Payless car rental terrible customer service

[sammyg2]

I recently made a trip to Albuquerque and the reservations were made and confirmed through Expedia.
Expedia booked the car rental at Payless for $184.99 for two days (full-size with a few extras like navigation etc).
When I got to the payless counter they were closed and there was a sign that said go to the budget rental car counter. Nice.

After waiting in line at budget the clerk looked it up and said I didn't have a reservation. I asked him to check again and showed him the confirmation code.
As it turned out it didn't matter, he said there were no more cars left to rent in the whole city. Apparently he thought that was funny.
That's why the payless counter closed for the night. They had rented out the last car they had (that was promised to me) and went home.

taxi/uber were not an option because of the plans I had.
I seriously considered getting back on a plane. If there was a direct flight available that night i probably would have.
I waited in line at six other car rental counters asking if there was any way I could get a car.
After about 45 minutes i talked the hertz clerk into renting me a POS furd focus that I could barely get into without breaking my neck, for $358. (the payless quote was $184.99). It was take it or leave it and I didn't have a choice.

I wont use Payless car rental or Expedia.com again.

[stevej37]

They know how to take the reservation....they just don't know how to 'hold' the reservation!
JS

[john70t]

Warn others on Yelp.
They may respond and try to fix it, probably not, but at least you save someone else the hassle.

[red-beard]

What was going on in ABQ that the prices were so high?

[speeder]

That's awful. I usually use Priceline and haven’t had any serious issues, often the cheap schitbox I reserved isn’t there so they give me a bigger car for the same price as what I reserved.

Those are some crazy high prices. Rental car prices swing wildly depending on supply and demand, that’s why you always want to book it in advance. Which I know you did.

I was in Minneapolis last summer and the whole city was out of cars. I went to a local Enterprise in my old neighborhood and pleaded w them, (same thing where I’d reserved a car online an hour before but they didn’t have it). Eventually, the young guy says, “I don’t have a single vehicle here except for a pickup truck!”

Which one? He points out a new F-250 aluminum Super Duty 4x4, I told him that I like trucks but that thing is probably big $$. He tells me that he’ll give it to me for the same price as the $8.00 car I reserved and throw in the half tank of fuel in it.

SOLD!

I wrote up a good review on the truck somewhere on this board.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by red-beard

What was going on in ABQ that the prices were so high?

I was wondering that too, I asked the hotel clerk and he just said tourist season and good economy.
Lots of art festivals and such, santa fe is right up the road and that probably creates demand.

I hadn't been there in 40+ years, it's kinda cool in some ways.

A couple months ago I was in SLC and rented a furd explorer sport with all bells/whistles for $50 a day.

[widebody911]

My wife just rented a car a week ago from PayLess. They gave her some POS hooptie econobox that was full of dings and had the "Check Engine" light on. That was her first - and last - PayLess car rental experience.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by stevej37

They know how to take the reservation....they just don't know how to 'hold' the reservation!
JS

Thanks, Jerry.

_

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by Norm K

Thanks, Jerry.
_

That's why I included his initials.

[javadog]

If I were you, I would get in touch with the corporate office for Payless and ask to be reimbursed for the difference in costs.

[JavaBrewer]

Tip for the future. Years ago our flight was diverted from SD to LAX due to fog. Landed at 10 pm. With wife and very young kids in tow I head for the rental car buses rather than wait for the airline to coordinate a ride to SD. Hop on the Hertz bus and at the counter I have no reservation. The guy puts on a sad face saying they only have one car and it will be $200 one way. Their lot was filled with cars. So I step out of the office and go to Hertz.com and reserve a car online...I was a member...though not any senior status. I walk back into the office where my wife and kids are huddled. The guy retrieves my reservation and we are out of there for $49 one way to SD. More than one way to peal that onion.

[fastfredracing]

We showed up in Veiques Pr last year to pick up our rental Jeep for the week. Not only were there no Jeeps, there, there were no employees. Place was closed up tight. We waited for 4-5 hours before someone finally showed up.
My sister in law decided to let the girl at the counter have it, and the girl at the counter made it quite clear that she did not like white american tourists , and basically told her to f off. ( I sort of enjoyed that ).
It was a Hertz, honestly, other than being a little bit stressed for a few hours, I enjoyed the whole experience

[asphaltgambler]

FWIW - most rental car places will gladly reserve a vehicle for you, but the reality then is - just because you have a reservation doesn't mean there's a car waiting for you when you arrive. Ask me how I know..............went through the same thing recently

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by speeder

That's awful. I usually use Priceline and haven’t had any serious issues, often the cheap schitbox I reserved isn’t there so they give me a bigger car for the same price as what I reserved.

When I was doing the long distance relationship thing (LAX to PDX every other weekend) and like you always rented the micro mini econobox. Most of the time they handed me the keys to nice medium size sedan, one time I actually got a top of the line new Outback.

[RKDinOKC]

There is a reason it is called "Payless" and not "Painless"

[Baz]

Originally Posted by JavaBrewer

Tip for the future. Years ago our flight was diverted from SD to LAX due to fog. Landed at 10 pm. With wife and very young kids in tow I head for the rental car buses rather than wait for the airline to coordinate a ride to SD. Hop on the Hertz bus and at the counter I have no reservation. The guy puts on a sad face saying they only have one car and it will be $200 one way. Their lot was filled with cars. So I step out of the office and go to Hertz.com and reserve a car online...I was a member...though not any senior status. I walk back into the office where my wife and kids are huddled. The guy retrieves my reservation and we are out of there for $49 one way to SD. More than one way to peal that onion.

[petrolhead611]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I recently made a trip to Albuquerque and the reservations were made and confirmed through Expedia.
Expedia booked the car rental at Payless for $184.99 for two days (full-size with a few extras like navigation etc).
When I got to the payless counter they were closed and there was a sign that said go to the budget rental car counter. Nice.

After waiting in line at budget the clerk looked it up and said I didn't have a reservation. I asked him to check again and showed him the confirmation code.
As it turned out it didn't matter, he said there were no more cars left to rent in the whole city. Apparently he thought that was funny.
That's why the payless counter closed for the night. They had rented out the last car they had (that was promised to me) and went home.

taxi/uber were not an option because of the plans I had.
I seriously considered getting back on a plane. If there was a direct flight available that night i probably would have.
I waited in line at six other car rental counters asking if there was any way I could get a car.
After about 45 minutes i talked the hertz clerk into renting me a POS furd focus that I could barely get into without breaking my neck, for $358. (the payless quote was $184.99). It was take it or leave it and I didn't have a choice.

I wont use Payless car rental or Expedia.com again.

What is so wrong with a Ford Focus.? A perfectly serviceable car with plenty of room for people of normal girth.i just did 249000 miles in my wagon version in 9 years, sometimes doing up to 500 miles per day,all at 48mpg mostly fully laden.Only replaced wearing items in all that time.



We

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by petrolhead611

What is so wrong with a Ford Focus.? A perfectly serviceable car with plenty of room for people of normal girth.i just did 249000 miles in my wagon version in 9 years, sometimes doing up to 500 miles per day,all at 48mpg mostly fully laden.Only replaced wearing items in all that time.

We

Girth has nothing to do with it, it is designed for people who are shorter than i am.
The edge of the roof is too low for me to get into or out of the car easily. Even with my neck and back bent over as far as i can, the edge of the roof hits me in the ear.
To get out of the car I stuck both my feet out first, then twisted and landed my feet on the ground, and then climbed out backwards. Getting in was more awkward.
When I returned the vehicle the attendant watched and asked me why I didn't get a bigger car, at that point I just sort for laughed.

[petrolhead611]

Next time l am in the US I will definitely avoid renting from Payless

[Rick Lee]

Avoid Advantage too and avoid going through Hotwire for anything!

Hotwire allows no changes or cancelations for any reason. When the Advantage shuttle never showed up at the airport, I started calling. Gee, customer service was closed on weekends. What a surprise. I found the number for the location I was going to, called them, they said they use a third party shuttle and he was on the way. He said their location was a good 8-10 minute drive offsite. I gave up after an hour of waiting and walked across the street to Budget, got a car and went to my folks' house 100 miles away. That night I called Hotwire to try to get a refund. They said I could still go back and get the car, as they had held it for me. No getting through to that idiot. I told him I would dispute the charge on my Amex, but first had to make an attempt to get them to act reasonably. I actually won the dispute and got the money credited back.

A few years ago they wouldn't let me extend my reservation for two more days when my business trip changed. I called Hotwire and the rental car place, I forget which, and told both to "help me spend more money with your company. I want to buy from you. Help me buy." No dice.