Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Your Drop Charge Is $928.56

So I returned my PL rent-a-car to LGB instead of LAX. I really didn't think about it, since Hertz, Avis, National and Alamo always give me the same free local drops that I would receive on a non-PL rental (e.g. LAX=BUR=ONT=SNA=LGB). But this rental was with one of the other Major Name Brand Companies. The counter guy said, "Your credit card didn't go through." I said, "What credit card? It's a prepaid PL rental." "Well, you were supposed to return the car to LAX and the computer shows a drop charge of $928.56." I had a flight to catch. "Is there a way to inject some sanity into this situation?" "The car's not due into LAX till tomorrow. My wife can bring it over for $60, but I won't be able to give you a receipt."

In Russia they call this na levo.

Just booked a car for my buddy yesterday--Thrifty informed me that if i wanted to rent from ONT and drop at LAX it was $45 one-way charge. ludicrous.

Just booked a car for my buddy yesterday--Thrifty informed me that if i wanted to rent from ONT and drop at LAX it was $45 one-way charge. ludicrous.

The OP's $928 charge is ludicrous, but are you saying your $45 one is as well? I think that is quite reasonable. If they have to move that car back to ONT, that's a lot of driver time, plus some extra gas usage and mileage on the car.

For what its worth, I made a booking with DOLLAR and an SFO rental with dropoff in OAK was just over $5.00. Very fair.

This is exactly why I don't rent cars from Priceline. ANY deviation in your original contract is subject to massive hidden charges. My guess is that the people who posted comparison drop charges were not posting drop charges on Priceline rentals, they were posting normal drop charges on rentals made directly through the car rental companies. Go back and look at the rental car screens on priceline.com:

"Priceline rentals must be picked up and dropped off at the same location."

I have found Priceline to be totally inflexible on car rentals. For example, people have reported on other travel forums that returning a rental car a day late causes the entire trip to be billed at a higher per day rate, not just the extra day. Although $928 for returning a car to Long Beach instead of LAX does seem exorbitant, you did violate the terms of the agreement by not returning the car to the exact same place you rented it.

The OP's $928 charge is ludicrous, but are you saying your $45 one is as well? I think that is quite reasonable. If they have to move that car back to ONT, that's a lot of driver time, plus some extra gas usage and mileage on the car.

It was ridiculous in that case because the entire rental charge was $32 (16/day), so the one way charge was more than the rental.

Moreover, as far as I know they don't move the cars back...they just keep them wherever they end up, unless there are extra cars needed at ONT, right?

I don't care for Priceline on car rentals either. The complete lack of flexibility isn't worth a small savings.

The absurd (and possibly illegal) thing here is making an arbitrary charge for breaching/violating the contract. If it's a breach of contract, then the remedy is the actual damages suffered by the company, and nothing more. If it's not a breach of contract, but something that is simply subject to an extra charge, they can't legally levy an extra charge unless it was something agreed to in advance.

Bear in mind that with airlines you may not see the entire contract, but there are "published" fares and a contract of carriage that in theory you have access to and have agreed to. Presumably the OP never had access to a contract that he could have read before the rental, or at the time of rental, that would have informed of the the exorbitant drop charge.


This is exactly why I don't rent cars from Priceline. ANY deviation in your original contract is subject to massive hidden charges. My guess is that the people who posted comparison drop charges were not posting drop charges on Priceline rentals, they were posting normal drop charges on rentals made directly through the car rental companies. Go back and look at the rental car screens on priceline.com:

"Priceline rentals must be picked up and dropped off at the same location."

I have found Priceline to be totally inflexible on car rentals. For example, people have reported on other travel forums that returning a rental car a day late causes the entire trip to be billed at a higher per day rate, not just the extra day. Although $928 for returning a car to Long Beach instead of LAX does seem exorbitant, you did violate the terms of the agreement by not returning the car to the exact same place you rented it.

error

Two things:
(1) when I have rented cars (not via Priceline) in the L.A. area usually you can return a car at any of the area airports even if rented at another airport in S. Cal. And, I recall the same as having been true in D.C. and the NYC area. Perhaps I was just lucky, but, if there is a chance of returning at another airport I always ask about possible charges and have the agent put a note on the record that I can return at a different airport. Sometimes have to ask the agent at return station to check the record, but so far have never paid extra for a different airport return (in same metro region). I have some recollection that National is more liberal on this.

(2) Dispute the excessive charge via written notice to your credit card company as a billiing error. This may be the most effective approach, along with a polite letter to the company. But, I suspect Priceline rentals may not get the same respect as one made via the rental company. However, the card company should be able to apply some leverage.

I don't care for Priceline on car rentals either. The complete lack of flexibility isn't worth a small savings.

I don't agree. In some cities with insane rental charges (like LAS) you can often get a PL rental for $30 while the direct rates are over $100.

I book car rentals on Priceline and Hotwire from time to time and routinely -- but not always -- find it to be a great deal. IME, it's easier to benchmark car rental prices to avoid overpaying -- easier than even for hotels and airfare. And I care less about who provides me the same class of rental car than I care about who provides me with a hotel room. And except overseas, I generally fly out of the same airport as I fly into.

That said, this $900+ charge sounds like a whopping blunder.

I don't agree. In some cities with insane rental charges (like LAS) you can often get a PL rental for $30 while the direct rates are over $100.

Insane rental charges in LAS? I don't know who you're renting from, but I regularly rent cars there from Thrifty or Dollar for between $14-23/day for a midsize.

This is really simple. Contest the charge with the credit card company if the rental company refuses to budge. Then the burden falls on the rental company to justify the charge (which from what it sounds is baseless).

The counter guy said, "Your credit card didn't go through." I said, "What credit card? It's a prepaid PL rental." "Well, you were supposed to return the car to LAX and the computer shows a drop charge of $928.56." I had a flight to catch. "Is there a way to inject some sanity into this situation?" "The car's not due into LAX till tomorrow. My wife can bring it over for $60, but I won't be able to give you a receipt."

Sounds to me like the desk clerk was trying to make $60.

Moreover, as far as I know they don't move the cars back...they just keep them wherever they end up, unless there are extra cars needed at ONT, right?

They most definitely do move cars around. There are generally franchise and company owned rental locations. Anytime a car ends up at a company owned location and belongs to the franchised location, the franchise either has to retrieve the car themselves, pay the company owned location to deliver it to them or let the company owned location use the car. Franchise owner receives NO compensation if the company owned lot rents it out.

A lot of the smaller airports are franchise locations. Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins, Colorado have both stuck my family with drop off charges on a Priceline rental. We even went to court on the Colorado Springs deal-$657.00 drop charges since it had been picked up from DIA. We won the case but not on the merits. DIA rental agent showed up instead of the Colorado Springs person. So judge threw it out. But he told us that if Colorado Springs had showed up, we would have been in deep do-do. You are forewarned. We still rent a lot of cars from Priceline. We just take them back where we got them.

I won a Priceline car from Budget in Kansas City and planned to return it there a week later. The car developed troubles when I was Columbia, Missouri, more than 100 miles from Kansas City. I went to Budget car rental in Columbia to trade the car, and they told me that there were only two cars on the lot that I could take back to KC. They were both "Kansas City cars" that needed to be brought back to KC because they were owned by a different franchisor or something.

I had a midsize and they gave me a fullsize because it was a "Kansas City car". They had lots of midsize that they could have given me.

A lot of the smaller airports are franchise locations. Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins, Colorado have both stuck my family with drop off charges on a Priceline rental. We even went to court on the Colorado Springs deal-$657.00 drop charges since it had been picked up from DIA. We won the case but not on the merits. DIA rental agent showed up instead of the Colorado Springs person. So judge threw it out. But he told us that if Colorado Springs had showed up, we would have been in deep do-do. You are forewarned. We still rent a lot of cars from Priceline. We just take them back where we got them.

Which company was this?

The thing that is completely egregious is there is nowhere in the contract that spells out what that charge is going to be if you violate a term of the contract.

The language is completely vague. You will pay "normal rates" for the entire period of the rental if any term of the contract is violated. Imagine what your reaction would be if the desk agent said to you to initial the spot that says "you will pay $900" for this rental if you miss a deadline.

When this happened to me, I told the agent to give me back the car, as I still had time on the rental period and I would take it to the orgination point mysef. "But don't you have a flight to catch," he quizzed like he was holding the trump card. I told him that booking another flight would be less than paying this outrageous bill.
He insisted the car was already processed and the transaction closed.
I told him the transaction wasn't closed until we completed the pricing dispute. I reminded him that since my credit card had not been authorized for such a large fee, I could continue the conversation via US Mail.

Which company was this?

Avis

Avis

Thanks. I often am in DEN/COS and will make a note to avoid Avis when possible!

Thanks. I often am in DEN/COS and will make a note to avoid Avis when possible!

No need to avoid Avis. In fact, they are my favorite rental agency. However, on ANY Priceline rental, take the car back where you got it, if that's the way you bid the car. If you need to return the car to another location, bid it that way OR get your car directly from the car rental agency.

OT-It really seems that since Priceline went to the "fixed price" format, there are not nearly as many "deals" as there were. I needed a car at ORD two weeks ago. Priceline bid was HIGHER (one dollar more, which was rejected) than Priceline "fixed price format" AND both formats were higher than booking directly through a rental agency online. I have also found this to be true in the last six months with hotel rooms. IMHO, Priceline is now trading on their name and previous business model, figuring people have gotten "deals" for a lot of years and now just assume that the "fixed price" format is the best they will get.

It is really irritating to try to bid on a car or hotel room and when trying to access PRICELINE.COM, you are immediately taken to the "fixed price" format. You actually have to now search for the bid format. I am NOT using Priceline now nearly as much as I did in 2005 (over 100 nights). Hotel and cars direct from websites or Travelocity seem to have the best prices. In fact, I have been bidding for a mini-van, Alaska, June 2006 since February. Finally gave up, as my bids were as high as booking directly online with National.

Slightly off topic, but regarding Priceline, I decided after a bad experience not to use them again.

I was travelling with my 5 year old grandson and my 55 year old handicapped sister. We were offered a slightly earlier flight which got us to our final destination a full 2 1/2 hours earlier than our Priceline reservation. We were not permitted to pick up our car until the assigned pickup time.

They made us sit there in their rental agency reception area looking bedraggled for all that time. It was truly unkind. Someone should have been able to take action and get approval on an early release.

We didn't ask for special treatment. But thinking adults ought to be able to see an uncomfortable situation and resolve it even if there is no complaint.

Imagine how loyal I would have become to that agency (Avis) had they cared enough.

But Avis lost me, and Priceline lost me.

I do get gold status with Hertz because of AMEX Platinum, which is how I rent now.

Rita

When it comes to Priceline (or Hotwire) car rentals, I've heard about more trouble with Avis rentals than with Hertz ones. Unfortunately for "name your price" car rentals there's no guarantee that we can avoid Avis. :(

I do get gold status with Hertz because of AMEX Platinum, which is how I rent now.

Actually, pretty much anyone can get Hertz #1 Club Gold for free, simply by asking. (It helps to be a "small business", with, say, 1 traveler) :D

It really seems that since Priceline went to the "fixed price" format, there are not nearly as many "deals" as there were. I needed a car at ORD two weeks ago. Priceline bid was HIGHER (one dollar more, which was rejected) than Priceline "fixed price format" AND both formats were higher than booking directly through a rental agency online. I have also found this to be true in the last six months with hotel rooms.

Totally agree. I was in DEN last week and ended up just booking a car directly through Alamo's website. My highest Priceline bid (which was rejected) was the same total cost to me as the Alamo website, and I got miles (0.5 Southwest credits) which I wouldn't have gotten through the Priceline bid.

IMHO, Priceline is now trading on their name and previous business model, figuring people have gotten "deals" for a lot of years

Kind of like, I dunno...Southwest?? :D