Anyone use AB carrental and is it safe to give credit card info online? I recently was a victim of credit card fraud and it left me a little paranoid.
Feedback would be appreciated
Thanks, George A

I have used AB for three rentals now. I absolutely love them!

I'm a bad person to ask about on-line purchases, because I do them all of the time. However, I always use my AMEX because they do the resolution disputes for you and you are not stuck fighting it out yourself.

Hi George

We used AB Car Rental last Feb. & had no problems. I booked on-line with a credit card - they have a secure site. Their vehicles were all new and the company was very accommodating. We too have been victims of credit card fraud and it's no fun! I do the majority of my purchases on-line (without a problem) - just make sure it's a secure site. Also, do not give out your credit card information if someone contacts you saying (for instance that they are AB Car Rental) and something went wrong with reading your numbers. i.e. I've had Pay Pal e-mail me saying that they're updating their records & would I please verify my credit card info. NEVER answer those type e-mails. Either call the company direct or submit your own e-mail to Pay Pal (or whoever)inquiring about that e-mail. That's where the scammers come in - they purport to be a legitimate company but they are not. The legitimate company already has all the pertinent info.
Hope this helps - enjoy your Bonaire vacation!

George,

We have been using AB Rental 3 or 4 times a year for over 5 years any have never had a problem. The couple of minor vehicle issues we have were solved very quickly and to our satisfaction.

Thanks for the feedback, will go with AB for Feb

George A

Good choice George!! After 8 trips to Bonaire, AB is the only vehicle rental agency we will use.

I hired a pickup from AB last week and would recommend them. The truck was in excellent condition. When we picked up our truck on arrival the service was quick, efficient and friendly. We had no problems during the week and I would recommend anybody to hire a truck from AB. 1st class service!!

We used AB on our recent Thanksgiving trip as well as our May 2004 trip. No problems.

I have been a victim of CC fraud before and know what it's like. However, many cards now offer generation of safe one-time-use numbers for each transaction. My Discover card and my MBNA / BOA MC both offer these and they work great for me! Just an option to consider for risk minimization.

BEWARE OF AB CAR RENTAL. We rented a truck. The company gave us fairly a new truck. The tailgate had an enormous amount of grease on it that was not noticeable. Our new wetsuits were damaged from the grease, and they refused to give us another vehicle. I brought the vehicle back to AB the same day we rented it, and the Manager that was on duty at the time, said that she was not authorized to give us another vehicle. Everyday, we came back at the designated time told to us to show up to speak to the manager. The person on duty every day told us "Oh, you just missed him". He agreed to give us a total of $70.00 off of our bill totally. My suit cost me $180.00 for a 3mm Henderson wetsuit. I didn't expect him to pay for the entire suit, but I had expected him to at least give us a total of $100.00 off of our bill. The lavender part of my wetsuit was ruined. My roommates wetsuit costs $89.00. We were asking for a compromise of $100.00 off of the bill and he refused. He indicated that it was our fault that we got the grease on our wetsuits and that all of the truck tailgates have the grease on it. I took pictures of the grease of our truck and another truck rented by AB and the other truck did not have any grease on the hinges. I paid with my AMEX card and disputed only the $100.00 that we felt that we should have been compensated for the damage. We tried several types of products to try to remove the grease, but to no avail. We spoke with the main manager one time and he indicated that he couldn't do anything for our damage. Then, I told him that I will dispute the entire charge on my AMEX card, he changed his tune and when we brought the truck back after several days of diving, we spotted him peaking out of the door (trying to avoid us). He wanted us to sign a statement saying that we would accept $70.00 only for the damage to both of our wetsuits and I refused. The guy hid from us for 5 days before we actually met with him. We had 2 more days of diving.

BEWARE OF AB CAR RENTAL -- IT WILL SAVE YOU ALOT OF GRIEF IF YOU HAVE A MISHAP. I will try to attach the pics of the grease on the tailgate hinges and a pic of the NOT SO HONEST MANAGER.

Here are the pics

Pics of the grease



grease we wiped off with paper & bag



The Dishonest Manager in charge


Another truck we saw in town rented by AB with no grease


the license plate & AB logo of the other truck with no grease

Pics of the grease



grease we wiped off with paper & bag



The Dishonest Manager in charge


Another truck we saw in town rented by AB with no grease


the license plate & AB logo of the other truck with no grease

Tina Marie:

Thanks -- I'll look carefully at the truck bed/gate when I rent in the future to avoid getting any grease on my gear. I can imagine that they grease the gates well given the constant exposure to salt air/water and I would hate to get that on my second stages.

From your description, I would agree that the staff behaved poorly. They should not have given you the run around. Going back every day must have been a real pain! When brought to their attention they should have cleaned the grease off the area (assuming it was not needed to keep the gate functioning).

I am also keenly aware of how rental car companies in general (not even speaking of Bonaire, let alone AB) can (not all do) nickel and dime you for the smallest scratch or ding. So I can see how turn about would seem like fair play.

That said, did this truly ruin (i.e., compromise the strength or insulative properties) the wetsuit? While there will likely be a stain, I imagine dish soap would get the majority off. Of course I am a guy who dives in a ratty five year old t-shirt and none my gear matches

Given that, $70 seems more than fair to me. And there is always the possibility that AMEX will decline your challenge and you will be left with zero.

I've tried liquid soap (Dawn to be specific) usually will get grease stains out. The stain is still there. It wasn't the money, it was the principal of it all, and also the way the Manager treated us is what really upset me the most. Also, the other employees having us come back and the manager hiding from us. Very sneaky. that is no way to run a business. I feel $70.00 wasn't enough, when both of our new wetsuits were damaged and the stains DID NOT come out. Since it was a new wetsuit and not one of my very old one's I felt that I should have been compensated for their mistake.

The manager lied about the grease being on all of their trucks. I found several of their trucks without grease on the hinges. If the grease on the hinges were pointed out to us when we rented the truck in the beginning, we would have known to watch out for it, or at least to wipe it off ourselves. AB also refused to give us another truck.

By the way, AMEX did hold the funds. I received a letter indicating that the $100.00 would be deducted from my bill.

SORRY, the pics I attempted to attach didn't come out. With all of that aside, the diving was FANTASTIC. Thanks for letting me VENT...

Pic of hinge with grease

grease I wiped off with paper


The Dishonest Manager in charge


Another truck we saw in town rented by AB with no grease

grease in hinge


grease I wiped off with paper


The Dishonest Manager in charge
Photo removed by moderator, in the future please do not post photo like this without the persons permission.


Another truck we saw in town rented by AB with no grease

Tina, try Lestoil to get out the grease, it's a wonder.

Oh good golly, I been trying to figure out these pictures, what am I looking at.
A HINGE is a mechanical ELBOW joint. The hinge on a pickup is at the bottom of the tailgate. You had grease on the LATCH of your pickups' tailgate receiver.

I have never had a problem swapping trucks at AB. It seems like an annual issue for us. One year the windshield wipers didn't work, another year the tailgate didn't drop and last year there was a huge hole in the back seat. I guess I just know how to sweet talk them, as they have never turned me down.

Tina Marie...good gracious! I'm sure it was devastating for you. And right there on that latch in plain view. Just can't get good help anymore!

Pretty crappy to remove the Dishonest Manager photo.....

Gail if you were the alleged Dishonest Manager would you think it was crappy to remove the photo???

I think it's pretty crappy that someone misaligns the good folks at AB who have always been straight up with me and the whole fuss is that the poster failed to see the grease on the latch...what a whiney little fuss budget.

Manager hid....no doubt...let's go on vacation but elect to spend it running to the car rental everyday to get them to pay for our snappy new wet suits because ....well "we weren't paying attention and got dirty....so someone must pay us"

Sorry Seb,

I don't really know the technical name for where the grease was. Thanks for the definition.

The Manager was very dishonest. I wasn't whining. All AB had to do was to let us know that they put extra gobs of grease on the LATCH of the pickup's tailgate receiver. It wasn't in plain sight. They also refused to give us another truck, even though we brought the truck back the same day of the incident. 1st day we picked up the truck and after our 3 dives for that day.

Walla and Eva,

Maybe you never had any trouble with AB, but I believe when you are paying for a service there are expectations of what you should receive and I didn't ask for my wetsuit to be spotted up with grease that won't come out.

Frankly, AB should have given me another truck when this one had excess grease on it. Furthermore, their other trucks that I saw on the property DID NOT have any grease in that location, so why should I expect that grease would be in a location where you are handling your tanks, grabbing your gear, etc. I respect your posting but, if I want to purchase a new wetsuit for a trip, I should not have to expect it to be spotted up with grease. Anytime, I feel I have been wronged, I WILL ALWAYS SPEAK UP and let others know the experience I had with a company "GOOD or BAD.

Tina Marie

Thank you all for your responses and information.

Tina Marie

Did you try the Lestoil Tina?

I don't believe Bonaire is a destination for those who expect rental vehicles in perfect condition. That is not reasonable, IMHO, given the fact that Bonaire is a small, wind swept, desert island a thousand miles from nowhere with a climate that can rust out a vehicle in a couple of years or so. Giving this poster a another vehicle would not change the fact that there was grease on the wetsuit so I don't blame AB, who I've had nothing but good luck with in 8 trips to Bonaire, for not switching out the vehicle. Grab a rag, wipe the grease off the truck and go diving!! When you got to Bonaire .... you're not in Kansas anymore! P.S. Sorry about the wetsuit.

This thread reminds me of the Eagles song titled..."Get over it"..

Freddie - my apologies! That was meant tongue in cheek, but the printed word doesn't take in the tone and intent! I'm sorry!

On my list of top 5 songs of all times...but I digress.