samwkchan

[tl;dr]
rentalcars.com gave wrong information on the car type of an upcoming rental. Reserving another car is possible but prices have surged a lot. What can I do? Any experience?
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Here is my story in full.

I just got stranded by rentalcars.com. They gave my wrong information on a upcoming car rental.

I reserved a car on rentalcars.com in April for a trip in mid June. The car is to be provided by a Sixt branch in San Francisco. On all screens as well as my email and receipt, the car is said to be carrying 7 passengers and 3 bags, and is Chevy Suburban or similar.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. I called the local branch of Sixt for some other reasons. Unintentionally, I asked to confirm the type of car. The Sixt agent told me it is a 5-seater, but not a 7-seater. I called rentalcars.com afterwards. The rentalcars.com agent could confirm that mine is a 7-seater. So I did a conference call and let them talk. Eventually, they found that the information on both side was different. The agent even told me that rentalcars.com is just a broker and cannot guarantee correct information!

After some mild arguments, it was then escalated to a rentalcars.com supervisor. Although he promised me a daily follow-up email, he only sent me an email once on Thursday. The rental will start this Saturday. What should I do?

As a blessing in disguise, I found it out last week but not right at the Sixt counter. Anyway, I have already reserved a car of the desired type with free cancellation, but the price is much higher.

Is there any better solution? Can I ask rentalcars.com to do something more? Any experience?

AutoSlash

You could try to press Rentalcars.com to make things right. It sounds like the error is on their side, although the problem here is that it sounds like you reserved a Premium SUV (PFAR) which at almost any other company is a Chevy Suburban or similar, however at Sixt, a PFAR is typically a luxury 5-seater. This has caused numerous problems for us when comparing vehicles for customers as well as a lot of confusion. I wish Sixt would adjust their classifications to be like the rest of the industry.

You might politely point out to Rentalcars.com that it was their mistake (since they should have displayed the correct vehicle description from Sixt for this vehicle class), and that you are giving them a chance to make things right, but if they don't, you will be forced to express your displeasure on social media. Sometimes this helps do to nudge them in the right direction, sometimes not.

As far as your backup plan, you should try requesting quotes from us for both a Minivan (which is always a 7-seater) as well as a Fullsize SUV (which also seats 7+). If you have 7 passengers a Premium SUV (PFAR) is probably a bit more than you need, and as you've found out, is typically priced higher than the other two options as well.

Yellowjj

Unless you have luggage, in which case a PFAR (or Minivan depending) is exactly what you need over a Fullsize SUV.

samwkchan

That's the issue. We have multiple bags.

AutoSlash

You could get away with an MVAR, but agree that a PFAR (with anyone but Sixt) is typically a bit larger in the cargo area.