Routes Car Rental Scam
TL;DR: Routes Car Rental and NextCar Car Rental in FLL (Fort Lauderdale Airport) are scammers. The $160 car rental that I reserved on Expedia.com was going to be $405 because of a bunch of junk fees. And they wasted 2 hours of my time trying to scam me.
Boring details:
I arrived at FLL airport and waited 10 minutes for the shuttle bus.
At the car center, there was a counter with maybe 5 stations but none were manned. There were two booths in the corner with video screens.
There were two couples ahead of me. In the booth on the left, they disagreed with the agent a few times, then at the 30 minute mark (!!!) they got disconnected. They repeatedly kept trying to reconnect but each time, the agent couldn’t hear them (in retrospect, I think that was just a tactic). Later, at the 2 hour (!!!!!!) mark, as I was leaving, I chatted with them and they said they were busy trying to get their money back and get out of there.
In the booth on the right, I overheard that the rate had gone up because he was late to pick up the car. To be sure, it was 7:15 am and he was scheduled to pick up the car at 6 am. Incensed, he abandoned the process; he told me he was going back to the airport to get a car.
I got into the booth at about the 1 hr mark. Mind you, there had been only 2 people in front of me and there were 2 video chat terminals! (I had just gotten off a red-eye flight and what should have been red flags were only showing as yellow in my brain)
The rental process was going smoothly, if slowly, until 20 minutes into the process. The agent told me that I would be charged extra because I was late to pick the car. I explained that I had not been late, I had been waiting just outside the booth for over an hour. “My flight arrived at 5:53am, my reservation was for 6am. And I was standing here at 6:30. I know that no one else has taken my car because I’ve been standing here the whole time!” She wouldn’t budge. She also told me I would be charged $10.99/day for using a credit card. I stared at her as hard as I could through the crappy video chat connection. My $160 rental was now $405. I patiently and kindly explained that she was full of shit and I’d have to leave if this is how it was. Not budging one bit, I walked out, having wasted 2 hours of my life.
On my way out, I chatted 2 other groups that had been waiting in this dingy satellite rental center. They were both having big problem. I bailed and caught the shuttle bus back to the airport!
At Enterprise car rental, there were about 15 people in front of me and 4 agents. I got worried but then the line was quick beautifully quick. I was in front of an agent in less than 10 minutes, and I was sitting in a great car in another 10. They quoted me $435 for the car (just $25 more than the scammers) and I consented immediately! I had some discount possibilities but I was just so happy to get a car quickly, I had no interest in nickel and diming them!