Payless Car Rental
reviews and complaints

Payless Corporate Customer Service [protected]
P.O. Box 699000
Tulsa, OK [protected]

I am writing this letter because I am very upset with the charges I received from E-Toll for a recent car rental at the San Jose airport, California.
On August 30, 2018 I picked up a rental car that I had booked on-line on August 14. At the time of the reservation there was no information regarding E-Toll or when I went to the car rental counter at the airport. I proceeded to the area to pick up the car and the attendant checked my paper work and said your car is over there check it out and proceed to the exit.
After checking over the car we proceeded to the exit and noticed the transponder on the passenger's side of the windshield. At the exit we asked the attendant what it was for and he said it was to pay for any tolls you may encounter and that it would be added to your rental charge. I specifically asked him if there was any type of fee to use it and he said no it just charges you for the toll. Again there was no written information given and no information about a web site to go to check out the E-Toll policy. Had I known ahead of time there would be a charge for using the transponder I would have not used it. I feel that your company gave me false information.
Your charge of $2.95 a day for the total number of days you have rented the car if you use it is totally outrageous. I can understand a service fee for using the transponder if you use it to pay a toll but you are just gouging us with your fee and the consumer should be advised that they will be charged a fee to use it.
I will avoid using your company to rent a car in the future and will strongly advise others not to use Payless due to your price gouging. I feel you should refund the fee for using the transponder due to failing to provide information at the time of the on line rental and at the airport rental counter. There also should have been information on the transponder itself or paper work about it in the car for the consumer to have that option to use or not.

Dissatisfied,
David Canton
[protected]@q.com
[protected]

Here is my conversation

Mon, Oct 13 2014 10:21am
Hello,

I have a bill for $366 when I requested a rental for $156. When I was at the booth, I was getting the car I ordered, and the attendant mentioned there was a special for a small SUV for only $10. Since I at times get rates like this from other car companies on weekends, I said great. I didn't realize it was in addition, which I didn't need or want. I had told the attendant I didn't know the area also, and would the fuel option make sense going to Newport. That was a waste of money. The car then had a flat tire, and I asked what my options were. It was either miss my flight or change the tire, which I did. Now I get the bill for $366 which is more than twice what I signed up for. Items like this make me. Please contact me ASAP!
Tue, Oct 21 2014 11:11am - RAFAEL GUERRERO
Customer called again in order to find an answer to this situation.
Tue, Oct 21 2014 11:47am - Jillian Benson
Good Afternoon,

After reviewing your rental agreement I do see that you prepaid half tank of gas and also signed for the 10/day upgrade fee. You got a great rate for that vehicle that typically goes for a lot more per day. Everything was listed and signed for on your rental agreement. Please review your paperwork you got with the vehicle at the time of rental. Thank you
Wed, Nov 5 2014 8:11am
The details as told to me is what I thought I was signing. I'm totally dissatisfied with how this was handled in which I feel I was misled. What I was told and what I signed were two different things.
Wed, Nov 19 2014 4:56am - Jillian Benson
Contract reviewed again. Thank You
Tue, Sep 4 2018 4:37am
I just saw this response from this lady and I forgot about it. I am so glad I needed my receipt. I was scammed in PVD. I better check my receipt for my trip in 2018. I couldn't remember why I was skeptical about using Payless. Now I remember.
Wed, Sep 5 2018 5:02am - Terrence -
This ticket is now being closed. If reopened, we will be forced to ban your email account from our system.

On 08/18/18 at 10:13am I picked up a car at the El Paso Int. Airport with a reservation made through Expedia. It was to be returned on 08/20/18. My estimated total charges were for $55.00. Instead of charging my card for $55.00 they charged my card $202.03. After calling and complaining they opened a ticket for the overcharge. I was contacted by email and explained it was a fuel charge. My care reservation was for unlimited mileage and I had not even returned the car yet for them to have charged me a re-fuel charge. I explained to them I had retuned my car on full and left my receipt in the car for their review. They still asked that I submit a bank statement. After I submitted my bank statement they replied to me that I would be refunded. This charge still makes no sense to me and I should not have gone through this ordeal. How many other customers do they overcharge like this? I returned this vehicle early on 08/19/18 in the evening with the tank full and a copy of the receipt in the middle console yet they had already charged my card the $202.03 and would later say it was for a "re-fueling charge". My ticket number for my complaint with Payless Car Rental is 781697.

July 2018, we were picking up the car at the san diego airport location.
we live in california and we're driving to las vegas, nevada.
after signing all the paperwork giving our credit card as payment in full
including the deposit of 500.00 for a compact car. I know this is very high
but we didn't complain, it's a refundable deposit. then before the rep handed
us the key he said there is a miles limitation on where we can go in las vegas.
we have done so many car rentals around the U.S. and this is the first that
i've heard that we are limited on where we can go around las vegas. we asked
the rep about driving to henderson which is about 17(give or take) from las
vegas, the rep said we would be charged extra per mile if we drive outside of
las vegas. then here comes the sales pitch. he said he can offer us a deal, we
can pay for a package that will allow us to drive the car outside of the las
vegas area. we know right away he is trying to scam us for more money.
and we cancelled our rental and said no thanks. went to the other rental
car company next to them got a car, and we can drive the car from nevada to
arizona to utah with no restrictions or added fees.

Im not sure where to start, so I landed at Raleigh Durham International airport on Sept 1st. at approximately 5:30 pm, i had already gone on line and reserved a car for 3 days. Obviously I made my way to payless and drove out with my 2018 Chevrolet Equinox and my wife and Luggage, we came out to celebrate our 3rd grandchild a little girl who was born 2 days earlier.
After about 20 miles into a 23 mile trip the SUV died. Now, I realize that as far as breaking down your company has little to no control over. I am a Master Technician and I have worked in this field for over 30 years after a stint in the military as a crew chief on C-141 aircraft. But I was expecting a little help other than just a tow truck and have a nice day. Your roadside assistance said that the tow truck would take me back to the airport where they could swap out the car for another but after she spoke with the office at RDU she informed me that they had no more cars and couldn't help me. I asked what do i do now? Im in the middle of North Carolina with my wife, luggage on a dark busy highway and it's very possible that I may be dead had it not been for a guy driving by that saw us and brought out flares to keep people from hitting us. A police officer stopped also and turned on his lights for safety. So here it is, Sunday the 2nd. My son in law got us off of the road last night, i have tried to contact payless office in Raleigh and had absolutely no success, everyone i talk to is clueless and can't seem to help me although you still have my CC number and signature so i guess that it's time to shut down payment through my credit card company and contact a different rental company. I now understand why payless gets a terrible rating on every sight that I've visited. I wish I had done a little more research on the company before I made this transaction.
Steven Gepner
[protected]

06477310uso Rented a white VW on 12/12/17 to 12/14/17 return time 20:30 was 30 minutes late you let it out of the parking lot on purpose because you wanted more money your company does it all the time. Orlando airport payless you suck you overcharged 2, 610.66 on a stolen rental from your airport parking lot called your company for days no response

I rented a car from the Richmond airport at $37.98 per day. I needed it for 2 days. I called today 8/28/18 to extend 1 day and you charged me an extra $100 for the one day. This is price gouging and its not fair to a consumer to subjected to such robbery. You have us customers at the lowest point when we need to extend in the first place because we cannot do anything else. My car was in the shop and won't be completed until tomorrow this is why i needed and extra day. But charging me an extra $100 shows you can careless about your customer and your repeat customer. Please if there is something anyone can do on this price i look forward to speaking with you asap [protected]. Otherwise my next rental business will be with another company.
Thank you for your ear...

Wayne whittle/agreement# [protected].

1- received the car with a completely empty tank from SAW airport Istanbul
2- I dropped the car at Attaturk airport and the company charged me 150 Turkish Lira which they have communicated but what was unacceptable is charging me for the the parking at the drop off location of additional 20 TL. In addition, the driver basically mandated a tip and that is not professional at all. He deducted an additional 10 TL and when I skied why he stated it's my tip. I called the office and the man at the reception told me it is a normal parking charge and it is 30 TL. There was a lady that answered earlier and she was the one that told me to drop off the car at the parking lot.

In conclusion, its a matter of how to handle customers and how to be professional. The amounts are not the issue it is the attitude and the poor handling of customers. I was completely satisfied with the car but the above matters honostly just made the experience way below average especially that I am paying a premium to deal with an international company to avoid such experience.

On 8/7/18Tuesday thru 8/12/18-Sunday, I rented a truck through Payless Car Rental from Ontario Airport in Ontario, CA.

I unfortunately found out that Payless opens its front desk area at 7am on weekends.
My flight departed at 7:05 am on 8/12/18, which is the reason why I turned in my truck rental one day early-on 8/11/18 at approximately 7:15am. (To avoid any delay)
Had I known this fact, I would have rented until 8/11/18-Saturday.

My request is to be credited, one full day to my credit card on file.
Additionally, Payless needs to have Its customer service intake the information, stop giving out emails that do not take the info submitted, and stop telling customers that there's nothing we can do because rental Agreement can't be changed!
Last but not least, get the Ontario, CA office a functional number we can call instead of a disconnected one.

Respectfully submitted,
Mike [protected]@icloud.com

I had reserved a standard size SUV for the dates of 8/9-8/14. I have rented many cars in the past, from multiple different agencies. I believe this is my first rental with Payless. When the topic of the gas tank came up, I told her that I would like the option of returning the car empty and paying for Payless to fill it up. I remember this distinctly, as this is the way I always set up my rentals, and I also had a conversation about the current cost per gallon (she told me the cost would be something around $2.87 per gallon). She circled four sections of the contract to initial, and described briefly what each was.

When I came to return the car (on empty), I was really surprised to see the price (it was about $150 more than I was expecting) and as I looked at the receipt, I noticed that I had been charged $9.99 per gallon for gas. I spoke to the person checking me in and he said I would have to go inside to talk to someone.

When I got to the front of the line, the gentleman working was EXTREMELY rude to me; yelling at me that I "should have read the contract". This is true, that this "mistake" would not have happened had I read the fine print (I am not sure what to believe, as it does seem this may have been done intentionally), however, I had a fairly significant conversation with the saleswoman about returning the car empty and paying the pre-pay amount, and incorrectly assumed she did everything correctly.

It wasn't until I stopped him and said, "excuse me, you will not treat me like this" that he realized that he needed to stop yelling at me, the customer, and gave me the option of taking the car back and going on my own to fill the tank. This is what I ended up doing.

I feel it is important you know about both of these incidences. I am just one customer, but I am not sure I would use your services again, given the way I was treated on both ends of the rental. I am attaching a copy of my final receipt so that you can identify the transactions.

I have a ticket number . Called and had tix resubmitted. Still no reply would like to hear back. Have gone through all appropriate avenues still no response. Had a car rental for 262.00 Ford Explorer. Was given a mini van, told they did not have an explorer (we saw one on the lot) was given mini van. And charged for the upgrade also they added roadside assistance which we had to have refunded. Ended up paying 488.00 for rental. Complete fraud by bait and switch.

I reserved a full size vehicle through Southwest for their rewards program, get to the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport and was assisted by a crook named Haider. This joker gave me my paperwork, told me I was getting a Mitsubishi Galant and then says oh, are you a government employee, in the armed services, or are you a teacher? I said well I work at a college and he tells me oh I can give you a bigger discount and save you over 70%. I look at my agreement and it's the same price as what I reserved. Got to get my car and it's a Ford Edge. Whatever, I just figured he changed the vehicle from the Galant. I go to return the car and there is an additional $100 charge! This crook upgraded my vehicle without any request or permission from me! I will get my money back or I will be flying back to Phoenix and stand in their front area telling everyone that passes to not rent from these CROOKS!

Not only was it the worst service ever. They lied about how much I was charged, refused to fix their mistake and when you out a complaint in they do nothing about it and refuse to let you go up to cooperate. They give you the same 800 number which does nothing. This is the worst company. The company is a scam.. Then I was called a liar by the guy who called me back from the location.

7/1/18 8:30pm
a couple hrs ago, rent a car at Orlando airport with embarrassing experience. I was sicked of a long line of budget rental car, switched to Payless and encountered an Payless employee. I tried to get a car rental in a rush manner because I was tired of a long line of budget.
During his CDW sales efforts, I declined options that he tried to explain. A guy said I was rude and threatened me to cancel my reservation and send back to budget line twice. I had to listen to his explanation. I was tired and wanted to get a car asap and left the scene.
After that, I think this is BS experience. This employ disgraced your company and forced me not to return to you forever. unlike other rental car desk, it seems that it is training issue how to handle customer in a friendly manner. I never got threatened by an employee at a rental car desk. Why Payless keeps unhappy employee and have him show negative impact to customer. I rent a car Orlando about 20 times so far, this is an awful experience.. I strongly suggest to shut down business at Orlando

I was renting a car through Expedia. Get to the Phoenix airport and the agent states that there was a recent cancellation on a mid size car. He stated this car was only 15.00 per day to rent. I agreed and found out they charged 15.00 on top of the small car rate. At no time did I see a formal end quote and was told this was a tremendous dea. This was a bait and switch.

Booked vehicle through Booking.com. Was assigned Payless as it was the cheapest. When itinerary email arrived, I noticed they had me returning car exactly 4 days later. I needed 9 more hours. Tried to adjust online but rate doubled. When I called, their customer service was beyond rude! The guy that answered spoke incredibly fast, and every word was dripping with disdain. When I asked to add an extra 9 hours to my four day itinerary (which was $172.23), he gives me a quote for $750. Shocked I repeat that I only want to add an extra 9 hours, not nine days. He then starts to spit our insults. He tells me that I waited too long to adjust. When I explain that I had called immediately after booking the rental he tells me that they don't have a crystal ball. WTH? I cancelled the car and went to Costco Travel.

Payless is a nightmare of a company. This was my first time renting a car as well unfortunatly. I reserved online months in advance and upon picking up the car, the woman gave me a new receipt to sign with all of the insurance and optionals added. This amounted to 1209.00 for my 536.00 vehicle. I let her know my credit card would handle the insurance and declined all options and signed my new correct receipt for the amount of 536.00. The next day, my first real day of vacation, saw a charge for 1209.00. It took 3 calls to get someone semi nice to give me the answers I needed. They told me I had to go back to the rental place to do anything. The manager said there was nothing they could do because a refund would take 5-10 days. 5-10 days was half of my vacation with 700 of my vacation money on hold. Which held true. Didn't receive the money until the 6th day. IMMEDIATELY was charged the incorrect amount AGAIN. Money went on hold AGAIN. What the hell. I am now home from my vacation and dont have any of my security money until I work again because they charged me the correct amount of 536.00 finally BUT BEFORE they even put in the other refund in. So I now have two charges for them on my card and no available balance on my card for the couple days of "vacation" left. Called today and again got the usual, Im sorry, nothing we can do. Thanks Payless for a fantastic vacation! I will never rent from you again and noone else deserves it either.

Tried to go in the Payless system to get my money back complaint # 509853. They say they have no record of the transaction so I now disputed the transaction with my credit card company. Posted on April 26 th from Payless location ADB Hanover Md. They were able to charge $24.00 to my card from the same location which is still pending for Tolls from a trip in March yet they claim they can't find the transaction on April 26 th They are not a good company to deal with, The transaction was completed on the southwest airlines web site Payless claimed that southwest may have charged my so I went all the way to their home office South west did not charge me anything did verify that I cancelled a reservation in April with them which I used the money for another flight Payless is trying to steal my Money

First time traveling to Denver, we rented a car from Payless via Expedia and purchased the $40 insurance. We wanted the cheapest rental and had book the compact car for $109 for our 4 day trip. The lady at the Payless counter was friendly at first but then started to force more insurance on us. Telling me that Expedia insurance coverage is useless (even though I have never had any issues from other car rental businesses). Then she started telling me I need a better car and that I should upgrade to an SUV. This went on for almost 10 minutes. I pulled out my rental agreement I had printed from online and said: just give me what I reserved for $109. Somehow the forceful upgrading issue started again and I ended up taking a Kia Sorrento for $160. I immediately called the Payless customer support

I booked a flight to Phoenix and also reserved a car with Payless at the same time. I booked a cheap car sedan. The total cost was $128.00 included tax, for three day rental. I opted to purchase insurance with a third party (didn't know it was third party until later). I had to pay for that in advance. It was $34.00. At the time of booking I was given a number to reference the reservation. All of this in advance. All of this on my IPhone.
When I arrived at the Payless Rental there was an extremely long line. It took 11/2 hours just to get to the desk. This was the first time I had ever rented a car and didn't really know how it all worked. Someone named David helped me and didn't say more than 10 words the whole time. I showed him my reservation on my phone twice.
I assumed it all came up in his computer. He told me that the car I reserved wasn't there, they didn't have it. So he said he would put me in a different car, , He said it was a better car but I wouldn't be charged extra. He finally set the paper in front of me and said for me to initial, initial and sign. I know I should have looked it over but he did not offer to give me any pricing he didn't go over it with me at all. I assumed he was giving me the price I had on the reservation I had made. I did not look at any of the paperwork until the evening before I was to return the car. I was floored to see that he had charged me for insurance $166 and change plus extra per day (more than twice as much than the price I reserved for)for the car. The charge for three days went from $128 and change to $491 and change. I didn't ask for an upgrade and I certainly didn't ask for insurance.
I could not reach anyone that night and when I returned the car I had to wait for someone to open at the Payless desk. The guy looked it over and gave me a woman's name (Laura) and her extension. I called and left many messages and was never called back. I finally did reach someone from a call center who turned in a "ticket" to voice my complaint. After much back and forth through text I was offered some very vague small return on the charge. Because it was so vague I did not feel comfortable discussing it with them any longer so I then spoke with my credit card company and they are disputing it for me. I do not have any results from them as of yet. Something needs to be done to put a stop to what is an obvious scam on Payless Car Rental part. They need to stop getting away with taking money from unsuspecting people. I am a 66 year old woman and it was difficult enough to save the money for this long awaited trip without ending up getting scammed out of over $300.00 for a three day car rental and for a vehicle I would never ask for at any price. All I want is my money back for the extras I was charged. What a horrible experience.