heard about Arnold Clark several times, wish I would've rented from them.

I was very nervous at first driving, but I got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road fairly quickly, but I still tended to go slower unless I was on one of the big/main roads. I loved the car we had, a Volvo XC90, and it had the camera thing I have in my car, where it shows you how your car looks from above, so you can see how close you are to things. That really helped.

We did love having a car and being able to spend time in the highlands. And even when we got to Edinburgh, we did a day trip to places before turning our car in. Other than the highlands, I think the hardest driving was in Edinburgh!

This forum is not good at reflecting that fact.

Stuart, I wholeheartedly disagree with that. There are countless posts on this forum from travelers who travel frequently telling others about the wealth of public transportation out there and how much easier it is to use it than renting a car.

Sometimes, of course, that’s not true. For example, if you go to Skye, you’re going to find it easier to have a car. But it certainly can be done using public transport and I don’t think anyone here denies that.

I've always had cars when I lived in Scotland, so I'm very much in the "using a car" camp. Stuart is an expert on how to get around using buses and I'm not. The bus service in Scotland is no doubt better than that in Idaho (probably) but having a car lets you see a lot of places you wouldn't otherwise.

I was thinking about something the OP said about there "not being lanes". There definitely are lanes, even if it's just one on a single track road. You get right in the middle in that case, and that is your lane. "Laybys" are passing places and there's a bit of a knack to using them well and courteously. It's often going to end badly putting a wheel or two on the verge and should be avoided. We read on here about people blowing tyres hitting potholes at speed, and hitting objects on the left, a lot.

I strongly agree with Mardee here, as someone who does not drive or live in a household with a car. The first time we visited Skye we did it all by bus and it was a massive pain (and surprisingly expensive) and really limited which areas we were able to visit. This was in 2008 so the bus service may have improved since then but having visited since with a car, I can confirm that was so much easier. A lot of the bus services in this country outside of major cities only run every few hours, and often not on Sundays, and you wind up planning your whole day around the bus schedule. Really what we need is more government investment to increase bus services but unfortunately I don't think that is considered a priority at the moment.

Government investment in bus services is exactly what is happening, through the Bus Service Improvement Grant Scheme. In the Lake District we are actually struggling to spend the money fast enough- nearly £30 million between the two counties. The pilot project in Cornwall has been a learning curve, with many lessons learnt from it.

Certain!y in the Lake District we are increasingly desperate to reduce chronic over use of the car, due to poor quality information.

Bus services being expensive on Skye and many parts of the UK is really not being well informed at all. Under £10 a day on Skye.

The point really is that for the OP to suggest that a return to Scotland is not viable due to a car issue and a lack of trains is wide of the mark.

There is a less than virtuous circle on places like Skye where everyone using cars leads to degrading to roads and loss of bus routes. There has in fact this year been some improvement on the Dunvegan and Trotternish routes.

I am aware of that particular scheme, but do not feel it has gone far enough. For example, we were in Exeter a few weeks ago and none of the bus services into Dartmoor ran on Sundays. As someone who doesn't drive and likes to travel around the UK, I run into these challenges frequently. Before this gets too off topic, I will just reiterate that I am sympathetic to people who find it easier to get around certain parts of the UK by car, though I personally will always choose public transport as my first option whenever it is available. And I think we are certainly in broad agreement on the benefits of public transport generally, and that there should be more of it!

To those re: public transportation

One thing to please keep in mind is that international travelers do not have unlimited time. We were in the UK for almost 3 weeks - most of that in Scotland and wanted to see/do many more things than we could actually fit into that time. We spent roughly 5 total days in England (London/Liverpool) and used only public transport (besides taxi to/from airport).

However, spending 8 hours on a bus when you could drive that in 2 and make your own stops is a waste of our limited time. It's not like we can pop back over for a weekend in the highlands anytime we want - it's a 9.5 hour direct flight for us.

When we were in Italy, other than the day around Tuscany wineries, we only used public transport, because were mainly in cities (Rome, Florence, and a day trip to Lucca).

In Scotland, we didn't pick up the car in Glasgow (when leaving Glasgow) and from there we went to the Isle of Skye (and yes, I looked at buses - after I realized what the term "coach" meant), it would not have been ideal for 4 adult travelers with their luggage and again limited time. Then to get from the rental house to places in the Isle of Skye - how would that work? We returned the car after our 1st day in Edinburgh. We kept it for a day because there were places outside of Edinburgh we wanted to see, but then returned the car and spent the rest of Edinburgh mainly walking (loved Edinburgh!!). Then took the train from Edinburgh back to London.

The public transportation in Europe is AMAZING compared to here in the US. I live just outside of Seattle and even in a big city, it's extremely subpar when compared to Europe. I loved when I'd go to San Fran for work and could use Bart and the trolley cars to get around.