ACE Rent A Car

Sure enough, when it was my turn at the counter, I was subjected to the same sales pressure tactics but firmly rebuffed the clerk's attempts to sell me an upgrade, additional insurance and pre-paid gas. He was particularly insistent on my pre-paying for the gas and I made it very clear to him that I was not interested. Upon returning the car in Orlando after refilling the tank, I was surprised to discover that the clerk had still billed me for pre-paid fuel. Luckily, the young lady who checked out the vehicle offered to refund me the amount, which I verified has since been done. Needless to say, despite the integrity displayed by the young check-out attendant in Orlando, I plan never again to use the services of ACE Rent-a-Car.

When I returned the car today, July 11, I tried to explain the situation but they said there was nothing they could do. I then called customer service to explain the situation and the rep was very rude. I was disconnected then had to call back and explain the situation all over again. The new rep transferred me to the same Charlotte Airport location that I was standing in! This is the most unprofessional car rental agency I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Unless a acceptable resolution occurs I will never use your services again and neither will anyone have in my family.

We started with an "on-screen" agent who informed us that their system had "selected" a "van " for us with only a "limited" mileage allowance because we had a "local" California driver's license. I have rented cars for over 35 years in CA and many other states, and my wife has specifically rented at LAX 1-3 times a year for the past 10 years and we have never heard of such a thing. The agent was absolutely not willing to accommodate our reservation request so stated on our rental voucher for "unlimited mileage" with "2-5 doors", "4 seats", and "big enough for 2 big suitcases". Yes, the van met those descriptions but with only a "limited" mileage allowance and certainly it was not fuel efficient as was our primary need! It was not at all per our reservation request and subsequent expectation!

Instead of accommodating our request, the on-screen agent told us that we could cancel the reservation since we had not paid anything yet, and create a new reservation with the current day's rate! Yea, that makes sense - don't honor their advertised low rate and screw the customer with the current rate to give them their reserved request! (I'm glad we did not pay anything in advance because other reviews seemed to indicated that they were stuck and had to accommodate Ace! I will now monitor our credit card on file to be sure they don't bill us!) Because we could hardly communicate with this on-screen agent due to the distracting background noise, and we were getting nowhere with our request, I asked to speak with a person face-to-face which they would not allow due to the waiting line of other customers!

I then asked to speak to a supervisor and was refused by the apparent agent-in-charge! A "heated" discussion ensued as I warned the waiting customers of their poor customer service practices. I was then told by the agent to leave the property or he would press charges against me - and what "charges" might those be I wondered - getting angry because they were being rude, disrespectful, uncommitting to honor our rental request and expectation, and threatening me if I didn't leave? So we left and got into their shuttle van for a return trip to the airport parking hub from where they had picked us up.

The agent then came out and told us that we could not take the van because it was for customers only and we were not customers! Again, heated discussions ensued and he continued to threatened me with charges if I didn't leave "his" property, even after we had exited the van and were standing on the sidewalk in front of the property. He insisted that we walk down the street! Upon my request, he refused to give me either his supervisor's name or his own name, and responded instead with a derogatory comment that I would probably not even be able to spell it!

My wife and I both took pictures of him with our cell phones so we could identify him with his supervisor. A customer waiting in the van to return to the airport told us that she was appalled by the way we had been treated! A friendly employee gave us the supervisor's name who I have tried to call, but he never seems to be in. Fortunately, we contacted a competing company and got everything we that originally requested at even a lower rate, with no restrictions due to our "local" CA driver's license! With company representatives as the one we encountered and the complete lack of any professional customer service, I will never use either Ace-Rent-a-Car or VIP Cars again, even if they are the only rental available!

I was told that this was the only car that was available and I could accept or cancel. I elected to cancel. All of this was done within 2 hours of picking up the car. I received a cancellation email from the ACE rental car on May 24th at 5:09pm. I called the charge company that day to notify them of the problem. At that time, the charges were still pending. I was told to call back in 2 days. I called back on Friday, May 27th and learned that ACE rental car had submitted the rental car expense and there was still a pending hold of $300.00. The pending charge was for the deposit.

DO NOT RENT FROM TOP DRIVE/ACE RENTAL CAR. The car was returned within 2 hours. There is absolutely no reason why the rental company should submitted the charges and still have the deposit pending. There was sufficient time to cancel the credit card charges. This was the first and last time I will rent from this company. I have had great experience with Enterprise and go back to this company. Reduced car rental price do not mean you will save money. I lost time and money while on vacation. Again, DO NOT RENT FROM TOP DRIVE/ACE RENTAL CAR. I HAD TO DISPUTE THE CHARGES WITH THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY.

Moreover, they said they would look into the video evidence based on what was described but never did. Filed a complaint with the BBB. Filed a complaint with their corporate office. Filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The business wanted to manipulate the situation to only offer 50% because their agent would lie to us to get our signature.

We told ACE's Customer Experience Manager we booked on Priceline. He reviewed the charges and have never made any false statement. He said he would refund on Monday since it was a Friday and he apologized for the experience. However, he didn't get back to us with a refund. instead, upon follow up, he had decided to ignore, and keep us in the dark, and while other associates promised the customer experience manager would get to us. One time it was connected, ACE Customer Manager just hung up.

We were assured that the $805 was a security deposit that would be fully refunded. We asked ACE to look at the footage and they said they would but they would not get back to us based on the video footage of what was communicated. ACE looks to get you to sign anything just to steal from customers.

Original Review: Car shuts off twice in the rain. Couldn’t start on the Thursday 19. We were able to go back to the hotel we were at the following day. Warning signs lit up the dash board about CVT??? Reps not concerned about safety! Horrible experience May18-22. No one offered to pick us up.