Orbitz  -  Orbitz car rental through sixt

I guess technically Orbitz and Sixt (a little confused who's keeping my money - Orbitz says it's Sixt but Sixt says they don't get paid unless they rent a car - which they did not).

My complaint is the hard nosed business approach. I was recommended to go through Orbitz by my son, instead of going through Spirit Air as I intended. I rented a car using my debit card. When flying to FL with my 3 kids, I was dismayed to find out I'd let my driver's license expire. Fortunately, airport security vetted me some and let me through. I got to the (empty) Sixt counter and tried to find other ways to verify identity. My 19 y.o. was too young to rent. I really needed a car, but because of my error, I could not rent. I understand that part. I was not at all expecting them to keep the full amount of my rental seeing that I had made an unfortunate error and didn't casually just blow off my rental or cancel.

I have asked and asked and Orbitz keeps insisting Sixt won't give the money back. I am very turned off by this business approach. They could have charged a fee. They clearly didn't lose out on a rental because of me - they were cheerfully offering us a free upgrade when I hadn't even asked for one until they noticed my DL situation.

Why can't these businesses factor in some humanity. It's called "customer relations" and "customer service." I would happily rent again if they'd showed some more clemency or allowed me to use the money for a future rental or just charged me maybe a $50 fee or something. But to charge me the full amount. Plus my 3 kids and I had to uber to our destination for another $82.

Orbitz needs to learn about true customer relations and consider the human factor in their business model. As it is, I will NEVER go near Orbitz again.