Calling around for computer repair, I noticed that some places will not give me even rough estimates unless I bring the computer in. Enterprise's used car sales office was the same way, which resulted in wasting everyone's time when it transpired that they had no cars remotely within my price range. And this is not the first time someone has refused to give me a price over the phone.
I wonder what the logic behind this is. I get that they are trying to use the foot-in-the-door strategy, but normally* when a company tries this I simply scratch them off my list. It seems like the risk of a customer writing you off entirely would outweigh the slight increase in the chance that someone goes with you because they are already there. The fact that most companies do not employ it suggests that the benefits probably do outweigh the costs.
Now, a disproportionate number of the people who do this have Arab accents, so maybe it works better in other cultures? I noticed this was a really common sales tactic in Turkey as well. But even if that is the case, I think the greatest number of people who do this are American-born, at least based on accents.
*Avis willing to go into Enterprise despite my annoyance because I am Thrifty and multiple sources confirmed that rental car companies sell their cars for below market value so you Payless than for a similar car, which meant they had an Advantage that other car sellers don't. Unfortunately the cars are still new enough that they aren't within my Budget.