No, not the least-popular Star Trek series; this is about Enterprise car rental. The Infiniti is at Mathews Carlsen having some minor body work done and USAA‘s rental reimbursement is for Enterprise.

I dropped the Infiniti at Mathews Carlsen, who called Enterprise to pick me up. No answer. They called again, got someone who said they’d be right over. Some time later, with no sign of Enterprise, they call a third time and are told that there is only one person at the rental desk so no one to come get me. MC details a person to drive me over to Enterprise at the Palo Alto Municipal Airport. This is great, because it’s much closer to MC than the office I’d been to previously in Mountain View. There is indeed one Enterprise employee at the airport desk, plus one other customer waiting for a car, but there are no cars. We’re assured that cars are even now being delivered from other Enterprise offices.

A few minutes later, Enterprise employee #2 arrives with other customer’s car and he is sent on his way. Employees #1 and #2 confer and then tell me they will wait for employee #3 to arrive, and then the four of us will go to Enterprise office #3 with a stop at office #2 to drop off employee #1. All clear so far?

Employee #3 arrives and the four of us set off. Employee #1 is dropped off at Enterprise office #2, which happens to be the Honda dealership right next door to Mathews Carlsen. Employees #3 drives #2 and me to Enterprise office #3, the one I’d been to once before. We get out, I wait around a little while more and then am finally shown to the car that will substitute for my beautiful Infiniti for the next three days: a white Kia minivan.

The sole saving grace of this runaround is that the Enterprise employees were perfectly aware of how ridiculous it actually was. Everyone was good-natured and friendly, there were no harsh words, dirty looks or mutterings under breath. Just the same, I think I will request a different rental company next time, if there is a next time.