Priceline / Europcar Bait and Switch

[Yehuda57]

I'm x posting to a new thread because I think this is especially egregious, and he can't be the first person this has happened to:

Afaf:


He booked a prepaid rental at LAX, and only realized when he landed that the pick up was in ONT(!).
He got a different rental at lax, and now when he called to get refunded, they basically told him to fly a kite. Is the best bet to dispute the charge?

I'm not sure if this was a priceline or Europcar mess up.

To be clear, he never searched Ont any other location. He wanted something at the airport, as you can see he was arriving after midnight.

[aygart]

It is saying that for LAX Europcar you need to go to the Fox desk at ONT? THat is crazy!

[Yehuda57]

So after getting rejected by phone and Twitter DM, they finally agreed to "open an investigation" and they refunded the rental.

Frankly, I find it a bit strange this got virtually no response here. Felt to me like a big scam/system error that likely is not a one-off mistake.

[Dan]

Wow. That's crazy.
Was this an Express Deal that only showed the location afterward, or did he miss that pickup location when booking?

[moko]

Wow. That's crazy.
Was this an Express Deal that only showed the location afterward, or did he miss that pickup location when booking?

[Yehuda57]

Wow. That's crazy.
Was this an Express Deal that only showed the location afterward, or did he miss that pickup location when booking?

Not an express deal. I'm not sure what he saw when he booked, but he noticed that it was Fox instead of Europcar, and it certainly said LAX. Even after he landed when he saw Ontario, he didn't realize Ontario was an hour away, he thought it was just the name of the place the LAX counter was in. Plenty of airports are not technically in the city they are named for. In his reservation, when he clicked on the counter information, this is what it showed:


So he went out looking for a shuttle but found out they ended at 12. So he googled Fox Ontario 91761 and that's when he realized it was 55 minutes away.

Fox LAX was NOT open at his rental time, they were open at that time in ONT.

[Dan]

Able to replicate this on a new booking?

[Yehuda57]

Able to replicate this on a new booking?

No.

ETA: Though as it is prepaid, I'm not actually checking out, so I can't be sure if it would replicate if I were to check out

[Dan]

Forward all of the confirmation emails to me if you can.

[yitzyul]

Not to go off topic, I prepaid via Priceline years ago at LGB for 9:30 PM. flight was delayed and got to rental at 10:15. The rental closed at 10:00 PM. Price line told me to take a cab at my expense to LAX or go fly a kite. Disputed charge, but was huge hassle, and eventually won (after losing and appealing)

[JMHO]

Disputed charge

Based on?