One of the worst experiences I've ever had was at a rental car in Columbus, OH. My partner and I had flown in last minute because my mother-in-law fell extremely ill and wasn't expected to make it much longer. We booked last minute flights that got us into Columbus around midnight and then I had a two hour drive into Cincinnati. We made our way to the rental counter and the guy who helped me printed out a contract with a price contrary to what I had on my confirmation. I pointed that out to him and he "looked into it" on his computer before telling me that that was the "estimated" amount and that I would only be charged what was on the confirmation. I was skeptical, but I was also exhausted and just wanted to get on the road, so I wrote what he told me on the contract, along with the price from the confirmation, and signed it.
Fast forward to the return and I'm being charged the higher price. So I go inside to talk to the manager who I went back and forth with for at least 15 minutes. He's telling me that I had received a mid-size car at the compact price (or some such comparison) and I told him that I hadn't asked for an upgrade, I hadn't been asked if I wanted an upgrade and if they didn't have the vehicle I reserved, that was their problem not mine. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally he tells me, "How about I split the difference?" I look him square in the eye and tell him, "I reserved this car, at this price and this is what I'm paying." He eventually relents, telling me, "Well, I'll do it this time, but I won't do it again." I smile at him and tell him, "That's fine because there won't be a next time."
The next night, after we had returned from Ohio, we got the call that she had passed away, so I was off to book another set of travel arrangements to get us out there for the funeral. I was sure to skip said car rental company. But upon my return from that trip, I found a letter in my mailbox from the company telling me that my car had been excessively dirty and they were charging me a $70 cleaning fee.
I sent a prompt e-mail to the person listed on the e-mail, explained to them everything that happened and told him he had 48 hours to reverse the charge before I disputed it, contacted BBB and the Ohio Attorney General to report the location's bait-and-switch tactics. The charge was promptly reversed.
I had another series of bad experiences with a different car rental company in Las Vegas. When it finally came to a head and I was completely fed up, I contacted corporate. They ended up sending me $30 in gift certificates. Unfortunately, I lost them in my move only to find them about a week ago...but they expire at the end of this month so I sent them to a friend who'd be renting through them. Lol.
And then I had another good one with an appliance retailer. I bought a washer/dryer set for a rental property I owned. The first set they delivered, the washer was broken, so I had to have them deliver me a new one. When they call me that they're at the house, I answer the door and find no one, only to find out that they were attempting to deliver it to my billing address instead of my delivery address. They refused to drive the 3 miles down the road to the correct address, at which point I completely lost it on the guy on the phone. He offered me a $25 gift card for my trouble; I think my exact words to him were, "You can take that gift card and shove it up your @$$ because I will never be shopping at your store again!" So we reschedule delivery for another day and they deliver to me ANOTHER broken washer, at which point I went to the store, talked to the manager and told him that they were going to take both the broken washer and the dryer back and I would shop somewhere more competent. More fighting ensued because I was done scheduling pick-ups and drop-offs around their schedule and told them I would be at my house at 8am on Saturday and if they weren't there to pick it up at that time, then I was rolling it out to the curb and it would be their problem.
Shopping central Arizona.