I booked my car on QEEQ and went to San Jose in Costa Rica with my kid. The plan was to pick up the car around ten in the morning on March 17 at Routes and drive a Toyota Rush or a similar car for my family. That morning the sun was very strong. My kid was a bit restless beside me while I dragged our bags to the counter. I felt a bit nervous and hoped I did not miss any document. At the counter the staff told me that my personal insurance did not meet their rule. They also said I arrived late so they could not promise the car I booked. They only had a smaller car for me and they would add extra insurance fees into the contract. I was confused right away. My kid asked me why we had to wait so long. I just told the kid to sit and rest first. I tried to explain that my insurance was from Canada and it was full coverage. The staff kept shaking their head and said they did not accept this kind of overseas insurance. Their tone was very firm. I did not feel safe but I still had to sign and take the car. On the road I felt I paid more money than I should and the car was smaller than I planned. It was hard to fit the stroller and all our luggage. When we got back to our place I felt worse and worse about it. I decided to contact customer service and told them everything that happened. I told them about the added SLI and ERA and the downgrade of the car. At the start I probably sounded a bit angry because I felt it was very unfair. I had checked the rules before the trip and still ended up like this. The customer service person who took my case was very patient. They did not blame me for being upset. They asked me step by step what happened and asked me to send photos of the contract, the invoice and my own insurance papers. For quite some time I got messages from them quite often. They kept telling me how the communication with the rental company was going and what the new progress was. I remember clearly that this person did not just push all the blame to the rental company or to me. They explained the terms in simple words. They told me that local rental companies have their own rules for overseas insurance. Even if my Canadian insurance was full coverage they might still not accept it. They also reminded me that when you arrive late the car model cannot be fully guaranteed. When I heard that I still did not feel very happy but at least I finally knew what was really going on instead of being pushed back and forth. One night I was putting my kid to sleep and I saw a new message from them. They said they had gone back again to ask if there could be some kind of compensation or discount. The whole thing was not easy but at that moment I felt someone really remembered my problem and cared about it. It did not feel like the kind of support where they answer once and then disappear. The way they wrote was not very formal. It felt more like a friend who knows the local rules and helps me think about my choices and what they mean. In the end they sent me a coupon and also walked me through the whole story again. They gave me some tips for next time in similar countries such as checking early if my insurance is accepted and leaving more time so I do not arrive late. When I read those messages I felt that even though the start of this rental was pretty bad and the rental counter experience was not good, at least during all the days after that there was someone following my case and trying to keep my loss as small as possible. As a parent traveling with a kid this kind of one to one follow up feels very important to me. When something goes wrong it helps a lot when someone is really listening to you, helping you understand the problem and not forgetting you in the middle of the process. That support took away a lot of my stress during this trip.
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