Payless Car Rental

DO NOT RENT A CAR FROM PAYLESS RENTAL CARS! They steal money and you won’t get your deposit back which is around $278

Returned the car at 6: 35 AM as I rented for two days and per the contract I had to return by no later than 7: 00 AM. I have time stamped picture's and videos of the returned car at their return location by 6: 35 AM today. Almost one and half hour later while about to board my flight I got a credit card alert this company charged me for an extra day and I got a newly generated Payless email receipt stating the car was checked in at 7: 45 AM. This is ridiculous that they would just tack on an extra day when I made sure to time everything to meet their stated deadline. Now I have left there voicemails and no one calls me back. Also called payless customer service (since location is not returning calls and no one there answers the phone). Payless customer care said this is a franchised location and they can't see any of their transactions in the general system. Payless support is going to take a report and "pass it along" to the San Diego Airport Payless location and they can take 14 days to answer and insisted I must continue to call the franchise location. I believe lodging a complaint through the BBB will be needed to get this resolved in a reasonable timeline. Be very careful if you are thinking on renting from Payless at the San Diego airport. Hands off customer care from Payless main support, pass the bucket mentality, and at the San Diego location no one picks up the phone or returns calls. ******9/23 Update: Although still didn't receive any call backs, location rectified error. I was e-mailed an updated receipt and a credit was made on my card. Thank you for handling this. Updating your rating since apart from this jarring component about the extra day charge and lack of phone live support, everything else was ok. You could really turn around your ratings by enhancing your customer service phone live support to handle mundane and easy to rectify issues, that way customers can remember the good and not have to focus on the bad.

STAY AWAY!

I booked 3 days at $35/day thinking I was getting a deal. They forced me to get their insurance and changed 35% in additional taxes upon what I already paid. I ended up paying $400 for a Sentra for 3 days. I paid less for my hotel. They lock you in with a low price and then rack up the fees. I was excited about my trip to San Diego, but then I got conned into paying 4x what I agreed to. What they are doing is criminal. Go elsewhere

Stay far away from this place unless you want to Paymore. I booked the cheapest rental they had for a week. I ended up only needing it for a day so I returned within 24 hours. They only gave me $59 off my week rental because I contracted for a week. $179.85 for a dumpy no frills car for less than a day. They weren't very friendly either. Much better options out there.

They gave me keys to a vehicle that had blood on the inside door frame, a huge cut in the back seat, rubber missing off every window, a broken wiper blade, dents and scratches all around the vehicle, gas cap stuck closed, broken hub caps, filthy dirty and a failing transmission with 86,000 plus miles. The reps were rude, uninformed and handed me the keys and said the car was located on the third floor and someone would go over the vehicle condition paper they made me sign prior to seeing the car but upon going to the empty lot there was NOONE there to assist me or check over the vehicle for me. After driving back to the rental office location they were closed (5 pm) despite hours until 11 pm. They had my address completely wrong, my DOB and license number and I tried to reach someone at the local rental office 4 times, left message etc without a return call, after speaking to cooperate and getting a claim number regarding the issues and being told I would not be held responsible I finally reached the local office by calling the rental company in the same building and asking for them to please have them pick up the call I was told “ well it doesn’t matter what corporate said they are an independent franchise and their promises meant nothing” then asked if I had video proof of the condition of the car at the time of rental! I was told to bring the car back the next day and they would issue me another vehicle. That was 6 days into my vacation. They have double charged me also. I will be bringing a lawsuit against this company immediately. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY! Your life will be in danger due to an unsafe vehicle and you will be held responsible to pay for damages until your case is heard in court. I will also notify Southwest Airlines as they are a preferred provider for them also!

Charged me two inexplicable charges (totaling $90) after I returned the car on time. Will NOT respond via phone or email. I was just on the phone with someone asking for an update on the refund, and they 'discreetly' hung up on me. Trust me, rent elsewhere.

Very bad car rental company. They don't state all the fees when you book it, so expect to pay extra for all kinds of insurances you never knew you needed (they don't tell you beforehand) also, they charged one day extra even though we returned the car the same day. Customer support does not answer. Again, VERY BAD CAR RENTAL COMPANY

Horrible experience all around. For starters, we reserved our rental with Payless online for about $315 after taxes. Upon arrival to pick up our reserved car, they told us the price will actually be $650 for the same exact rental. They refused to allow us to decline insurance for the vehicle or cancel the reservation. Additionally, they tried to charge my card twice. Once for $743.62 and the second time for $650. I noticed the first charge while still in the building and asked the attendant about it, to which I got a scoff and “I’m not sure what happened. That must have been a glitch in the system. ” They then told me that I would receive a refund for the first amount and only pay the $650 charge. (The one I tried to cancel.) After nearly two hours of trying to dispute this and leave without the rental car, the attendant finally called his manager and was allowed to cancel our reservation. Do not rent from this company unless you’re wanting to spend money on shady scams and be treated like you’re the problem.

Rented a car, it smelled like beer first day. They were willing to trade cars but we didn't want to go all the way back to airport and smell went away. The car was kinda ran down nissan. They charged me 62$ for a toll way, that I never went through and they never mentioned tollway fees in check in. They did refund $20 but that still is alot for a toll way charges.

I prepaid for my car rental prior to arrival in San Diego. When I went to pick up the car the agent said he would need to upgrade me to a more expensive car. He said the economy car would not hold 3 people. I showed him the reservation that said Kia or equivalent. He said, the economy car doesn't have a backseat. What? I asked him what kind of car doesn't have a back seat. He replied, "a Smart car. " I insisted I get the car I booked. After I insisted a bit longer and a tad louder I get an equivalent car. I was not buying into his lie! He finally said, "I will upgrade you for no additional cost. " Maybe he thought I was old and never rented a car before and he could bully me into spending more money? I did ask the girls upstairs, where I picked up my economy car, if they rented any of those cute Smart cars. She looked at me a bit strangely and said, "no. " I won't rent from Payless again.

At first I tried to extend 1 day and they charge me $94 just for extra one day of economy car and I was charged twice because they said the first one didn’t go thru when in fact my bank deducted it from my account and the lady I talked to on the phone was very rude and hanged up on my face! And when I returned the car I was charge a smoking fee and I never smoke in the car my bf rode with me and he’s a smoker so he always smell like he just smoke and the guy from the return counter told me and insisted no u smoke in the car and I found ashes and it was just crumbs from the chips I ate. I got charge $222 for smoking fee. Customer service is really bad I rented from budget and enterprise and never had this problems. So stay away from this rental co no wonder they only have 1 star! I would give it. A zero star.if I could

They use the bait and switch method. Rate changed onsite and they know customer is stuck. Cars are not cleaned properly and full of damage. Vehicle is the most basic EVer! But I must take blame as well…. You get what you pay for. I would not use them ever again

The most awful collection of losers and dishonest used car salesmen imaginable. Avoid like the plague.

Do not rent from this company, you will be sorry if you do! This company will charge you for additional mileage if you go over their "unlimited mileage" if you travel outside San Diego city/county area to a "foreign" city/county such as San Francisco, although both cities/counties are in California. Always read every rental company agreement forms and don't just sign any thing. That is what I regret and got screwed over about 650$s for traveling from San Diego to Hayfork California.

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS PLACE! These people are con-artists and are just looking to up charge you. The car we got smelled like smoke so bad. We had the WORST experience! What a joke!: (