Very deceptive process / information

RentalCars.com - www.rentalcars.com
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Guest's review of RentalCars.com - www.rentalcars.com

“Very deceptive process / information ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 07/09/2017

Booked a sub compact rental car for one day, with no extras, in Avignon, France through Priceline, and they used Rentalcars.com (without telling me this until I committed to the reservation and paid $60). Both Priceline and Rentalcars.com claimed $60 was the full price. It not, not even close. Full price was $113. Rentalcars.com then continued the deception by hiding the total costs of renting the car in the first set of information I was sent via email. It appeared that $60 was the true cost. But then in the printout I was told to bring to the rental car center I noticed all these other costs mentioned in the fine details/notes section of the two page printout. There was a $35 "special pickup location" fee, they mentioned that local taxes and other fees might apply, etc. Even these costs were far from clear - there were lots of vague references like "you may be assessed a $50 admin fee at the discretion of the pickup location office". As far as I could tell there was a chance I'd be charged as much as another $100 in additional fees mostly left to the whim of the pickup location office. It also said I'd have a $800 security deposit put on my card at pickup time. None of this was explained or mentioned at all in any way when I was asked to pay $60 on Priceline for the reservation. I decided to risk it and see what happened at pick up time. Hertz handled the reservation, which was under Dollar, and the car + contract I got was all Thrifty brand?! The Hertz guy smiled and said, "No no. $60 is everything. You paid everything. Enjoy." Then he mumbled, literally as I walked out the door, "...well you may have some taxes to pay." I thought, okay fine, I'm used to European VAT being added. He said nothing about the $35 special location pick up charge (I was picking at the major TGV train station in Avignon where 10+ rental car companies have offices). But sure enough I was charged another $53 on top of the $60 I paid afterward. Beware.

  • 8/2017

    Date of hire (month/year)

  • France

    Country & City of hire

  • Excellent

    Condition of vehicle

  • Good

    Choice of vehicles

  • Customer Service

  • Value For Money

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