MotherFUCK Payless Car Rentals

[hongkonger]

I am taking a party of 6 on vacation. I needed to rent a minivan. For some reason the prices at the time and place I needed the van were pretty high, but one company still had them available for significantly less: Payless. Less than half of the other companies actually. I knew they weren't the greatest company but for that savings I figured how bad could it be?

So we land and the shuttle taking customers to the rental counter is just a van and it's not possible to fit my party of 6 and our luggage into it, so I leave the other 5 including my 2 kids at the terminal and tell them I'll be picking them up soon. Despite them advertising that their rental counter was at the airport, it was in fact about 3 miles away and took a good 20 minutes to get there. When I got there the line was out the door. There was exactly one agent working the counter, and she was completely incompetent. There was another agent helping people, but he apparently had one specific thing he was doing. For some reason a lot of people left their personal cars at this location, maybe as a cheaper form of airport parking or because they wanted to do a long drive in a rental car instead, I'm not sure. This other agent was only helping people pick up their personal cars, and he had a line of three people whose keys the company had lost. WTF? Can you imagine a valet losing your keys? This guy offers them free rentals and one says I'm driving 4 hours and when you finally find my keys you want me to drive back 4 hours to get my own fucking car? Another one, the agent reported that some OTHER person had found the guy's keys in HIS personal car, but he was long gone! Unbelievable.

Anyway I finally get to the one agent helping people pick up their cars. It's been an hour and 15 minutes and I've already asked others in my party to get some food for my kids because they needed to eat. This agent is retarded beyond belief. In the middle of processing my contract she stops and looks over and starts listening to what the other agent is doing trying to help people find their personal cars. Just completely stops what she is doing at her own screen. So after a minute I say hello, what's happening? And she looks at me like I'm a dick for bothering her and said she was trying to learn something about the situation that agent was handling. Train on your own fucking time lady! Then she gives me the contract and there are about half a dozen places you have to initial of course. All the standard stuff, she points to the "you are declining insurance" and "there are no other drivers" and "you can't smoke in the vehicle," etc. Then there's one she doesn't say anything about. Obv I am reading the whole contract anyway. The one she didn't say anything about was where I was agreeing to pay $50 to have roadside assistance available in case I need it. This was never mentioned anywhere when I booked online nor did the agent mention it. I said I did not agree to this and I don't want it. She says it's in all their contracts. I said no I am not agreeing to this and take it out. She says she can't print a contract without it, but gives me a new total which is less and tells me that will be the charge. So instead of initialing it I cross out that whole section, cross out the total and write in the new total. Today I look at my pending charges on my credit card and of course they have charged me the higher amount. Obv when I return the car I will be having words with them and/or reversing the charges. Possibly ALL of the charges.

One good thing, the van is a new model year Chrysler Pacifica and it is a great vehicle. But, DO NOT EVER RENT FROM PAYLESS CAR RENTAL! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!

[abrown83]

I am taking a party of 6 on vacation. I needed to rent a minivan. For some reason the prices at the time and place I needed the van were pretty high, but one company still had them available for significantly less: Payless. Less than half of the other companies actually. I knew they weren't the greatest company but for that savings I figured how bad could it be?

So we land and the shuttle taking customers to the rental counter is just a van and it's not possible to fit my party of 6 and our luggage into it, so I leave the other 5 including my 2 kids at the terminal and tell them I'll be picking them up soon. Despite them advertising that their rental counter was at the airport, it was in fact about 3 miles away and took a good 20 minutes to get there. When I got there the line was out the door. There was exactly one agent working the counter, and she was completely incompetent. There was another agent helping people, but he apparently had one specific thing he was doing. For some reason a lot of people left their personal cars at this location, maybe as a cheaper form of airport parking or because they wanted to do a long drive in a rental car instead, I'm not sure. This other agent was only helping people pick up their personal cars, and he had a line of three people whose keys the company had lost. WTF? Can you imagine a valet losing your keys? This guy offers them free rentals and one says I'm driving 4 hours and when you finally find my keys you want me to drive back 4 hours to get my own fucking car? Another one, the agent reported that some OTHER person had found the guy's keys in HIS personal car, but he was long gone! Unbelievable.

Anyway I finally get to the one agent helping people pick up their cars. It's been an hour and 15 minutes and I've already asked others in my party to get some food for my kids because they needed to eat. This agent is retarded beyond belief. In the middle of processing my contract she stops and looks over and starts listening to what the other agent is doing trying to help people find their personal cars. Just completely stops what she is doing at her own screen. So after a minute I say hello, what's happening? And she looks at me like I'm a dick for bothering her and said she was trying to learn something about the situation that agent was handling. Train on your own fucking time lady! Then she gives me the contract and there are about half a dozen places you have to initial of course. All the standard stuff, she points to the "you are declining insurance" and "there are no other drivers" and "you can't smoke in the vehicle," etc. Then there's one she doesn't say anything about. Obv I am reading the whole contract anyway. The one she didn't say anything about was where I was agreeing to pay $50 to have roadside assistance available in case I need it. This was never mentioned anywhere when I booked online nor did the agent mention it. I said I did not agree to this and I don't want it. She says it's in all their contracts. I said no I am not agreeing to this and take it out. She says she can't print a contract without it, but gives me a new total which is less and tells me that will be the charge. So instead of initialing it I cross out that whole section, cross out the total and write in the new total. Today I look at my pending charges on my credit card and of course they have charged me the higher amount. Obv when I return the car I will be having words with them and/or reversing the charges. Possibly ALL of the charges.

One good thing, the van is a new model year Chrysler Pacifica and it is a great vehicle. But, DO NOT EVER RENT FROM PAYLESS CAR RENTAL! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!

Turo

/thread

[Draymond]

Obviously I would never rent from Payless, I barely can bring myself to rent from Enterprise. I usually just stick to Hertz and Avis. But I did cheap out a couple months ago and inexplicably stayed at a Comfort Inn. I did not want to burn credit card points to stay for free since I was by myself and really was only there for like 10 hours total. It was $74 and I was concerned because where is the pride in a hotel for only charging $74?

It was a fucking dump. It had one of those 1970s flowered comforters, I did not even those were part of hotels anymore, usually there are no comforters anymore in hotels. They also had an old school coffee pot, usually they are one cup makers now. The bed was a brick and the AC was so old school I can't even describe it, but it was covered in lint. Oh, popcorn ceilings. Bathroom had long hairs on the floor.

You get what you pay for. Back to Payless, I knew casually an owner from Payless like 15 years ago. True story, he was at a table I was sitting at and he was on his cell phone talking to an employee who was dealing with a customer. I was like take that phone call away from the table. Anyway, as he was wrapping up he said "tell the guy this is Payless, you get less, this is not Hertz which is why our prices are half".

[Dan Druff]

What a horrible story.

Definitely reverse that $50 roadside assistance charge. In fact, if I were you, I would find an excuse to reverse the whole charge. You deserve it all back after this bullshit and their attempt to rip you off. They have 30 days to respond to a chargeback, and if not, you win by default. They sound so disorganized that I could totally see them spacing on the 30 days and you winning.

If you reverse the $50, I'm afraid your CC company will just eat it ($50 is marginal whether they will actually go after the merchant), so you should probably make up BS and try for more than $50 (as I said, maybe the whole thing).

For once, I agree with bottomset.

Never, never, never rent from any rental car company below "mid tier", or you'll be sorry. I realize you were getting a better deal, but as you see, it's not worth it. Even worse, you will often get a piece of shit vehicle which is poorly maintained and will break down on you (or be dangerous).

This means you should really try to stick to Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Alamo, or National. Any other US rental car company is suspect.

Definitely avoid any rental car company with a discount-sounding name such as "Budget", "Payless", "Dollar", etc.

Also, you've gotta be super aggressive to fight for what you paid for, or alternately, to get a discount when you don't get that.

Even the better companies will try that shit, because they often run out of cars and will try to stick you with the leftover crap at the end of the day.

In April, I needed a car to drive to LAX with a bunch of luggage, and had reserved a full size. Enterprise gave me a pickup truck (LOL). Not only was I worried about my luggage flying out of it on the freeway, but there were storm clouds all over the place, with a decent chance of rain.

I said no fucking way, and they tried to lie to me and tell me that the car reserved from me developed a tire problem at the last minute. Right.

Forced them to take me to the other location, which was absolutely swamped with customers. Shift manager of the other location was super obnoxious and told me I wasn't one of "her" customers (even though they're all corporate owned), and therefore she couldn't help me. Told me that, at best, I could wait 3 hours for all of "her" other reservations to be served, and then I could take what was left.

I told her that I was going to sue them and make a major complaint to corporate. She panicked and suddenly I was in a normal car. Enterprise upper management is super obsessed with no customer complaints, so all you have to do is threaten corporate complaints and lawsuits, and they go to pieces.

[hongkonger]

Yeah trying to figure out what to say to get the whole charge reversed but not sure what a good excuse is since I did get the car I reserved and it's actually a very good car.

[PLOL]

This means you should really try to stick to Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Alamo, or National. Any other US rental car company is suspect.

SilverCar is generally regarded as the best. I've also had good experiences with Turo and Getaround, which is where you rent an individual's car.

Definitely avoid any rental car company with a discount-sounding name such as "Budget", "Payless", "Dollar", etc.

Lol, this is true and prob a good rule of thumb for any company.

[duped_samaritan]

Definitely avoid any rental car company with a discount-sounding name such as "Budget", "Payless", "Dollar", etc.

Lol, this is true and prob a good rule of thumb for any company.

Had nightmare situation with "Thrifty" maybe 10 years ago. Can't remember all the details other then getting way over charged and wasting many hours trying to work with them to fix it before finally charging them back - but I will never use them again and get kind of pissed whenever I see their logo.

[Belly Buster]

Just rented a car for a fortnight and the desk tries to upsell "sat nav" for €5 a day. I decline saying I have my own.

Get in the car in the thing has built-in sat nav anyway. Just a trick to get another €70 from you for nothing.

Car hire companies are the nut low.

[mulva]

Just rented a car for a fortnight and the desk tries to upsell "sat nav" for €5 a day. I decline saying I have my own.

Get in the car in the thing has built-in sat nav anyway. Just a trick to get another €70 from you for nothing.

Car hire companies are the nut low.

no way. that's fkn awful.

[Dan Druff]

Yeah trying to figure out what to say to get the whole charge reversed but not sure what a good excuse is since I did get the car I reserved and it's actually a very good car.

Just make up complete bullshit. The A/C didn't work right, or whatever.

Just get the chargeback above $50 or the CC company might just eat it.

That's what I would do, at least.

Actually, don't do a chargeback just yet.

Call the location and ask for the general manager. Explain everything and tell them you want both the $50 back (why is it always $50?) and something extra for all the trouble.

If he tells you to eat shit, try to argue a bit more, including stating that you were defrauded out of $50, are an attorney, and will take legal action if they don't come to terms with you.

They may still tell you to eat shit, as these franchised discount car rental places are always assholes when it comes to customer service.

At that point, I would go with the chargeback.

[Dan Druff]

About a year ago, an old friend of mine had an issue with a car from Enterprise.

She rented it to drive to San Diego and they gave her a total piece of shit car with all kinds of issues. The tires had problems, a "check engine" light was on, and laughably the registration was expired. Very uncommon for Enterprise to let their cars to fall into such disrepair, but that's what happened.

When she questioned the registration thing, they gave her the run-around that there was no other car, and she had to take it or leave it.

When the check engine light came on a few miles after she left, she called them, and the same asshole at the counter told her that it's "no problem" and "that car always has that light pop on, I wouldn't worry about it".

She was paying full price for this rental, and the dude likely took advantage of her by giving one of the shit cars because she was a woman alone, it was clear she knew little about car rentals, and he felt he could probably run over her.

When she arrived to her friend's place in San Diego, the friend gave her the bad news that they have a stringent parking enforcement policy there where they tow cars with expired tags, so she would need to park on the street a few blocks away (the only available street parking) in order to avoid this.

What a fucking nightmare.

She told me about this and I was so outraged by this story (especially because she has little money and paid a lot for this piece of shit) that I offered to help.

With her on 3-way, I called and pretended to be her "brother" and got that same asshole who she dealt with at the counter. He tried to run various bullshit stories on me but I basically tore every excuse apart. Then I asked for his boss, who also tried making excuses, but backed down quickly when he realized he was talking to an aggressive Jew who wasn't gonna take his nonsense. I threatened all kinds of action for what happened, and by the end he kept asking what I wanted in order to make it right.

Needless to say, when the call was over, her $240 rental became $70, and they kicked back $170 to her debit card.

She told me that she was shocked, and that she would have been happy if I recovered $30. She never imagined that I could get back $170 of the $240 she spent.

But honestly that was a horrendous rental. But you gotta speak up and make it clear that you aren't tolerating their bullshit, or you get screwed.

Unfortunately, at the low-end places like Payless, they don't give a shit if you are angry, and typically your complaints will fall upon deaf ears.

[RS_]

About a year ago, an old friend of mine had an issue with a car from Enterprise.

She rented it to drive to San Diego and they gave her a total piece of shit car with all kinds of issues. The tires had problems, a "check engine" light was on, and laughably the registration was expired. Very uncommon for Enterprise to let their cars to fall into such disrepair, but that's what happened.

When she questioned the registration thing, they gave her the run-around that there was no other car, and she had to take it or leave it.

When the check engine light came on a few miles after she left, she called them, and the same asshole at the counter told her that it's "no problem" and "that car always has that light pop on, I wouldn't worry about it".

She was paying full price for this rental, and the dude likely took advantage of her by giving one of the shit cars because she was a woman alone, it was clear she knew little about car rentals, and he felt he could probably run over her.

When she arrived to her friend's place in San Diego, the friend gave her the bad news that they have a stringent parking enforcement policy there where they tow cars with expired tags, so she would need to park on the street a few blocks away (the only available street parking) in order to avoid this.

What a fucking nightmare.

She told me about this and I was so outraged by this story (especially because she has little money and paid a lot for this piece of shit) that I offered to help.

With her on 3-way, I called and pretended to be her "brother" and got that same asshole who she dealt with at the counter. He tried to run various bullshit stories on me but I basically tore every excuse apart. Then I asked for his boss, who also tried making excuses, but backed down quickly when he realized he was talking to an aggressive Jew who wasn't gonna take his nonsense. I threatened all kinds of action for what happened, and by the end he kept asking what I wanted in order to make it right.

Needless to say, when the call was over, her $240 rental became $70, and they kicked back $170 to her debit card.

She told me that she was shocked, and that she would have been happy if I recovered $30. She never imagined that I could get back $170 of the $240 she spent.

But honestly that was a horrendous rental. But you gotta speak up and make it clear that you aren't tolerating their bullshit, or you get screwed.

Unfortunately, at the low-end places like Payless, they don't give a shit if you are angry, and typically your complaints will fall upon deaf ears.

I'd think a good idea actually would be to park it on the street so it DOES get towed. There is no way that girl (supposedly your sister with whom you had a 3-way) would be responsible for the car getting towed for having expired tags/registration.


The last car I rented didn't even have a registration in the car. And I've had several that have expired registrations. Seems like more often than not the car is low on oil and it needs to be replaced. Then again, I probably average 2-3 rental cars a month.

[Dan Druff]

When I've rented from the bigger companies (Avis, Hertz, National, Enterprise), I find that the cars are usually kept up well.

Mileage is usually good, too, ranging from very low to something in the 25k range.

At times I've gotten brand new or almost brand new cars.

Only challenge can be getting a car with a lot of trunk space for a family vacation, as often there are relatively few of those. Sometimes I'm stuck with an SUV when that happens, which I prefer not to have for parking/mileage/agility reasons.

[Salty_Aus]

Yeah trying to figure out what to say to get the whole charge reversed but not sure what a good excuse is since I did get the car I reserved and it's actually a very good car.

Just make up complete bullshit. The A/C didn't work right, or whatever.

Just get the chargeback above $50 or the CC company might just eat it.

That's what I would do, at least.

Actually, don't do a chargeback just yet.

Call the location and ask for the general manager. Explain everything and tell them you want both the $50 back (why is it always $50?) and something extra for all the trouble.

If he tells you to eat shit, try to argue a bit more, including stating that you were defrauded out of $50, are an attorney, and will take legal action if they don't come to terms with you.

They may still tell you to eat shit, as these franchised discount car rental places are always assholes when it comes to customer service.

At that point, I would go with the chargeback.

Make shit up and pretend to be a attorney, just to get a little extra. *shakes my head*
Don't do it, hongkonger.

As you said the vehicle was better then expected, getting your $50 back should be simple as you rightfully crossed this out in the agreement and it shouldn't be too hard having this reversed.
Making up lies and pretending to be an attorney is a huge cunt act.

Todd, I usually enjoy all the issues you have with service, but lying to get extra is a cunt act. I'm all for exaggerating but outright lying to get a little extra goes beyond being a cheap jew.

[Dan Druff]

Just make up complete bullshit. The A/C didn't work right, or whatever.

Just get the chargeback above $50 or the CC company might just eat it.

That's what I would do, at least.

Actually, don't do a chargeback just yet.

Call the location and ask for the general manager. Explain everything and tell them you want both the $50 back (why is it always $50?) and something extra for all the trouble.

If he tells you to eat shit, try to argue a bit more, including stating that you were defrauded out of $50, are an attorney, and will take legal action if they don't come to terms with you.

They may still tell you to eat shit, as these franchised discount car rental places are always assholes when it comes to customer service.

At that point, I would go with the chargeback.

Make shit up and pretend to be a attorney, just to get a little extra. *shakes my head*
Don't do it, hongkonger.

As you said the vehicle was better then expected, getting your $50 back should be simple as you rightfully crossed this out in the agreement and it shouldn't be too hard having this reversed.
Making up lies and pretending to be an attorney is a huge cunt act.

Todd, I usually enjoy all the issues you have with service, but lying to get extra is a cunt act. I'm all for exaggerating but outright lying to get a little extra goes beyond being a cheap jew.

He is an attorney.

I'm mainly advocating the exaggerated chargeback because otherwise his CC company may eat the $50 and that scummy Payless owner will get away with the scam.

If it's like $100, a real chargeback will likely be initiated.

[abrown83]

What a horrible story.

Definitely reverse that $50 roadside assistance charge. In fact, if I were you, I would find an excuse to reverse the whole charge. You deserve it all back after this bullshit and their attempt to rip you off. They have 30 days to respond to a chargeback, and if not, you win by default. They sound so disorganized that I could totally see them spacing on the 30 days and you winning.

If you reverse the $50, I'm afraid your CC company will just eat it ($50 is marginal whether they will actually go after the merchant), so you should probably make up BS and try for more than $50 (as I said, maybe the whole thing).

For once, I agree with bottomset.

Never, never, never rent from any rental car company below "mid tier", or you'll be sorry. I realize you were getting a better deal, but as you see, it's not worth it. Even worse, you will often get a piece of shit vehicle which is poorly maintained and will break down on you (or be dangerous).

This means you should really try to stick to Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Alamo, or National. Any other US rental car company is suspect.

Definitely avoid any rental car company with a discount-sounding name such as "Budget", "Payless", "Dollar", etc.

Also, you've gotta be super aggressive to fight for what you paid for, or alternately, to get a discount when you don't get that.

Even the better companies will try that shit, because they often run out of cars and will try to stick you with the leftover crap at the end of the day.

In April, I needed a car to drive to LAX with a bunch of luggage, and had reserved a full size. Enterprise gave me a pickup truck (LOL). Not only was I worried about my luggage flying out of it on the freeway, but there were storm clouds all over the place, with a decent chance of rain.

I said no fucking way, and they tried to lie to me and tell me that the car reserved from me developed a tire problem at the last minute. Right.

Forced them to take me to the other location, which was absolutely swamped with customers. Shift manager of the other location was super obnoxious and told me I wasn't one of "her" customers (even though they're all corporate owned), and therefore she couldn't help me. Told me that, at best, I could wait 3 hours for all of "her" other reservations to be served, and then I could take what was left.

I told her that I was going to sue them and make a major complaint to corporate. She panicked and suddenly I was in a normal car. Enterprise upper management is super obsessed with no customer complaints, so all you have to do is threaten corporate complaints and lawsuits, and they go to pieces.

Once again Turo /thread

[Salty_Aus]

Make shit up and pretend to be a attorney, just to get a little extra. *shakes my head*
Don't do it, hongkonger.

As you said the vehicle was better then expected, getting your $50 back should be simple as you rightfully crossed this out in the agreement and it shouldn't be too hard having this reversed.
Making up lies and pretending to be an attorney is a huge cunt act.

Todd, I usually enjoy all the issues you have with service, but lying to get extra is a cunt act. I'm all for exaggerating but outright lying to get a little extra goes beyond being a cheap jew.

He is an attorney.

I'm mainly advocating the exaggerated chargeback because otherwise his CC company may eat the $50 and that scummy Payless owner will get away with the scam.

If it's like $100, a real chargeback will likely be initiated.

Charging him after he refused to pay an under-handed fee is wrong.
But lying about things to get extra is just as bad, if not worse.

I would call them and demand they refund the $50 and because the item was crossed out and new totals were inserted they must comply or a charge-back would be simple, I'd also complain about the bad service but tell them the car was better then I expected and ask them for a significant credit on my next rental as compensation. If they refuse to give me extra I'd spend 5 minutes on a couple of review sites telling people to avoid this company and why... and of course tell them I will cut and paste a review to all the best review sites if they refuse.

Personally I don't mind a little bad service if I'm getting a deal above expectations, and they perhaps deserve another opportunity.

[Draymond]

The ultimate lesson is never rent from marginal rent a car companies. Just like you should not stay in a Comfort Inn, or buy a price reduced steak at the grocery store. Those deals are designed for the poor.

In the case of Monger, he just needs to pay his bill, he still got a good deal on the car.

As far as Enterprise goes, they suck balls too. I rented from them a few months ago and the car had nearly 50,000 miles on it, I had never rented a car above 25,000 in my life, mostly now I get them under 10,000. Of course, I pay the extra $8 a day and stick with Hertz or Avis nowadays.

[Forum Wars]

Like, you said it was a late model Pacifica. It already has roadside assistance, no? Can't believe these Payless retardos would try to make this their "resort fee"...

COVERAGE DETAILS
FCA US LLC offers full Roadside Assistance, which includes towing to the nearest FCA US LLC dealer and flat tire, lockout and fuel delivery service for all vehicles. Coverage terms vary. See below for details.

For Model Year 2017-2019:
24 Hour Towing Assistance covers jump-starts or towing to the nearest FCA US LLC and is applicable for the term of the manufacturer's warranty period of 5 years or 60,000 miles (gas) or 5 years or 100,000 miles (diesel), whichever comes first.

For Model Years 2013-2016:
24 Hour Towing Assistance covers jump-starts or towing to the nearest FCA US LLC and is applicable for the term of the basic manufacturer's warranty period of 5 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

...I'm pretty sure it's not invalidated just because it's a rental.

[hongkonger]

Druff it's interesting you mention expired tags. Mine has one of those paper temporary tags on it. It looks legit and doesn't expire until my rental ends, but I find it odd the car still has that because it has nearly 7K miles on it. Seems like it should have a permanent registration by now.