February 11
A few weeks back I posted asking for suggestions for a new rental car company because I had decided to leave National Car Rental. I had been a long time Emerald Club member and held Executive Elite Status for the last three or four years. When I posted asking for suggestions for a new car rental company many of you asked why I was leaving National. Now that things are pretty much settled I will share the story.
In mid-November I made a one-way rental from Charlotte Airport to Charleston Airport after my flight had been cancelled. It’s about a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive and that was better than waiting for 7 hours in CLT for the next flight.
When I got the car from the Executive Aisle I noticed some scratches on the rear left of the car. I drove up to the exit and gave the clerk the rental contract from the dash and told her about the scratches. She said she would note it in the rental agreement. I asked if I got anything noting the damage and she said no. I asked her if she’d at least make a note on the contract I got back. She made a hand written note.
I drove to CHS and returned the car. They immediately noticed the damage and I showed them the hand written note and said the clerk in CLT said she noted it in the rental agreement. The person in CHS asked to keep the contract with the hand written note and so I took a photo of it and gave it to her.
The following week I got a call from someone at National and she asked if I could explain what happened and email her the photo of the note. I did and we exchanged a few emails. The important thing to note here is that we communicated via email.
A week later on November 25th I left for 3 months in Bangkok and Southeast Asia. Bangkok is 12 hours ahead of ET. The second week of December I woke up one morning to see that a call had come in at 3am. I listened to the message from National and they provided no other detail than to ask me to call and left an 800 number. I tried to call the 800 number but it was US only 800 number. I called National customer service and they had no record of who called me, what department called and couldn’t help me.
The same thing happened three days later, a call at 2:30 am with an 800 number that was US only. Nothing I could do. Several days later I got another call at 3:45am with the same 800 number, but this time an actual phone # showed on my caller ID. I called that number back and left a message that I was in Bangkok, it was a 12 hour time difference so they could call me up until 11pm my time or 11am ET. I also left my email on the message and said that would be a great way to contact me.
Weeks go by, and i heard nothing. I start my holiday Vacation and completely forget about National. As my 3 months in Bangkok are about over I needed to rent a car. I tried to log into Nationals website and received a message that my account had been cancelled. I called customer service. The first person I spoke to said she had to transfer me to another department. No one picked up when she transferred me. I called back and got another agent. He was able to tell me that my account had been cancelled and I was placed on the do not rent list. I explained that I was in Bangkok, it was a 12 hour time difference, all the calls I got gave US only 800 numbers. He gave me a number to call and said he was sure it was an international 800 number.
Now, all these calls are starting to add up especially since the wait for customer service can be long. I called the new 800 number he said was international and surprise, it wasn’t. I called customer service back for a third time. Explained the whole story again to an agent and he actually said, “Well they probably don’t believe you’re in Bangkok.” I told him I could send airline ticket itineraries, a hotel bill or anything else. He seemed to be empathetic and transferred me to a supervisor. So for the 4th time I explained the situation again. I told the supervisor that I need someone to call before 11 or email me. I asked that he please note this in my account and explain I’m in Bangkok with a 12 hr time difference. He said someone would contact me within 48 hours.
Forty-eight hours passed and I had no call from anyone at National. I posted my blog and was contacted by someone from any agency representing National. I had worked previously with the agency to run contests for Nationals sister company, Enterprise. The person asked me to explain what had happened and I relayed the story. She said she’d pass it onto National.
Four days later I was back in the US and finally able to talk with someone at National. I will also mention that I had 6 pieces of mail from National when I picked up my held mail from the post office. I was told that I owed National $175 for damage and with admin fees the total I owed was $225. I still maintain that I do not owe anything.
By this time National had turned me over to a collection agency I spoke with my insurance company and they said to pay the $225 and file a claim with them and they would fight National on the issue.
I wrote a letter to the VP of National explaining that here I am, a long time and loyal renter. Never had anything like this occur, ever and I tried on numerous occasions to contact National. I expressed my disappointment that National employees weren’t capable of thinking out of the box to connect with me via email (remember back to the beginning of this story, the first person I dealt with emailed with me.) I did a little research and found that in 2012 spent just under $5,000 with National. In 2011, I spent just over $12,000 and in 2010 I spent about $10,000. I wrote to the VP that $175 in damage and $225 in total is a drop in the bucket compared to what I spend with National. Had I been informed in one of the voice mail messages or had someone emailed me with the detail anytime in November, December or January I could have contacted my insurance company, American Express who I booked and paid for the rental with or have dealt with the issue in a handful of other ways. I did not hear back from anyone at National.
I just got a letter saying I’ve been removed from the do not rent list and I’m welcome to create a new Emerald Club membership. Will they reinstate my Executive Elite status? No. Will they reinstate the 6 free rental credits I had in my account? No.
So, guess how much money I will spend with National Car Rental or its sister companies Enterprise and Alamo in 2013? Zero! I will not be renting from them ever again.
For my first rental in 2013 I chose Hertz. I was able to get a gold plus membership through my company. I called the Hertz corporate rep and explained why I was switching. I booked a car with Hertz for last weekend. Before I arrived I got an email letting me know what stall my car was in and was given the option to upgrade, but I didn’t. When I got off the Hertz bus I discovered that my car was in a Presidents club space and inside was a note welcoming me to Hertz Gold. When I drove up to the booth not only did the clerk wish me a happy birthday, but she said, “I see this is your first rental with Hertz, welcome to Hertz gold.”
So far, I’m off to a nice start with Hertz. I suspect I’ll spend between $5,000 and $7,500 this year with Hertz and I’m sure I’ll earn higher status this year with Hertz.
National could take some notes from companies who provide customer service via email, Twitter, etc…
Wouldn’t consider renting from National after your experience. The fact that they wouldn’t reinstate your status is one of many reasons. I would forward all comments to National showing them how their poor customer service is losing them even more customers.
I’m a Znational Executive, but with a bad taste from my last rental – in Mexico. How did a $288 resv turn into a $415 rental charge????
Very sorry to hear, Stacey. Good to see that you moved to Hertz!
I love Hertz. Remember my National Executive rental in Chile last year…I have yet to receive an invoice supporting the charge and finally gave up after 4 months. They quickly charged my credit card which was processed under Alamo although I rented from National. I still have to wonder what I paid for as it was more than the estimate at the time of rental…returned on time and with a full tank of gas.
I love Hertz. No that that means anything… but I do
I’ve had issues with national trying to charge for damage but I have always been able to get them waived.. Sorry to hear about your experience
I have heard horrible stories from people renting from National. Hertz is awesome except when the rental is not closed. Just make sure all rentals are closed. After 40 rentals you will get President status.. BTW hertz doesn’t monitor social networking either.. Hertz also doesn’t fill out damage reports correctly either. Just make sure you take lots of pictures. Some hertz cars shouldn’t be rented. They are in really bad condition. I hope somebody from National read your post. People tweet your post to National.
I had exactly the opposite problem – a runaround by Hertz and I switched to National and havent had a problem since the switch. I guess its a matter of luck which crack you fall through in the customer service system.
Just one word: Skype — never had a problem calling US toll free numbers (for free) from abroad.
@Oliver …yes, Skype too has saved me many times when calling US toll free numbers.
Agree I would be very angry if the same happened to me but I believe you made a mistake by selecting a damaged car among probably dozens of good ones. If you are an Executive Elite you can just pick any car available in that aisle so why pick the one that was damaged? I have been a loyal National customer for more than 10 years and the only the main reason I keep going back is that by having Executive membership through my Amex Platinum I can pick any car in the lot by just reserving a full size. Thus, the worst case scenario I will get a reserved full size but in 100% of the times I always got mini vans, SUVs, luxury cars, etc… all for the full size rental price. Also, I always compare the rates and 100% of the times National was way cheaper than Hertz for the same rental category. If I am missing something here, please let me know what I am doing wrong but I cannot find a cheaper rental rate with Hertz. On the customer service side, last time I rented using National I had a full size car reserved for BOS and when I got there I went to the Executive aisle hopping I would find an SUV. They had none. I asked the manager if he could get one and he said he would try to find one for me. It passed 20 minutes and he finally came with a brand new Tahoe which was way bigger than I wanted but my family would be more comfortable than in the full size car. He then came to me and said that since I was very patient waiting for him to find an SUV he would take care of the gas for me. He wrote on the back of his card that I could return the tank empty at no charge and signed. A week later when I returned the car I showed his business card with the note and the fuel charge was waived. That is what I call customer service.
I have also used Gmail call option to call US numbers. I believe this worked well in Thailand. It didnt work in China because of the way the free internet works there so most often you will need a VPN into the US to make calls via gchat.
Your fears (charges for previous damage and also increase in rental fee when returning car) are reasons why i have always rented to Avis. However, due to inadequate planning, i was stuck with renting with Hertz twice in December. Fortunately it all worked out and rates were good. I will still rent with Avis but would consider Hertz based on price.
I love Hertz. I currently have 5 Star status with them. Great customer service, great cars.
I had a car with previous damage with them and I ended up in a small accident in that car. They didn’t hassle me over the previous damage (which was documented in the computer and on paper in the car), only billed the damage caused in the accident which the other person’s (at fault) insurance covered. I have rented from National a couple of times and it just isn’t the same.
I’m very surprised, I have had great customer service from National for many years. But I’m sure if I had an experience like yours, I would defect too.
I would say that with any rental company, I have learned the hard way to never accept a damaged vehicle. None of them have appropriate systems in place such that the employee who checks the car back in has any way of knowing if it really was damaged before or not. Even worse on a one-way rental.
I gave up my Executive National status and switched to Hertz (status matched) because they will not allow me to set up a debit card in my online profile to reserve a car. I called several times to ask why they would not allow me to do this as a long time customer (I obviously wasn’t a threat to steal the car), and basically got the feeling, they didn’t care about my business. I’ve been happy paying via debit card with Hertz for a year.
Hertz FTW. They are extra generous towards their elites and have forgiven dents/scratches twice just because of my elite status (and I didnt even ask!).
Sorry for your experience. I’ve had good luck with National myself: I recently did a 3-day pre-cruise rental from LAX with dropoff at LGB. When I got to the lot at LAX with a wife and 2 kids (and approximately 17 bags!)there were no SUVs in the Exec aisle. The young man in the Exec booth told me just to grab an SUV from the regular lot and he’d take care of it. The contract was right, but I obviously wasn’t 100% confident in that. When I checked into LGB, the receipt also printed at ~$110 as expected. When I got back from the cruise, I found a charge for ~$170 on my card. I figured that they are repriced it on me, and I’d have to fight it. I called and the rep found that I had been billed for 5 days. I volunteered to email a scan of the receipt and/or documentation showing that I wason a cruise in Cabo that day. The rep said “nope, I see you only reserved 5 days. I’ve processes it and the refund will show up in X days”…. and it did.
Your case is clearly some amazingly bad customer service. It is really shocking that they didn’t restore the account completely, once the error was recognized. That is just mystifying. It does seem to be the luck of the draw, but with as much money as my Exec Aisle upgrades save me… I’ll just have to take that risk.
I also used to be National Exec Elite and also left because of terrible customer service and bogus charges.
My bad experience began when I rented from Denver very late at night. There were only two cars left in the lot for me to chose from and I chose the one that wasn’t a pickup truck. It turns out later that there were very slight divots on the hood when I picked out the car, but given the time of night such minor damage was hard to see. And it’s not like I had a choice in cars available to me.
When I returned the car, the damage on the hood was noted (looked like minor hail damage). I made a strong case for why I wasn’t responsible for the damage (i.e. it hadn’t hailed in my time renting the car), took lots of pictures, and received written confirmation that I would not be held responsible from the agent.
Fast forward 11 months. I received a bill detailing over $2000 in damages including such items as “bumper replacement” and “hazardous waste removal”. I was incredulous. They sent the bill just before the 12-month cutoff point before I can be held liable from a rental, and I had to scramble to recover my documents from 11 MONTHS prior. National customer service was useless because they said the matter had been turned over to a collection agency. And the collection agency, obviously, was only interested in collecting the money supposedly owed.
I understand that National might not be any worse than Hertz overall, and I do think that these horror stories are more location-specific than anything else, but the whole experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I will never again rent from National, out of principle. Like Stacey @ VGP, National is losing a large source of revenue with such shoddy customer service. Terrible customer service is bad enough, but to treat your upper-tier elites who spend thousands/year like this is an awful, awful business practice.
Not that you are polling for customer service experiences but I had a similar, ridiculous, protracted, time wasting, and ultimately never satisfied issue with Hertz and vowed to not use them again. YMMV
Rented from National for a weekend in Omaha NE. Car was great. Returned in Perfect condition. Upon returning vehicle, the representative handed me the thermal paper printout showing I returned the vehicle (without any issues), and my final charge. I threw away the thermal paper and contract after thinking everything was okay. A week later I get a letter from National with $1200 auto body repair bill. Still fighting with National, and am unsure if credit card company insurance (Ink Bold) will pay for it, because they said they need a copy of the contract. I asked for National to get airport parking lot video of me returning the car (without any damage) (gave them exact time within 2 or 3 minutes), but they say they can’t obtain it. Not sure what to do. If you have suggestions, let me know.
I had a very similar experience. I always rent from Hertz (about 50 rentals a year) but last year for a variety of reasons rented twice from National, both times in Hawai’i. I got matched to Executive Elite and reserved the full size car, hoping to pick out a Jeep in Kona. I was told I was not eligible to pick a car because my Exec Elite status was not part of the original reservation. I was told that if I wanted a Jeep I should have reserved one.
Then a month later in Honolulu, I rented a car that was upon return discovered to have a dent on the bumper. I had the car in my possession pretty much the whole time and I did not run into anything with the front bumper (would be pretty easy to remember). They charged me over $500 for that scratch, which I paid after arguing with them for weeks, and 10 days later, they called my insurance company and demanded payment from them. Contacting various directors did nothing – no response whatsoever. However, a post on Facebook resulted in immediate response, apology, and return of my $500.
I’ll never rent from National, Alamo, or Enterprise ever again.
Sorry to hear about your experience with National and I understand your frustration. However, it just shows how different people have different experiences with different companies.
I’ve always had great service from National. In 2011, I rented from National probably 48 weeks and in 2012 rented from them about 26 (changed jobs within the company, was off the road for a while).
In 2012, my employer changed travel policies and now Hertz was the preferred company. My first rental experience with Hertz were awful — poor service, bad cars, and I missed picking my car at will. I’ve talked with a number of my colleagues and uniformly, they are unhappy with Hertz and are just picking National. Additionally, National seems to be cheaper than the Hertz rentals.
I’ve had good luck with National, but I did have one attempt from them to extort money from me. The local shop called me a week after I dropped the car off to tell me there was damage on the car. I asked why it took so long, and they claimed that it was because they couldn’t see the scratch until they cleaned the car up and got it into the light. I asked them how I was supposed to see the scratch before I rented if their lot isn’t lighted well. We went back and forth, but I noticed a big change in her voice when I mentioned that this was not a business rental, but a personal one. I think she thought she could charge my employer. When she found out that it was just me on the hook, she wasn’t as vicious about getting payment. She kept wanting a credit card number, but I refused to give her anything or admit responsibility. She said she would talk to the corporate office and that they may go after me. I’m not afraid. It was over a year ago, and I’ve heard nothing. I really wonder if they were just trying to extort money out of me. I had that car a week, and I didn’t see any such scratches. I haven’t rented National since then, and I’m not sure if I will again. It really was a little off putting.
Hello,
My name is Amelia from the Social Monitoring Team at National Car Rental and I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience. We are interested in addressing this. We’ve taken note of your complaint. As customer service is of the utmost importance, we would like the opportunity to look into this concern for you. Please contact us at care[at]nationalcar.com with complete details, including your name, contact information, rental agreement or reservation number, the address of your specific rental branch, and any further information. We’d be happy to help. When emailing, please list Reference Number 130213-002124 in the subject line. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Amelia
Social Monitoring Team