Needed a two-day rental in early April, so I found this site through a Google search. They offered the lowest price for the type of car I was looking for. I booked and traveled to the airport rental place. Upon arriving, the desk agent asked for my driver's license. He looked at it for less than 5 seconds and told me I had to have an out-of-state driver's license to rent a car from there and that there was nothing he could do. He wouldn't tell me anything else. Having to be somewhere that next morning, I had no time to waste, so I booked through Thrifty and ended up not making it to my destination that night.

As soon as I had time, which was less than a day later, I reached out to the customer service email and phone number and asked for my refund. The phone number connected me with someone in Europe - I'm in USA - and the email connected me with someone who replied with an email that was filled with grammatical, punctuation and syntactical errors, so it was probably a bot.

Starting out, the customer service sounded willing to help. They said it would take some time to look into it to process the refund. Two weeks later, I get a response to my email asking for my driver's license, which I promptly provided an image of. Now, I'm wondering if this company is trying to collect my data, which puts my identity at risk.

Almost 3 weeks after providing my driver's license, I get the response below, which, in summary, says they couldn't give me a refund, because I didn't provide a credit card at check in. This is a lie. As mentioned above, the agent didn't ask for my credit card, didn't provide me with the opportunity to present one and turned me away based on, in his words, I had an in-state driver's license. What was I supposed to do? Tell him I insisted on presenting my credit card after he told me he couldn't rent to someone with an in-state license?

Below is the email I received rejecting my request for a refund.

Booking Ref: US*******
Case Ref: *******

Dear James,

I hope this email finds you safe.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

I am sorry to hear that you were unable to use your car hire booking with ROUTES (US) reserved through us.

I would like to confirm the rental agent was unable to release the booked vehicle as you did not present a valid credit card at the desk, The reason was not the driving license.

A valid credit card in the lead driver's name is required for insurance reasons and must be presented on arrival as a security deposit is required until the vehicle is returned. As it is possible to pre-authorise this kind of transaction without processing an actual charge on credit cards only, it is the industry standard practice to always require a credit card and not a debit or a charge card to secure the deposit. The card must be in the lead driver's name as it is the lead driver who is mentioned on the signed rental agreement and is responsible for the rental vehicle during the rental.

We include information about the credit card requirements in your rental conditions. Therefore, unfortunately, we will not be able to process a refund of the funds paid.

I am sorry that we are unable to provide the solution you were hoping for on this occasion and I apologise for any inconvenience caused by this matter.

Kindest Regards,
Amgad
Customer Care Team

***** AVOID ***********

I have used Holiday Autos on a number of occasions and not had any issues at all. We recently booked a trip to Italy and I needed a car that would fit 5 people (1x baby) and 5 suitcases. We booked a Nissan Qashqai and I know you get whatever car that falls within this category but what I didn't realise is that they can't guarantee that you will get a car that will fit 5 people and 5 suitcases even though this is what I paid for. I don't care about the car but what I do care about is being able to get in the car what I have paid for based on the advert/website.

So when we arrive at 11pm at night to Budget and we can hear the customer in front complaining that the car they have been given isn't big enough but that they got what they paid for. To our amazement we then hear the Budget employee say "ok well we will give you the bigger car that's supposed to be for another customer". We then quickly realise when we get given an Alfa Romeo Giulietta that it was our car that they gave to the complaining customer and now don't have any big enough for what we paid for.

We couldn't fit 3 bags in this car let alone 5 and all we were told by Budget was that the Alfa Romeo is in our group we paid for but our argument was that it wouldn't fit 5 bags and 5 people. Their response at 11pm was take it or leave it and they were prepared for us to be left stranded with a 4 month old baby. Luckily we were due to pick friends up the following day and could drive away from the airport but our friends could no longer get a lift in our car because it wasn't big enough for them or their luggage.

I made a complaint to Holiday Autos and was told that they would respond in 30 days so I chased them up after this period to only be told that they have no response. So I chased 30 days later (now 60 days) and now been told the complaint was closed 29 days ago and there is nothing they can do.

I have now asked the question... if I need a car big enough for 5 passengers and 5 bags what car/category should I have booked because I don't want to ever be in a position where I am stuck at an airport again.

They can't guarantee the car which I understand but to advertise a car that will take 5 people and 5 bags and it not be big enough is a complete joke and unfair.