Payless Car Rental Reviews

Payless Car Rental was horrible! They were rude on the phone and hung up - it was a supervisor. They price gouge and the minivan we had made mechanical issue sounds during our trip and had a huge mark on the side. We had to clean the car out completely in fear of being charged for anything left on the floor due to reading other reviews where they overcharged people. Do not use!

I declined additional car insurance as I have State Farm Insurance and was still charged an extra $120 for my 4-day car rental. When I called the Payless Car Rental in San Diego back when I was aware of this, they said it was because I didn’t provide a copy of my car insurance card. First off the Customer Service Representative DID NOT ask to make a copy of it as I would have gladly let him make a copy of it. They spoke to me as if it was MY FAULT and I do not appreciate that as it was not. Their little snide & rude comments and attitude had me say a few choice words as well. I will never rent a car through Payless Car Rental nor recommend them to anyone.

When I booked my car rental online, the app offered an option to add insurance for the vehicle, which I selected. However, when I went to pick up the car, the front desk informed me that what I added was not insurance but something else. I agreed, thinking it was fine. A week later, I was charged about $494. When I called them, they claimed the charge was for mileage, but the rental agreement clearly stated that mileage was unlimited. It feels like they are just making excuses to charge extra. I wouldn't recommend using this company.

Worst place to rent a car. These people take so much money from you. They don't record videos of the cars properly (blurry) some cars are dented and they don't show it. The workers don't want to explain to you about insurances carefully. They quickly say what insurance you got. One that has you paying $500 for any type of damage and one that DOESN'T but they never tell you that. They only tell you that you have to pay $500 for damages. My car had a small dent. They consider a small dent A MEDIUM SIZE. In their defense (their words) any small dents are considered medium size which will charge you more for it. These people are bunch of blood-sucking leeches. DON'T RENT FROM THEM. Go rent another place, the airport is more secured than they are.

On a recent trip to San Diego I booked a rental car through Delta Airlines since they had the best rate. I should have known better since I never heard of them. The people at the airport were nice enough, but that is where you need to be cautious. Their paperwork especially their Collision Damage Waiver are misleading. When presented by the agent that this was a waiver of their collision damage coverage, and by signing it I was waving their additional coverage $25 @ day. However, on my final bill there it was for the 7 days I rented the car.

We made a reservation weeks in advance for a car rental in PA. I called for a pickup when we arrived at the Philadelphia International Airport & we waited for over an hour. They never arrived and we found out they closed at 8 PM, leaving us stranded. We scrambled and had to book with another company at a much higher rate. RENTER BEWARE!

I traveled from LAX to SLC to visit my child in a residential facility for my few hours that I am granted each week. My plane was delayed and I was hoping to get my rental car quickly since I prepaid through Expedia. They do not offer online check in like other rental agencies. I was greeted with a line of over 20 people waiting for two clerks processing the rentals. They were taking their sweet time going over their high pressure sales pitches to sell as many add ons as they could. I paid $67 for what ended up being a two-hour rental since I was only there for the day. My flight was shorter than my wait in that line! I will never make the mistake of using Payless again. If you are smart, you won't either.

The man at the front desk kept telling me that I had to have a tablet and WiFi plan included with my car rental. It wasn’t until I badgered him enough that I did NOT want the WiFi/tablet that they finally took it off. After that they brought me a vehicle with 25% fuel and I was promised 70% or more. The staff was not very easy to work with and it took about 1.5 hours to get our car (even though there was only 1 person in front of us).

This was the worst experience I've had renting a car. They had hidden fees and very rude customer service. We didn't get the vehicle we were promised. Over a month later they charged my bank account despite having a new card that how crooked they are. I would never rent from them.

This is hands down the worst experience I have ever had with a car rental company. When we picked up the car the first thing we noticed was how dirty the outside of the vehicle was. As we were driving on the highway and the sun shined on the mirrors, I was instantly blinded. I could not see out of any window or mirror. They look like they were all wiped with dirty oiled rags. Once we were out of the vehicle and did a more thorough look at the car we noticed it looked like someone had gotten sick out of the back window.

Rented from Payless through my Delta app thinking it would be a seamless transaction. Never again. Payless is poorly managed, makes it hard to get to customer service, and when they say the problem is resolved, you find out days later that it really wasn’t. I had a one day meeting in Brooklyn. Landed at 8 am, rented a Tesla but picked up another electric car because they didn’t have any Teslas. Fine. Received a receipt of “expected charges" for my 14 hour rental and I was on my way. Returned to JFK at 6 pm and was told to leave the car with the keys inside behind a line of other Payless cars being returned. I even cleaned out my car!

I was charged a cleaning fee, and I have pictures of the inside of the car showing there was no excessive dirt inside it. We actually cleaned a door full of candy wrappers out when we received the van since it had not been cleaned prior to us receiving the car. While in Denver, it snowed around 12 inches, so we were not hiking on any trails or outdoor activities due to the weather. I've spoken with a customer service rep and she was going to send me pictures of the dirt inside but failed to send them. Payless did send over an email and when speaking with them they told me I needed to call the phone number listed in the email which there isn't one and then was told I needed to speak with "Nora ** - Payless Operations Team" but no one could provide me with an extension number for her. They did, however, charge my credit card for $250.00!! Please contact me about this matter.

This company lacks ethics and proper management! I rented a car before I got to the airport while in advance and all they had left was a 15 passenger van. I waited in line for 1.5 hours with only 14 people ahead of me. I got to the counter the guy told me he had only one vehicle left and it was the van. I believe he lied because there were several people behind me and he gave those people rental cars. When I complained, he could care less it was as if I was talking to a wall and he just told me that he could cancel my reservation. These people could care less whether or not you travel, cross-country and prearrange for a vehicle. Driving this van is like driving a U-Haul because it’s got the same seat… Whatever you do use a different company!

Initially it seemed that everything was fine. I was given a nice compact car that seemed to be in good condition. However, after a couple of day, the engine light came on, and all the error messages, and it wouldn't drive more than 5mph. I called Roadside Assistance and was told I would get a replacement vehicle. It took about 10 hours to receive the replacement, and involved multiple phone calls in the middle of the night. I'm glad I was in a safe place or I would have frozen to death as the temperatures that night were below freezing. The replacement vehicle turned out to be a large gas-guzzling Dodge Ram truck. Because it arrived so late, I had to change my return flight 3 times. Then I was charged $150 for gas. Absolutely would not rent from them again.

Payless car rental was a nightmare. I picked up a car rental from Payless at Chicago airport. This was booked via Alaska Airlines app. I had booked a compact car option. When I went for the pickup I was offered only Electric car which I did not want nor did I book for that option. The customer service was very rude and almost laughed at me for booking this option. I highly recommend everyone not to use their service. The customer service was equally bad. Also, I found it very hard even to give feedback. For a moment I thought I was visiting a 3rd world nation.

Charged for gas when vehicle was returned on full. Took a picture with a time and date stamp in the parking garage. There is no way to call and speak to anyone in customer service. I will have to go in person.

Do not rent from this company, they are very dishonest. Besides giving me a crappy car with 90,000 miles on it, the check out clerk tricked me into signing up for Collision insurance that I had just told him that I did not want or need. Obviously, I will never rent from them again but I doubt if they care they seem to be based on squeezing profit out of customers one time and then moving on to the next victim.

Do not ever take a car with Payless. I booked their car in Zagreb airport from the 22.3. to 1.04. and when I returned it the only thing was that the tank was half full- that should have costed max 40-50 euros + something for the person that fill it. Well that something was quite something, they charged me 357 euros for that!! This is not a car rental, it is a scam business.

I hired a vehicle from Payless that is listed. At 81$ per day and was charged a shocking 250$ a day. There is no rental company that rents this vehicle at that price and as a matter of fact many of them are cheaper. I opened a case on their complaints website and to this day no one had called me to rectify this. I will never ever use them again.

When I got to pay last Nichole made renting a car seem effortless! She had a smile on her face and understood that I was in a hurry. I will use Payless in the future and recommend anybody else to do so at the Des Moines location.

While picking up the rental in Phoenix I spoke to the representative stating that I needed the car for an extra 6 hours beyond the first 24 hours and was told no problem. What I was quoted was not what the final charges were on my credit card. The printed receipt doesn't even match the final charges. When I returned home I called customer service to understand the extreme overcharges, finding only poor service and no answers. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I would receive a call from somebody within 24-48 hours. I only received an email stating there was nothing they could do for me and the charges would remain.

I was unable to pick up my reservation.... Very disappointed in the customer service. I originally tried to cancel and modify my reservation since the dates were entered wrong. Reservation was intended to be 3/7-3/13. Not what I booked which was 2/7-3/14.... However when I arrived today they said I can't get my car.... I reserved a vehicle from 2/7 to 3/14 so that makes no sense.... I was never contacted or emailed saying I couldn't pick it up late. When I called them first they said they couldn't modify the reservation since I booked through my American Advantage... then I called back and said, "I don't need to modify. I'll just the car for 6 days," but then they said they decided to cancel it since I didn't come. They said they couldn't modify it but they could cancel it without talking to me... Not happy with this experience.

Rented Mid size car in San Diego for 3 days. Was given an older Nissan Versa. When I questioned if this was a mid size, was told yes. But if I wanted a car with plug in for my cell phone, I'd have to pay extra. Was very surprised. Declined since all my driving would be short distance. The car ended up being a compact size, crank windows, no adjustment to move seat up higher (I'm very short), no button to unlock doors (had to reach from front seat to rear doors to flip button), no button to unlock truck (had to shut car off every time to use the key for truck). Was surprised car didn't even have lighter plug in for cell, no form of plug in at all. If I wasn't in a hurry to get ahead of traffic, I would have asked for what I paid for. I have NEVER received a rental car so void of all the basic needs. Will NEVER rent from Payless again.

I was charged $55 for fuel svc that I declined and I returned the rental with a full tank of gas! If Avis/Payless steals $55 from 2,000 customers A DAY (that declined Fuel Svc), across the US... PAYLESS CAR RENTAL just made $39 MILLION/per year on fraudulent fuel svc charges ALONE!!! My quoted charge for a 1 day rental w/ coverage was $134 and my credit card was billed $189 that included a bogus fuel svc charge upon return of the rental. The wait to p/u the car at Love Field was ludicrous and they would not tell me the total amount until I put my credit card in! What other rental place does this? Customer Svc asked me 20 questions about my gas fill up: the name, location, number of gallons, dollar total, etc before reimbursing me for gas. Now I have to wait another week before I see if they were honest about reimbursing me!

WARNING... DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY! We rented a car from Payless in Turks and Caicos, and two days later, our rental car broke down... the battery was dead. We tried the roadside assistance on the contract, and the number on the key, but was not successful getting in contact with Payless. We walked to a resort nearby to use their local phone, since we decided it had to do with making an international call on our phone. A nice employee from the resort volunteered to give us a jump with his jumper cables when he got off of work.

I rent a car from Payless through Expedia for $120 for two days. When I went to the counter to get the car they gave me another contract and another with different price than the reservation. The agent was not helpful and he was just trying to complete the process quickly without paying attention to my concerns about the costs. When I returned the car, they emailed me a bill of 370$ with too many detailed expenses that I never were aware of them. Also, I filled up the tank when I returned the car, but they charged me for the gas too. I would say never rent a car from this company because I consider this as a cheating/fraud and just rubbing people's money in a gentle and formal manner. I am totally disappointed about this rental company and would never recommend it to customers like me especially who are traveling internationally.

I reserved my car at $58 per day. They charged me $128 per day and refuse to correct it. They charged me $117 for 10 gallons of fuel. Their customer service department is anything but friendly and helpful. DO NOT RENT FROM THESE CROOKS.

Awful company!!!! Fraud charges!!!! Rental a car for the holiday and when I started the car the oil light came on. I showed it to the agent and was told it’s ok and they had no more cars. I returned the vehicle with no problems, 3 weeks later I saw a charge of $450.00 on my card. I called and was told someone would call me back but they didn’t. I called today and spoke with Kalyan ID # **. He said they sent a letter to my home and he repeated the address, I said that’s not my address, and how could you make that mistake when you have my drivers license? He didn’t answer then said there was smell of smoke in the car and we had to detail the vehicle, he read the rental agreement and said we have the right to charge a reasonable fee at our discretion.

BE AWARE.... corrupt business practices. We rented a vehicle from Payless (owned by AVIS) and when reserving the vehicle we were quoted a base rate of $224 and taxes/fees of $106 for a total of $330. When we picked up the vehicle, the price had changed to a base rate of $224 and taxes/fees of $256 for a total of $480, over a 30% increase. They know you'll pay the increase because you've already spent close to an hour taking a shuttle to their rental location. You also likely won't find a "day-of" rental at a decent price. This is just blatant corruption and very poor business practices. Shame on Payless and AVIS for letting this happen, stay away from them both.

Dec 27 I went to Payless Car Rental in Las Vegas NV. I wanted to rent compact car (KIA Sol) for 2 days. Online the price was $35 Per day. At the counter the lady charged me 490.00 for two days. There was no supervisor available to speak to. She said take it or leave it. I came in town to help family member with medical situation so I had no choice but to take it. After turning in the car, I didn't and still haven't received a receipt for the rental, all I have is the contract and bank statement showing them being paid 490.00. I called their 800 number 5 times and was always on hold for up to 45 minutes before the line cuts off. I filed a complaint with the state of NV. I will never use them again,.