National Car-rentals
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Never again.
Never again. Everything was fine until they had to block the deposit on the visa. The machine didn't accept the card however it was visa and we've also paid something in hong Kong with that same card. She said we had to have permission from our bank to use the card, but that visa is accepted worldwide and haven't had any problems before at any car rental company. I also tried with maestro and that didn't work either, even though the bank activated that card to work worldwide so there was clearly something wrong with their payment system. The lady at the counter said she couldn't help us and couldn't give us the car. After some discussion we decided to call a cab for 60 dollars and go to our first host. She couldn't believe our story either. We went to the supermarket to test the card and of course it worked. Our host gave us a ride back to the airport and in the meanwhile someone else was at the counter. He was checking our documents, saw us coming and told us he was sorry for the trouble before, and he believed our card worked and that the paiment system was the cause. When returning the car the man at the counter asked our feedback on the service and I told him it was "not good". A lady jumped in and asked about our experience so I told her the story. She wasn't really understanding and told us they indeed can't give a car when the visa is not working. However she also said they have often problems with the paiment system. She told us we had to have permission from our bank for the visa card so National would be sure they would get their money. But we already paid Rentalcars so I don't think we are responsible for what happens between national and rentalcars. We already paid for the car so why would we have to prove we've had enough money... She said that if we had booked directly via National we wouldn't have had this issue. However I don't see how this has anything to do with that since the key problem was that the paiment system didn't work properly. I asked to at least give our money back from the cab, but they wouldn't. Not understanding at all, not flexible and not admitting their mistakes.