Fox Car Rental--What A Mistake!

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

We just came back from Monterey. We rented from Fox Car Rental at SFO because the price was less than the major car rentals. What a mistake! What we got was a KIA with 49,000 miles with multiple dings and 2 slow leaks in the rear tires.

I fill up one of the tires on Monday and on Tuesday the tire was low again. I called the Toll Free number which took a 15 minutes wait. The person said she would note it on my reservation and I needed to call Roadside. After another 15 minutes wait time, all Roadside would do is tell me that I needed to take the car to Salinas, CA. I asked how far and she told me it was 10 minutes. The trip was more like 45 minutes. Why did I need to make another call to Roadside to get this message? Roadside indicated that if it took too long to fix they would just replace the car.

Well the place was just a tire dealership, They were not part of Fox. They had no way to replace the car. They said it would take at least 45 to check out the problem. It took 2 hours to get the 2 tires fixed.

During which time, I called Fox. I called Roadside first. 3 times It took over 15 minutes of wait time before I was disconnected. I then call the Toll Free Number and after 45 minutes talked to a person who transferred me to SFO. After 15 minutes SFO answered and said if I wanted to talk to an agent to press 0,-----no agent was available. I press the 0, three times and got the same answer. (It was just before noon on a Tuesday). They phone said I could leave a message. I pressed 1 and the message came back, "They message box is full" And I got disconnected.

I got another person on the Toll Free Number after another 15 minutes and she connected me to the Corp. Headquarters. After another 15 minute wait the phone answered to tell me to call back during normal working hours. I guess that Tuesday about 12:20 pm is not normal working hours. I left a message with my cell phone number but no one from Fox has called yet.

Oh, I did get a email asking for feed back and to do a survey.

What i really enjoyed was waiting on the phone listening to the message about how they care about me and how their service and value is excellent.

Walt

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

Thanks for the heads up. I will be sure to avoid them!

[Icc5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Icc5]

Wow

We used them a few years ago in Vegas and thought they were great. I guess we were just lucky.
Bart

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

Problems Others Had With Fox Car Rental.

I'm sure that most companies have bad reviews but here are some other stories from other renters. Some good, Some bad.

Walt

Fox Rent A Car Car Rental Company Reviews

Fox Rent-A-Car - South San Francisco, CA

Fox Rent a Car Reviews. Buying guides & consumer product reviews at Epinions.com

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Used them in LAX last September with no problems.

Walt Im sorry you got a lemon and had to waster precious vacation time on rental issues.

ETA corrected date for Fox rental.

[stevelb Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stevelb]

I used to use Fox quite a bit in Florida and CA. Last two rentals were a bad experience in Florida and then one in San Diego. I no longer use them even though they are usually the cheapest choice.

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

I might as well add my recent car rental experience to give everyone a heads up on Europecar. We used them in Cabo in March because they were half the price of everyone else.

Upon arrival, of course I was told I had to add the required Mexican insurance. I did so at $10 per day just to avoid more hassle.

The kicker is that after my return home charges for airline tickets (purchased in Cabo) appeared on my charge account. The dates were 2 days after my return home. The only place I used this particular charge card was at Europecar. There is no way to avoid it since all car rental companies require a charge card on file.

Yes, I have reported it as fraud and the charges were taken off.

[gsjr77 Member Find all posts View Profile Close gsjr77]

Enterprise

has always been good to me... I rarely rent but when I do i hunt down the absolutely lowest rate, and then hunt some more. Always surprised to find enterprise offering the best rate. And b/c our local agency is far from other agencies, they run out of inventory and Im always able to upgrade free

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I might as well add my recent car rental experience to give everyone a heads up on Europecar. We used them in Cabo in March because they were half the price of everyone else.

Upon arrival, of course I was told I had to add the required Mexican insurance. I did so at $10 per day just to avoid more hassle.

The kicker is that after my return home charges for airline tickets (purchased in Cabo) appeared on my charge account. The dates were 2 days after my return home. The only place I used this particular charge card was at Europecar. There is no way to avoid it since all car rental companies require a charge card on file.

Yes, I have reported it as fraud and the charges were taken off.

I had one awful Europcar experience at Frankfurt, but they have been okay since. The one thing that Europcar is good about is always giving credit for ff miles. The only other rental car company that seems to do that at least most of the time on rentals outside the US is National. Budget, Avis, and Hertz do not give credit unless you write in and complain that they have neglected giving you credit. I guess they figure that on 350 miles on a weekly rental, worth about $7, many people won't bother and will just forfeit the miles.

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

Are Car Rental Companies Holding On to Cars Longer?

No one wrote anything about the Rental Car from Fox having 49,000 plus miles. The most miles I had on any other rental was about 27,000. Most of my rentals were for 12,000 miles for less. Are Car Rental Companies keeping the cars longer now?

Also, while my rental was cheaper from Fox, it still cost $451 for a standard size car for 8 days.

Walt

[glypnirsgirl Member Find all posts View Profile Close glypnirsgirl]

Thanks for the heads up!

elaine

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I might as well add my recent car rental experience to give everyone a heads up on Europecar. We used them in Cabo in March because they were half the price of everyone else.

Upon arrival, of course I was told I had to add the required Mexican insurance. I did so at $10 per day just to avoid more hassle.

The kicker is that after my return home charges for airline tickets (purchased in Cabo) appeared on my charge account. The dates were 2 days after my return home. The only place I used this particular charge card was at Europecar. There is no way to avoid it since all car rental companies require a charge card on file.

Yes, I have reported it as fraud and the charges were taken off.

I had the same thing happen to us in Vegas with Alamo. There were two places we used that card, Alamo and for the deposit at the timeshare. The desk agent took our card and disappeared for a few minutes. At the timeshare, I could see my card the entire time. It should have been easy to track who was the likely thief but I doubt anything ever came of it.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

We just came back from Monterey. We rented from Fox Car Rental at SFO because the price was less than the major car rentals. What a mistake! What we got was a KIA with 49,000 miles with multiple dings and 2 slow leaks in the rear tires.

I fill up one of the tires on Monday and on Tuesday the tire was low again. I called the Toll Free number which took a 15 minutes wait. The person said she would note it on my reservation and I needed to call Roadside. After another 15 minutes wait time, all Roadside would do is tell me that I needed to take the car to Salinas, CA. I asked how far and she told me it was 10 minutes. The trip was more like 45 minutes. Why did I need to make another call to Roadside to get this message? Roadside indicated that if it took too long to fix they would just replace the car.

Well the place was just a tire dealership, They were not part of Fox. They had no way to replace the car. They said it would take at least 45 to check out the problem. It took 2 hours to get the 2 tires fixed.

During which time, I called Fox. I called Roadside first. 3 times It took over 15 minutes of wait time before I was disconnected. I then call the Toll Free Number and after 45 minutes talked to a person who transferred me to SFO. After 15 minutes SFO answered and said if I wanted to talk to an agent to press 0,-----no agent was available. I press the 0, three times and got the same answer. (It was just before noon on a Tuesday). They phone said I could leave a message. I pressed 1 and the message came back, "They message box is full" And I got disconnected.

I got another person on the Toll Free Number after another 15 minutes and she connected me to the Corp. Headquarters. After another 15 minute wait the phone answered to tell me to call back during normal working hours. I guess that Tuesday about 12:20 pm is not normal working hours. I left a message with my cell phone number but no one from Fox has called yet.

Oh, I did get a email asking for feed back and to do a survey.

What i really enjoyed was waiting on the phone listening to the message about how they care about me and how their service and value is excellent.

Walt

Sorry you had an issue with Fox. I've seen them when we were shopping prices. Even though they're usually the lowest, I was never comfortable using them. I had see a few other posts about poor quality and poor service.

While all car rental agencies get poor reviews every now and then, Fox seemed to get more than the others. Thus my fear of using them. I always prefered the devil I knew rather than the devil I didn't know. Lately, we were bitten for an extra charge by the devil we knew, which was Thrifty.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

No one wrote anything about the Rental Car from Fox having 49,000 plus miles. The most miles I had on any other rental was about 27,000. Most of my rentals were for 12,000 miles for less. Are Car Rental Companies keeping the cars longer now?

Also, while my rental was cheaper from Fox, it still cost $451 for a standard size car for 8 days.

Walt

We had a high milage car from Hertz a couple of years ago at the Orange County airport in CA. It had upwards of the high 30,000 miles on it when we picked it up. It had dings and scratches on every panel, the interior was badly stained and the tires were bald. Needless to say, since this was Hertz, I was shocked.

When I complained the car lot guy said they weren't able to sell the cars like they use to so, they were hanging onto them and renting them. When I pointed out the bald tires he put a tag on the car to take it out of service to get new tires. I guess no one else had noticed or pointed it out when they returned it.

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

Only way to get corporate response to problems these days is to post your problem on face book and ask all friends to repost to their friends.