Complain about a product or service

National Car Rental

David of Indianapolis, IN November 3, 2009

I rented a car last week from National at XNA airport. When I returned the car, I explained to Jennifer that the tires were completely bald. She said "oh, that car will go out of service in a couple weeks." When I asked her if she would continue renting, she handed me my receipt, did not thank me or anything and just walked away.

I called the National Car Rental customer service. The first call simply routed me back to XNA. When I called back, the lady said there was nothing she could do except note it. All I asked for was to speak to someone in management. She said they don't work that way. I explained I am Emerald Club, rent three times a month and just cancelled my next reservation with National. That was Wednesday the 28th. She said she would have someone call me, to wait 24-48 hours. It is now Monday night the 2nd. The bald tires, the manager's poor treatment and the incredible experience with customer service means my business goes elsewhere.

greg of glen rock, NJ October 26, 2009

I reserved car rental through National/Atesa for my vacation in Spain for 272 EU. Upon coming home I discovered that invoice I got was for 378 EU. Explanation was that this is for insurance. It was never mentioned to me in advance. Also, after five days car broke down and was towed away. I was charges for 210 EU for car repair.

Atesa claimed that wrong gas was put in the car. I provided the copy for gas station receipt but got no positive results. Customer Service is terrible - would not respond for two weeks. My advice - stay away from National! I was overcharged for 310 EU

Yogesh of Mountian View, CA July 20, 2009

After renting the car at the Heathrow Airport location while on a vacation in London England on the 2nd of July, 2009, car broke down after only 30 miles, with a clutch problem (this was new car with 966 miles on the clock only). After calling the local breakdown services, the car was towed back to National location at Heathrow where the check in agent proceed to charge my VISA card for the damage caused to the car. The agent was not interested in my story, showed no regards for customer services and said that American’s don’t know how to drive a stick.

Fact of the matter is that I have been driving a stick all my life and am a UK citizen who now resides in US, who had passed UK (stick only) driving test. Also, the agent was very adamant that I should pay for the car repairs and the 574 (english pounds) DLW (Damage Liability Waiver) and refused to look at the fact that car may been damaged or had issues prior to us renting the car, after all 30 miles were driven in a new car. After, further discussions with duty manager, the charge was take off and another rental car was given to us, matter closed, so it seemed.

Two days later, the charge of 574 english pounds appeared on my VISA statement, which I have asked VISA to dispute and have sent 3 emails to the National Car Rental customer services, but no reply.

Jose of Yorktown, VA May 24, 2009

I am writing this with the intent is to warn, for the most part, visitors to the Island of Puerto Rico but really anyone who drives through the highway tolls down there. I believe this is a public awareness matter: it is easy to fall in the trap as a driver profiting the Car rental companies down there.

Let me explain. I just returned from Puerto Rico on a short vacation trip and rented a car from the National Car rental at the Luis Munos Marin Airport. The local road authority, Autoridad de Carreteras y Transportacion (ACT), agency has instituted the AutoExpreso (AE) on their highways, I suppose with good intentions, but it turns out to become a trap for visitors, or folks who don't travel a lot through these major roads. It turns out that once you reach the attendant he/she does NOT take any kind of money to get you legally through the toll. You are forced to violate the toll [ unlike any of the major toll roads in the US]. This is a trap because if you don’t have the AutoExpresso KIT and by mistake you enter the lane, you are forced to run through the toll without paying, forcing you to buy the KIT or face the fine.

The fine is 100, you are handed a piece of paper with a phone number to call. You are told that the first violation is usually pardoned by the ACT agency, you have to prove indeed first violation. However, if you have a rental car you have to deal with the rental car company directly. The rental car company is ready for you, they will always charges a “processing fee” of 25 on every violation, no exceptions even on the first one. After talking to the rental car company [Ferdinan] he stated that since their rate of violations is from 150 to 250 cars a day they are forced to charge a “service fee”, and have someone dedicated to process these violations for them. Gee, I’d like to make that kind of money! This Rental car company is using the AutoExpreso policy to make money, nothing less than 450K-500K/ year or more. And this is only one company!

I don’t even want to speculate how much all the Rental Car companies in the Island combined are making off this policy. No wonder why they [ the rental companies] don’t offer the KIT, and don’t warn you about it either.

This is how it happened. On one of my passes through one of these very crowded tolls, traffic gravitated me to enter the AutoExpreso lane. I though, I'll pay the attendant and it will be fine. I approached the toll and had my 1.50 at hand in quarters to either drop-in or hand to the attendant. Nothing in any of the fine print that you can read from the distance warns you of the policy until you find yourself talking to the attendant, who lays out the bad news. At that point there is nothing you can do [ you can’t back-up, you can’t change lanes, the traffic behind you is pushing you forward ] but run through the toll and subjected to a 100 fine. I called the AE number on the piece of paper handed to me and explained what happened to the AE representative.

They offer two options (1) to pay the 100 fine, or buy the KIT for 20. I though about buying the KIT but I really can’t because it really pertains to the Car and not to me, and it is NOT transferrable to other cars. At that point you are really at the mercy of the rental car company. Hopefully you can understand my frustration, how easy is to fall on this trap, and who the likely victims are going to be.

Peter of Puerto Vallarta, OTHER March 31, 2009

Peter of Puerto Vallarta OTHER (03/31/09)
I am a U.S. citizen who rented the car on line from carrentals [online] after reading from them that National Car rental was renting an economy car in Phoenix, AZ for 199.95 per week. After I put in my credit card number they informed me of a 99 surcharge. By that time I was tired of looking and said okay. When I got to the airport they wanted to give me a 7 passenger suv. I said I reserved an economy car and then I reviewed the document I downloaded from carrental and saw that they changed the car rental from an economy car to a suv. I told National Car Rental, that there was a mistake and that I wanted an economy car. They refigured the weeks rental to 540 for an ecomony car. They explained that there was a high demand for economy cars and that they were therefore more expensive! I said no way!

Then they demanded that I take the collision damage insurance. They know that the credit card companies offer this as a coverage and as I reserved and was paying for the car with an American Credit Card, Chase Visa, there already was collision damage insurance. As I had a few hours of sleep the previous night, had been arguing with the employee, manager and supervisor for an hour and a half and my appointment in Phoenix was fast approaching, I just wanted to get out of there. I signed whatever they put in front of me and left with two other disgusted and angry National Car renters. This is plain abuse and deliberate overcharging by National Car Rental. ALL NATIONAL CAR RENTAL EMPLOYEES KNOW THAT IF YOU PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD THAT THE COLLISION DAMAGE INSURANCE IS COVERED BY THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES.

When I refused the coverage, they implied that I would not get the car. This is a complete rip off as is the surcharge they revealed to me AFTER they had my credit card number. I was just back at carrentals to reproduce the abuse and document it and saw that they completely changed their format on the net. I have found a lot of complaints about carrentals and National Car Rentals on the net.

I doubt that carrentals or National Car Rental are going to reply to me so I will be sending a complaint about both of them to AZ BBB, filing a complaint to AZ Attorney General Consumer Fraud Office, a complaint to Department of Transportation and to whatever government offices oversee car rentals. By the way I am a U.S. citizen and used a Chase Bank Visa Card. I imagine that these abuses are rarely challenged and the little carrentals and National Car Rental lose on these complaints are made up by the thousands who do not challenge them. I have contacted my credit card company to withhold payment and am contesting the charges. I am informed that this is a common abuse and Chase Credit Card will investigate and charge back to these agencies the rental. Of course the seven passenger suv used much more gas and was 5 times the car that one person needs. Needless to say, I will not be using carrentals or National Car Rental ever again.

I spent an hour and a half arguing with them. They intimidated me into signing up for something that they knew was covered by the credit card, Collision Damage Insurance. The suv used much more gasoline than the economy car I wanted. It was a typical bait and switch. I asked for an economy car, carrental.com showed me a great price and after I entered my credit card, revealed the ridiculous surcharges. The airport blackmailed me into taking the suv by telling me that the economy car was twice as expensive. In my opinion they are taught to exact any extra they can from unwary customers in any way, shape or form including withholding a car, lying and altering charges to get one to agree to whatever they want.

Sumita of West St. Paul, MN March 31, 2009

Sumita of West St. Paul MN (03/31/09)
Harrowing Experience at National Car Rental March 30, 2009 Dear Sir, I wanted to relate my incredibly poor experience, during my vacation, with National Car Rental from the Tampa International Airport. The first car I was given, unknown to us, was checked out without an engine oil cap. This resulted in a massive oil spill under the hood which, with the very hot engine, could have caught fire placing me and the other passengers in grave danger.

Upon calling for assistance this car was eventually (after 4 hours) replaced by another vehicle that night. Unfortunately the situation did not end there. Upon driving for a mere 10 miles next day, we discovered that one of the tires was leaking air. We pumped air in from a gas station only to find that the tire was punctured and became completely flat.

We called road-side assistance again and was given a series of run-arounds for another 4 hours. We made tens of phone calls but no one seemed to know anything and blamed everyone else. Finally a person showed up to put on the spare tire and told us to drive back to the airport (we were 35 miles away) and get yet another car. The staff at the rental location was not sympathetic either and after much arguing gave us a small discount as a consolation to make up for the two days of lost vacation. This is the nature of customer service from National Car Rental these days! I do have the glorified membership of National Emerald Club no less!

Kathleen of Mesa, AZ January 7, 2009

Kathleen of Mesa AZ (01/07/09)
I had rented a car and paid for un upgrade, but when I arrived there were no upgrades, I offered to pay for an additional upgrade but the kid could not figure out the credit card machine, the car we ended up with had bald tires and totally unsafe for Montana highways in the dead of winter so we ended up having to go have tires put on, when leaving there we were pulled over to find out the license was expired. No sorry or anything when we returned the car.

We wasted a whole day having to get new tires put on.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |