National - NEVER AGAIN

[TravelinGal]

When it comes to booking directly through any company, very rarely is there ever a problem or misunderstanding. Travel Agents, im sorry to say, are useless this day an age.

I'd thank you to remember that there are quite a few travel agents on this site - and that MANY of us are quite adept at handling the clients in a correct manner.

Would it be fair of me to say:

All lawyers are money hungry jerks who don't really care about the outcome of a case.

All car salesmen are liars.

All doctors conspire together to make your problem seem worse than it is so they can get more money from you.

No, it wouldn't be fair. SO don't say all TA are bad/useless because someone has a problem with ONE.

To the OP - I'm sorry you had a problem with your rental. Personally, I have never booked the car with the package when I book for clients. I always check all car companies and look for the best price for my clients - and give them the choice - and nobody has ever chosen to book the car through the tour operator.
I would certainly look for a new TA (maybe this person is new in the field?) but I wouldn't say I'd never use one again.

 

[PinkTink63]

Ok this may be long but I am just so mad that I could spit. I booked an air and car through a travel agent who booked me on MLT Vacations. Well, apparently if you book that way you lose all benefits of a rental car program you might belong to. Had I known that I would not have booked this way. Anyway, I was booked on Alamo and found out that I could not check-in online due to my booking. So I asked the travel agent about National and if I could use my Emerald Club with them. She told me that yes, it would not be a problem but it would be $88 more. The thought of not having to stand in line was well worth the $88. Well, I called National on Monday of last week to confirm everything and the told me they had my reservation but there was no EC number attached to it. So I asked them if they could add it. They told me no, that I needed to call MLT and have them re-book it using my Emerald Club number. So I call them and they say they added the number. I call National the next day. Still no number on my reservation. I asked if hey could add it and again was told no. So I call MLT once again and they say they can see the number in their system but put me on hold to talk to their rep at National. They come back on the line and tell me all I need to do is call Nat. and they will add the number to my reservation. WHAT? I just called twice and 2 people told me no! So I call once again and what do you know, they COULD add my EC number to my reservation. Apparently the first two people were just to lazy? So I ask the woman if I can then just go out to the lot and get my car. She tells me yes. I called the night before we left to confirm everything and was told that no, I could not just go to the car, I had to stand in line and talk to an agent. Ummm ok, so now I am mad. I just paid $88 more to stand in line just like I would with Alamo. I am not to happy with this at all! But I am not going to let this ruin my vacation.

We get to MCO yesterday and I went to stand in line at Nat. while the others got the luggage. I get up to the counter and the woman asks me if I want a additional driver. I told her yes and then she tells me it will be $10 extra per day. I mentioned that I thought it was free for EC members and she must have agreed because she did not argue. She then gives me my licence back and tells me to go out to the garage and get in a car. Take it to the exit booth and show them my ID. Ok, I thought that I could not just do that but, OK. So we all get out to the car, load the luggage in and we are on our way. I get to the exit gate and the woman there tells me that I need to put the car back and go to the customer service booth and get my voucher validated. At this point I completely lost it and pretty much told her no, I was not going to. She needed to figure out what was going on because I was not going to stand in line again when that person told me I should just come get my car! She tells me to put the car back. So I back the car up, park it, and head to the customer service booth in the garage. I talk to the girl at the counter (as calmy as I can) and explain the situation. Know what she tells me? Just go get a car and go to the exit booth! I told her NO I WAS JUST THERE AND THEY TOLD ME TO COME IN HERE! So she gets the manager who quickly just gets me checked-in and FINALLY I get some paper work so that I can get out of this hell hole. I asked him why it is that so many people have so many different anwers and he just says, I don't know. Nice answer from a manager. So I tell him that maybe they should do a bit more training on their employees since they have no clue how to do their jobs, and I walked away. I am never rude like that but I am sorry, it took me over an hour to get out of there and I think that is really rediculous.

I just cannot believe what a hassel this was and it makes me even more mad that I paid more to go through it. I am really mad a my travel agent for mot knowing this information before she just went ahead and booked it. I never use and agent but becuase of the "deal" she could get me I went with it. NEVER AGAIN.

From now on I am using Budget. I don't care how much it costs, I have never in my life had a problem with them. And I will never let someone else have control over my vacation.

Kristine

I am very sorry that happened, and I can totally relate! I think the problem stems from the travel agent. We had trouble with accomodations before. We were told they were just across the street from the ocean. She failed to mention that it was quite a hike just to get to the eight lane hwy that you had to cross. To top it off, the place was a dump! We spent a week trying to get a new hotel!

Also, I have rented from several different companies and have had the least amount of problem with National. I have had trouble with all of them. Budget was probably the worst rental experience that I have ever had. I'm glad you never had any problem with them, consider yourself lucky!

The point is, it is just a shame that we go to all this expense and work for our vacations to start them out like that! We are all excited to get there and get going and then something like that happens! It tends to put a little damper on things! I try not to let it get to me and once I reach WDW, everything seems so much better!

Better luck next time!
Steph

 

[rlduvall]

[QUOTE
Would it be fair of me to say:

All lawyers are money hungry jerks who don't really care about the outcome of a case.

All car salesmen are liars.

All doctors conspire together to make your problem seem worse than it is so they can get more money from you.
[/QUOTE]

And your point is . . .

No, no, I'm just joking. I loved your post. I have worked with attorneys for over 20 years, bought a few cars from salesmen and even seen a doctor or two.

Everyone have a great day.

 

[bg4]

Just pointing out that I did not throw TA's under any bus

Perhaps saying that TA's are

Originally Posted by Disneyjosh229
Travel Agents, im sorry to say, are useless this day an age..

was an unfortunate choice of words - but the spirit of that statement is absolutely correct and I agree. Perhaps something like

unecessary this day of age would be more politically correct.

The fact of the matter is that for most travelers a travel agent is not a necessary factor as virtually everyone can book their own air, hotels and rental cars plus disney and universal vacation packages thru the internet. The internet is your travel agent not to mention travelocity and expedia.

To be fair there are some people who still need or want a travel agent and that is their right and their choice. To bring this full circle a travel agent should be able to handle any problems with a rental car company BEFORE the customer arrives at the garage.

I am not a travel agent nor a travel professional but I am a thinker.

 

[connorlevismom]

Well there were two problems here.

1. Your TA. They should have KNOWN that they were giving you a VOUCHER and that for ALL rental car companies (National, Budget, Hertz etc) if you use a voucher you have to stand in line.... (Same thing if you use Hotwire and/or Priceline)

2. National. It sounds like they are CLUELESS on the vouchers (which is probably because they cater to business travelers who don't use the voucher. Alamo does a lot of voucher traffic)

I agree with all of this. Yes, the travel agent should have known what was going to happen. Obviously she did not and I learned a very big lesson.

But National is one of 2 car rental companies that MLT offers so that means they should be somewhat familiar with the prcoess of this. There are TONS of people who book MLT so I find it hard to believe that National has no knowledge of the system they have in place.

Kristine

 

[connorlevismom]

A few years ago when my family rented with National, the Girl at the check in counter had no idea how to find our reservation & it took her like 20-30 minutes, to finally ask her manager, who then found it right away.

The next year we only rented with them, because we had a coupon with the old Magic Kingdom club card membership. Anyway at 1st everything was ok, but then the girl asked asked to see the coupon. Well my Dad could not find, so then he is told without it we could not get the car, eventhough we have gone threw this whole check in process. She went on to say that we needed to present the cupon upon check in, but it never said anything on the coupon about that & believe me we did not see it, plus we looked where they have those little fine printed words. We also were not old over the phone when making the reservation, we did not have to show the coupon. Anyway my Dad finally found it & we were on our way.

However after that experience we stoped renting from National & gone to Avis. That was the best decision we made because, with Avis we have never had any problems with them.

Obviously the above mentioned story is not something that is new for National.

In fact when I was in the office in the garage there was a VERY angry group of 12 from England that were stranded because National lost their reservation. They had none of the vans left that these people had reserved and futher more they could not find their reservation to begin with. There was a major argument going on and all that National kept telling them was there was nothing they could do about it.

When I went to Dallas this last March my group reserved an SUV because we had a lot of luggage. When we got to National they told us they did not have any SUV's left but for a larger fee they could give us an escalade or something like that. We sat there for 2 HOURS while they told us they were having it brought from the car wash station. When I finally got fed up and went to Avis next door I had my car in less than 15 minutes. One of the group went over to National to tell them to cancel the reservation and the guy that was helping us said "that's fine because we did not even have that car on property anyway". So how long were they going to let us sit there until they told us they had lied to our faces?

I am sorry but I have never had an experience like I have had with National and I am not giving them another shot. I have booked with them twice and twice they have screwed up.

Kristine

 

[connorlevismom]

Have you ever played the little party game where a secret is passed around the room and the last person repeats the secret out loud? The final outcome never matches the original statement. I would bet the same thing happened with your reservation. Everytime you called the original TA and the TA call MLT and MLT called National, the message probably got distorted. I would also bet that each time National got a phone call on your behalf, that they got a different story. When you finally got to MCO, I surprised they even had your name on your reservation correct with all the different hands it went through. National probably did not know which scenario was correct or if any were.

When it comes to you TA, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" Sounds like you got what you paid for with the TA, Poor Service all around.

Actually National only got one call on my behalf. All the other times I was the one that called them. So there was no game of telephone since I am the one that was telling National what happened and they are the ones that answered me. 15 different people at National told ME 15 different answers. Nobody there seems to know what to do and I am sorry, that is completely unacceptable in my opinion. If I don't know what my job is, I get fired!

 

[CarolA]

I'd thank you to remember that there are quite a few travel agents on this site - and that MANY of us are quite adept at handling the clients in a correct manner.

Would it be fair of me to say:

All lawyers are money hungry jerks who don't really care about the outcome of a case.

All car salesmen are liars.

All doctors conspire together to make your problem seem worse than it is so they can get more money from you.

No, it wouldn't be fair. SO don't say all TA are bad/useless because someone has a problem with ONE.

To the OP - I'm sorry you had a problem with your rental. Personally, I have never booked the car with the package when I book for clients. I always check all car companies and look for the best price for my clients - and give them the choice - and nobody has ever chosen to book the car through the tour operator.
I would certainly look for a new TA (maybe this person is new in the field?) but I wouldn't say I'd never use one again.

Unfortunately for you the TA buisenss has a lot of folks who are CLUELESS and only went into it because "we can get discounts" I for example will not use the majority of "home based" TAs. I have used Dreams Unlimited, but they do ONLY one thing and they tend to be good at it. You can book your Disney vacation, they don't do your plane, they don't do your rental car etc....

I also won't use a TA for most things if the TA does not have a 24/7 response service. (Let's get real, airlines go on strike at 5 am, planes land at midnight and there is no rental car avaialble etc.)


As for National, I have pretty much started walking away. My last rental with them was not satisfactory..... I use Hertz 99.9% of the time. Yes, they can cost more but I am willing to pay a little for the lack of issues I have encounted. (No, they aren't perfect the Atlanta Airport locations drives me CRAZY, but then I have yet to find a rental car company at the Atlanta airport that's well run....)

 

[seashoreCM]

"There is nothing we can do."

That sentence is false 99% of the time. You may feel free to jump to the conclusion that it is false whenever and as soon as anyone recites it.

If the 12 Brits had jumped to that conclusion sooner... Does National have any agencies in England, which would make it easier for the aforementioned tourists to get redress after returning home?

"All lawyers (car salesmen) are ..."

I can't speak for these sentences yet, need to do some research.

"We sat there for two hours..."

I'm not sure whether he is still on the air but Bruce Williams (a talk show host) would often suggest something like this: "I'll be happy to take that Escalade for the same price as my reservation states but if I don't have a car within thirty minutes I am going to go somewhere else to get one and will hold you and your company civilly liable for the difference in cost."

Sometimes companies need "to have their ears pinned back" (Bruce Williams' words quoted) every now and then.