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| - Alright let me preface this review by saying I never write reviews, but I hope that by sharing my experience, no one else has to go through what I just went through.
My husband and I reserved our car online about a month before we needed it. This was fine, and we didn't experience any issues on this front.
We went to pick up our car on 1/25/18and were helped by a man named Marcel C. It was immediately clear that Marcel wasn't a huge fan of his job, but we didn't mind as we were excited to pick up our rental and get to the trip we had planned.
Marcel was extremely unclear when explaining the terms of the rental agreement. We prepaid for the rental when we reserved it online. He asked me in a very confusing way whether I wanted the basic coverage or the collision coverage, I declined the collision as I already have quite substantial personal auto insurance. At no point during this exchange did Marcel explain to me that this "basic" protection would cost an additional $100 on top of the amount we had already prepaid for the reservation. Additionally, no option was presented to me for not purchasing extra coverage from them - very confusing. At no point during this exchange did Marcel explain that I would in fact be charged additional funds for this rental.
Next, Marcel asked me for a credit card to have on file. I initially wanted to use my debit card as my credit card has a relatively low limit. He stated that if I wanted to use my card, as a LAS VEGAS LOCAL I would need to provide 2 utility bills. I asked him what the card would be used for and he very confidently stated that it was for incidentals and wouldn't be charged for anything unless there was damage to the vehicle. So me, as a careful person knowing that vehicle damage was unlikely gave him my low limit credit card assuming this was the same procedure hotel rooms use. This was not even close to the case.
So you can imagine my surprise upon receiving an alert from my credit card company that I had exceeded my limit due to a $100 charge from Budget. I naively assumed this was a hold and would fall off once the vehicle inspection had shown there was no damage to the vehicle. This was not the case.
When we went to return the car on 1/29/2018 I was informed by the Budget inspector that the $100 charge would not fall off and that it was a charge for the "basic" protection I had opted for when picking up the car. All of this would have been fine had it been explained that the charge was for the basic protection, however, this was NEVER explained to me.
Obviously, I wanted clarification on this so they sent me to one counter where I was rudely told that the man couldn't help me and I need to go back upstairs to speak with a manager. So, we went upstairs to seek clarification. Almost immediately upon arriving to the Budget counter, Marcel saw my husband and I walk up and started to look nervous and fidgety, almost as if he knew exactly what he did and why we were there.
We approached Marcel to discuss the situation and he became EXTREMELY defensive stating that he never said the card would only be used for incidentals (he did) and that he explained clearly that the card would be used to charge me for the protection (he didn't) and then aggressively scoffed that we needed to discuss this with the manager.
After the manager threatened to have us thrown out, We were made to fill out an incident form. The "manager" was extremely rude, dismissive, and unhelpful. She basically stated that there was nothing we could do, and that we would be charged regardless.
She said she would review the tapes of the recording from the say we picked up the car to determine what happened and told us to leave. We left and got a call from her a short time later stating that Marcel showed us a laminated copy of an explanation of the charges for the protection but refused to address the part when Marcel stated that my low limit credit card would ONLY BE CHARGED FOR INCIDENTALS.
I stated that we would be speaking to legal council on the matter of fraudulent charges and misrepresentation on a contractual agreement and she immediately hung up on me.
This was the worst experience I have ever had as a consumer. I would have had no problem paying for the charges for the "basic" coverage had it been clearly explained that they would be using my card for this. I was in no way trying to get something for nothing. But when someone asks you very specifically what charges they can expect on their card and they are blatantly lied to, there is an issue. It's clear there is a corporate attitude of "anything for a profit" here and they are very willing to use misleading tactics (including boldface lying to customers) to make a quick dime.
I would highly recommend against anyone using Budget. If you must use Budget, be sure to ask for documentation and extreme clarification on what charges you will incur.
CAR RENTERS BEWARE.
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