My band went on tour Janurary 16th 2015. Our bassist's car wasn't going to be able to make the trip from Toronto to Montreal and back so we decided to rent a van. We shopped around online. I put my information into the Rent-A-Wreck website and I recieved a phone call in a couple hours. They told me I could have a 2010 Dodge Caravan and get 1200 free kilometres (Montreal and back), which was twice what Avis was offering me for the same price. This was all said over the phone and I never recieved and email confirmation about the booking.
The 16th came and I went to 15 Jenet Ave near Landsdowne and Bloor in Toronto. It was hard to find. It is a tiny little street in an urban industrial district. I saw signs pointing around the back of a Portuguese Supermarket to a ply-wood shed built onto the back of the building. PractiCar. Skeptically, I went inside.
The man was very nice. He took me to the van and it was not so nice. It was an early 2000s Pontiac with dents in it and missing hubcaps. It drove. I wasn't sure if it would make it to Montreal but with the deal he cut me over the phone how could I go wrong?
We went inside and he asked for my credit card. I gave it to him and he wrote it on the sheet. It was then that we started going over details about the rental. How many free kilometres etc. He was giving me 400km and 30 cents a kilometres after that. This was way more than Avis and I would have had a nice van not a dented, barely running one. There was no way I was taking it. He told me to talk to his business partner on the phone who yelled at me and insulted me and make me think I didn't remember what I talked about in the initial conversation about the van. I hung up on the asshole. He wasn't even the guy who I booked with, it was clearly the guy standing in front of me who took my order. He said that he was going to charge my credit card anyways. Then he said that he was a Christian and that I could trust him. I left and called my credit card company immediatly and cancelled it. I called the band and they organized a ride with Avis.
I realized after we got the Avis van that I forgot the band's merchandise in the backpack I was carrying. We said that his business partner took it, then he denied ever seeing the bag and that I never brought it. We lost 15 tshirts, if we sold them all we would have broke even on the trip. And lots of people we asking for merch at our shows
In retrospect I think that PractiCar has never rented that van, or any of their cars for that matter, and their business survives on charging people's credit cards cancellation fees.
The whole thing put us behind 3 hours and we got into Montreal at rushour, another thing we learned never to do.
Rent-A-Wreck Reviews
My band went on tour Janurary 16th 2015. Our bassist's car wasn't going to be able to make the trip from Toronto to Montreal and back so we decided to rent a van. We shopped around online. I put my information into the Rent-A-Wreck website and I recieved a phone call in a couple hours. They told me I could have a 2010 Dodge Caravan and get 1200 free kilometres (Montreal and back), which was twice what Avis was offering me for the same price. This was all said over the phone and I never recieved and email confirmation about the booking.
The 16th came and I went to 15 Jenet Ave near Landsdowne and Bloor in Toronto. It was hard to find. It is a tiny little street in an urban industrial district. I saw signs pointing around the back of a Portuguese Supermarket to a ply-wood shed built onto the back of the building. PractiCar. Skeptically, I went inside.
The man was very nice. He took me to the van and it was not so nice. It was an early 2000s Pontiac with dents in it and missing hubcaps. It drove. I wasn't sure if it would make it to Montreal but with the deal he cut me over the phone how could I go wrong?
We went inside and he asked for my credit card. I gave it to him and he wrote it on the sheet. It was then that we started going over details about the rental. How many free kilometres etc. He was giving me 400km and 30 cents a kilometres after that. This was way more than Avis and I would have had a nice van not a dented, barely running one. There was no way I was taking it. He told me to talk to his business partner on the phone who yelled at me and insulted me and make me think I didn't remember what I talked about in the initial conversation about the van. I hung up on the asshole. He wasn't even the guy who I booked with, it was clearly the guy standing in front of me who took my order. He said that he was going to charge my credit card anyways. Then he said that he was a Christian and that I could trust him. I left and called my credit card company immediatly and cancelled it. I called the band and they organized a ride with Avis.
I realized after we got the Avis van that I forgot the band's merchandise in the backpack I was carrying. We said that his business partner took it, then he denied ever seeing the bag and that I never brought it. We lost 15 tshirts, if we sold them all we would have broke even on the trip. And lots of people we asking for merch at our shows
In retrospect I think that PractiCar has never rented that van, or any of their cars for that matter, and their business survives on charging people's credit cards cancellation fees.
The whole thing put us behind 3 hours and we got into Montreal at rushour, another thing we learned never to do.