CarRentals.com
Reviews and Complaints

I have had one of the worst customer service experiences of my life with Carrentals.com. Their customer service has been appalling and I have spent over 2 weeks trying to get a refund for a service I never received confirmation for and never actually used.

Their team has been thoroughly unhelpful and I have had to send over a dozen emails to try and resolve this. I have tried several times to get a contact address to lodge a complaint however have been constantly left to ask again. I have spoken to at least 6 different members of their team with one one seeming to take accountability for the task.

I would strongly recommend not to to use this company and instead use another provider who have more respect for their customers.

Their business model is to hide fees and nickel and dime you. I reserved a car with carrental.com, where they precharged my credit card. When i got to the car rental kiosk, the attendant apologetically told me that the I would be forced to buy mandatory insurance, which would raise the rental cost by $100 or 60%. The attendant told me that this happens all the time with the carrental.com. Given the new cost, I declined the service and immediately contacted carrental.com to cancel the service. They did cancel the service but refused to issue any type of refund. I have tried calling the company several times, but nobody with decision power was willing to speak with me. The correspondence that I did receive was bureaucratic and unhelpful. The business model of this company is to screw its customers after they have paid through additional hidden fees. As a result of this whole episode, I lost $150 and did not get a car rental. I would not recommend this service to anybody. My feeling is that they have a business model that borders on criminal. I don't know how this company has good reviews. They must pay people to manipulate their image or something.

I booked a car rental through carrentals.com and the car was supposed to be picked up at a downtown location in Montreal. The specified location did not have a car dealer. I phoned the customer support to enquire about the car rental and they gave me fake phone numbers to call for a shuttle service. I tried to contact both carrentals.com and the car rental service (Thrifty) but was told that the car rental outlet was at the specified location and that there is not shuttle service. Totally unreliable and extremely rude customer service at carrentals.com WILL NOT SHOP THERE.

I have been a customer of CarRentals.com for over a decade. Something has changed there recently. We arrived at the Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico, airport and went to Thrifty to pick up our rental. Somehow, the $83 USD estimate for our 4 day rental was incorrect. They refused to rent us the car without the "mandatory" liability insurance. We went ahead and ended up paying $216 in the end.
When we made the same trip in 2007 and also rented from Thrifty, the estimate was 100% accurate.
More disappointing, when I contacted CarRentals.com support about the problem, they told me I should have clicked on a link to read the details of the contract. The bogus price quote was apparently MY FAULT!
NO LONGER TO BE TRUSTED! STAY AWAY!

I made a car booking on rentalcars.com for the 10th of September.
Pick up location was Alamo europcar, 12 Semley place, sw1w 9ql London.

On the date in question I went to pick up the car, but for some unknown reason my address wasn't accepted by Experia website.
Even showing utility bills or the house contract it wasn't accepted.
Europcar couldn't release the car without Experia's permission.

I called rentalcars customer service trying to explain the situation, but your operator said he was 'sorry'.
Saying that I passed the phone to europcar employee Dean Stewart who kindly wanted to explain the situation in your recorded call, getting back on the phone your employee who didn't identify himself, told me to contact the customer service and ask for a refund.

In the end we had to rent another car for almost double the price without taking 'yours'.

I made a reservation through carrentals.com for a mid-sized car rental. Carrentals.com booked it through Thrifty. When I got to the Thrifty counter, I was given the choice of a Ford Focus or Forenza, which Thirty said was their mid-size car. On most rental sites these cars are listed as compacts. Being 6'4" tall, I didn't fit in either car and had to pay 30% more for upgrade. Obviously someone is playing a bait and switch game. Very disappointing.

On Aug 5, 2010 I contracted through carrentals.com to rent a car for 4 days at the Orlando International Airport. The actual rental car was through U-SAVE. My credit card was charged for $44 for 4 days of insurance @ $11 per. Car rental states that the car will be held for 24 hours in the event of late arrival. Our flight was delayed almost an hour. Upon arriving at the baggage area I called for a shuttle pick up from U-SAVE. I was then told that they hold the car for only one hour and none were available. I called CarRentals right away. After much difficulty getting a person to respond I was told that the insurance was not transferrable to another rental co. CarRental made no attempt to remedy the problem. I even tried to get a U-Save car the next day to no avail.

I then rented a car from Alamo (National) for 1 day, hoping to get the U-Save on the next day. As mentioned, U-Save did not have on available that day either. The cost with Alamo was two and one half times greater.

Upon my return on the 19th, I requested a refund of the insurance paid to CarRental of $44 and was told the contract was not cancelled in time so no refund would be made, even though I had contacted them at 10:15 PM on the 14th to explain that a car was not available.

They are refusing to refund any part of the insurance, much less make an offer to encourage me in doing business with them ever again.

It is disappointing that CarRental would not advocate for me with U-Save and not even have any regard for my being abandoned in an airport late at night.

Why would anyone deal with either company as a result of this treatment.

By far this was the worst car renting experience I ever had. After I made the online reservation, I notice my drop off time was at 9:45. So I call the A+ Rental to cancel my reservation, but they told me they can change the drop off time to 3:00 PM without a charge. In fact, I asked them put a note on my reservation to reflect 3:00 PM drop off time.
When I arrived at the airport, I called the rental company for a pick up. After multiple phone calls, they finally pick me up after 50 minutes later. They blamed on traffic for late pick up, but there was no traffic and it should not have taken them 50 min’s to drive 3 miles.
The rental company was a tiny place, just to enough to park 5-6 cars. The rental car they had for me must’ve been more than 10 years old with scratches and dents everywhere, scratches on the hood and side doors and dents on side fenders. I was totally disappointed with the condition of the car.
Then, they printed the rental agreement form for me to sign and told me the drop off time is 9:45. I told them about 3:00 pm drop off time. In fact, they had a hand written paper indicating that the drop off time is to be 3:00 pm, but they refused to honor 3:00 pm drop off time previously negociated. They told me if I’m 1 min past 9:45 time, they were to charge me additional full day rate. After much discussion, I finally told them this was not acceptable and asked them to take me back to the airport, but they told me “I don’t think so.” They refused to even take me back to the airport.
They finally agreed to take me back to the airport after charging my credit card for full day’s rental fee. I told them I’ll dispute the credit card charge later. In fact, I wrote on my credit card receipt “dispute” next to my signature. I ended up getting my rental car from Hertz.
What should’ve been a simple car rental experience turned out to be 3 hours of total ordeal. I’ll be disputing the credit card charge.