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March 2023 by Angela Semple
I will never rent from them again. I showed up for my rental and they acted as though they had a vehicle and I let my ride leave. I was told a vehicle was being prepared and then brought to that location but after 40 minutes that changed and they had no vehicles for me to rent. I was never refunded back my 2 rental days that I did not use and my email complaint that was escalated was ignored.Update 2/2023They reached out and credited me my rental days back. I will give them another try in the future.
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October 2022 by Michelle Pettaway
Absolutely the WORST rental place I have ever experienced. Booked for a week about 2 weeks ago had to wait 45 mins for a mini van and they were full staffed. Fast forward to TODAY 10/22 I had a reservation for today and I'm being told not only do they NOT have my car class but they DONT HAVE ANY CARS AT ALL .
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October 2022 by Travis Franklin
Never rent from this place. They don’t clean between rentals and if you don’t walk all the way back up to the airport to notify them, they will charge you for the cleaning fee.
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June 2022 by Alan Christensen
Terrible service. No cars are available and they don't answer their phone. Have fun walking as you're not getting a car from National Car Rental even with a reservation.
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May 2022 by Penny Zanke
It's quite disappointing when the guy Dwight on Newport News airport requests to wait for 15 mins when there is no car left to rent out. I had my booking 1 month ahead in place.Customers who came after me had to wait less than me and got their rental cars before me. I am not sure if he put any efforts but he is just sitting and talking with the lady at his counter.Dwight kept me waiting for almost above 50 minutes now. I still have not received any rental car. Super frustrating. Totally lacks professionalism wasting customers time.
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May 2022 by Melvin Byrd
Not sure what happened to this location, but In the past few rentals, it's been less and less of an Emerald Club Experience. Today will be my last transaction with PHF National Car Rental.
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May 2022 by Kamikaze Rooster
Nobody is perfect, but every interaction I've had with National has been worry free. Coast more than some others, but you get what you pay for.
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March 2022 by Tony Wade
Airport location. Enterprise and Nationals service has tanked. Staff not educated to handle my rental. NO CARS to rent!!! I reserve a vehicle each week only to come and retrieve it and there are NO CARS AVAILABLE. Only for the staff to tell me that the Insurance customers have priority. Are we segregating customers now....? I thought all customers are a priority. The customer is Not always right but I know how the saying goes but, they are a priority and they as a whole come first. This is a reservation for a weekly business rental. Why am I having to be placed in the "Customer No Service" line? Why do you not have cars? Stop trying to sell them and rent them. Very frustrating. I wonder if another rental company would accept my $1.5k a month for rentals. ??
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September 2021 by Kevin Bowe
Really frustrated with National. Reserved a car two weeks in advance for a business trip only to be told there weren't any cars ready when I went to pick it up. Was told they would call me that afternoon when they had a car ready. I waited 4+ hours and called multiple times trying to figure out what was going on. Waited on hold for 15 minutes everytime until the automated system hung up on me. No one ever called me back and I had to scramble to change my plans. Understand there's a shortage of rental cars, but this kind of customer service is unexceptable.
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June 2021 by Darren Warren
Newport News Airport location: People were nice but I had a prepaid voucher for a rental and when we went to pick it up they charged my wife an additional $400 deposit fee. No where on the voucher did it say that we had to pay THAT much $$$. They also said they didn’t accept debit cards (kind of understandable). Once we got that situation straightened out (about an hour later) they told my wife that it would be a 15 minute wait on her vehicle because they had to clean and disinfect it. Fast forward an hour later (now totaling 2 hours), she is still waiting patiently. Then she asked for an upgrade and they said no because they didn’t have any available… No refunds on the voucher so we are stuck waiting which is very frustrating. Nice people, but if you cause any kind of extra work for them they will politely screw you.
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May 2021 by David Bannat author of Complete Access
I rent a lot of cars here for work, and my experiences at the Newport News airport seem to get worse every time I go there. Tonight was the worst. I rented a full size car and they tell me all they had were compact. But when I go down to the lot there were several cars that were full size. I get in the tiny little car and the service car light is on. So back up to the terminal I go. The person at the counter tells me they just had the oil changed and must have forgotten to reset the computer. I ask about another vehicle of the size I ordered and he tells me that the one i saw needs an oil change. But it was just washed and had the tag hanging from the rear view mirror saying it was ready to rent. I think he was making it up as he went along. Next he tells me to take the car and he will call me as soon as something better is turned in. I'm sure he said that just to get rid of me. I also called the main number and got the same empty promise because nobody called me. And don't think reaching the higher tiers helps. Seems the more points I accumulate the worse the service gets.
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April 2021 by Rose G
Made a reservation over a week in advance to rent a Jeep. On my way to pick up the vehicle the day of my reservation I receive a call from National stating the Jeep is unavailable, but another vehicle will be provided. When I get to National and ask what happened to the Jeep I reserved, rep says "there's a shortage". He then proceeds to tell me I can rent a Nissan Altima, but it's going to be MORE expensive than my original agreement???? Then he informs me there's a $400 deposit required because this location is inside an airport. He goes on to say that a debit card cannot be used at all unless I have a return flight plane ticket. Why would they not communicate this information when making the reservation?!All in all, I made an advance reservation with a confirmation number for a Jeep that never existed....only to have National try to charge me almost $600 to rent a basic car! This was a terrible experience and resulted in cancellation of a family Spring Break road trip thanks to National. This place needs to get it together. If there were zero stars, that's what I would gladly give.
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January 2021 by Theodore Van Horn
I reserved a car, and when I arrived to pick it up, I was told the vehicle had been given to someone else. The attendant had no explanation.
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October 2020 by Robbin Crowell
When I arrived to get my reserved small SUV, I was told they had none. So they gave me a full size SUV for no extra charge. I was extremely pleased with the car and service. I only use National now.
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October 2020 by Janet D.
It's a disappointment to write this review, because I have been a customer for 10 years and have never had a problem. I rented a car for a week, not knowing how long it would take for my personal car to be fixed. This was immediately after driving my sig-o to the ER for a possible blood clot, dropping my dog off at home, dropping my car off at the mechanics, and getting a ride directly to Newport News Airport National Car Rental. I am an Emerald Isle member and have always enjoyed exceptional service. The rental vehicle was excellent. I drove to my house, got my dog, went to the ER, directly picked up at the front door my sig-o (checked out ok - whew!), and drove 50 miles to his house. Got a call - my car was ready, but we had decided to wait 2 days until his check-up. Got a call the next day that my son had been injured on scaffolding the day before and was now home and needed to be taken to the doctor. I drove home, dropped off my dog, took my son to MedExpress, and figured to kill two birds with one stone and swap cars. The rental drop-off went fine, and I Ubered to the mechanic for my car, and then got my son. To sum up, the drive distance was 110 miles and that was the only time that I drove and had my dog in the car. He is a low shedding dog. My cleaning bill added on to the rental came to $200! There was no trash, no dirt, trunk wasn't used - nothing! I called National to discuss this and was told that a manager would call. No one did. I called again after 1.5 hours and was told to drive back to National to discuss. Fine! I did and even took my dog to demonstrate shedding capacity. It was 3:40 and the manager had already left. I was told to come back the next day. NO one has called me back at all. This will now be the 4th attempt that I will have to make to discuss a ludicrous charge. They had already rented out the vehicle, so I was unable to even take a picture to dispute. VERY DISAPPOINTING National !!! Beware if you have a pet and are put into time-stressing situations! Rent somewhere else, or plan to add to your stress in dealing with hospitals, injuries, sickness, if you are having to take care of people during this time in any way!