-It's a customer service job so difficult customers are inevitable, but I really wish ERAC had been more straightforward about the abuse they expect you to take, and I do mean abuse. When a customer called me a homophobic slur after I filed a claim for damage to the rental vehicle, managers at the regional corporate office, who sit in nice comfy offices and never deal with customers, forced me to call the customer and apologize to HIM.
-You are ranked heavily on customer service in an extremely illogical way. ERAC measures this by sending out random phones surveys to approximately 7% of your customers, asking them to rate service on a 1 to 5 scale. Anything other than a 5 is treated the same as a 1. So if a customer chain smokes in a car and you charge them to get it detailed, or if they damage a car and you hold them responsible (both situations are following ERAC policy to a T), you can imagine how that service call is going to go.
-ERAC's business model is to take reservations no matter what regardless of inventory. So if you have no cars on your lot and 6 people sitting in your lobby waiting on cars, customers calling your branch/the 800 number will be rerouted to a remote call center, where employees will tell customers that you absolutely have a full size car ready to go in 5 minutes. Again, a policy created by those who never have to actually deal with customers.
-No work/life balance, expect to work at least 48-50 hours a week when you're first starting out. As a manager, expect to work no less than 55 hours a week. Since they are pushing more and more branches to be 7 day operations, this is only going to get worse.
-Pay is unfair when you first start. If you live somewhere with a high cost of living (DC, NYC, Boston, California, etc.) you'll be scrounging to make ends meet.
-Speaking of pay, when you become a manager your base pay actually goes down and you start making a percentage of the branch's profits. So if a customer buys the CDW, (rental car insurance), which ERAC encourages employees to shove down customer's throats, and then the car is totaled, it comes out of YOUR paycheck as a manager.
-Career progression above the Branch Manager level is very difficult. 6 years, 6 figures is a lie. I know Branch Managers that have been with the company for 7+ years and can't take the step to Level 3 (Area Manager & above), because positions just don't open up that often. The people in senior management positions (regional rental managers, city managers, and anyone with a VP title) have been with the company a very long time, back when ERAC was still only operating in a handful of states and growing rapidly. The company's growth rate, at least in the daily rental arena, has slowed dramatically, so the same opportunities that existed 15+ years ago just don't exist today.
-When you get hired they advertise lots of different career paths you can take other than Daily Rental, like Loss Control, Talent Acquisition/Recruiting, HR, Car Sales, and a bunch of others. Two problems exist here: one, if you go to one of these other departments it will take 10+ years to hit six figures, since working your way up to a Level 3 position outside of Daily Rental will take at least this long. Car Sales might be the ONE exception since the bulk of your pay is commission but only if you are a beast at selling used cars. Most who go to Car Sales end up quitting, and almost of the managers in Car Sales come from different departments; they didn't work their way up to that position. Two, those positions almost never come available. In my almost 3 years with ERAC I never saw a position available in HR, Loss Control, or Talent Acqusition.
-IF you are lucky enough to work your way up to a corporate position at main campus (I saw ONE manager do this in my entire time there), that means relocating to St. Louis. Hey, at least the cost of living there is dirt cheap.
-Almost impossible to find another job while you're working there since you're working 7-6, Monday-Friday. ERAC HR also search regularly on sites like Monster, CareerBuilder, etc. not only for potential candidates, but current employees as well. Expect to be called in to the regional office if they find you on here for a stern talk.
-I really didn't care for the fratboy culture. Some people might love that, though.
