As a retired leisure traveler, I rent cars in a variety of locations upwards of a half dozen times annually. As such, I look for the best rates and go with a variety of companies, and consequently experience good, bad and indifferent moments, mainly the latter two where rental companies are concerned.

You get used to the counter reps telling you your insurance is no good, trying to sell you an upgrade “for just four more dollars a day,” or offering to let you pay for a full tank of gas at their special low price. The melody stays the same and the lyrics don’t vary too much. There are sleazy new wrinkles every so often… last summer my daughter was excited when she arrived in Honolulu on her honeymoon when Alamo told her that honeymooners can upgrade to a Jeep or a Mustang, only to find out when they returned the jeep that Alamo was CHARGING for the privilege and not giving it away – ah well, young love can be blind at times.

Recently, however, I have undergone such an incredibly annoying experience with Payless Rental Cars of Florida, a growing outfit privately owned by a Taiwanese investment group, that I am starting this thread with the challenge to top this story, especially since no actual car is involved:

Executive Summary: Do NOT rent from Payless. Payless first screwed me out of the car I reserved on false grounds, then encouraged me to rent elsewhere and they would reimburse me for the extra costs, and then refused to do so.

In October, we made a two-day trip SEA-MIA for a quasi-Mileage-Run / vacation weekend on one of those crazy $109 fares. Payless Car Rentals advertised a great price of about $25 daily for a full-size car. We reserved for two days for pickup at 9:00 a.m. after flying in late the previous night. Catching the hotel shuttle to the airport the next morning, we called the outfit a little after 10:00 a.m., only to be told there was a one-hour grace period to pick up the rental and that our reservation had therefore been cancelled.

Miffed, I called back, and was told, when I asked, that the car had been rented out from under me. The phone rep was not very nice about it at all. “Have a nice day” is not the kindest way to end a conversation with a guy whom you’ve just stranded at the Miami Airport without a car. I also determined later that she was either misinformed or more likely lying because the website itself stated there was a two-hour grace period to pick up the rental.

I then called corporate headquarters and explained my plight to a nice young woman who gave me a customer relations number to call. I called, left a detailed voicemail message with a person I’ll refer to as “Pat,” and then started looking for alternative transportation. After checking a few rental outfits and finding the walkup prices fairly outrageous, and just as bad by phone, we said the heck with it and caught a bus to South Beach.

As we sat in a Starbucks a few hours later, I was surprised when “Payless Pat” called me back on my cell. She immediately told me I could rent a car from another company and that Payless would reimburse me for the difference. Hurray! She realized their Miami franchise had breached its contract with me and/or badly screwed up. I asked Pat for rental ideas – she had none – so I suggested I could rent from Hertz, since I’m a Club Gold member and I had already gotten a quote of around $50. Fine – Pat gave me her fax number to send the receipt, I sent it to her along with a nice thank-you letter and all was well, except…

Two months, several phone calls, and two faxes later, “Payless Pat” has stiffed me on Christmas Eve. She is now saying that since I called after 9:00 a.m. and didn’t call in advance that I was out of luck, completely contradicting her own words of October. As a consequence, I am out the princely sum of $29.51. I wouldn’t have bothered renting a car, since 25% of our time in Miami was already gone, but Pat encouraged me to and even told me to rent a full-size (I went with a mid-size). Even though Mrs. Fredd heard Pat make the offer on the cell, she was dubious, but gullible old Fredd told her she was cynical. I’m still paying for that one too.

Since I have time on my hands, I’m complaining about Payless to the Better Business Bureau of West Florida and also reserving my options in other arenas. I’m retired, I still detest cheats and liars, so I have time and inclination to tilt at windmills for awhile over $29.31 as a matter of principle.

Can you top this tale of woe?

edited for typo...


[This message has been edited by Fredd (edited Dec 24, 2003).]