Hidden charges misselling

I had been warned they were a rip off merchant, and this was right. Prior to booking this rental, I had conducted price comparisons through a number of sources, including my usual sources of rentals – Hertz. I booked with Pay Less as the costs were considerably cheaper. On arrival at Phoenix, I was informed by the agent that I would have to pay for mandatory liability insurance, as this is not included in the price quoted.Pay Less was fully aware that I was a foreign renter, and thus would have no transferable coverage, so liability insurance should have been quoted when I booked the rental, if it was not included in the rental fee. Had this been the case, I would not booked through Pay Less, but would have gone with Hertz – their price included insurance, and was comparable or less than the price I ended up paying with Pay Less. Plus, I would have received my airline reward points, and Gold Card service, which I do not get from Pay Less. As I pointed out to the agent, it is a legal requirement for the owner of a vehicle in the US or Canada to provide liability insurance. Their agent advised me that I was required to purchase liability coverage as an extra cost or I would not be permitted to rent the vehicle. Their website verbiage, specifically the term ‘Supplemental Liability Insurance’ implies that the charges I paid were for additional coverage, and that this was on top of coverage that was already provided, and which I did not have to pay for. If this is indeed the case, then I was misled by their agent into purchasing cover which I did not need, or at minimum was not a prerequisite for me to rent the vehicle. Also, I note that on the agreement it states that a brochure on this coverage is provided with the agreement. I can categorically state that no brochure was provided to me at the time of rental. In addition to this potentially deceitful approach to pricing, the vehicle we were provided with was filthy, and very high mileage – circa 30,000 miles. Not what I would expect from a quality rental provider. This experience with Pay Less has been very disappointing, to put it mildly. This was my first, and last, time as a customer.