Payless Car Rental

Pros: nothing was positive
Cons: never rent from payless, regardless the cost

an absolute nightmare-never rent a car from them-we have
been going to puerto rico for over 30 years & never had a
bad car rental experience until we went to them-I am still
waiting to hear from corporate-probably they are so bad is
they are franchised (individual owners buying the name)

Pros: clean car, fast service, very friendly
Cons: can't think of any

Iread all the negative and got really nervous. I imagined some nasty dirty old van after reading these reviews. I was picked up by a very clean and new shuttle, had a Grand Caravan with less than 3,000 miles, had immediate attention on arrival and departure, and paid $275 total cost. A savings of $130 from nearest priced competitor. I will definetely use them again. The people in front of me said that the rate doubled because they took out insurance. I had full coverage on my personal car so I was covered with my current insurance company.

Pros: Good car.
Cons: Service and deceptive pricing

I recently rented a car at LAX. At the shuttle gate, I waited nearly 45 minutes for a payless van, while the other companies' shuttles whizzed past. When I finally got to the counter, another customer was having an argument with the clerk while I waited. Finally another clerk came to help.

The biggest rip off is the "loss-of-use" clause. I couldn't find out if my insurance covered that (the clerk said, "probably not"). They told me that if the car was damaged I would be charged the rental rate while it was being repaired. Can you imagine how long they would take to repair the car?

I didn't have time to argue and there were NO other rental companies near the off-airport site, so I bit. The insurance was more than the rental price.

The final insult was the $2.75 gas at the local Texaco station near the rental site and the shuttle bus driver who came speeding in and splashed me by running through a puddle.

One day I'll learn that cheapest has a price to pay

Pros: Cheap
Cons: Scams you into a RSP fee.

Payless runs a scam in Las Vegas called the RSP fee.  When you decline all the insurance, there is one item in which you actually approve a fee.  So when they tell you to initial that you are declining their insurance, you are also approving a $3 a day fee.  They make it in the receipt like it is a governmental fee, but it actually an extra charge that you would never know.

Pros: FREE XM Satellite radio in cars, cheap prices
Cons: Pressured into upgrades and their insurance, but I declined.

Once you get through the pressured selling, they are fine. I got the car I reserved at the price I was quoted, and no problem. From all I have read here, just make sure you bring proof in insurance with you to be safe, and check the vehicle throughly in the garage. Other than that, you can save a lot by checking their rates directly, and signing up for their "perks" club.

Pros: NONE
Cons: Bad service. Bad attitude. Idiot employees. Bas business practices. Shady.

We reserved a 15 passenger van for a very important stake holder tour for our company. I was told on the phone that the van would be ready at 9 am and the person who picked it up could park their car at the Payless lot. When my coworker arrived, they kept him waiting for half an hour, then finally told him there was no van for us. He got, instead, a minivan on empty--he had to FILL IT UP HIMSELF-- at regular charge and we had to rent another one from a different company, plus drive some of the stakeholders around in one of our own cars. Additionally, he was told that there was no where he could park his car so he had to park in an abandoned lot near the Oakland Airport. Absolutely the worst service I have ever seen.

Pros: Easy to get to, easy return, No waiting at the airport for the shuttle.
Cons: Bare bones service at the counter,That is the only negative I can think of.

We got a good deal from Pay Less in Denver. Good service. Nice vehicle - met our needs. We did choose an optional insurance, but that was our choice - no pressure from the company. Would rent from them again.

Pros: None!
Cons: Horrible service

I just rented a car for my wife at the Orlando, Fl location. When she went in to pick up the car, they told her that she would have to get the 13.99$ per day additional insurance because she was paying with a visa check/debt card. This was RIDICULOUS! While she was at the facility, I called their Customer Service (which is a clever name since they provided me with absolutely NO customer service), the customer service department was extremely rude and completely unhelpful. I told my wife to walk out the door… called another rental car company, had her a better car (Full size compared to small at Payless) and it wound up only costing us an additional 30$ AND they accepted payment with her Visa Check card without any questions or concerns!

Pros: none
Cons: scam

Awful experience from start to finish.

Had to wait for a long time at SFO while a single van had to go back and forth several times to drop off all the passengers at the offsite location.

The car that I got was a joke. 60,000 miles, poor brakes, old and stained interior.

To top it all off, the final bill was 50% over the quoted price because of all the hidden charges.. and guess what?! it's IMPOSSIBLE to get in touch with anyone at that company. Emails bounce, their phone contains a recorded message to use their website and their website crashes.

It's been 2 months and I am yet to get back the money that I was overcharged.

All in all, an appalling experience, never to be repeated again.

Pros: Play by the rules and save big.
Cons: Far from airport

After reading all the reviews from here, I was on guard when I arrived to pick up my rental car from their Newark Airport location. They quoted me $205 for a compact car for a 8 day rental. The next lowest price is $340. They are off airport ground in a Ramada Inc. Took 30min to get to from Airport. The clerk was efficient; no smile. They ran out of compact and gave me a Taurus; no charge. When I told them that I plan to drive the car into NY, they added another $16 charge. Given the already low price, I didn't put up with much of a fight. They did ask for my insurance card. I agreed to a $500 hold on my AE card in case of damage. After inspected the car, I pointed out scratches on the front scrach and dirty trunk. He noted it on the contract. Took the car for cleaning and came back with extra air fresher in the car. There was no problem when I returned the car.

Pros: None
Cons: Bait and switch pricing practices. Rude employees.

In brief, a trip to Florida was wonderful except for Payless. We waited over an hour at the Orlando airport for a shuttle. When we arrived at the car pick up, they would not honor the web price, because we were past their anticipated pick up time. Although I was not given an option on line to put my actual pick up time, only a time they assigned me. The people who were working the counter were rude. They didn't have the car we requested available "because we were too late" so we were upgraded, with costs. The rental was 3 times the rate we had a contract for. We were two hours between waiting for the shuttle and working out the rental agreement. They gave us the wrong directions to our resort making us miss a dinner engagement. The ride back on the shuttle was the scariest ride I've had. The bus doors were flapping open when the driver took a corner and loud warning bells kept going off.
Don't be enticed by low price...they'll get a higher price from you and be really nasty about it in the process.
Stay far away!

Pros: Nothing
Cons: Long wait times for shuttles Lack of any customer service Very unprofessional

Rented a car in San Francisco ... a terrible experience. We had to wait about 30 min to get a shuttle from their off site lot. Then we were told our reservation was for an old car with power nothing. Got fed up and walked out the door. In the end, you get what you pay for.

Pros: The people were pleasant about not honoring my quoted rate.
Cons: Long waits - coming and going - did not honor price quote.

I booked my rental online through Travelocity and got a great price in Phoenix. When I arrived (on time) I was told that, even though the computers at Payless and Travelocity showed the same price that I had been quoted on my printed reservation form, it would not be honored. The Travelocity elf did not come to my rescue. The best they would do is promise to reimburse me after I got home and sent in all of the required paperwork. The process of renting the car took 2 1/2 hours of my time, required me to lay out extra money up front (and hope that someday I'll be reimbursed) and then it took another hour to return the car. They don't have people with little printers that meet you when you return the car - you have to stand in line at the counter AGAIN. Definitely not worth the risk.

Pros: Nothing
Cons: Absolutely no customer service, cancelled after waiting over 45 minutes for a shuttle.

Absolutely horrible service. We were not told we had to call to have a shuttle come for us, in fact when we did call the message only said to proceed to the ground transportation area. After watching every other company's shuttle go by at least five times we called and were told they would be there in 10 mins. We finally had enough after an additional 20 minutes and called and cancelled our reservation. We walked straight into Budget where there was no line and walked right back out to a waiting shuttle and was at our rental within 5 mins. We paid a little more but I guess you get what you pay for and I know we will never use payless again.

Pros: none, really.
Cons: Poor car conditions, rude employees, inconvenient location from Oakland airport, poor customer service.

I rented a car here and after noticing handling problems with the car, I brought it to a mechanic and realized the two front tires were bald and unsafe for driving. The manager of Payless car rental, a man by the name of Rashid, made no attempt to help me in any way. He said that he didn't believe that the tires were in bad shape, and told me to just drive the car back. There was no attempt to figure out if indeed the tires were bad by the company, and I was even hung up on by one of the employees there. Don't plan on relying on this company if you're in a hurry, either. You have to take two seperate shuttles to finally get to the company from Oakland airport, and when I asked for directions to the freeway from the company, no one knew how to get there or even really seemed to care. Overall I had a terrible experience renting here, and I would'nt recommend Payless car rental to anyone.