I had TERRIBLE luck booking a car through MS. I made the booking and confirmed the rate and dates at the end of the phone call. It took 6 weeks for my confirmation to arrive and when it did, it had the wrong dates (was only 2 days instead of 5). I called to find out what had happened and the MS person gave me ever BS excuse she could think of in the 10 minute call. First she was very nice and said she'd investigate (and did) and was kind of reading the sceen out loud and mentioned that there had been a modification two days after my original reservation.
I asked what the modification had been and if that was the problem and why I had not been informed and she put me on hold to "investigate." She came back and said that when you book a car through MS, the rate is not guaranteed until 6 months before your trip. I asked why, when members can book rooms up to 11 months in advance, was I not told that my rate was guaranteed? She said sometimes they "get very busy." I'm still not sure what that's supposed to mean, don't they only handle one call at a time? I told her that I have been booking car rentals at least a year in advance for the past 5 years and I have never had a rate change on me like that and she told me that I must be lucky or something.
Next I asked her why the rate is the same, only the dates have been changed and she tells me that in order to give me the same rate I was quoted, the dates had been changed. I was originally quoted $102+ tax for 5 days but she said that since under the new rate that would only buy 2 days, my reservation was reduced. Now, I HIGHLY doubt that this is the policy that MS has in place but if it is, that's nuts. I would've arrived late on a friday night and would have been stuck paying twice as much for my car rental and there would have been nothing I could do about it except to pay for it. She also told me that "everything was set now" because I was now within 6 months of my trip and my rate would be guaranteed, but when I did the math we were actually about 7 months out, not 6, which leads me to believe that the 6 month thing is a load of bull.
Finally, I asked why it had taken 6 weeks for me to get my confirmation. In that time, I had released a reservation at
avis for $139 before taxes and now in trying to rebook it had gone up to $200 for the same reservation (which was the same price she was quoting me to "extend" my reservation). She said basically that since I was going during a peak time, I was lucky to get anything at all and that there is NO WAY that I could have had a reservation for $139 for that time of year, let alone the $102 that I thought I had been quoted. So, could she make the reservation for me? I told her no, the last thing I needed was to show up at the airport and not have a reservation during such a peak time, there is no way I could trust them.
This is hands down the worst MS experience I have ever had. Unfortunately it was during a time when I was workign 12 hour days (was? still am) and I didn't have time to follow up on it, this post just reminded me of that. It all worked out in the end because it turned out i had NOT canceled my $139 avis reservation, waiting til I had the confirmation in hand. Whew. It's nice when I do something smart for once. But there is no way that I would trust MS for car rentals after this last experience. I have never ever had a problem booking online myself and I guess there is no reason to mess with success.
Lisa
