Hopper
What a scam! I trusted the offer and paid much more
- Nowadays and thanks to the rise of technology, the supply and demand of services has been increasing, so the appearance of applications that offer services and facilities in them has been strengthened; however, it is always important to make sure that what is offered is really what is received. This is the case of a rental reservation made on Hopper.
- I was in the United States during a summer season, it was August and I wanted to spend a couple of days in Washington D.C. before returning to my country, someone told me about "Hopper" the application to book hotels, cars and others and I wanted to investigate. I downloaded the application, entered my data and searched for what I was really interested in, car rentals. I put the date, time and place where I wanted to rent the car and several options appeared that offered not so cheap prices but when divided between 3 or 4 people (as was our case) it would be super affordable.
- The app apparently broke down each of the services charged and showed a total cost to be paid at the selected pick-up location; so we said "why not!". The total amount on the app was $146 for 2 days rental (all inclusive: insurance and additional services). Maybe it was not little but it was not a big amount impossible to pay among several people, so we confirmed the reservation of the vehicle with great pleasure, without knowing that the experience began there; because the cost would go up surprisingly at the time of picking up the vehicle at the chosen agency.
- Once at the place, we went to the person at the counter to validate the reservation; the agent performs the due process of verification of identification, driver's license and credit card and thus be able to sign the agreement / rental contract. The problem really was that the hopper app had only shown the price for the two day rental of the vehicle and although before booking the items listed included each of the services in question to pick up the car without any inconvenience, at the counter we were informed that none of this was actually included in the price offered by the app and what in total we had to pay was $243.47 USD so was this misleading advertising, for my taste, yes!
- Basically what hopper and other apps or agencies do is to offer cheap prices to persuade the customer to purchase services from companies with these apps as intermediaries, claim their commissions and leave the customer with the feeling of having been deceived. So, what we recommend is to make sure first hand that the prices offered are really what you will pay, the best you can do is to communicate via phone and be clear about the service and policies of what you are going to book, because once done, in most cases you will have to pay a "fine" for cancellation. All business huh!
Check well before paying for any service. First and foremost, safety and reliability.
Thanks for reading!
