Economy Car Rental - San Jose Costa Rica Robbed by Bait and Switch Tactic San Jose, Costa Rica Costa Rica

I am writing because of a situation that many Americans are encountering in Costa Rica.  My family fell victim to this situation over the Christmas holiday.

We planned to spend Christmas vacation in Costa Rica and we were arriving on Christmas Day.  Because it was a holiday, because we were a large family group (11 adults with two tiny babies) and because we wanted a troublefree experience, we reserved three rental cars from Economy Car Rental at the San Jose airport.  We reserved mid-size cars so there would be adequate room for car seats for the babies.  We also reserved automatic transmission because most of our group cannot drive stick shift.  I personally provided our flight's arrival time over the phone so they would know to hold our cars in case of a late arrival.  We specifically wanted three vehicles because we had one couple arriving later, and we had excursions planned in different parts of the country for different family members.  We had originally considered a van -- and we even got a quote for a large van -- but decided three cars worked better for us.  I knew that rental cars would be tight on a holiday so I booked early.... in October.  I had confirmed reservations from Economy and I even reconfirmed on December 13 so that there would be no issues.  The quoted price was $555 per vehicle for a total of $1665.  Economy assured me in writing that our three vehicles would be waiting for us for at least 2 hours after our flight landed.  

Of course our flight was late -- we all came from Ft. Lauderdale -- but we made it to the Economy counter within one hour after our flight landed with our reservations in hand.  Only to be told that our three cars had been given away....all three of them....because we did not arrive "on time".  I then produced the e-mail from December 13 in which Oscar Madrigal of Economy Car Rental confirmed that we had two hours after our flight's arrival to pick up our cars....at which point they finally admitted they had simply oversold their cars.  (Which I understand is a common practice with car rental companies, airlines, hotels, etc.)

However, what happened next is NOT common practice.  First, they kept us waiting for several hours.  Finally they informed us they had a 15-passenger van BUT they were going to charge us $3000 for the van!  It was THEIR ERROR that our cars were not there, we were willing to compromise and take a vehicle that we did not want, but they were going to charge us DOUBLE what they had quoted us for our three cars.  And THREE times what that same van is quoted for on line under normal circumstances!!    They seemed totally unconcerned with the fact that our entire group, including the tiny babies, had been standing around in their parking lot for nearly 3 hours on Christmas Day while they were trying to resolve this situation, and then they intended to charge us twice the quoted amount?  We were more than willing to pay the price we were quoted for our three vehicles for this one vehicle, but not TWICE AS MUCH!!  (The same 15-passenger van they charged us $3000 for 10 days is quoted on-line at $1000 for 10 days.  So they OBVIOUSLY completely and totally screwed us!)  Their comment on that -- when I mentioned that we had also gotten a quote for a van at $1000 -- was that "prices are subject to availability"!  So I guess that means if the car you want is not available (because they oversold) they can charge whatever they want?!?!

When we protested, they said "take it or leave it".  They knew we had no hope of getting three cars anywhere else....it was 4 pm on CHRISTMAS DAY and everyone was out of cars.  Believe me, we tried. They knew we still had a 2-hour drive to our final destination and no way to get there UNLESS we took this van. So they simply extorted us and would not give us the van unless we signed the credit card slip for $3000 which we reluctantly did.  And of course when we protested with American Express upon our return, they indicated that "foreign companies have different rules" and unless Economy "chooses to issue us a partial refund" there is nothing we can do.

That is not the end of the story...the van actually broke down on New Year's Eve, leaving us stranded on the beach and forcing us to cancel another part of our holiday.  They would not even issue us a credit for that bad experience.  And, our entire group could not even all fit in the van, so we were forced to rent ANOTHER CAR later in our trip just so we could all get back to the airport with our luggage.  Another unbudgeted $680 all because of Economy Car Rental.  The van was manual transmission, so only two members of our group were even able to drive it.  When they were on an excursion, the rest of us were stranded.  But none of that probably would have mattered if they would only have done the right thing and charged us the same price they had quoted us for the three cars we reserved.

While we were there, we heard many similar stories about Economy Car Rental giving away cars.  There were actually 5 or 6 other groups in their parking lot at the same time we were, encountering the same problem. And while traveling on our various excursions, we heard stories from everyone about Economy Car Rental giving away cars and leaving people stranded.  Since returning from Costa Rica, I have read many other horror stories.  This appears to be standard operating procedure for Economy Car Rentals.

We had heard that Costa Ricans were warm and friendly and easy-going.  So you can imagine our surprise when our first experience in Costa Rica was such an unpleasant one.  We felt, quite frankly, like we had been robbed or pick-pocketed.....by Economy Rental Car.

Now we understand that many countries have cultural differences and that Americans are typically thought to be more demanding and in a hurry and impatient.  So we tried hard to simply go with the flow and accept the vehicle they were eventually able to produce.  But we truly felt like we were robbed and unfairly treated and it continues to this day.   It ruined a family vacation that we had been planning for over a year and personally cost us over $2100 that we had not planned on spending...money that could have been spent enjoying the beauty of Costa Rica and taking more excursions, dining out, buying souvenirs...yet  the shysters at Economy Car Rental manage  to come out ahead, having gleefully fleeced yet another American.