RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I rented from Payless Rental Car in San Diego via Expedia. While I did not have a problem with catching the shuttle at the airport, once on the shuttle I was asked if I had called the car rental location to tell them I had arrived. As I was not aware I need to do this, I said no. Not sure why I was asked, since it made no difference at the rental office.

The agent at the Rental office was not overly friendly but the car (a PT Cruiser) was ready for me fairly quickly. While waiting for the paperwork to be completed I overheard another agent talking on the phone to someone, telling them that Payless did not have extra keys to the car they had rented and if they could not locate the keys they would have to pay for a locksmith to make the keys. I should have known from the agents tone of voice that you probably do not want to call with trouble once you rent from this outfit....

I drove off in the PT Cruiser and gradually noticed that the steering wheel was vibrating badly, and by the time I got to the hotel it seemed worse. Upon closer inspection, there was a LARGE dent on the inside front right rim of the tire, and a bubble on the tire as well. Would never have noticed it on the initial inspection before I rented the car.

I called the rental office the next morning as it was late when I got into the hotel that night and was told I could bring it back if I wanted but there was no one to come to my location to assist. Feeling that it was not a safe car, I did so. The agent was nice enough but wanted to swap a different tire onto the car. I said ...um...NO. I wanted a different car...this one was NOT safe in my opinion. After some hemming and hawing they did get me a different car (anotther PT Cruiser) and offered 10% off my rental. Seemed a good deal so I said OK and drove away.

The next morning, I got up to drive to a day at Sea World...but the car would not start....the battery was completely dead it seemed and since I am obsessive about these things I knew all lights had been turned off the day before. I called the rental office again, only to be told I would need to find someone to fix the vehicle or wait 4-6 hours until there might be someone to assist. Since I had AAA, I called and had them come out and jump the vehicle off. I drove straight back to the Rental office. Another vehicle, 20% off my rental and I also got to watch someone else complain about their car being a death trap, and having clutch and transmission issues. The agent did offer to adjust their rental but insisted that the car was an 1/8 lower in gas than when the person had rented if and offered to call it even...hmmm...

The third car was ok the rest of my trip, and I was able to get dropped at the airport by their shuttle in a timely manner...

So my overall impression...don't rent from this company. A few of the people I dealt with were nice enough, including the shuttle driver, but the cars are mostly JUNK and it is NOT worth the hassle.

Payless Car Rental
734 San Bruno Ave
San Francisco, CA
94107
Phone: (650) 737-6134

The worst rental car experience I have had. The most expensive rental car I have ever had. And the they add 40% on top of the quoted price for extra "Fees". Including one for $15 to get me to and from the off airport site rental car company. And they don't even take you and pick you up from the terminal. You have to take the tram all the way to the end and then cram into a mini van, thats right a mini van and get to the location that is actually in San Bruno. An then a $*( rental fee turns into $129 bill. Never again.

I rented a car from Payless Car Rental Las Vegas in March 2008. I returned the car undamaged but a month later was sent a damage claim for $770.00. No one with in Payless could describe the damages and the paint color didn't match my rental. I escalated my dispute to Las Vegas Payless Manager Robert Dau who was too incompetent to even investigate the issue despite the obvious discrepencies. I was finally able to completely prove that the damaged car wasn't even the same make and model as my rental. I escalated my dispute to VP Kathy Johnson who immediately dismissed the claim once she reviewed the evidence. However she issued no apology or explanation despite the fact that the evidence clearly shows that this was an intentionally falsified claim between someone within Payless and the auto body repair shop. Payless Car Rental Las Vegas has far more complaints before the Better Business Bureau than its competitors. I welcome replies from anyone with similar trouble from Payless Las Vegas

Payless treated my wife and I with utter disdain in Montreal. They drove us to an off-site local, then refused to abide by the agreement, sticking us in a large car costing three times more than promised. They said I was late, but couldn't be helped because the airline put us through a delayed schedule. Payless is the WORST car rental operation with whom I done business. I will NEVER rent one of their vehicles, no matter what the purported savings.

I rented a 4x4 vehicle from Payless in San Jose, Costa Rica. I spent the extra cash on full insurance coverage for my 5 day trip. Just to be safe, I went ahead and took pictures of every dent, scratch, cigarette burn, etc, on the vehicle. Not to my surprise, I returned the vehicle at the end of my trip and Payless demanded that I fill out a form to report damage to the vehicle on the rear bumper. The representative told me, "don't worry, you have full coverage so it does not matter, we just need you to fill out this waiver."

I immediately grabbed my camera, flipped to the photo, zoomed in on the bumper, and showed the representative that the damage existed BEFORE I RENTED THE CAR. Again, he assured me it did not matter because i had full coverage insurance.

MY POINT IS - WHAT IF I DID NOT HAVE FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE. Payless would have screwed me just as they have screwed most people in this forum. I refused to fill out the form and went on my way.

Upon return from the trip, my credit card was charged $1,220 instead of $341. I immediately called Payless and reported the issue and was told to wait 48 hours for a manager to contact me. No one from Payless ever called back to apologize for the mishap or let me know that it had been taken care of. Within a few days, the overcharge was corrected.

DO NOT RENT FROM PAYLESS. IF SO TAKE PICTURES OF EVERY SINGLE INCH OF THE VEHICLE, INSIDE AND OUT.

i went thru travelocity,for airline tix and car rental to st.maarten.never did this before.i will use a travel agent as always.after all is said and done ,i saved nothing using travelocity.caveat emptor.the only real problem we all face is it is so difficult stopping these people,like payless,from repeatedly screwing others and it is getting out of hand. i have written to the dept. of tourism in st.maarten,travelocity,and so forth.so i am supposed to say,well,consider myself lucky because i was only screwed out of a couple of hundred bucks...anyway if anybody out there has a good idea or way of remedying this situation,let me know!!!! happy travels

Payless is a scam!! I will never rent from this company!

Do not rent a car from Payless! They will not honour the rate quoted by internet.

Yes they did have the car and it was new and clean. Unfortunately, they were less then forthright with the fact that take a $250.00 deposit out of your account before you leave. They also were not honest about when it gets put back into your account. When it was not "immidiately" deposited into my account, they blamed it on my bank until speaking with the bank manager and suddenly changing their tune. The have no problem taking your funds immidiately but putting it back is a different story!! Renter beware!!

Don't be foul by the display price .This rental car is a joke.My last trip to california ,i rented from payless.
First ,they don't have an office at the airport.You have to
call from a payphone so one of their van pick you up.
On my last trip,I spent a hour calling and obviously their staff decided to leave early 8pm.I got stranded in the airport.Did not have no choice , I ended up renting a car from alomo and paying over $100 .The schutle bus driver told me that it happen all the times.

My husband and i booked a car rental with this company through Expedia along with the rest of our vacation to San Juan P.R. As soon as we got to Payless car the manager asked for verification and the credit card that was used for the reservation of the car rental. The price of the car rental went from $160.00 to $300.00. Payless wanted to charge us an additional fee of $130.00 for insurance. We decided to call our insurance company back home and sure enough our policy transfers over to Puerto Rico. The people at Payless car rental treated us like morons and did not want to accept the Policy cards that our insurance company had faxed directly to them. Instead they demanded a letter from our insurance specifically stating that we had full coverage in Puerto Rico. That was absolutely ridiculous !!!! we had just spent over an hour with the insurance company,we had our policy cards faxed to them and it still wasn't good enough for the manager at Payless car rental . We ended up canceling the car rental, stormed out and had a family member take us to our hotel. The next day were able to rent a car at a different place with no hassle, ad were able to use our faxed insurance policy cards.
Please don't be fooled by what car rentals say. You don't need to pay extra on their insurance. Check with your insurance company back home.
Our insurance company said to us that some of these car rental places know that the insurance companies back home transfer over to them. They just want to take advantage of tourists. I will never go back with this company it was very upsetting and almost ruined our vacation.

Don't rent from Payless Car Rental! Bald tires, a pound of glass in the passenger door, poor condition. Looking at the reviews, extra charges I incurred, and fraudulent claims listed below, I wouldn't rent from them again.

DO NOT RENT FROM PAYLESS!!!! My wife recently rented a car from payless in tampa. we live locally and she was using it because her car was in the garage getting repaired. it was driven a total of 60 miles over 2 days and was garaged in our garage overnight. it was returned in pristine condition. a claim was recently filed against my insurance on this car from payless. it is outright fraud. i looked this car over quite well before the keys were handed in and it was in pristine condition. the guy at the location made no mention of any damage to me or my wife. STAY AWAY FROM THESE THIEVES!!!!!!!

Rented a car from payless in Costa Rica. The car broke down. I got home and they charged me 2511.12 for the repairt. I had full insurance on the car and did not hit anything. They are saying that this was because of my negligence. I am helpless and have no idea what to do. Never rent from these people they are theives!!!!!!!!! If you go to their office in San Jose you will see that they are all slimeballs just trying to rip you off. When the car broke down they left me on the side of the road for more than an hour and then a stranger who did not work for payless picked me up to drive me to the hotel. His truck was about fifty years old and was not safe. I thought I would be killed. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, Rent a car from Payless in the US or abroad.

Payless Car Rental 734 San Bruno Ave San Francisco, CA 94107 This business is criminal! They fraudulently charged my insurance company for damages to a car I rented. Employees are outright hateful, arrogant and criminal. These people have an extended history of complaints against them and have been fined and investigated by the attorney general of California. Rating: minus ten thousand

If you want to deal with absolute idiots and abusers, go to Payless car rental. I booked over the internet with the promise of unlimited miles and an upgrade. When I got to the rental agency in Montreal (Canada):
1. They tried hard to sell me unnecessary insurance and I had to call my agent in the USA to have him fax my insurance details to Payless (I had my insurance card with me, but they did not accept it). Thanks to my agent (Michael Randolph of Allstate in Charlotte) who told me not to budge as I am insured already by Allstate. Payless threatened me to cancel my rental. I was lucky that this happened before 5 pm where I could talk to my agent, but I had to spend hard dollars to call the US from Canada.
2. They did not honor the price given to me on the internet reservation, despite a paper copy of their email and internet reservation.
3. They did not honor the unlimited miles promised on the internet reservation! The claimed that it can only be used in Quebec!

I had a flat tire on my payless rental, called customer svc and was told to have it repaired and I would be reimbursed. But upon return of the vehicle I was told I was misinformed and I was responsible b/c I didn't buy their insurance. Called Customer Svc on another day and was told I would be reimbursed if they could not prove it was my fault. Called one of their managers, and after waiting for a day I was told that since I didn't buy their insurance I was responsible b/c I could have pick up a nail during my trip. Anybody know what is the policy on this subject or have similar experience? I know some rental car companies will pick up the cost without questions, Enterprise for one. Thanks.

Do not rent from Payless. My experience was harrasment to upgade and purchase insurance. Resulting inot car rental denial. Tampa Fl.

Unless you want to pay more than you agree to, DON'T RENT FROM PAYLESS!

My experience with Payless Car Rental is horrible (I am returning the car tomorrow.) They changed the extra day rate from $43.46 to $99.00. They said they can do that because "we are low on cars." When I directed them to my contract she told me to check the fine print. The guy who took the reservation was nice enough but when I called back to add a day the two women I spoke with were flippant and rude. If you like being lied to and cheated, use Payless Car Rental.

I had a rental booked through Travelocity at the Denver Payless. E-mailed total price was $203; far less than all others. Then I read the reviews on this site and another. I felt like I'd stepped into a nest of scorpions. Quickly cancelled and booked elsewhere. Then guess what? When I completed the Payless cancellation on Travelocity, the price of the ended reservation came up as $499! That would have been a nice surprise.

These guys sound like criminals!

I reserved a car for July 13 12pm to July 16 12pm.When my flight got delayed and I arrived late on the date of pick up, I had to wait for 25 minutes in the line for service. When I finally got to the counter, a gentleman named Willy(which I am not even sure if thats his name cuz his manager was not asure it thats was his name????I am not kidding!!)looked at my reservation printout.He said since my reservation was for a few hours ago,they dont have any car for me.He said he does have a car but it was at an additional $60. I said I want to talk to the manager.His response was, Sir, the manager would probably tell you the same thing. After insisting for 10 minutes, he went and spoke with her and came back and said"Sorry Sir, we dont have any cars for tonight". Not even if you pay a higher price.I insisted on talking to the manager.They made me walk to an outside booth to meet the manager since they did not want other customers to hear me speak.When I went to the booth outside, she made me wait for a few more minutes and then came Jeniffer, the station manager.She said she will go oyut of her way and reserve a car for me for tomorrow morning. And she suggested me to rent a cab ofcourse I would pay for the cab myself.She said she will do the reservation only if I am not the 'LETTER WRITING KIND'. This is my fir5st ever letter complaining about a service.Thanks to Jeniffer. BEWARE OF PAYLESS...Payless = cheap service = squeeze money from the customer at a later stage.

ATTENTION: I am writing this to save you from the hassle and from getting ripped off by Payless Car Rentals. I rented a car from them when I was on vacation in Orlando. At the time I booked it online, the price was $12.97/day. Then, when I got there, they told me that they ran out of the cheap cars and had to rent me an upgraded car, of course at an upgraded price - $25.00 more how convenient for them!!! Then when I returned the car with a quarter of a tank left of gas, you can image my shock when they added on another $59.00 for the gas I used!!! Granted, this is the first time I rented a car and I didnt know that youre expected to bring the tank back full but they NEVER told me that they would charge $59.00 for a tank of gas and I read the entire agreement and it also NEVER mentions it!!! If they told me about the $59.00 charge, I certainly would have filled up the tank. Who wouldnt? Even with the gas prices at $3.00 a gallon, this car only costs like $30 to fill, not $60.00. I tried talking to the manager who was very sarcastic saying who do you think was supposed to pay for it? If they dont tell you, how are you supposed to know? I thought it was included in the price. Since I got nowhere with the manager, I tried speaking to the managers manager who was very condescending and basically told me that they cant afford to take the $59.00 off for three quarters of a tank of gas. Due to the incredible lack of customer service of this company, I am disputing the charge on my credit card statement. I should not have to pay for a charge that was never communicated to me. What they are doing is fraudulent and I also reported them to the Better Business Bureau. I just wanted to save any others from falling for their so-called low prices. Instead of being called Payless Car Rental, they should be called Rip-off Car Rental.

Service was horrible! I booked a car at the Orlando Florida location and when i arrived they were sold out and they forced me to rent a higher class vehicle and i had to pay the difference. I also called for directions back to the airport and they just to me "I DONT KNOW." I would never rent from them EVER again. I would rather walk then to have to deal with this company.

I shopped for the lowest price rental car but Payless hoodwinked me into an expensive upgrade I did not request or desire!

The Las Vegas office gave us a car with many mechinacal problems and worst of all expired tags. Do NOT use this company!!!!!

NOT RECOMMENDED. Had a reservation in Orlando for Jan. 31 for a subcompact. Got there and was told they would not let me drive a subcompact on the interstate highway! They offered a minivan for the same price, but I didn't feel comfortable driving something that big. I'm not sure I clearly understood this next part, but I think what the clerk said was that since I had refused the insurance, they wouldn't give me a car that had less than 50,000 miles on it, and they didn't have such a car except the minivan. Fortunate to have some time, and having encountered various kinds of upselling schemes before, I said OK, then, I'll go back to the airport and rent from someone else. And that was it--they canceled the transaction. I rode their shuttle back to the airport, went to the Alamo desk, and that company quickly and courteously gave me a great small car for not all that much more money. I suggest you go straight there and save yourself a trip.

Rented a minivan in Orlando for about 40% less than any other car rental company. Here are your warnings -
1) They may try to upsell you at the counter bringing their prioce more into line with other companies.
2) The line is not the most efficient due to the upselling
3) You should make close inspection of your vehicle. I hears they are tough on dents and dings.... not an issue for us.
4) Facility is a little bleak. My wife's comment as we pulled in was "How much less was this?"
5) Load you bags last on the shuttle... remeber LIFO "last on First off" gets you first in the line."

With that said I saved $300 on a weekly rently of a van in Florida over Christmas. The upselling was a little distasteful as the rep went back to her manager twice and came back with a lower upsell rate each time. Kind of reminded me of a used car saleman to to the Finance manager.

I'd rent there again...but I might leave the wife to pick up the bags as I secured the vehicle.

Having been through my share of rental car companies, I do recall less-than-stellar performance the only time I used this company.

I arrived at the Phoenix airport anxious to get inside my rental car and get to my hotel room to relax. Well, things didn't start out on a good note. I had to wait in line for 25 minutes while the attendant, who hardly spoke English, tried to help out a disgrunted customer. After about 35 minutes I was actually in my car. The process was actually really confusing and trying to turn in the damage report paper to the right person was tiresome. So that was that.

After I returned the car the lot attendant instructed me where to park and so I did. I then proceeded to check out and was hurried by the attendant and while doing so put my keys, camera and cell phone by the trunk latch. Well, while I was getting my luggage out the attendant started his inspection and closed the trunk on my camera and shattered it. You can imagine my reaction after I had just purchased this new $300 camera filled of photos. After becoming aware that my camera was now defective I asked the name of the attendant and he denied me and said to just speak to someone upstairs. So I gathered my belongings and went upstairs to speak with a manager. Well, as you can imagine I had to wait in line for another 30 minutes and by this time I was really starting to become more and more upset. I asked to speak to a manager and front desk clerk asked if there was something he could help me with and I politely told him "no". So, after about another 10 minutes of waiting the manager named Rik Mertens asked me write down the incident for his General Manager named Bret Anderson. After about another 10 minutes of doing so I handed him the two sheets of paper filled with my complaint. Rik advised me that Bret would give me a call on the following Monday. So, with that little reinsurance I got out of there and onto my plane. Well, Monday came around and I didn't hear anything. Tuesday was the same. So I finally e-mailed Rik to ask him about the situtation. He informed me that he had spoken with the parking attendant and that he would be reimburse me for the camera. I told him "thank you" and asked him when I would be receiving the check. Well, a few days later Rik e-mails me back saying that it wasn't their fault and I was out of luck.

So, long story short, it was not worth the $20/day at all. I'm still left with a broken $300 camera and a swift kick in the butt.

Hope this helps.

rented twice from this company in orlando and will never rent again. terrible service snotty poeple no customer care/service

Rental location : Las Vegas Airport ; February 2006. I chose Payless based on rate for an intermediate SUV (they had Hyundai Santa Fe's). Rate was charged as reserved but I was asked to show proof that my own insurance covers liability or buy it from Payless "as required by city of Las Vegas" (according to the rental clerk). Most rental company include state required minimum liability coverage in the base rate. At 13.95/day plus taxes, this added an unexpected significant amount to the total cost. Car was very good. No hassles when returning and shuttle back was quick. Next time, I'm bringing proof of liability insurance...

Rented a car from Payless in Newark, New Jersey. When I picked the car up, they announced that I could not purchase a liability insurance policy because I live in New York city. The car we picked up had less than a quarter tank of gas. When I returned the car, it took an hour and half to find a way to enter the return lot which was located at a Ramada Inn hotel. The directions to the return lot were useless and when followed perfectly, caused us to retrace our steps back and forth through a loop of highway exit ramps. Eventually I had to drive over a concrete medium to reach the return lot.

Rented car from Payless franchisee "Affordable Auto Rental Inc." 82 Evergreen Ave. Warwick, RI 02888 because it was an affiliate of the body shop next door that I was using. The auto body shop was great, as were the employees of the rental car company. But the owner of the rental car company tried to attribute preexisting damage to the car to me the day after I had dropped the vehicle off and had received the paperwork stating that the car was returned by me with no damage to it. He charged my credit card without authorization, had no proof that it was done by me, had the minor "hail-like" dents removed before I had a chance to inspect them and left me with only a photograph of what he claimed to be the damage. He admitted that I did get the "all-clear" the night before but that they found the damage a minute after I left and tried to contact me immediately. This is not true because they had multiple phone numbers and I was next door for 20 minutes. They did not call me to report the damage until they had possessed the car for over 16 hours. I did not receive a call until the next day and was told to come in around noon, which I did, but the evidence was already gone or "fixed" and my card was charged. He was also rude in that he assumed that because I was young that I had no business education and that "I didn't understand how business worked" and that I should take business classes. He didn't have much of a response, much less an apology, to my having an MBA and working on my JD. I told him that my lawyer would be in touch and that American Express would fight tooth and nail on my behalf for an unauthorized charge. He was not changing his attitude, which was beligerent from the start, so I left. Only after I called 20 minutes later to ask for his merchant code did he decide that it was not in his best interest to charge me.

I will never use Payless again. Had a guaranteed reservation-late night arrival for a funeral. Arrived to find they had rented my car away & did not offer help in arranging other means of transportation. Even though I had paperwork stating they were in the wrong. Not helpful, and obviously rent to a higher bidder when opportunity presents itself. NO THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trust me. Having used these guys just once, here's my considered advice. PayMORE and go somewhere else. You'll be glad you did.

WARNING!! DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!!! A reservation that was supposed to $203 for 8 days, became $400! when we went to pick it up. Trapped at an offsite lot, so we had to take it.