National Car Rental 4+

I have been an Executive elite member of Emerald National for over 10 years. Been renting from National for over 10 Years.
Never had any issue except this time around. The vehicle had no working windshield fluid, no fluids in the reservoir and after I added my own it did not work meaning it was not working at all. Here in Montreal and travel to QC I had to stop frequently to clean the windshield so I could actually see where I was going. Really risky.
Also my very first time experience with CS at National to change drop off location CS rep and even the supervisor really played it ignorant and tried to push me to the rental pick up location in Montreal which the location never ever pick up their phone. CS basically tried to pass the responsibility to the location and they would not even stay on the phone to see if anyone will pick up so they could probably have a different approach if they did not.

I guess there is always a first for every thing. I will continue renting with National but no longer at Montreal airport location.

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.

I travel often for both work and pleasure. Like any frequent traveler, removing bottlenecks and points of friction from my path makes my travels even more enjoyable. I’ve tried nearly every rental car company in the marketplace.

With a spate of mergers over the years, it’s sometimes hard to tell if one company that your vetting from another for your business is affiliated or not. Over the years, I’ve noticed a National consistently distinguish itself from its peers. Like being an industry innovator in allowing you to reserve at a level that allows you to choose your own vehicle. A move, many others in the industry (clumsily) tried to follow.

No organization is perfect and National definitely has some areas it needs to improve. I find the consistent area that’s 50/50 is the quality of customer service among staff at particular airports. I’m not going to name them (we & they know who they are), but airport rental customer service is either spot on or like a group of people serving out a karmic debt.

Equally, whenever I’ve encountered a problem, the agents at customer resolution have always exceeded my expectations and quickly resolved he issue. That fact, coupled with the ease, quality, and reliability of the app, makes National my go to choice for car rental.