Travelocity
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Our Aruba Car Rental Dilemma
Our Aruba Car Rental Dilemma I simply LOVE Expedia and ALL of their associated companies, we have utilized them for a number of years for airline tickets, car rentals, vacation adventures and more. We have NEVER had a problem until this past January, 2019 when we traveled to Aruba and please know that Expedia/Travelocity was NOT our problem. Our problem was with PAYLESS CAR RENTALS. I booked our car rental online for our Aruba trip on 11/10/2018 for; 2 weeks; 1/12/2019 to 1/26/2019. I purchased collision insurance for the vehicle through Travelocity for $165.00, having to pay upfront. I was NOT ABLE to pay for the Payless car rental up front which I ALWAYS do in advance with other companies that I've rented from as it "stated" on my Travelocity invoice that I had to pay upon pick-up, this didn’t make me happy at all but what do you do in such a case? I usually rent through Priceline via their “bidding” feature but they did away with that program sometime in perhaps late 2017 or in 2018. Our complete bill for the car rental through Travelocity for a 2 week rental in Aruba along with insurance came out to a grand total of $643.80, leaving the $478.80 to pay to Payless upon pick-up of the Compact car rental. Upon arrival to Aruba and getting through customs etc. we were FINALLY able go and retrieve our car rental. The Aruba airport has little “shacks” behind the airport where one goes to do the paperwork, pay them if not paid in advance and then pick-up the rental vehicle. Payless did not have a pick-up shack so we stopped at Dollar car rental’s outside rental shack. Upon arriving an older gent/customer was on the phone arguing with someone on the phone, the jest of the conversation was that the man was NOT happy because whoever he was talking to on the phone did not have a rental for him and he had an official confirmed reservation. The Dollar car rental lady behind the desk was busy @ the time so I waited a bit, when finished she asked if she could assist me, I asked her where the Payless car rental shack was, she didn’t even respond, she just picked up a phone, dialed a number and handed the phone to me. I asked the person, a female on the other end of the phone who I speaking to. She stated Payless car rental, I told her who I was and informed her that I had a reservation with her company to rent a Compact car from them and she informed me that they didn’t have any vehicles to rent. I told her I had a reservation AND a confirmation number AND told her that I’d paid in advance for the insurance. She informed me that yes I did have a confirmed reservation along with a confirmation number and that she did notice that I’d paid the insurance monies owed but “they” gave my car to someone else. She also stated that they were able to give our car away because I’d used a 3rd party company to rent my car through, I’m like; WHAT? She explained that IF I would have rented DIRECTLY through them, Payless, and paid for my car @ the time of rental I’d have a car but because I’d used a 3rd party company such as Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, etc. they could rent my car to someone else if the purchasing customer PHYSICALLY came to the counter to purchase a rental. *Funny thing, there's NOTHING noted on MY paperwork that reads that they can do this!!! Perhaps a potential lawsuit is in MY favor?* Needless to say, I was not very nice to this lady on the phone which totally is NOT my nature but I was TICKED OFF TO THE MAX. I figured out later that the older gent on the phone who was there before me must have lost his rental as well thus his anger towards the person on the phone, perhaps it was the same lady that I’d spoken to. I asked her if she had ANYTHING for rent FOUR times and she said, “NOPE NOTHING” all FOUR times. I hung up on her, which was VERY rude of me and I then asked the Dollar rental counter lady if she had anything that we could rent and she replied no. So hubby and I went down the line to each booth and we were rejected by THREE OTHER COMPANIES making it a total of FOUR company rejections. WHAT A GREAT WAY TO START OUR VACATION IN PARADISE. I stayed outside and guarded our belongings while my husband went into the National car rental shack, WOO HOO they have a car, I was relieved. When he got out and handed me the paperwork I almost had a coronary while looking at the paperwork. National’s rental for a compact car, 2 week rental in Aruba was $1268.16 with insurance, I was flabbergasted. YES, I realize that it's Aruba AND an Airport rental but so was my Expedia/Travelocity/Payless rental. My husband tried to calm me down by telling me that it’d be $300.00 less when we return the car as we had to pay a deposit. I told him I understood that but this rental is costing us AND will cost us upon return of the vehicle, $968.16. We’d actually ONLY put 80 miles exactly on this 2 week car rental because we walked many places, rode the bus and traveled elsewhere via other transportation modes while we were in Aruba. This NATIONAL car rental dollar amount was $324.36 MORE THAN our original Expedia/Travelocity/Payless rental agreement. GASP!! My mind is like a calculator and I was quickly figuring out how many hrs. I would have to work to pay for this National Car Rental. GHEEZ; we certainly got stiffed for being hard up, what a bunch of fecal debris. SO; In short I recommend if you’re going to rent a car in Aruba or perhaps anyplace else DON’T use a THIRD PARTY Company AND FOR SURE do NOT USE PAYLESS CAR RENTAL because they’ll jack your car rental right out from underneath you and you’ll end up carless and they will careless about it. BAD, BAD, BAD, CUSTOMER RELATIONS ON YOUR PART PAYLESS CAR RENTALS!! By the way, this was NOT our first trip to Aruba and we’ve NEVER had a problem with a car rental company traveling ANYWHERE before, using a 3rd party rental. Not in the USA or traveling to another country. *Scratching my head.* On a good note, I emailed Travelocity IE our dilemma and within 3 days they’d finished their investigation regarding our issue and they credited our charge card for the $165.00 for the collision insurance. THANKS SOOO MUCH TRAVELOCITY, YOU ROCK! JR Brumfield, State of WI, USA