My horrible rental expierence with Payless in Panama City, Panama. I owed anything?
 

I went down to PTY over Christmas. I had party of 7 and I searched for ages before I left to find a minivan that will handle my party that was an automatic with good trunk space. Finally settled on Payless at a rate of $260 for a 5 day rental. I made my reservation directly with payless at least 2 months in advanced.

Fast forward to Christmas. I arrive at the airport rental location and a sign is greeting me no more cars. I walk up to the agent and pass him my reservation. He said sorry can't help you we have no more cars. I tell him I have a reservation. He then said can't help you. I then proceeded to ask him to call a manager or see if they can obtain a car from another location he said I will not call a manager there is nothing he can do for you. I was really angry at this point :mad:

From that point I proceed to check everywhere in the airport for alternative transportation. Eventually I found a 12 passenger van from dollar. With it being a last minute rental my new price with the necessary insurance was $600.

In your opinions what if anything does payless owe me? My new rental was larger than necessary and way more money then I would have spent if payless held my reservation. I so far as yet to even get an apology from them. The desk agents attitude was very hostile.

If you hold a firm reservation from them then I would chase HQ.
Not sure from your comment if you paid in advance?
The likelihood that they will do nothing or honour any of your booking remains high, but I would certainly pester them and try and understand why they would act that way.
payless , get nothing?

I did not pay anything in advance however I made a reservation though their webpage with a confirmation number.

I think that every agency in Panamá City - not just the airport - was like that over the holidays. Last week, National, Hertz, and Avis all backed out on my confirmed reservation, and I ended up taking an Uber to my hotel, and getting a decent enough rate the following morning from a Dollar location in the city using expedia, with airport drop-off.

Kia Sportage AWD with a pissy 1.6L engine and 60k KM for $60/day including all insurance. Not the greatest I've gotten, but with every single insurance coverage, not unreasonable. Especially since I returned it with several new scrapes and in need of front end work. Shockingly good on gas too - only cost me $30 to fill the tank.

At least your rental car companies told you they can't hold your reservation...At a minimum a few days early payless should have emailed me to tell me they couldn't keep my reservation. I never got an email. When I came back to the airport 5 days later they still had a sign up that they had no more cars. What is the point of a reservation system if they don't hold the car. It is ridiculous that they over book and don't care what happens to those who had a reservation (at least when the airlines overbook they give you a voucher or credit). Their mistake ended up costing me hundreds of dollars more and their attitude that it was my fault doesn't fly with me. The Payless agent also made an asinine comment to me that "to bad you should have booked multiple reservations" which added insult to injury. In addition I submitted a formal complaint to payless 14 days ago and I haven't hard a peep out of them. Great company..

On another note sorry you had a crappy experience too.

Oh, I didn't find out my confirmed reservations were worthless until after I was already in Panamá. Since I was able to get a car, I'm more annoyed than angry.

But I am fighting with National (where I have status) to get reimbursed for the difference in cost + the Uber ride to the hotel.

Sounds fair to me!^