National Car Rental

I would never rent a car from National Car Rental in Maui again. My experience in dealing with them was horrific. My flight from Maui to LAX was delayed by five hours from 9:00P.M. to 2:00 A.M. I dropped my children off at the airline terminal with our luggage and went to return my car to National car Rental. Upon arriving at their location their gates were closed, there was no shuttle bus, no drop off box and their place was deserted. Using my common sense, knowing that I had to get back to the airline terminal I parked the car in a well lit parking spot in front of their sister company Alamo and locked the keys in the car. This was done to secure the car and allow them easy access once they resumed their bankers hours. Let me preface by saying that nowhere on their contract jacket were their hours posted.

Thrify car rental was kind enough to call their shuttle bus driver and get me back to the airline terminal safely. Upon landing at LAX I called National to make sure that they retrieved the car and to notify them of its location. They informed me that they did indeed have the car. However, one day later I was billed an extra $155.00 for a car key, one extra day and a drop off charge. Noone notified me of the charge or apologized to me for the inconvenience or fright that I had to endure. Customer service did refund all but $50.00. The people at the service counter at OGG were extremely rude,and not at all helpful.

I would never rent from National or Alamo again because of this experience.

National Car Rental

This kind of post belongs in the review section, but you should dispute the charge with your credit card company. This was their fault, and you shouldn%26#39;t have to pay for it. I did this with Citibank for a random Scooter company in Estonia during a trip in 2000, because they charged me for a pickup due to their scooter failing. This fee wasn%26#39;t in the contract, so I couldn%26#39;t be held responsible. Citibank was completely understanding, I received a full refund in 3 days, and I only had to fill out a form to dispute it. I never heard anything else about the situation, so I would give it a try.

Please do post this in review section, so that it will not get lost in the endless forum post. This will put pressure on National to clean up that office, and you will truly help future travelers. It%26#39;s as easy as copy and paste.

National Car Rental

Thank you for the feedback. How do I post it in the review section. I am new to this and would realy appreciate the guidance.

Hi Nancy. I feel for you.

This past March we were in Florida and had a similar bad experience with Hertz. I understand how it can really REALLY dampen you vacation when you have enough other things to worry about in a strange place.

Just wanted to share my empathy.

Sorry, Nancy... I misspoke about the rental review section, or at least, I couldn%26#39;t find it. This site is for travellers like you and me, so you might be able to create one with a little effort. There are several review sections (hotels, packages and places to see) on this website, but there isn%26#39;t anything about rentals. There should be, because that%26#39;s a part of the adventure. There are other websites that rate rental companies, and you might want to contact National%26#39;s Customer Service, again, and use that as leverage if they don%26#39;t remove the fee. They don%26#39;t need bad coverage on sites like Yahoo Travel, because a lot of people view those opinions.

Here%26#39;s another idea if you haven%26#39;t contacted your credit card company. Pathetically, you might get one operator who will give you a full refund, while another is less accomodating. I%26#39;ve been faced with this oddity on several occasions, and I think it has to do with their experience level. If they aren%26#39;t willing to give up the money, go over their head to their manager. Persistance is the name of the game, and they%26#39;ll usually surrender, if you really want to see that $50. Afterall, it isn%26#39;t their money that they are defending, and $50 buys us a very nice dinner. Good luck!

Just a couple questions. You say your flight was delayed till 2 AM, what time did you actually try to drop off the car? Were there hours on any of the documents they gave you (like contract, map anything)? When you rented the car did you have a specific drop off time (I know when ever I rent they want it back within usually an hour of that time or I get charged extra). Did you contact them when you found out your flight would be delayed or just assume they knew and would wait past their normal working hours (which typically are first scheduled plane in to last scheduled plane out)?

Just looking at the info you provided it would appear that some fault lies with you and them. Perhaps you for not caling (if you didn%26#39;t) and them for not knowing your flight was delayed and calling you for after hours drop off. Of course the only way they would have known your flight info is if you had given it to them, if not then I don%26#39;t know how they would know you were coming after hours and realisticly, why would they stay open with no flights coming in?

I actually did call the local counter to tell them that the flight was delayed. I went to return the car at approximately 10:30 P.M. There were no hours posted on the jacket containing their contract, only their phone number. The Maui airport is quite small and it appeared to me, that anyone who was working at the airport seemed to know about the delay. I guess it is unusual to have delays in Maui so this was an unusual situation. Thrifty car rental, who was kind enough to utilize their shuttle bus to retun me to the terminal had an amazing amount of empathy and knew about the Delta delay. I can%26#39;t imagine that National did not. It was an unfortunate situation, but I still do not think that I should be billed for an extra key. All of my cars come with an extra key, when purchased.

Thanks for the reply Nancy, I was just curious about the details. Sounds like they did mess with you a bit in that they knew you were coming but were not there.

Hi Nancy;

Unfortunatly you have run into what is called an island attitude at National. Most wokers there are very helpful when I have rented there.

When you first called them to say that your flight was delayed they should have informed you their closing hours and procedures for after hours drop-offs. Please ask that when you rent and have them write it down or circle it on the agreement. As by USA law the hours of operation where you rented have to be on the contract.

You have received excellent recommendations from the board to resolving your overcharge.

I would say try have National pay for the overage and a sweetner for your next rental due their mishandling of your problem in Maui and the aggravation it has caused you.

If that does not work go thru your credit card

company and dispute the charges.

Be sure you tell National that will be your 2nd choice as they will have to pay a penalty and an extra fee to your credit card company after they process your charge-back due to services not received.

Good Luck and please repost to let us know how you were treated by National.

I assume in the future you will be renting from Thrifty and will be aware of rental car location hours. Please let other people know as this is quite a common problem for travelers and a hard lesson sometimes.

To lighten things up:

Many years ago I left a rental car during similar circumstances on the side of the terminal off the runway as I had to board immeadiatly and the rental car counter/valet at the airport (in those days in was were up front) was open but empty. I waited then fed up drove around to the side of the terminal to the runway nearest my flight, I locked the keys in the car and boarded my flight. I called the next day to inform them what I had to do due to their lack of service.

They apologized backwards and forwards, comped the rental and gave me a free 7 day rental for the future and I received a personal letter of apology from the VP of West Coast Operations. They had to try harder. No security then either.

Back to the future:

Different time, different companies. However you should have been treated the same at your first contact.

If National/Alamo had taken care of you I

would be answering a post about the great time you had on Maui instead of your last minute vacation spoiler.

I hope you come back to Maui and make better memories there.

Aloha,

gmc