Renting a car is usually an uneventful part of a travel experience. Except for the time I booked a round-trip rental instead of a one-way. Oops!
Well, team member Keith recently got back from a ski trip to Aspen. And his plans included picking up a car from National Car Rental to drive to Denver.
When he showed up at the car rental counter, they had his reservation, but they did NOT have the vehicle he booked. So they charged him a $500 fee to rent a different vehicle!
Does this remind you of a Seinfeld episode?
I’ll share the positive outcome of the car rental saga. And explain what you should do if you’re in a similar situation!
National Car Rental Review
I’ll let Keith tell you about his experience!
Keith: Thank you Daraius!
I booked a rental car with National ~2 weeks before my trip to Colorado. And I received an email confirming my reservation for a Nissan Altima or similar at a cost of ~$48.
On pick-up day, there were high winds in Aspen. And all flights at the Aspen Airport were cancelled. So many folks were trying to rent a car to get to a different airport, which meant all of the rental car companies were sold out.
Even though I had a reservation, I was informed the type of car I booked was not available. And the only alternative was to take a larger SUV. But to do so, I’d have to pay a $500 fee because the car was not returning to the pick-up location.
Unfortunately, in these situations there are not many options. So I was forced to pay the $500 fee.
But after returning the vehicle in Denver, I quickly called National Car Rental’s customer service. And after explaining what happened, they agreed to refund the $500 fee!
Bottom Line
Even with a confirmed reservation, it’s possible the details of your car rental can change if the company is sold out of cars. This means you might have to pay extra fees or could potentially be without a car.
Unfortunately, you don’t have many options in these rare circumstances, especially if competitive car rental companies are also sold out of cars.
I can’t promise this will work. But calling the rental car company’s customer service department could potentially save you money on fees if you present the details of your situation.
Do y’all have a memorable rental car experience?
Rented a 4-door to transport my friends in suits to our dinner and a play in comfort. We needed my driving abilities and on-demand ability to travel because of the play. In addition to several other problems, they tried to charge me a $14 fee for driving fewer than 75 miles and not showing gas receipts, which I was not asked for. Disputed with my credit card.
It costs us $600 one day from aspen we returned the car to aspen (rented from aspen) but flights cancelled so needed the car back and one way to denver…sooooo$600 nuts as the flights cost just as much per person den-ase-den unitefd nuts
Loved the Seinfeld reference!
How irritating, but glad to hear it was able to be resolved appropriately!
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National did something similar to me in Hawaii. I was taking the ferry from Lanai to Maui so had to pick up the car at the dock location. But I’d be returning it to the airport location. I tripled checked that I wouldn’t be charged a fee because I didn’t return it to the same location. And then they did just that. It took loads of arguing with me, but finally got them to remove the charge.
To top it off, the employees at the dock location were some of the nastiest. They knew they’d be picking up 6 people from the ferry to get us to the cars and they sent someone with a small SUV to pick us up. No signage, nothing. I was lucky that I thought to ask the guy who was looking around if he was National. He wanted my husband to wait on the docks with all of our luggage so he could take the 4 other people who were renting one car. I argued and finally one couple said they’d stay at the dock. Then they had one, miserable person at the car location who barely be bothered to do her job.
Never again. I’ll take an interisland flight to avoid all of this (plus the nauseating ferry ride!).
I rent with national very reguarly (13 rentals so far this year) and while I can see this ation happening, customer service has always taken care of it promptly.
I had a similar situation where I reserved a “pickup truck” and when I arrived the only ticks available were Nissan frontiers. When I turned it in I do it out it was a “small pickup” and my $80 rental was now a $400 rental due to the upgrade. I went into the office and the issue was promptly fixed and I was only charged the original amount.
In an example of going above and beyond, on Monday I turned in a vehicle a day late and visited the counter to have the extra day charged to a different card. Not only did the agent gladly do that, but they discounted the rate $10 because they felt it was too high.
Moral of the story: in my experience national customer service solves any problems quickly and above xpectations.