| rev:text
| - This was my first time renting a car and I've always heard horror stories, but I'm not sure if my experience was more awful than usual or just average in comparison to others. In any case, it was not an easy transaction and I felt very confused both picking up and dropping off my vehicle.
Booking online was easy both user wise and clarity wise. When we arrived to the Budget counter inside Charlotte airport, there were only two people in front of us who were already being helped. It took fifteen minutes for us to be helped next and an additional twenty minutes or so to finish our rental agreement and proceed to the shuttle that would take us to where they keep the vehicles. There was a lot of up selling involved and each time I declined the Budget employee made a sarcastic comment or disapprovingly said "okkaaay, if you're sure". We were promised an American model upon arrival but ended up agreeing to a Nissan Sentra so we could get out of there. We were handed our contract and told the car would be parked in front of the building the shuttle dropped us off at.
The car wasn't there, nor was it located anywhere in the lot. We then had to reproceed waiting in line at the Budget location inside the lot, and when they got to us, they informed me that the contract we were given was very incomplete with missing data from the first employee who helped us that made it more difficult to get into a car immediately. They moved quickly and put us into a SUV upgrade which was a $300 value I would estimate from what I saw on the website. We were never told to inspect the vehicle for damage at any point and were never given an inspection sheet or handed our contract back. Being a newbie to car rentals, I didn't think about the contract but proceeded to inspect the vehicle for damage. There wasn't any, otherwise I would have addressed it before driving off, but I think it was sketchy and unfair not to be told to look for any thing. How can they hold renters accountable for damage when they aren't being given instruction prior to leaving? Couldn't a renter simply claim that Budget never advised them or gave them the inspection form and be free of responsibility? Seems risky for both Budget and the consumer either way.
The vehicle was great, no complaints for the times we used it. No smells and noticeably clean inside.
Upon returning, the attendant asked us for our contract which we did not have. She scanned the mileage and said "I can't check you in. Your mileage isn't right. You have to go inside" and that was that. She didn't explain what it meant, and moved on to the next car.
We waited inside and explained why we were there. The gentleman checked it out and informed us the miles were way off. Obviously, my first thought is that without a contract copy they were documenting that the mileage was extravagantly too high for the time we had it which couldn't be true as we rarely drove it. It turns out that the person who upgraded us to the SUV documented the mileage wrong, as in too high, and when we returned it there were less miles than were possible, as if we drove in reverse Ferris Bueller style. After a few minutes, he was just like "You're fine." and gave me my final bill that was accurate.
The best part was the shuttle service. The gentleman who helped us both times was super nice, courteous, smart, helpful and a great representative for this company.
My experience overall doesn't make me feel loyal to Budget in anyway and I will give another rental car company a try since I'm not sure it can get much worse if we should need to again.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)