Contact National Car Rental Support

My rental car broke down and no one was able to assist me other than telling there was nothing they could do and could not give me another car. I was stranded somewhere in Fl about 3hours from my house and still waiting on a callback. Other than all the calls I made following the procedures in place with no luck, no offer to pick me up and take me to the nearest location which was 20min away, I’m just in total shock. I even got a courtesy call from one of the locations stating they were sorry they had no cars available and still never heard back from anyone. When the car was finally picked up the place it was towed to even called me asking what to do with the car. I have tried to call back after hitching a ride finally back to my home to close out the rental ticket and still no resolution. Given this type of service I feel really bad for anyone who would not have known what to do in a situation like this. I have been a long time customer and rent cars faithfully every month with National to the point I’m at the executive level and in disbelief this is how I am being treated. I’m gathering my thoughts this weekend and I really think everyone needs to hear of my ordeal because if this is how I was treated something tells me many others are and something needs to be done and this escalated to the highest possible internal as well as external contacts about what happened.

As long as you’re an Emerald club member and use Emerald aisle and quick drop off, you’ll be fine. It’s when you deviate from that by questioning a charge, vehicle problems, free rental day use or go to the counter for any reason at all that the problems occur. National customer service is the opposite of what it should be. They seem to find every reason to deflect responsibility and offer no recourse. I had one “gentlemen” at Charlotte airport tell me I was privileged to think the car I reserved should be available when I arrived. Also, arrive at Montréal airport later in the day. Expect to see an empty parking lot with 10 people standing in line. Not an isolated incident, twice in 3 months. Aside from those encounters, I always check to see if my destination does not offer Emerald aisle service or worse yet, is run by a franchisee for National. If so, I rent elsewhere. I’m a frequent traveler with Executive Elite Status for the last several years so my opinion is not based only on the experiences above. National has been fairly consistent in their arrogance and lack of customer service over the years. Emerald aisle is the only thing that keeps me from changing companies.

Who cares about an app for the worst ever car rental company. Over 4 stars, ha! Is that just for the app? When you cannot keep a car for a customer of a confirmed reservation, you have no business being in the business. When National’s Fargo airport rental counter asst. mgr/manager has 120 confirmed reservations and only expects 30 cars that same day, a grade schooler could figure out the business problem, and probably do a better job of fixing it. And at the very least; 1.) have a backup customer service plan, 2.) notify your customers expecting cars THE MOMENT YOU CANNOT KEEP THEIR CONFIRMED RESERVATION, 3.) be professional at all times and have a contigency plan, have drivers at the ready AND PAY FOR THEM, to take your customers wherever they need to go, hire a tow/transport truck/trailer and bring in more cars, 4.) just saying ‘come back tomorrow’, or ‘call an uber and tomorrow I will reimburse you for it’ is not professional, and not enough to absolve your disappointing failure as a career professional, embarrassing. So maybe my solution is to just delete the app and account and just use avis, or enterprise. Bye bye.