Very distrustful company.

I received a price from Hotwire for Payless Car Rental for around $121. When we arrived at the Payless Car Rental facility, I had about 6 to 8 people behind me with only one agent. I showed him the Hotwire paperwork and he immediately started trying to hard sell me on getting additional insurance but I told him that my insurance would cover the rental but he kept on going about that it wouldn't cover this and that, windows, etc. minor damage, etc. After 4 times of saying no, he finally said OK and that he could put me in a Chrysler 200 convertible. Wow, I told him that would be great. He never once mentioned ANYTHING about additional charges or upgrade or anything to indicate this would cost me more money. In fact the customer in front of me was upgrade (for free) to a VW Jetta so I didn't think anything of it. He then told me they would have to hold $280 or so until I brought the car back but it would be refunded to me. I thought that was pretty high but I had people waiting behind me and appointment to make. I would say about 4 days later I remembered this and looked at my paperwork. It showed that the agent had charged me an upgrade cost of $25 a day for the Chrysler for $125.00 extra. I put in a complaint to Payless Car Rental through their web site but as of this complaint I still haven't heard a word from them. When I brought the car back, the agent I worked with was working so I went to him and explained my issue with being charged $125 extra for this upgrade which he NEVER mention any additional costs at all. I told him that if he had mentioned any type of charge in association with the Chrysler, I would said no way. His response was that I should have known better. He said that he had circled the total cost and that I had signed the form showing the cost. I told him that I thought that was to deposit that he told me about and why hadn't he circled the upgrade cost of the Chrysler since he was being so upfront, he had no answer. He told me he would give me $60 back but I told him no since I shouldn't have been charged the $125 in the first place. He never once disclosed that he was charging me more for the Chrysler. The whole process seemed very under handed and high pressured. Not to mention that you are charging someone an additional $125 a week is dishonest. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM.

Cheap Price

Customer Service, Dishonest practices, Fraudulent representations

I am writing this review as a warning to others. If I had checked the BBB before renting a vehicle from this company, I would have known better. After reading the complaints, it is obvious that the business' policy is to deny, deny, deny or ignore the facts, ignore the facts, ignore the facts as they did when I complained directly to them. Based upon their automatically generated email, "Your concern has been sent to the appropriate location manager for resolution" So they sent it to the manager I was complaining about automatically....Great!

I was looking for an affordable car rental rather quickly for a total of just over 24 hours due to a family tragedy. I would be arriving at Orlando airport in the early afternoon(approx 1 PM) and leaving out the next evening( around 7 PM). Upon a family recommendation, I used a popular web site. Once I made my choice as to what company I would use(based solely upon price and not checking BBB), I was offered the option of purchasing comprehensive insurance for my auto rental for $18 flat fee. I chose to purchase the insurance as I do not have comprehensive on my auto policy and the price seemed very reasonable.

The following is a true and honest account of my experience with this company. I didn't file a complaint because I can't imagine what the company could possibly do to make up for the horrific experience I had in which their manager made a difficult experience practically impossible. I arrived at the car rental company (after taking the shuttle) at approximately 1:30 pm on Sunday 8-17-14, did not leave with a car until approximately 4:30 pm and returned it prior to 7pm on Monday 8-18-14. One last important note: I am disabled and can not get through an airport unassisted. Upon arrival at the airport:


• I was informed that I must call to get a shuttle but then given the wrong location for the shuttle.
• Upon arrival at Payless, I was quickly informed that the comprehensive insurance I purchased was not valid with their company. I was informed of the following:
• I would only be covered if I purchased their insurance right then & there at the cost of $17 a day!
• If anything were to happen to the vehicle, I would be solely responsible for paying to repair/replace the vehicle.
• I would be responsible if the car were stolen
• I would be responsible for any time lost while the car was being repaired.
• I would be responsible for any difference if they sold the car and it was worth less than when purchased.
• I could then send a claim off to the insurance that I purchased through the web site and get them to reimburse me directly.

? I was then given a form to indicate any damage on the vehicle and was told that if there was any damage to fill it out and sign it and return it to the desk, if there was no damage then I did not need to sign it.

• The vehicle had damage but upon reading the form, I refused to sign it.
• It was stating that I had refused to take comprehensive coverage and I agreed to all of the above.
• I asked for a vehicle that had no damage, since I was told I didn’t need to sign it if there was none.
• They had no vehicles that were undamaged.

• The manager came over and was very rude and nasty to me.
• She said that I had to sign or I would not get a car and once I signed I could go.
• I informed her that I purchased comprehensive coverage for this vehicle and would not sign anything that contradicted that.
• Additionally, there was a $350 deposit taken from my debit card for the rental, NOT including the cost of the rental. So I couldn’t even afford to be extorted for an additional $18 a day!
• I will admit, at this point, I lost my temper and raised my voice and caused a scene.
• She just kept waving the paper in my face saying sign it and you can leave.
• I had a funeral to get to and I was there for almost 3 hours.
• Ultimately, I wrote on the paper that I had purchased coverage and did not agree with the statements on the paper and then signed it.
• The manager yelled out, “let her do whatever she wants, it doesn’t matter”
• The manager then proceeded to hold the paper up right in front of me and cross off what I wrote.
• She then photocopied the paper.
• I informed her that there were loads of witnesses there that saw that I had signed it BEFORE she crossed off my statements.

Ultimately, we were an hour late for my Uncle’s funeral, my mother’s brother’s funeral, my mother & my sister were with me!


? The vehicle was returned undamaged.
? I informed the very nice shuttle driver that I needed a wheelchair.
? He told me that I had to walk to the 3rd floor via elevator and wait on the ticketing line to get one.
? Reality is that the wheelchairs were outside upstairs.
? Due to my being on the wrong line, waiting and causing me more pain, I missed my flight.
? Luckily, the airlines were wonderful and got me on stand by on another flight right away.

As far as the shuttle driver issue, it would seem that they should be better informed. He really just didn't know what to do in that case and it cost me .

To say that I am unsatisfied with my experience is a huge understatement. I am appalled at the entire situation and livid to have been placed in the situation. The majority of this review is literally the complaint I made to the company, who responded by telling me that they take complaints seriously & that the form that they were trying to force me to sign after lying to me about my comprehensive coverage was for my own protection as well as theirs and that they were closing my case. This was after I literally said this to them " I have no idea what your company could do to make it up to me but if you have any integrity at all, I expect that you will at least try. " Obviously, they have no integrity based upon my experiences before, during and after my rental.

Also of note, I did contact the web site that I made my initial reservation. Their response was "We fear you were almost the victim of a salesperson looking to earn a commission selling insurance. We applaud the fact that you did not purchase their insurance. You were fully covered and the policy probably had higher limits than what they wanted to sell you for double or triple the rate."

I hope that you can learn from my mistake. I will be looking into the legality of the fraudulent representation of insurance coverage from this point.

Besides being good at angering the other customers (that I witnessed), I don't think they have any strengths at Payless.

Payless only has two shuttles to/from the San Diego airport, so you will have a considerable wait. I reserved and was charged for a mid-size car and what I got
was a Nissan Versa. The clerk told that they would hold $250 on my credit card until I returned the car and it needed to be "filled up with gas". I had to go get the car out of the lot myself. No agent walked around the car to verify existing damage, they said, because I had collision coverage on my insurance. After driving two miles down the interstate, I noticed the car was on "empty". I had to exit the interstate immediately to get gas. When I tried to call the Payless number on the receipt to get clarification on the gas policy, the system was totally automated and there was no way to speak to a person. I had to call American Express and they called Payless on my behalf. Come to find out, I was supposed to bring the car back the way it was given to me. The documentation they gave said there was a 1/4 of a tank in the car, but there was NO gas. When I asked if I could get a refund on the 1/2 tank I returned, I was told "No". Finally, I had to drive the car to the service area in the parking lot.

1. Long wait to be picked up from and dropped off at the airport.
2. Expensive - $231 for a Versa for 4 days. $31.36 daily plus $106 in waiver charges and fees
3. I was told Versa was a "mid-size" car.
4. Car was not gassed up.
5. The car was not pulled up and ready for pick up and was not driven out of the way upon delivery back to Payless.

Similar Products Used:

Other car rental companies deliver cars gassed up and they pull the car up for your convenience. At other car rental companies, I bet a Nissan Versa would be considered a "compact" car.

The car operated without any issues.

staff, professionalism, truthfulness, misrepresentation, customer service, deceitful practices, overcharging, lying about contract, deliberately slipping additional charges in, etc.

Payless Car Rental was horrible! STAY AWAY from Payless Car Rental!!! They will waste your time and money. They lied to me about the contract, slipping in extra charges for damage coverage that I told them 3 times I did NOT want!!! Just read all the other reviews on the web and you will quickly see they are a dishonest shady company that only cares about screwing customers over and fleecing their money, legitimately or not!

none

malfunctioning vehicles, poor customer service

this was a trip that we were so excited about. We were going to visit family in Virginia, my younger cousin made reservations based on the cost match with other companies, however you get what you pay for. when we first arrived on their lot there were a limited number of vehicles which should've been a red flag,then the car that was reserved was too small and filthy,so we had to upgrade to a minivan which also was disgusting stains, smells etc worse car i ever rented. and on the way to Virginia mine you its august one of the hottest months in the summer the a/c was on then i noticed water dripping on my feet,inside the car, never have i experienced this even in my own vehicle, on the way back the car was in cruise control and sped up suddenly on its own, so fast i even had trouble stopping the car when the police hit their sirens, i then realized i was driving a toyota around the same time that they had been recalled for the exact same problem. When we returned the car I immediately reported both problems to jacob who assured me that he would have the manager get back in touch with me for further discussion. After 3days went by and no one contacted me i called back and spoke briefly with the mgr named kenny who i reported this problem and suggested that they have this car removed off the road and checked for maintenance. the next day i called back to see what the outcome was and he assured me that"their mechanic checked the vehicle and their was nothing wrong" as if i was imagining these things. after that I requested if i can have a letter stating that I reported this as a problem so that if something else happened i can have proof that i tried to save a life.I was immediately rushed off the phone an told" we cant give you that". why? i asked and he was so rude he just hung up the phone. I am still trying to contact kenny for a letter, or something that i can keep for my files that says i reported this as a problem.That's not even to discuss whose going to have to pay this speeding ticket from the raggedy vehicle that we rented? thinking we was getting a deal, it cost us more in the end. I say pay the extra $30 it will save your life and others trust me. you get what you pay for plus taxes and fines..lol

Similar Products Used:

I have rented from alamo, enterprise, budget and national never had any of these problems in the passed and the service was much better

NONE!!!!

MANY:Dishonesty, Terrible Customer Service

Please don't make the mistake that I made and use Payless Car Rental at the Orlando International Airport (MCO). This was the WORST car rental experience that I have every had.

In searching for car rental rates for our trip to Orlando I saw a company called Payless, who we had never used, had the best rate. So I booked online, reserved the lowest priced car and we made our way to Florida.

I called their local office before we left to find out about how they run their shuttles from the airport to their off-site location. I was told that they have shuttles coming through every 10-15 minutes, but we could also call when picking up our baggage. So that's what I did. We got our bags and I gave them a call. We then went outside and WAITED and watched all of the other big-name companies shuttles come and go several times with no sign of Payless in sight. I called a second time and then after a total of 45-50 minutes their shuttle finally came.

So we get to their dirty office and stand in a line of 6 people. They were so under-staffed that it took 15-20 minutes to get to the counter. When I did I was greeted by "Omar", who seemed nice at first until he became frustrated that I would not be interested in upgrading or buying their insurance ( I have an Amex gold card that covers insurance). He told me that they would have to run my credit card through for a pre-authorized amount of $350 since I would not buy their insurance. I've never had a rental company do this before, but OK I let him do it.

Now he is finishing up my paperwork and informs me that the type of car that I rented (economy-base price) Is blocked in on their back lot and will take some time for them to get out. BUT if I wanted to PAY to upgrade to another car he could have me out of there right away.
Have you every heard of this??? Anytime I have rented a car and the company did not have the one I reserved ready to go they would give me one of equal or better class without asking me to pay for an upgrade.
I told him that I would wait for the economy car. 30 minutes goes by and still no car. I go back to the counter and tell him that I do not appreciate the games that they are playing. He tells me again that the car is still blocked in and that I can PAY for an upgrade which is readily available. I said NO, get me a manager. Instead of getting a manager he then tells me that my car will be up shortly. Five minutes later I'm told that our car is ready- a Nissan Cube, small sport utility. Clearly a major upgrade from what I rented. They knew all along that they did not have the car that I reserved and wanted me to pay for what they did have on their lot.

Payless is Dishonest and outright Lies to their customers! They play games with upsells like insurance and upgrades and make customers who will not pony up more money be punished by waiting, hoping they will get sick of standing around and pay extra for another car.

I will NEVER use Payless again-at any airport, and I encourage you to avoid them as well. I am tempted to contact the Florida Attorney General's Office and the BBB.

None

1) Terrible vehicle conditions -- The vehicle was smelly, carpets were extremely dirty, rear a/c was not working, one of the sliding door had to be kicked open, remote key not working, missing head rests, broken seat adjustment lever, terrible (worn-out) tire condition, vehicle rented out to me
with empty fuel tank and I was asked to fill up the tank at the nearest gas station.

2) Due to the bad tire condition, had a flat and upon contacting the Payless office, the representative was not very helpful, except to say that "you must change the tire yourself".
A replacement vehicle was provided, after having lost about 3 hours of our valuable vacation time, this vehicle was in no better condition then the first. Because of the time lost, we had to cancel couple of the activities.

3) Both vehicles had high mileage - was afraid that the vehicle would breakdown in middle of the freeway and a safety hazard.

4) Time to process the reservation was about 45 minutes plus another 45 minutes to process the customer's reservation ahead of us.

5) Payless office representatives were totally unprofessional, rude, lacked courtesy.

We had a terrible overall experience renting vehicle (minivan) with Payless, off the Toronto airport location.

Similar Products Used:

N/A

Absolutely none

unsafe cars, dirty cars, inconvenient, not time efficient, shoddy service.

Sometimes going with the cheapest rate is a very, very foolish decision. I chose Payless for a rental car out of San Francisco. It's offsite and with just one van, decrepit and small, we had to wait 30 minutes to get to the agency's location, as the number of people waiting exceeded the capacity of the van.
We had to wait for a rental vehicle to be cleaned. That vehicle had 94,000 miles on it and I saw that I refused it. It was dirty inside and the trunk malfunctioned. Well, that necessitated further waiting of course. The second vehicle had 54,000 miles on it. I accepted it, though only momentarily, because once I got on the freeway, the car shook horribly over 55mph. The alignment and/or tires were in serious need of maintenance. The sideview mirror shook so violently all I got was vertigo using it. I so wanted to make this car "work" because it had been 2 hours since our flight had landed and we had 3 hours of driving to do.
Finally, 10 miles down the road commonsense prevailed, and we turned around, drove it back to the agency, turned it in, and went back to the onsite car rental outlets at the airport. We checked out various agencies, went with Enterprise, rented a Jetta with just 3,000 miles on it, and thoroughly enjoyed it for the 800 miles or so we drove it. Yes, over 8 days the Enterprise vehicle cost a little more, perhaps $10-12/day, but so what. It was a delight.
This was my first and last rental with Payless. Perhaps their other locations provide better vehicle, but the San Francisco airport (San Bruno) site offers lousy, unsafe cars from my perspective. Andrew Wong the franchisee (if what I read in the van is true) is seriously courting a huge liablility suit given the state of his vehicles. I would testify so that others are not hurt or killed.
Expedia and the other websites offering competing rental car rates should investigate situations like this one.
Time is money and I learned a valuable travel lesson.

None

Product, service, integrity

I normally don't post this type of reviews, but since I had the worst experience in car renting ever, I thought I'd share it with other customers.
The car I rented wouldn't start after I parked it in a parking lot. When I called in to the company, the representative told me that it happens frequently on this model. She then said that someone will be there in 30 minutes to jump the car. I asked for a different car, and she said that it would take 3 hours.
After it was jumped, I took it back to the airport for an exchange. After much haranguing - I had to walk back and forth between the front desk and the car lot to retrieve the key of the car I wanted and bring it back to the front desk. They didn't have the staff or didn't want to do it.
When I returned the replacement car, I saw on the receipt that they charged me a higher rate for the replacement car, even though the front desk said it was a no cost exchange. I called in to try to straighten it out, but after staying on hold and being given a run around for a long time, I gave up.
I will never use this company again.

none

malfunctioning vehicles

The car broke twice during a four-day rental which was supposed to be a beach vacation. One morning I woke up to find the car wouldn't start. I waited half an hour for road service, and the mechanic who jumped the car to start it and examined the battery said he thought the battery probably had problems. Payless gave me a choice: I could wait three hours for them to send a new car or drive the old one back to the airport to swap it, which I did. Then, a day later, a light went on that showed a problem with a tire. Road service told me I should go to a gas station to inflate the tires to see if that would solve the problem. When I mentioned the absence of a tire gauge, the service personnel told me I would have to guess.

When I returned the car, Payless offered me one free day.

I will never use Payless again.

Similar Products Used:

Hertz, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Thrifty car rentals thoughout US, Europe