My family and I took a trip to California. I booked a car through Capital One Travel for about $150. When I came to pick it up, the people at Sixt told me the car had been booked at the California resident rate and they couldn’t honor the reservation. In case you’re wondering, this wasn’t something I could have done deliberately on the Capital One Travel site even if I wanted to. I ended up needing to rent the same car for $370.
So now I’ve been charged two times, a total of $520, for the one rental. Capital One told me it’s on Sixt to refund me the original $150, and Sixt says it’s on Capital One to do so. Anyone have any advice on how to get the $150 for the original reservation back? Thanks in advance.
I would pursue it against both of them. Tell Capital One you want them to honor the original rate. Tell Sixt you want them to honor the original rate.
In reality, you don’t have much legal recourse. But you can leave reviews warning other people of the “California resident rate.” You can file a BBB complaint, which usually gets someone from corporate to get in touch with you, at the very least.
And of course, with Capital One, you can cancel your card. Companies may not take complaints seriously, but they tend to take losing a customer a little more seriously. And if they don’t, well, why give them your future business after they screwed you over in the past?
@Sage
Thanks for the advice. At this point, it doesn’t look like I’ll even get the first of two charges refunded, much less get the original rate honored.
Addison said: @Sage
Thanks for the advice. At this point, it doesn’t look like I’ll even get the first of two charges refunded, much less get the original rate honored.
Maybe not, but definitely not if you don’t escalate. Squeaky wheel and all of that.
But ultimately, my philosophy with these kinds of situations is “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice…”
So I don’t give companies a second chance to screw me over.
Addison said: @Sage
Thanks for the advice. At this point, it doesn’t look like I’ll even get the first of two charges refunded, much less get the original rate honored.
Make a complaint with the CA Attorney General. Sixt defrauded you unless you missed something in your rental agreement. Probably employee error when they saw a discounted rate. Still illegal bait and switch.
Addison said: @Sage
Thanks for the advice. At this point, it doesn’t look like I’ll even get the first of two charges refunded, much less get the original rate honored.
Tory said: @Halston
A chargeback should be a last resort. Very easy to be blacklisted with a car rental company for life.
Sixt is awful; that’d be a good thing.
Agreed.
I have dealt with them charging more because the class I reserved was not available. “Your reservation is not guaranteed, so we have to charge for the upgrade.” No, that’s not what that means.
@Halston
A rental contract is very different from a retail purchase. Very different. Winning a dispute does not keep the company from going to collections or suing you.
That short article lists two relevant bullet points:
• Chargebacks are easy to initiate and are often successful, but they don’t cover all scenarios.
• Before attempting a chargeback, you should try to resolve the issue with the merchant directly.
Addison said: @Sage
Thanks for the advice. At this point, it doesn’t look like I’ll even get the first of two charges refunded, much less get the original rate honored.
Don’t deal with their customer service line. Post it on their Facebook page, X, Google, and Instagram pages, and they will want you to stop, so they’re more likely to address your issue.