Payless Rental Car is the biggest scam business out there, in my opinion. I recently rented a car from them in Orlando. It was a terrible experience from beginning to end and I will never rent through them again.

First of all they are offsite and you have to take a shuttle to get there. Then you are faced with a huge line that takes forever to get through (about 30mins min based on my experience). Then when you finally get to the front of the line, they don't have the car that you reserved. This seemed to be a common thing as I overheard this situation with several of the others in front of me in line. So then they try to upgrade you to one of their premium cars for and additional charge. When I refused to take the upgrade the guy kept arguing with me. I basically had to raise my voice to the guy. Then he magically found an SUV he could give me at the same quoted rate as the compact I had booked. They make it sound like they are doing me a favor by giving me this upgrade. When to be honest, I didn't even really want it. I had booked a compact for a reason, since there were only 2 of us and we wanted to save gas.

So I finally accepted the free upgrade to the SUV. The guy then proceeded to sell me all kinds of additional insurance (which I expected). I told him I had all my insurance and didn't require any from them. The guy then argues with me about why my insurance is not good enough and I should buy theirs. After emphatically telling the guy no about 10 times, he finally gave up.

Upon getting to the vehicle I had rented, I noticed it was pretty beat up. The exterior and interior were filthy. there was about an inch of dust on the dash and stains all over the seats. There were also many rock chips, minor scratches, etc, since the vehicle was at least a couple years old and had 35k miles on it. No one came with me to inspect the car and have me initial and agree on the condition of the car. So I don't know how they would possible know if the last renter caused the damages, or if I caused them. They obviously do not inspect or do anything to the vehicles between customers. I witnessed them giving cars straight from one customer, to the next. Also the gas was only filled up to 3/4 tank although on the rental sheet it showed that we were responsible to return it with a full tank.

After a long day of travelling and spending time lining up and arguing with the counter attendant, I didn't feel like arguing any more. So I took the SUV provided to me. The next day the car started shaking really badly at certain times. Also the brakes were making a loud squeeking noise. So we ended up having to take the vehicle back to Payless Rental Car. Where we got the pleasure of standing in line for another 30 mins. At which point they gave us another vehicle, an SUV again. Once again the vehicle was filthy, inside and out and only had 3/4 tank of gas in it. Also the keyless remote entry had been lost. And since the vehicle was obviously equipped for keyless entry, it has no key holes to unlock any of the doors except for the driver's door. This meant that anytime you want to get into the vehicle through any of the passenger doors, or open the hatch to put your luggage in, you have to first unlock the driver's side door, then use the inside poor locks to open the other doors. Also the cigarette jack did not work, so we were unable to use the GPS I had brought.

Anyways Payless Rental Car is complete junk. I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. If you do choose to rent from them, expect the following:

Long waits for Shuttles and to get to the counter

Rude, pushy desk attendants

No chance in hell that they will actually have the car you reserved available for you

A car which has not been cleaned inside or out. And which appears to have never received any maintenance or inspection between customers.

Basic safety issues on the vehicles such as working brakes and decent tires not looked after

3/4 tank of gas but then they expect you to fill it up on return

Good chance that you will be charged with additional fees or damages upon returning the car


I'd also like to mention that shorty after I returned from trip, I received an email from Payless Rental Car asking me to participate in a survey. I completed the survey, giving them a very poor score, and explaining my dissatisfaction. However I never received a call or email back, to apologize or try to make things right with me. So that tells you how much they care about Customer satisfaction. Payless is lucky to mostly operate in high tourist areas, which gives them an unlimited supply of new customers to rip off. Otherwise they would be out of business, as I highly doubt they see much return business.