I had reserved a car to rent on Monday, July 16, 2007 to travel to Toronto, Ontario, a distance of approximately 400 km, and as always, I wanted to rent from National Car and Truck Rental. I had always reserved online, though I found that regularly the type of car I would reserve would not be available, and this rental agency would assign me a larger car, which consumes more gas. The online reservations made an allowance of 300 km/day for my rental.
Due to the distance involved, I wished for a small car, and decided to call to make my reservation instead of booking it online so that a request for a small car could be entered into the computer. I assumed that the 300 km/day applied to phone reservations as well as online ones. I was wrong. The woman who took my reservation on the phone was most helpful, however she did not quote me either a confirmation number nor tell me how many kilometres a day I was allowed. I thought nothing further of it, assuming that like the website, I was allowed 300 km/day.
When I went to pick up the car on Monday July 16, I arrived about 20 minutes early, and they told me that they did not have the type of car available which I ordered, and that it would be about 10 minutes to clean the vehicle. I was a little upset at their attempt yet again to give me a larger car. I signed the contract, not reading it carefully as I was on a schedule and a little upset that my vehicle was not ready. At no time was it pointed out to me that I was allowed only 200 km/day by the desk clerk. Upset at their apparent lack of organisation and having to wait 20 minutes instead of 10 for my vehicle, I left, assuming that I had an allowance of 300 km/day.
When I returned the vehicle, a Toyota Yaris, only then was it pointed out to me that I only had a daily allowance of 200 km/day and that I had gone over 500 km over my limit, an unplanned for addition to my bill of over $100.00. I was furious, I stated that it was 300 km/day, and the clerk stated that this rate only applied to online bookings. I argued that I did not know this, and she simply said that it was on my contract. I had called to reserve to remedy their never giving me the correct car, and it had now become a problem. I had raised my voice at this point, and the manager came over to reiterate the fact that it was on my contract, and that I should have asked for the rate, and that there was nothing she could do. They never apologised, they never tried to calm me down, and the managers smug response concerning contracts merely made me angrier. I argued that the company had a duty to inform customers of rates before renting, and not after, but she would not budge.
On returning home, I emailed National Car Rental with my complaint and they replied that I had to present them with proof of a quote of 300 km/day so that they could refund my money. I had no such proof, because for one, I had made the reservation on the phone, and secondly, the clerks had never informed me of the disparity between online and telephone bookings. Legally, they may have an argument, however ethically, this car rental agency is issuing contracts in bad faith. A subsequent email from National only gave me the same demand for proof on paper (from a telephone reservation!) of my quote of 300 km/day.
At this time, this issue is not resolved. The manager of the Kingsway location was supposed to call me on Friday, July 20, 2007, which she never did. I am very angry and I feel like I am the victim of poor customer service, a victim of a bad faith contact and even more insulted that the company can only apologise for the "confusion". They have made no effort to remedy this issue. I am now, through this report, taking this issue public as I promised them. I sincerely hope that in the interest of business ethics and customer service that we may remedy this issue.
Brian
Sudbury, Ontario
Canada
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