Carrental8 carrental8.com Higher rate, penalty fees for shortening reservation Internet
I called to amend an existing reservation, by moving the pick-up date to one day later than originally planned, with no other changes. I've made such a change with other companies many times before, and was always provided the same rate or less, given that the car is needed for less time.
Carrental8, however, told me the rate was actually higher (bizarre), AND that I had to pay a penalty fee for altering the reservation. In the end, the extra fees cost more than to book a new reservation, so I'm now out of pocket for the original reservation, which will simply lapse as a no-show at full cost to me.
This sort of customer service is totally unethical. God forbid you need to modify anything. Hope these guys go out of business, as they deserve no less. Avoid like the plague!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Cheapskate
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, September 18, 2017
You booked your rental reservation through a 3rd party and as such agreed to THEIR terms. You say you have booked before and have always gotten either the same or cheaper rate when you did this with other companies. So why didn't you book with those companies in the beginning this time?
Let me answer that for you. This company was cheaper. Guess loyalty means nothing to you where you will drop someone at the first sign of a bargain. Well now you know WHY it was cheaper because they have a much stricter change/cancellation policy.
Since they have a much stricter policy they can offer cheaper rates because they don't have to build in the cost of people cancelling/changing reservations into their rates. But you gambled that you would not have had to change and in this case lost that gamble so will need to now pay more.
If you had read the terms when you booked you would have known this. But of course you just figure that those little disclaimers you see on every site that says by clicking/checking boxes or submitting the reservation you agree to their terms means absolutely nothing and you can always get around them by threatening that you will never do business with them again. Where of course they would bow down to you because they know you would stay with them through thick and thin if they just made this little exception...oh wait you wouldn't because the only reason you booked with them is because they were cheaper than other companies you had used.
Oh and don't try to pull the "Well I didn't go with them because they were cheaper". Because that is the ONLY reason someone would go with a 3rd party booking site than dealing with the company directly.
By the way no I do not work for this company, I have never even heard of this company. But I will never use any 3rd party booking site because even if it cost me a few dollars more, dealing without the middle-man can often save you tons of headaches.