What car company's not to rental with?

[sejeta]

Right now I have a car rental with Alamo picking up at airport and dropping off at the Car care centre one day earlier so I'm taking the Magical express back to airport but I'm thinking about renting a car from the airport and dropping off at the airport the day we leave.

I'm looking at different car companies but there are so many and so many price differences!

Firefox is one I've never heard from but the price is good. Any suggestions on what companies to avoid!
Thanks.

 

[DVC California]

Did you mean Firefly car rental? I don't have any experience with them but they've gotten mixed reviews here, mostly negative.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=49163975#post49163975

Although there are many rental companies at MCO, many of them are owned by the top 3 rental corporations (Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis)

Avis,Budget
Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty
Enterprise, National, Alamo

E-Z Rent A Car
Firefly Car Rental ( owned by Hertz)
L&M Car Rental

 

[Lewisc]

Did you mean Firefly car rental? I don't have any experience with them but they've gotten mixed reviews here, mostly negative.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=49163975#post49163975

Although there are many rental companies at MCO, many of them are owned by the top 3 rental corporations (Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis)

Avis,Budget
Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty
Enterprise, National, Alamo

E-Z Rent A Car
Firefly Car Rental (Formerly Advantage/Hertz)
L&M Car Rental

Firefly is owned by Hertz.

 

[gmeh1]

Firefly is owned by Hertz.

Advantage was dumped by Hertz before they acquired Dollar/Thrifty, they had to because of the acquisiton . Advantage is off site and an independent.
Firefly was acquired after the acquisiton of Dollar/Thrifty. Pretty sneaky if you ask me.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

All the big name rental agencies are about the same.

 

[Tara8595]

I've rented from Firefly, Budget, EZ-Rent-A-Car, L&M (now merged with EZ I think), Dollar, National, and Alamo. I've never had any problems with any of them. They all honored my booking estimate, didn't upcharge me, let me return the car full, were onsite, no issues with any. I think unless you have some strange circumstance, you will be fine with any of them - just book the best deal.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We used National once @ MCO and it was the last! It was terrible. The lines were so long and very slow at the counter. Not very friendly either. Then when we got to the garage to pick up the car, there was a huge crowd of people. All waiting for their vehicle. When we finally got our car, which was about an hour later (no lie), it was dirty. Didn't look like they cleaned the inside. Food and papers all over the back. We had reserved a car seat and it wasn't in the car either. Had to stop, go back to that crowd of people. When we told them we didn't get a car seat, the man pointed to a pile of car seats and said "help yourself." They weren't in plastic bags or anything, just thrown in a pile. They also looked dirty and the man told us if we wanted a clean one, we'd have to wait. Families were talking to one another in the garage when you would finally get your rental at how awful they were.

 

[bumbershoot]

National when an EC member (which anyone can do) is so much nicer then that. No waiting at the counter, just going out to the appropriate aisle and picking your car. Business is done as you leave.

The pile of carseats, though, I've seen at many car rental agencies. And they wouldn't install it likely because you might have upgraded cars and because they aren't going to take the chance of installing it and you getting into an accident and having the chance of the installation being wrong. Shouldn't you want to install your own carseat? I barely trusted DH to install them correctly, let alone dude at the car rental place.

 

[sejeta]

We actual found a great deal with Budget through Costco so we booked with them. I saw the mixed reviews about Firefly and was a little worried but Budget was actually cheaper and for a bigger car so we are going with them!
We leave in less that 3 weeks

 

[Mousemom234]

If it works for your timing, you might want to look into taking the ME both ways, and picking up your car at the Car Care Center.

We've done that twice, and it's quite a bit cheaper than airport pickup. One of the things that drives up the rate at MCO is the fees; they're not as high if you rent from off-airport.

We toured AK in the morning, then called the CCC for a pick-up, took a bus to the resort, and waited about 10 minutes. The van took us to the CCC, we picked up our rental, and we were on our way in less than than 20 minutes. The last time, we did drive it back to MCO, because that's how the discount rate was calculated.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Didn't expect National to install car seat. We always install our own. Just expected a CLEAN car seat and not picking one out of a pile of dirty ones. Waiting in a parking garage for rental is ridiculous and receiving a filthy car is bad customer service.

 

[gmeh1]

Didn't expect National to install car seat. We always install our own. Just expected a CLEAN car seat and not picking one out of a pile of dirty ones. Waiting in a parking garage for rental is ridiculous and receiving a filthy car is bad customer service.

The car seats are cleaned after each use and put in plastic to keep them clean. Not sure why you waited in the garage, you can go and select your own car and exit. Car seats are not installed in the cars because of liability issues and since you select your own car it would not be in it anyway. They are not in a pile, they are stacked according to size. Not sure where you rented from but, I can tell you it was NOT MCO/National since Enterprise bought them.

 

[aubriee]

We actual found a great deal with Budget through Costco so we booked with them. I saw the mixed reviews about Firefly and was a little worried but Budget was actually cheaper and for a bigger car so we are going with them!
We leave in less that 3 weeks

I would keep checking that Costco site (several times a day even). In the last week the Alamo and Budget prices have been bouncing around all over the place. I need to call and cancel some of mine (I canceled the Budget ones through the Budget site, but the Alamo site says I have to call to cancel). Anyway in the last week our price for a midsize for an eleven day rental (Dec 6th-16th) has bounced up and down from $179.00-$249.00. Through Alamo it seems to keep bouncing up and down, then back to around $230.00, but did drop one morning about 10:00am down to $179.00 total. I grabbed it, then checked about an hour later and it was back up to $230.00, but Budget had then dropped to $198.00. A couple hours later Alamo dropped to $198.00 and Budget went back up to $204.00. It's turned into a game where I'm checking every few hours just to see which one is cheaper on the Costco site. I just now checked and for a midsize car through Costco for eleven days Alamo is $219.00 and Budget is $195.14.

I really like that with Alamo you get to pick your own car, but the last three trips Budget has had the better price, so we've gone with them. Each time we've gotten a nice car and did not hav any problems, so I'd have no problem going with either.

 

[sejeta]

I've noticed that too about Alamo and Budget, very close in price. Right now I think I'll stick with Budget and I really hope I don't regret it.

I'll keep checking prices though just in case!

 

[SandyinMonterey]

It wasn't just us waiting in the garage for our car....many were. There was people inside the office (of the garage) and outside lined up after they finished in the office. Cars were not ready? Short staffed? I don't know. Everyone was waiting for their car. And YES, there was a pile of car seats, not wrapped in plastic, not cleaned yet. And you're right, we and all the others shouldn't have been waiting in that garage. I know car rental agencies policy about not installing the seat, I didn't ask them to and didn't need them to. Just expected a clean car seat. And YES, it was MCO/National. I am sure, I was there, it happened to my family.

 

[gmeh1]

It wasn't just us waiting in the garage for our car....many were. There was people inside the office (of the garage) and outside lined up after they finished in the office. Cars were not ready? Short staffed? I don't know. Everyone was waiting for their car. And YES, there was a pile of car seats, not wrapped in plastic, not cleaned yet. And you're right, we and all the others shouldn't have been waiting in that garage. I know car rental agencies policy about not installing the seat, I didn't ask them to and didn't need them to. Just expected a clean car seat. And YES, it was MCO/National. I am sure, I was there, it happened to my family.

As I said, it was probably before Enterprise purchased National/Alamo. In all the time I worked there, those seats were cleaned after each use and wrapped in a plastic bag and if they were not (some customer took the plastic off and decided against the seat for whatever reason) we sent it back to be cleaned and rewrapped. Waiting for a car should never happen (and sometimes it does) but, with National you select your car and go, the cars are not assigned. It is rare to see a line at MCO at the National counter, Alamo, yes. How long ago was this? The reason I even mentioned the rules about the car seats is because you said the car seat was not in the car. Because you select the car you want, they are not put in the car.