Payless Car Rental

Cheaper is not better. The car was dirty, the tires were bald, and the tire pressure light came on throughout our travel. This place is unprofessional. They do not seem interested in customer satisfaction. Please take this review seriously and pay the extra dollar or two from a reputable company because it will be worth it.

I rented a vehicle from a Wednesday to a Sunday price with tax was $ 122 but they will charge more if you use the iPass. they did give a good deal with gas at $ 2.45 as opposed to outside stations which was about $ 0.30 more. when I picked up the car it was on a full tank of gas and the car was clean. they do not come out and do a walk around check for damage when I picked up or when I dropped off. very slow not that’d the employees facial expressions were NOT friendly. I was the only person waiting in line and it still took 5 minutes before I was even acknowledged or given eye contact. drop off was 2:30 a.m. and pick up was 11 45 AM.
Return of the vehicle I wanted to change the form of payment. I was told that would be an extra $ 10 to change needless to say I left it on the credit card I held it with. All and all I would rent with them again although I would know not to expect friendly or quick summer service.
******Both times I used the shuttle to and from the rental office and I must say both times the drivers were VERY friendly.

My review probably would’ve been 3 or 4 stars, but that has quickly slid to 1 following my rental.
Upon arriving at O’Hare, although other car rental places have shuttles to the lots arriving every few minutes, I waited some 25 minutes for the Payless van to arrive. And a van it was… a black van with a sheet of paper pasted in the front window with «Payless» written on it in black ink. Über cars look more official.
The facility looks more like a converted oil change place… and smells like it too. The lobby is dirty and smells of brake dust and grease. The staff was friendly and I had no issues renting my car, but upon getting to the vehicle, I found it dirty both inside and out. Otherwise, the car was fine and worked as expected. The staff informed me my car was equipped with a device the use the toll system around Chicago… I never found it in the vehicle
I returned my vehicle and recieved my receipt. Even though I paid with a credit card, the receipt said I paid with a «voucher» and cash (don’t know how that is possible). The receipt also said I was due just under $ 10 in a refund. Did this ever appear on my credit card? No. Do they have any customer support on their website? A fax line and Twitter. Even lousy car companies have e-​mail. I had to post on their Facebook wall.
Save yourself the trouble and choose someone else. As for me, catch this review again as a BBB complaint.

Unfortunately, I’m at a position where I need to give a negative review. I am usually a positive person but when it comes to Payless Car Rental, this will definitely be my first and last time using their company. They accept the reservations, welcome you to the desk, process everything and then tell you that they do not have a car available and that I would have to wait about two hours to see if there is a car available at that time. I wish that they could have called me and told me that they didn’t have a car available for me so that I could go elsewhere. After a little huffing and puffing, they found a car to give me.
I know that the employees are following the company guidelines and so forth but a courtesy call won’t kill anyone! Let the customers know what temporary set backs are taking place that way we don’t waste our time, our gas and energy trying to get to you!

Can I leave no stars? Waited more than 30 minutes at 1am in freezing wind. Took a cab with another guy who waited more than an hour. Once at facility had to wait in line for way too long. Only one person at counter. Ridiculous and never again will I try to save $ 1 a day.

They don’t even deserve ONE star. Brunch Manager Matt Anderson and this other old lady or Dude was so effin rude. They made us wait hour and a half and they made us go to bank to get money from our account and then they told me we can’t rent the car with debit card. What kind of place makes their customers wait more than hour and go somewhere else to get the fund ready then just leave you outside their rental. Also, i had 7 months old baby with me. If anyone reading this, please save your time and money and go SOMEWHERE ELSE. PLEASE !!!

Had the greatest experience thanks to Glenn, if he is there make sure you ask for him, most helpful and nice people I have to encounter in the rental business! Couldn’t have had a better experience thanks to him! I highly recommend Payless for your rentals in the ohare area! Thanks for your customer service!

The five star rating is deserved, if only for the cleanliness of the car and the efficiency of the shuttle service. Glenn, the rep who initially worked with us, was wonderful! He was so helpful and accommodating during a confusing leg of a long trip. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the surly, unpleasant Howard — perhaps he should rethink customer service.

I wish there was a way to give a negative star rating… Two hour wait, filthy car, surly supervisor, car not available, etc., etc., etc.
I wish I had checked Unilocal before renting from Payless. Just add up every single thing that happened to all the other «one star» reviews, and that, combined, was my experience at Payless.
After waiting for 20 minutes, a shuttle took us to a location that felt closer to Midway airport than OHare. Upon arriving, I waited in line for 30 minutes while two unenthusiastic people argued with a customer, and two other employees sat off to the side doing absolutely nothing (this should have been a warning to me). When it was my turn, the person behind the counter found my reservation and then walked out the door. I did not see him for another hour — I am not joking. My daughter and I had a three hour drive ahead of us and time was paramount. Someone in a back room came up to the front desk (not to assist the many people in line behind me). I told him I had been standing at the front desk for an hour and had no idea where the person who was helping me had disappeared to. I asked for a supervisor to help me get a car and get going. He replied in a very unpleasant tone that the person was getting my car (in Australia maybe???) and would be back in 5 minutes.
Twenty minutes later Mr. Disappearing Act reappeared and told me that the midsize car I had rented wasn’t available but he would give me an SUV for the same price. I told him I didn’t want an SUV. I wanted exactly what I had reserved several weeks ago, and if I couldn’t get it in the next 5 minutes I’d just cancel the reservation and get a car somewhere else. He said he’d try and find one and disappeared out the door again. Another twenty minutes passed (would have taken the shuttle back to the airport but it didn’t reappear during this time) and he finally came back with a Toyota Corolla. He said he had to go to another lot to get it. He then gave me a piece of paper to sign saying there was no damage on the car. I told him I wasn’t going to sign anything until I actually inspected the car. Finally got in the car (it was filthy inside — crumbs on front, back seat, etc., and headed out — after two hours.
We returned the car in two days, and I arrived with plenty of time to spare, given my previous experience. I wasn’t disappointed. While processing the return of the car, their computer system supposedly crashed and the employee couldn’t check the car in. He promised me he’d take care of it as soon as the system was up and running. I had him write a note saying the car was returned on time and in good condition. I wasn’t trusting this company for anything being done right at this point.
Two hours later, I checked online and the rental still showed as active. I called the office and was immediately re-​routed to corporate «customer service» — a term I use loosely. The woman told me she could not verify I had returned the car because she wasn’t able to access the Chicago office’s records. I filed an online report with Travelocity and with Payless as well when I returned home. I called the Chicago office the next morning and was again rerouted to the main company’s phone service. I gave the ticket number to the woman who answered the line and then had to be directed to someone else as I couldn’t understand a word she said. Bottom line, the car was still in my name not to worry and someone would take care of it. I look forward to receiving my Visa bill and having charges removed if they run anything but the two day’s rental on my card.

I rent a car at least once a month, and this is the worst experience I’ve ever had with a rental company. I travel through O’Hare airport monthly, and I thought I would give Payless a try, thinking I could save some money, and boy-​oh-​boy, did I regret it. The staff is ignorant of their own policies, the service is extremely slow, and don’t even bother prepaying to save a little money, because they will hit you with additional taxes and fees regardless. The same rental car would have cost me less with Enterprise and I would have had a much faster, worry-​free, experience with good customer service.
Another thing I thought was strange, the woman who checked me in, told me that everyone had to pay for gas in advance; that was just «the policy». I had never heard of that before in my life, and like I said, I rent cars frequently. I said ok, and gave her my credit card. I returned the tank full, as always, but a mysterious charge of $ 29.81 was made to my credit card when I dropped the car back off. I still haven’t been able to get any answers as to what this charge was for. I tried calling customer service and they said I would have to speak with someone directly at the O’Hare location since they can’t access my receipt for whatever reason. But since every time I call the O’Hare number, it automatically dumps me into the central calling system, it’s been basically impossible to get anyone on the phone there. Basically, I feel like I was scammed.
I will never rent from Payless again. Save yourself the hassle and go with a trusted company. Payless will nickel and dime you and in the end you will end up paying more than what you would have at a place like Hertz or Enterprise for a crappier car and worse customer service.

Had a prepaid reservation. Arrive and they have no cars, not because they don’t actually have cars but because they don’t have someone to clean/​bring the cars over. How this place is in business is a mystery.

This place is awful. Any money you think you are saving is a farce. Came here late on a Friday evening and the representative was super rude and pushy trying to sell additional upgrades and purposefully wording services to make them sound like they were required by law. These kinds of places disgust me.
Take your business to one of the MANY other options near the airport.

I was worried when I logged in last week and saw all of the 1 star reviews here. My company had booked everything and chosen payless, and I was kind of prepared for it to be a bad experience.
But it wasn’t! Everything went very smoothly, and the four different people I dealt with all gave excellent customer service. I wish I’d gotten everyone’s names, but it wasn’t until the end that I decided to write a review on here, so I only have the name of my shuttle driver, Louis.

This location is off campus and you have to take a shuttle in. Other rental car places had shuttles coming by every few minutes but everyone from Payless had to wait awhile at midnight in the cold. When you arrive at the facility, there were only two reps to handle a line of customers… again you had to wait. The only redeeming quality about this experience was when I dropped out the car… it was quick and the shuttle driver was nice enough to drop me off at the red line instead. I paid $ 30 total for my rental… overall worth some of the hassles.

Beware! DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!!!
The short story:
Payless provided us with a car that was unfit to drive. When they didn’t have another vehicle for us to rent, they cancelled our reservation and are now refusing to return our money. We have paid $ 200 for a rental car we were never able to use.
The long story:
We picked up our car, a black Ford Focus, at about 1am. Within 2 miles of the facility, the car overheats, despite the fact it’s about 38 degrees outside. We immediately call Keith at the rental counter, who tells us to return. We take the car back, but they don’t have any other vehicles to fulfill our reservation, so Keith cancels our reservation and explains that we’ll have to contact corporate for our money to be refunded because it was prepaid. Keith then sends us on our not so merry way and we end up renting a car from Dollar, where we pay more than twice the amount of our Payless rental.
Upon returning home from our trip, we contacted Payless Corporate for our refund. First they said we never paid for the car. After we provided evidence to dispute that statement, they responded stating they will not to refund our money because we didn’t cancel our reservation more than 48 hours in advance. We’ve spent a week communicating with them, and they are holding our money when they didn’t have a car that was fit for us to drive. Their incompetence in handling this situation is mind boggling, and their refusal to refund our money is downright criminal.
We will be reporting Payless to the Better Business Bureau.

We waited for over a half hour for the van to pick us up at the airport. During that time the Enterprise, Budget, Avis, Hertz, Speedy and Advantage pick-​up shuttles must have driven by 5 – 6 each.
I called Payless multiple times (and was placed on hold for several minutes) and was told the driver was either «a few minutes away» or that «there are lots of vans already at the airport» or «I don’t know where he is, but he should be there soon.» Eventually, we just gave up and hopped on the bus of another rental car company.
It was way more expensive, but it sure beats endlessly waiting at the airport. I can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been if we went with them and missed our flight waiting for the shuttle after returning our car.

Do NOT use Payless at O’Hare. First, it isn’t there, it’s about 20 minutes away. Second, a bunch of us came here, and there was no one behind the counter for the first 10 minutes we were here. They seem to leave the counter when they’re helping someone and go out into the yard. I don’t know what they are doing there, may be looking for cars? In any case, this is the worst service I’ve ever had. If I could give zero stars I would.

Payless Car Rental truly lives up to the old saying; «You get what you pay for» at least in terms of customer service. With the exception of one super star employee (read one for details), the customer service sucked.
After doing some research, I found that Payless offered the cheapest car rental so I booked and prepaid online. When I arrived to the Chicago Airport, a van picked me up and drove me to the Payless lot– which was pretty far away from the airport compared to the other car rental companies which we drove past.
When I arrived to the facility, I waited a few minutes then began the check in progress. The man who helped us was fine at first, but was later became very rude when I wanted to switch the primary driver. Apparently nothing can be done after you’ve pre paid online– he suggested next time we just pay when we arrive. Honestly I thought I was making it easier for the company by pre paying.
The rest of the check in took more than half an hour which was annoying.
But as for the best employee of Payless– it was the transportation driver who took us from Payless to the airport. He was BEYOND friendly and kind.

I reserved rent a car through Expedia. When I rent, they said they don’t have a type of car I reserved.
Original booked price was $ 115 for 4 days but they ask me $ 165 because they don’t have a type of car I reserved.
I asked them when car is available and then answered me no guaranteed. What are scam!!!
They force me rent another car for $ 165 or wait until car is available, but no guarantee.
Not recommend. this company is totally scam.

We had a good experience with this company. The shuttles from and to the airport were clean and the staff were very friendly. We got a great price and a nice car. A cute little brown Kia Soul. Checking in and out were easy.
I will say the building had an odd smell. I don’t know what it was, but at least it didn’t affect the car. The bathrooms are nice and clean too.
Just keep in mind that this location is 3 miles from the airport, so give yourself time for the shuttle ride. There’s also a reasonably priced gas station very close by.
As long as the price is right, I’d definitely rent from this company again.