National Car Rental — Local services in San Diego

Do not simply send me the link to “contact us “ on the National website… the issue is they that are not responding and when they do they say “I don’t know what to do sorry. I can’t help anymore”

Hopefully someone in senior management at National can read this and contact me with a significant number of free rental days and a formal apology in the hopes of getting any percentage of my business back.

Literally the worst experience I have ever had with a rental car location and company. I have been a loyal customer to National car rental for over a decade with executive status for both personal and work travel.

When on a work trip traveling to Seattle I went to pick up my rental car. When leaving the executive aisle and checking out I was told I was on a “do not rent list” to my surprise. When asking the employee to elaborate I was given a dismissive scoff and given a sticky note with a number to call. No one answered when I called the number so I went to the customer service desk. Was told “sorry I can’t do anything. Not really our problem.”

So I went about switching my week worth of rentals to Hertz. Their loss for a technical glitch I thought.

Turns out after some investigation that National rental car at San Diego has put a false balance on my account and froze it without zero notification.

They had falsely tried to charge for me damage to a rental car which I do not remember renting and when I asked for photos of the damage and the rental agreement 15 times in 2023 they simply ghosted me. When I did get a response they claimed they lost the rental agreement and had already repaired the car so had no photos so I should just “pay $3000 and move on”.

I raised this with management and was assured over the phone and in writing this was resolved back in 2023.

Apparently not. At this point I have had 5 calls with customer service and exchanged over 20 emails providing evidence there is no balance due.

From the other perspective I have already given 10x the falsely claimed balance to hertz and Sixt for personal and work trips. So...

I have rented from National for many years and always have had positive experiences. However, in this instance, I rented a minivan for our family vacation. I was provided a newer Chrysler Pacifica hybrid with about 1000 miles. I drove the van for about 2 days without issue, but on day 3 on the expressway in San Diego, the van indicated to pull over safely and that it would shut off in 2 minutes. Luckily, I was in the right lane at the time and was only about 10 minutes from the airport/National's rental facility. The van gave the indicator 3 times in that 10 minute span, and each time I would have to pull over, turn off the car, open the doors, let the computer reset, then I was able to start the van again. Not sure what would have happened if I had been in heavy traffic or in the middle of 6 lanes and had the van shut down. I was luckily able to make it back to the airport and get another vehicle (not a Pacifica hybrid!), but it would have been awful if we were further from the National location had this issue occurred (as we were traveling up the Pacific coast to Seattle). The rep at National indicated that these vans were having all sorts of issues, and I looked online and found this issue to be common. As such, it would seem that these vans should not be rented out, as this could have been a major liability issue had the van shut down in heavy traffic on the interstate and it was dead in the lane of traffic. Even though we had to downgrade once the Pacifica was turned in, as there were no other vans available, we did not get any type of refund or credit for the trouble or the downgrade. I will use National again, but will never rent another Pacifica hybrid, as I still have PTSD from the experience of the vehicle continually shutting down with...

I've used National a few times in the past for work trips and they've been wonderful. However, one recent experience I had really sets them apart from the rest.

We all know great customer service is one of the hallmark qualities of a company that you want to do business with. Well, I had just picked up a car from the award-winning Emerald Isle, and drove it just over five miles. I parked the car, had a great meal, and then came back over an hour later to a dead battery and a car that wouldn't start.

Since I had just picked up the car and only drove it five miles, I called National's road-side assistance line and had them send a guy to jump the car. While I was waiting the near-hour for help to arrive, I decided to call customer service because I was NOT going to pay the $65 jump-battery charge that they were going to bill me for. I had just picked the car up, after all, and did not leave any lights or electronics on in the car.

Well the lady over the phone immediately reassured me that I would not be charged for this, and that she will leave a note for them to take the charge off when I return the vehicle. Furthermore, since I still needed a car for the week, she also said I can return the car back to the rental center, and grab a car out of the premiere/executive isle as a courtesy upgrade for the trouble I had just endured.

When I returned to the rental center, the attendees working the lot were very understanding, and eager to make the situation right. I drove out of there with the nicest car in the whole garage at no extra charge. It really made the rest of my vacation great. Appreciate of National and will continue to use them as my rental car company of choice for as long as their customer service...