written by PhilLai on 28/11/2019
"The most HORRIBLE car rental experience I've ever had !"
First thing first, Economy car rental is merely a distribution agent and it offered me the car provider namely "Routes"(or acting for both??) in my trip to Vancouver.
I arrived the shop at around 7pm and was given a Kia Forte instead of my choice Nissan Altima (is it similar for the substitution? I really doubt it) in a dusty and dirty condition inside out. I requested to have it cleaned but the staff told me it was cleaned ridiculously. I had to wipe the car with my finger to show him. I insisted on washing it and finally they just water spayed it for a few minutes without having dried it for my inspection of the body and I had to dry it myself to inspect the body.......I didn't have the strength to argue but finally accepted and drove away becoz it was getting dark and I was exhausted from a 12-hours flight.
3 days later, I woke up at 8 am in the morning and found out the car was hit-and-run with a dent on the left rear door panel where it was parked at the back of a secluded house with a long private driveway with no public access surprisingly. Called police but they wouldn’t come to investigate becoz there was no suspect !
Long story short, I brought the car back and they told me I would be responsible for a Canadian $2000 deductible becoz that was the insurance package I picked. I went to report ICBC (the only provincial govt insurance entity in B.C.) and I was told the maximum deductible for a hit-and-run was $750 and a garage gave me an estimate of about Canadian$700 to repair. However, I found out that Routes didn't even report to ICBC. I kept asking Economy Car Rental and Routes to provide me the car repair estimate but I was kept beating the bushes from the date of the incident on 4th Nov and I still haven't seen any paper as of today.....
The hit-and-run in fact was a very suspicious incident becoz of the place where I parked. Someone had to drive to the back of the house to make that happen. I didn't know if the car was equipped with GPS or followed by anyone to locate my location. I never had any proof of what was in my head but I would urge you guys to be 100%+ careful.
I thought I could save a few bucks as everybody wanted but I actually lost a bundle ! My total rental charge was about Canadian $406 but now it became Canadian $2882 ( 7 times+ more !).
My advice is that we all should go for reputable companies with proven satisfactory records.
I will never ever use these 2 companies in the future, period !
p.s. I am not sure if my review will be posted but I will keep posting on other review websites until it is fully resolved.