Payless Car Rental — Local services in Dania Beach

On January 8th,2025 , I had the worst customer experience of my life.

After waiting 3–4 hours for a 9 PM flight on January 7th, which was eventually canceled by Flair Airlines (which I will write a separate review for), I had to find a hotel for my 82-year-old father, my mother, and myself. My father has multiple health issues, including incontinence, Parkinson’s, and thyroid problems. All his clothes were dirty, and he had no access to his more medication, because we were supposed to fly home that night.

We later received an email from the airline informing us that the flight had been rescheduled four days later, on January 11th. With all this uncertainty, I thought the best course of action was to rent a car so that I could go to a nearby laundromat, buy diapers and food for my father, and ensure we had what we needed for the next few days.

The Rental Car Nightmare

I woke up early on January 8th, 2025, and left the hotel at 8:30 AM to pick up the rental car I had already paid for.

The staff and management were the most incompetent and disrespectful people I have ever encountered.

I waited over an hour for their machine to accept my Visa card after they refused to manually enter the information for the deposit—despite the fact that I had already prepaid the rental with the same credit card. (I found this extremely suspicious because, instead of trying again, they seemed to assume the card wouldn’t work and expected me to use another credit card. If I had done so, my rental car insurance would not have been valid.)

They eventually gave me a car, but when I went to the parking lot to find it, another customer was already getting into it because they had assigned it to him as well.

When I returned to the office, the female staff member refused to give me another vehicle. Instead, she wasted time on her phone, scrolled through the computer, and made calls on the radio.

When I finally lost my patience and asked if she was going to give me a car or not, she told me she was canceling my reservation. I told her she could not do that without my permission and that I needed to speak to a manager. She refused to call anyone.

Frustrated, I grabbed the wired mouse from the counter (which I acknowledge was wrong). She then started screaming and making a huge scene, falsely claiming that I had “touched” her. She exaggerated the situation, making others believe that I had physically done something to her.

When I asked another staff member to call a manager, she pretended to use the radio but never actually made the call.

The manager eventually arrived with two security guards and informed me that I was being removed from the building.

I peacefully left with my mother to take a shuttle and get a cab. However, the shuttle was stopped, and 2–6 police officers surrounded me. I was handcuffed and accused of throwing an object at her. But when they checked the security cameras and realized the entire accusation was false, they “apologized” and admitted it was a misunderstanding.

By the time I arrived back at the hotel, it was almost 2 PM. My 82-year-old father had been alone for hours, waiting for food, a clean diaper, and a shower.

This is the absolute worst company ever, and I recommend that no one ever deals with them. What an...

We were returning home from our vacation and rented a vehicle to drive back to Naples. When we got to the counter at the airport we were created by George. After finding my reservation George then asked me for a 2nd form of ID to verify my address such as a bank statement or a light bill. Who carries this with them on vacation? I told him there was no mention of that in the e-mail I received and he just kept telling me that it is in their policies. He would not budge and actually told me if I didn't have something then I could go somewhere else. I was getting angry but his customer service skills were so lacking it made it impossible to try and be nice. He wouldn't give up and I finally had to pull up my address on my phone using my FPL account. He told me I was lucky that he would accept that on my phone. He was the worst counter person I have ever dealt with at a rental car agency. He gave me the keys to the vehicle and when I got out to the vehicles there was no indication of where the car was parked. When I asked the attendant out there he told me to just push the alarm to find it!! I did that and of course we couldn't find it. He finally started looking for it and found it in another aisle and I am sure the vehicle had just been returned because it wasn't in a parking spot. The worst place ever to rent a vehicle. When I returned the vehicle in Ft. Myers I asked the counter person there about the 2nd form of address ID and he told me they don't require that and was appalled at our experience. I believe someone from corporate needs to visit this counter in Ft. Lauderdale and teach them about customer service skills. And if I was the manager there George would not have a job with me anymore. Do not rent from Payless in Ft. Lauderdale unless you carry a light bill or bank statement with you because otherwise they will send you to another rental agency! I don't even want to give them one star but it won't post unless I do. They deserve zero stars. An awful way to end...

The counter was closed at Ft Lauderdale airport when we arrived at 5. Fine. We checked in at Avis , as directed. But they couldn't find the reservation yet didn't want to see my Avelo voucher though they couldn't find the reservation -- then they couldn't print any documents to confirm I got my prearranged discount rate. I also was never told there was a $250 deposit. I found out when my Amex alert went off.

The day I returned the car, the agent in the garage couldn't get her handheld scanner to work so we had to go to the counter. The counter agent couldn't check me out because he couldn't find the reservation. I gave him the confirmation number. Still nothing. Then he said the he had to go the garage because the garage agent whose scanner didn't work didn't write the mileage or gas level in the rental folder. When the counter agent finally came back he said the car was gone and asked me how much I drove. I said I went to Coconut Grove and back. He said, That's like, what -- you want to say 400 miles?

Seriously? Ft Lauderdale to Miami is 400 miles RT?

I said, "No. I doubt I drove more than 90 miles."

I still have no idea what number he used because he couldn't get a receipt to show me the total charges, not even on his computer screen. He said I'd get a receipt via email. My trust in your staff or company at this point is zero.

Did I mention he was also watching the World Cup on this phone? Or though I had a plane to catch and had now wasted 25 minutes he left the counter again at one point without explanation and finally came back five minutes later. He resumed checking and again he told me he still couldn' t tell me what my final charges were. I still have no idea.

I have been traveling for business for 40 years. All of this is a long way of saying my entire experience with your company was a joke. I would walk to where I'm going before I'd ever rent...