Beware of Emerald Aisle - problem resolved!

[markey]

If anyone can remember I posted before our trip as to what would be left in EA at 10:30 pm. Well our flight was delayed and we arrived at 11:40 along with another SW flight. It was a mad dash thru luggage and a run to the EA for intermediate only to find it completely bare. There was only 4, which looked like mini vans to us at the far end. I saw a man with a clip board and asked him which car to take for our rental. He laughed and said right now anything, everything is gone. I asked him again if we could take the vans at the end of the intermediate row, he said yes. Well of course when we got to the window the girl looked surprised that our rate went from $190 to $328. She said its because we took a SUV. Well told her the above story and she tried to fix, by this time cars were lined up, she wrote her name and number on our sheet and said it would be taken care of. It wasn't, charge was the same when we returned, and now the charge is on our card. Customer service reply was, "You should not have taken the SUV", nothing they can do about the rate, but will check to see if the employee remembers anything. So beware do not leave the window until your rate is correct. Will continue to fight this, but it will be my last National Rental if not cleared up.

 

[sgtdisney]

You should call your credit card company and put the charge into dispute. They may be able to help you.

 

[Jimdamedic]

I agree put the charge in dispute. The reservation you made with National is a binding contract. They have to provide you with a car at the rate that was posted. Recontact the National home office and don't give up until they fix your rate. They do have the power to change it, they just don't want to. If you have a copy of your email reservation receipt, offer to fax/email that to them.

 

[bavaria]

I had a smiliar incident, involving MCO Emerald Aisle and a vehicle which 'should not have been there'. I tried to dispute on return to no avail, but a quick call to National customer service corrected the charge. In fact, they went above and beyond to resolve the error.

Hope taht it works out for you...

 

[cranbiz]

I had a similular issue with EA but not the same . I was on a SW flight that did not get into MCO until 2am due to weather delays. EA was empty as was the entire National section. I went back to the counter while DW stayed in the garage. The agent on the counter said to go to tha Alamo section and take anything that was left and if it wa smaller than a midsize then my RA would be adjusted lower. Meanwhile DW found an agent in the garage who basically said the same thing and lead her to the Minivan / SUV isle as there was no intermediates or full size cars left.

DW picked a brand new full size Pickup with 70 miles on it (I drive a full size pickup at home) and upon checking out at the booth the attendant was only charging me what my ressie was for (EA - Intermediate) In fact, the booth attendent had trouble processing my CC and I had to go back to the counter a second time to have that problem fixed and the agent who got her the truck said to her as she was waiting " Did the attendant give you trouble with the price of the truck?" DW told her that there was some sort of a problem with the booth not taking my CC and she said that we should have come to her and she would have fixed it on her computer and that she will make absoultely sure that we were charged for what we reserved. When I got back, there was no problems leaving with our booked rate.(It turned out that the booth was having computer problems that night)

That worked out great for me as I did not need to rent the load n go from Lowes that trip.

On checkin back at MCO, my receipt was for exactly what my original ressie was priced at.

This last trip, I rented fron Budget at MCO for the weekend (to get my last RR credit for my free R/T ticket - yea!) I then returned at Sanford (as I was at my Deltona house) on Labor day and rented from National for the rest of the week. There I was upgraded to an Impala and on checkin at MCO was only charged for the intermediate. My total rental rate was cheaper doing the two rentals than to keep the car from Budget for the 10 days.

With the exception of one rental where I was overcharged (but fixed within a day with a call to customer service) I have had great service from National.

 

[markey]

This is an up date to get National off the hook, but something else to be aware of. I called the customer service number on the paperwork, previously talked to CS at the airport. They were not too sure they wanted to budge on the SUV vs. intermediate car, siaid if it was on the intermediate lot my quoted price should have been honored. But I was not giving up either. As it turns out the real problem was because out plane was late and we only picked the car up on the next day, according to the computer because it was after 12, so that is what changed the original rate. Since it was only 12:15 on our records and I explained the plane was late they did change it and honor our original price. Thank you National. so if this every happens to anyone just be aware that computers do make mistakes!

 

[JandD Mom]

Actually, sort of the opposite happened to my parents a couple of years ago. When they arrived at the EA there were no cars. So the attendant told my dad to pick an SUV. He had the massive Chevy Suburban

Anyway, when he I returned the car for him (long story we were all together) they took a while trying to figure out the rate. When he got the receipt, it was around $20 LOWER than the original quote.

We don't know how/why that happened, and we did not argue.

Good luck!

 

[lawgs]

markey maybe you might change your title ...to something other than...

Beware of Emerald Aisle

since you now seemed to have resolved the issure with National

 

[cepmom]

glad you got this straightened out....when we arrived at MCO on 8/24 there were no more full size cars for us to choose from (had Emerald Reserve for full size) and the attendant told us to take anything we wanted off of the Executive Aisle. We chose a minivan and were only charged for the original rate ~ I was so excited to get the minivan for $173 for 10 days!!