Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Booking a Payless Rental Car through Southwest.com

dschueler
Explorer C

During a recent trip to Tampa, FL, I reserved a Payless Rental Car through the Southwest website after I booked my flight.  Payless came up as the lowest cost agency when I booked, but upon checking in at the Payless counter in Tampa, I was charged with an extra $5.99 per day.  The extra fee was for "mandatory roadside assistance" because they have stopped putting spare tires in their rental cars.  The agent said that this fee was standard practice but that it was not reflected through travel sites like Southwest and Expedia.  What a scam!  My lowest price rental was now $20+ more expensive.  Unfortunately I was in a rush and didn't have time to address with a manager.  If others have had this or a similar issue with Payless, I want to give the feedback to Southwest so they can choose whether to keep them on as a partner.

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Booking a Payless Rental Car through Southwest.com

major
Adventurer C

Those low-cost car rental agencies do shady things like this to me also.  You have to be assertive at the rental car desk and make sure they remove any of those charges.  You are not required to accept those charges.  I wish SWA had to give feeback on partners that have shady business practices.

Re: Booking a Payless Rental Car through Southwest.com

OhOneMoreThing
Explorer C

5/24/18. Payless raised the price of my car rental to pay for the SWA miles that i was supposed to get for booking on SWA.com. Of course, i would not pay extra, so Payless removed the miles. Also, on my credit card statement, i was billed twenty dollars extra over the price i was quoted. On top of that, they charged my credit card almost $20 for tolls, even though we never used toll roads. All it took to investigate this horid company was a trip to the BBB website. Payless is rated "F" on the Better Business Bureau's website. Here's my question for SWA? Why on earth would you do business with a partner who rates an "F" on BBB? My experience reflects negatively on SWA as much as it does with Payless. I won't be using SWA to book any more rental cars, and if this happens again, i won't be using SWA either. I expect a response from SWA. Oh, and i've sent this to Sharyl Attkisson, the investigate reporter as low haning fruit.

Re: Booking a Payless Rental Car through Southwest.com

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@OhOneMoreThing wrote:

5/24/18. Payless raised the price of my car rental to pay for the SWA miles... I won't be using SWA to book any more rental cars, and if this happens again, i won't be using SWA either. I expect a response from SWA. Oh, and i've sent this to Sharyl Attkisson, the investigate reporter as low haning fruit.


The tolling practices annoy me at the rental car "leaders" as well. It's also normal for there to be some sort of fee pertaining to the miles, that's not only Payless. Booking rental cars through the Southwest website allows you to get the miles, and consolidate some of your booking information - I wouldn't use it expecting to find the lowest price compared to booking direct or through other discount methods.

 

Personally I try to stick to the main rental car agencies to avoid outlier events like that with the shady billing. Instead it is a predictable amount of attempts at extra billing.

 

But anyway - this is a customer-to-customer forum, I just wanted to make sure that if you were expecting a response from Southwest you'd need to have also called customer service or reached out via Twitter (@SouthwestAir) or Facebook, or sent a letter.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Booking a Payless Rental Car through Southwest.com

SarahClark
Explorer C

These are followed as an ethics to pull customers. But, I'm wondering why businesses doesn't understand several things. When you are loyal to customers, they will come back again and recommend or suggest about to their community circle, where you can gain high than you earn through fraudulence.

Re: Booking a Payless Rental Car through Southwest.com

SarahClark
Explorer C

These are followed as an ethics to pull customers. But, I'm wondering why businesses doesn't understand several things. When you are loyal to customers, they will come back again and recommend or suggest about to their community circle, where you can gain high than you earn through fraudulence.