Complaint Review: Budget Truck Rental - Charlotte North Carolina

I rented this truck from Budget with the sole intent of using it to drive 1.5 hours away to High Point, NC to pick up inventory for our store, as well as meet with a prospective new vendor. After picking up my merchandise, and on the way to pick meet the vendor the truck broke down and I had to pull off on the side of the highway.

I called Budget's roadside assistance and they said they would send someone out to my location to have a look at the truck. I waited on the side of the road for 2 hours for that person to show up, only to tell me that some belt had snapped and he would need to bring it in to his shop to properly do the repair, but he couldn't do that without the permission of budget. He called them to tell them what he needed to do and they told him no, that he needed to fix it on the side of the road. The repair guy then informed me that maybe they would listen to me if I called, so I did, and they also told me no. Roadside assistance then asked to speak to the repair guy and I could physically hear him screaming at the repair guy through my phone. He told the repair guy that he would have to fix it on the side of the road. The repair guy said that because the area where he needed to repair was so low, he would need to put it up on a lift or it would take between 5 & 6 hours to repair. The Roadside assistance manager said he would only pay him for 2 hours and it would have to be done there on the side of the road. It took the repair guy almost 6 hours to repair the truck.

The next morning I called roadside assistance again to allay my concerns over the quality of service I had received. At this point I was told "you should be happy they sent someone out to you at all". Realizing that it's perhaps time to speak with customer service, I called the phone number listed on their site for Customer Service, and was told that I had reached reservations. She was nice enough to transfer me to Customer Service, where I was informed that I would have to speak to someone in Business customer service, because they have a different set of people that handle business and non-business. Upon being transferred to the Business team I was told that there was nothing he could do for me, and that I probably needed to speak with our account rep..I didn't even know we had such a person! I was then transferred to a mailbox where I left a message for the account manager.

A subordinate named Mike called me back and stated that he represented the account manager. I explained the entire situation to him and he asked if he could call me back after he spoke to those above him. He called back a few hours later and said that there was nothing he could do to refund the money I had paid, despite the numerous inconveniences. He said I would have to call back customer service and report that the truck I received was unsafe, and to report that that location has an unsafe fleet of vehicles.

At this point, after being run around constantly, by people who don't seem have the ability to make decisions or issue a refund, I decided to dispute the transaction via chargeback.