- Report: #67571
Complaint Review: Budget Truck Rentals - Pinellas Park Florida
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Why?
Budget Truck Rentals
http://www.budgettruck.com/ Pinellas Park, Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-4679337 x38553
Web:
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Budget Truck Rentals Billing Misrepresentation unsafe vehicle lack of customer service Pinellas Park Florida
We have had a very discouraging and distressing experience with our truck rental and level of service given by the Budget corporation.
On May 24th, 2003, three months in advance, I, made an online reservation with Budget for a 15-foot truck for a one-way move from Pinellas Park, Florida to Portland, Maine with a pick-up date of August 23rd, 2003.
The driver, and myself went to the pick up location in May to confirm the price of the rental because the Total Estimated cost quoted to me and confirmed by email reservation was $522.00, with a car carrier listed and a Towing Rate listed of $0.00. I wanted confirmation that this Total Estimated cost with the car carrier sent to me via email was correct to avoid any unexpected expenses.
Upon arrival at the Pinellas Park location at 5790 Park Blvd, we spoke to the manager, Frank Ennis, with a copy of the reservation estimate email, and asked him if that was the total price that we would pay in August, including the car carrier. He seemed mildly surprised at the estimate price, but told us personally that if that was the quoted price, then that was what we would pay. I left with his confirmation, and planned our moving expenses around the quote we were given.
On August 23rd at 9am, we went to pick up the rental truck. Another gentleman was working in the rental office. We told him we were there to pick up the vehicle. After totaling the reservation on his computer, he quoted us a higher rate than our reservation. When we asked what additional charges were added, he explained that we were to pay an additional $300 + for the car carrier. I had the copy of the reservation email with me, and explained that it did not list an additional charge for the car carrier and that we had confirmed our Total Estimate price back in May when we spoke with Frank.
The gentleman then called Frank to come into the Budget office. When he arrived, we immediately recognized him and reminded him that we had spoken with him in May concerning our rental. Frank then said that he had not spoken with us, that there was another employee who looked similar to him working in his shop, and that it must have been him that we spoke to. We are not ignorant in the literal sense of the word, and even when the other shop employee came over to the office to get Frank, we knew that it was not him, but Frank that we had spoken to.
Frank refused to acknowledge that we had spoken to him in May, and said that he would call customer service to ask about the emailed Total Estimate price that I had received. He explained that he could not give us the car carrier quoted in my reservation estimate because the corporation would then charge his company personally and he would have to pay for it. While on hold with customer service, he told us that if he spoke with the representatives directly that it would be definite that we would have to pay the full car carrier price.
As an alternative, he said before one of the representatives got on the line, that he could give us the car carrier at the car tow rate of $168.00. Under the impression that we had no alternative, and having no choice because we did not have the flexibility to change our date of relocation and rent a vehicle from another company, we conceded to the erroneous extra charge. The other gentleman working the Budget office told us that we could call the corporation directly after returning the vehicle to attempt to reverse the erroneous charge.
This should have been our first indication to cancel and not enter into any business transaction with Budget, but as noted above, we had no flexibility in this move, which is why we made and confirmed the reservation and price three months in advance.
Upon our reluctant agreement for the erroneous charge, Frank left the Budget office to assist in his auto shop. The other representative then took charge of completing the reservation. He asked for a credit card for the $100 deposit. I wanted to use my Visa card to pay for the entire rental, but wanted to put the $100 deposit on my debit/MasterCard. (This was a very important detail because I wanted to pay on my Visa so that I could pay the charges off after relocating, and so that I could have the funds in my bank account in case of emergency).
I asked the gentleman if the entire charge would be billed to my debit card and was told that it was only an authorization for the entire reservation, that only $100 would be taken out, and I could pay with my Visa upon arrival in Maine. This also proved not to be true. The entire rental price of $981.54 was deducted from my checking account on August 26th. (We were already working on a very limited budget; to explain, three weeks before leaving Florida, my mother and Aunt passed away on the same day, August 2nd, and I was forced to fly to Maine, leaving us only bare minimum funds with which to move.)
I cannot express enough in words how distressing it was that the lack of this representatives training and lack of information had cost us to be literally left penniless while trying to find employment because of his misinformation. $981.54 is a great deal of funds when you have little to work with. Additionally, I personally worked in the credit card industry for seven years, and fully understand the difference between an authorization and a charge to a credit card.
This same representative then took us out to inspect the vehicle. I'm not sure what the policy is for long distance moves, but there were several nice 15-foot blue Budget trucks in the parking lot that day, but we were given an aged Ryder truck with over 100,000 miles on the odometer. This rep made notes of some damage on the truck and the carrier. I then noticed that one of the car carrier tires looked like it was balding some on the outside, but thinking that their representatives would not send us across the country without concern for our personal safety, I assumed (incorrectly) that he knew the capacity of the carrier and tire more than I would because he was the professional.
And so we began our relocation move, stopping the first night in South Carolina. Next we continued on, planning to stop again in Pennsylvania for a night, and then arrive in Maine on the third day. (This schedule was possible because we made the exact drive the previous September.) However our plans yet again were derailed. We stopped to fill up the gas tank in Mt. Jackson, Virginia, when we noticed that the balding tire looked unsafe. There was wire mesh coming out of what was left of the outside of the tire. We knew that we would be unable to continue, and there was a Days Inn next to the gas station, so we stopped, rented a room, and called roadside assistance to see what we needed to do next. Jack, the driver of the vehicle, made the phone calls that evening of August 25th, 2003.
Roadside assistance informed us that we, as customers in an unfamiliar town that is unpopulated and exists only as an interstate stop, to find a Goodyear Tire store the next day. Since we were told when we picked up the vehicle (and told because I specifically asked) about roadside assistance, Jack asked why someone was not being sent to the hotel to exchange the unsafe tire. He was told it did not work that way, that if we were stranded on the road then someone would be sent out, but since we were stopped, then it became our responsibility to seek out a place of repair, but that it also had to be a Goodyear Tire store. (Another detail that we were misinformed about.)
To add to the frustration, Jack had to call and spoke with five representatives that evening because he was disconnected numerous times after being put on hold, and even hung up on by one representative who did not like Jack's tone of voice. Frustration is no reason to hang up on a customer who has already had problems from the beginning. Our evening of phone calls ended when one representative made a personal promise that he would not disconnect Jack, but then Jack was booted out of the hold system and given a message that customer service was closed.
So we were forced to wait until morning to call again, which we did. Jack and I looked through the yellow pages for Mt. Jackson and found one tire store, Cooper Tire, located one town away from Mt. Jackson. We gave this information to your customer service, and by luck your corporation had an account with this tire company. So, Jack unloaded our vehicle and had to drive to the next town to have the tire replaced after the store opened that morning. The tire company could not reach Budget for billing purposes, and reluctantly but compassionately let Jack go because they knew we were mid-travel. We have a copy of the tire receipt, and the manager noted that the tire we were traveling and carrying our Ford Explorer on was unsafe.
I would also like to make note of some of the comments made by your representatives. One rep, when Jack asked why we had to drive the vehicle to have it fixed, asked nonchalantly what he would do with his own personal vehicle if he had a tire problem. Jack responded that he wouldn?t travel without a spare tire. Secondly, the rep mentioned previously that hung up on Jack gave us two alternatives only: find a Goodyear, or return the car carrier to Florida FROM VIRGINIA and exchange it for another one. And a third rep told Jack that we could have rode with three tires, that the carrier did not require all four tires.
I do not believe that this was a correct statement considering we were carrying an SUV on the carrier. Professional customer service representatives of a corporation as large as Budget should never make such unprofessional comments. This only adds to a customer's distress and dissatisfaction.
As a result of the unsafe tire, we were forced to stop early in an unfamiliar area, lose travel time that day, and then again lost time in the morning spent taking the vehicle to get the tire fixed, so as a result we fell behind our schedule. We decided to drive again, this time into the night also, to somewhat make up the time lost by the tire ordeal. We drove until nightfall. It was then that we realized that the lights on the truck didn't work properly. They were either dim or pointed upward because little light fell on the road in the dark. (I made a mental note that small compact cars on the interstate had more powerful beams than a 15-foot moving truck.)
So once again, we lost driving time and were forced to stop again for a night. We had no choice, it was not safe driving that large of a vehicle when you could not see the road ahead of you.
We stopped for the night, and then continued on to Maine. Once we arrived, we immediately called customer service because we would not make the return date because of the time lost between the unsafe tire ordeal and the lack of ability to drive with the unsafe headlights. Customer service agreed to extend the return date to August 30th.
We placed our belongings in storage and returned the truck on the 30th as agreed. Upon returning the vehicle, we explained to the Portland, Maine representative our ordeal and he agreed to refund the entire $100 deposit to my checking account. However, when I pulled out my Visa card to pay for the rental as I was previously informed in Florida, I was then informed that the charge had already been processed via my debit card. We explained that this was not correct, but were not give an alternative to correct it.
We spoke to another rep on duty, who gave us the business card for the Portland office manager, Christen Deschenes, who would call customer service for us to try to work with us. Christen was on vacation and would not return to the office until September 9th.
We called Christen upon her return to the office and she made note of our experience and said that she would call customer service personally to work something out and call us back. After waiting two days with no call, we called her again, and she said that she did not receive a call back from your customer service, and gave us a number to call ourselves.
Jack called the number given to us by her, and was informed that it was not a service number that could help us resolve our issues. So, Jack called the number we had originally called once again. This time customer service confirmed that they were giving a refund of the hotel in Virginia (also confirmed while in Virginia) and additionally for our meals for that evening. We were told a credit of $120.70 would be made to our account.
This also was incorrect. Whoever credits accounts at the corporation misread the amount and only credited us for $100.70, which posted to my account on September 8th, 2003. We have yet to receive the difference. This was when we were asked to write the details down of our experience and fax them to customer service so that a team of representatives could review.
This entire process has been a more than a nightmare for us. I feel that we deserve far more that just a credit for a hotel bill that we already had to pay for ourselves.
So in the end, all they could offer us was a $50 credit, even though they took almost $1000 from my checking account w/out authorization, overcharged us from our original quote, misdirected us several times on the phone, and sent us with an unsafe vehicle.
And what was the worst part about it was that they just didn't seem to care at all about our experience. I'm not a dishonest person and NEVER complain or send anything back, this was just so horrible it just made me cry... :O(
Lucinda
Brewer, Maine
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Budget Car & Truck Rental
On May 24th, 2003, three months in advance, I, made an online reservation with Budget for a 15-foot truck for a one-way move from Pinellas Park, Florida to Portland, Maine with a pick-up date of August 23rd, 2003.
The driver, and myself went to the pick up location in May to confirm the price of the rental because the Total Estimated cost quoted to me and confirmed by email reservation was $522.00, with a car carrier listed and a Towing Rate listed of $0.00. I wanted confirmation that this Total Estimated cost with the car carrier sent to me via email was correct to avoid any unexpected expenses.
Upon arrival at the Pinellas Park location at 5790 Park Blvd, we spoke to the manager, Frank Ennis, with a copy of the reservation estimate email, and asked him if that was the total price that we would pay in August, including the car carrier. He seemed mildly surprised at the estimate price, but told us personally that if that was the quoted price, then that was what we would pay. I left with his confirmation, and planned our moving expenses around the quote we were given.
On August 23rd at 9am, we went to pick up the rental truck. Another gentleman was working in the rental office. We told him we were there to pick up the vehicle. After totaling the reservation on his computer, he quoted us a higher rate than our reservation. When we asked what additional charges were added, he explained that we were to pay an additional $300 + for the car carrier. I had the copy of the reservation email with me, and explained that it did not list an additional charge for the car carrier and that we had confirmed our Total Estimate price back in May when we spoke with Frank.
The gentleman then called Frank to come into the Budget office. When he arrived, we immediately recognized him and reminded him that we had spoken with him in May concerning our rental. Frank then said that he had not spoken with us, that there was another employee who looked similar to him working in his shop, and that it must have been him that we spoke to. We are not ignorant in the literal sense of the word, and even when the other shop employee came over to the office to get Frank, we knew that it was not him, but Frank that we had spoken to.
Frank refused to acknowledge that we had spoken to him in May, and said that he would call customer service to ask about the emailed Total Estimate price that I had received. He explained that he could not give us the car carrier quoted in my reservation estimate because the corporation would then charge his company personally and he would have to pay for it. While on hold with customer service, he told us that if he spoke with the representatives directly that it would be definite that we would have to pay the full car carrier price.
As an alternative, he said before one of the representatives got on the line, that he could give us the car carrier at the car tow rate of $168.00. Under the impression that we had no alternative, and having no choice because we did not have the flexibility to change our date of relocation and rent a vehicle from another company, we conceded to the erroneous extra charge. The other gentleman working the Budget office told us that we could call the corporation directly after returning the vehicle to attempt to reverse the erroneous charge.
This should have been our first indication to cancel and not enter into any business transaction with Budget, but as noted above, we had no flexibility in this move, which is why we made and confirmed the reservation and price three months in advance.
Upon our reluctant agreement for the erroneous charge, Frank left the Budget office to assist in his auto shop. The other representative then took charge of completing the reservation. He asked for a credit card for the $100 deposit. I wanted to use my Visa card to pay for the entire rental, but wanted to put the $100 deposit on my debit/MasterCard. (This was a very important detail because I wanted to pay on my Visa so that I could pay the charges off after relocating, and so that I could have the funds in my bank account in case of emergency).
I asked the gentleman if the entire charge would be billed to my debit card and was told that it was only an authorization for the entire reservation, that only $100 would be taken out, and I could pay with my Visa upon arrival in Maine. This also proved not to be true. The entire rental price of $981.54 was deducted from my checking account on August 26th. (We were already working on a very limited budget; to explain, three weeks before leaving Florida, my mother and Aunt passed away on the same day, August 2nd, and I was forced to fly to Maine, leaving us only bare minimum funds with which to move.)
I cannot express enough in words how distressing it was that the lack of this representatives training and lack of information had cost us to be literally left penniless while trying to find employment because of his misinformation. $981.54 is a great deal of funds when you have little to work with. Additionally, I personally worked in the credit card industry for seven years, and fully understand the difference between an authorization and a charge to a credit card.
This same representative then took us out to inspect the vehicle. I'm not sure what the policy is for long distance moves, but there were several nice 15-foot blue Budget trucks in the parking lot that day, but we were given an aged Ryder truck with over 100,000 miles on the odometer. This rep made notes of some damage on the truck and the carrier. I then noticed that one of the car carrier tires looked like it was balding some on the outside, but thinking that their representatives would not send us across the country without concern for our personal safety, I assumed (incorrectly) that he knew the capacity of the carrier and tire more than I would because he was the professional.
And so we began our relocation move, stopping the first night in South Carolina. Next we continued on, planning to stop again in Pennsylvania for a night, and then arrive in Maine on the third day. (This schedule was possible because we made the exact drive the previous September.) However our plans yet again were derailed. We stopped to fill up the gas tank in Mt. Jackson, Virginia, when we noticed that the balding tire looked unsafe. There was wire mesh coming out of what was left of the outside of the tire. We knew that we would be unable to continue, and there was a Days Inn next to the gas station, so we stopped, rented a room, and called roadside assistance to see what we needed to do next. Jack, the driver of the vehicle, made the phone calls that evening of August 25th, 2003.
Roadside assistance informed us that we, as customers in an unfamiliar town that is unpopulated and exists only as an interstate stop, to find a Goodyear Tire store the next day. Since we were told when we picked up the vehicle (and told because I specifically asked) about roadside assistance, Jack asked why someone was not being sent to the hotel to exchange the unsafe tire. He was told it did not work that way, that if we were stranded on the road then someone would be sent out, but since we were stopped, then it became our responsibility to seek out a place of repair, but that it also had to be a Goodyear Tire store. (Another detail that we were misinformed about.)
To add to the frustration, Jack had to call and spoke with five representatives that evening because he was disconnected numerous times after being put on hold, and even hung up on by one representative who did not like Jack's tone of voice. Frustration is no reason to hang up on a customer who has already had problems from the beginning. Our evening of phone calls ended when one representative made a personal promise that he would not disconnect Jack, but then Jack was booted out of the hold system and given a message that customer service was closed.
So we were forced to wait until morning to call again, which we did. Jack and I looked through the yellow pages for Mt. Jackson and found one tire store, Cooper Tire, located one town away from Mt. Jackson. We gave this information to your customer service, and by luck your corporation had an account with this tire company. So, Jack unloaded our vehicle and had to drive to the next town to have the tire replaced after the store opened that morning. The tire company could not reach Budget for billing purposes, and reluctantly but compassionately let Jack go because they knew we were mid-travel. We have a copy of the tire receipt, and the manager noted that the tire we were traveling and carrying our Ford Explorer on was unsafe.
I would also like to make note of some of the comments made by your representatives. One rep, when Jack asked why we had to drive the vehicle to have it fixed, asked nonchalantly what he would do with his own personal vehicle if he had a tire problem. Jack responded that he wouldn?t travel without a spare tire. Secondly, the rep mentioned previously that hung up on Jack gave us two alternatives only: find a Goodyear, or return the car carrier to Florida FROM VIRGINIA and exchange it for another one. And a third rep told Jack that we could have rode with three tires, that the carrier did not require all four tires.
I do not believe that this was a correct statement considering we were carrying an SUV on the carrier. Professional customer service representatives of a corporation as large as Budget should never make such unprofessional comments. This only adds to a customer's distress and dissatisfaction.
As a result of the unsafe tire, we were forced to stop early in an unfamiliar area, lose travel time that day, and then again lost time in the morning spent taking the vehicle to get the tire fixed, so as a result we fell behind our schedule. We decided to drive again, this time into the night also, to somewhat make up the time lost by the tire ordeal. We drove until nightfall. It was then that we realized that the lights on the truck didn't work properly. They were either dim or pointed upward because little light fell on the road in the dark. (I made a mental note that small compact cars on the interstate had more powerful beams than a 15-foot moving truck.)
So once again, we lost driving time and were forced to stop again for a night. We had no choice, it was not safe driving that large of a vehicle when you could not see the road ahead of you.
We stopped for the night, and then continued on to Maine. Once we arrived, we immediately called customer service because we would not make the return date because of the time lost between the unsafe tire ordeal and the lack of ability to drive with the unsafe headlights. Customer service agreed to extend the return date to August 30th.
We placed our belongings in storage and returned the truck on the 30th as agreed. Upon returning the vehicle, we explained to the Portland, Maine representative our ordeal and he agreed to refund the entire $100 deposit to my checking account. However, when I pulled out my Visa card to pay for the rental as I was previously informed in Florida, I was then informed that the charge had already been processed via my debit card. We explained that this was not correct, but were not give an alternative to correct it.
We spoke to another rep on duty, who gave us the business card for the Portland office manager, Christen Deschenes, who would call customer service for us to try to work with us. Christen was on vacation and would not return to the office until September 9th.
We called Christen upon her return to the office and she made note of our experience and said that she would call customer service personally to work something out and call us back. After waiting two days with no call, we called her again, and she said that she did not receive a call back from your customer service, and gave us a number to call ourselves.
Jack called the number given to us by her, and was informed that it was not a service number that could help us resolve our issues. So, Jack called the number we had originally called once again. This time customer service confirmed that they were giving a refund of the hotel in Virginia (also confirmed while in Virginia) and additionally for our meals for that evening. We were told a credit of $120.70 would be made to our account.
This also was incorrect. Whoever credits accounts at the corporation misread the amount and only credited us for $100.70, which posted to my account on September 8th, 2003. We have yet to receive the difference. This was when we were asked to write the details down of our experience and fax them to customer service so that a team of representatives could review.
This entire process has been a more than a nightmare for us. I feel that we deserve far more that just a credit for a hotel bill that we already had to pay for ourselves.
So in the end, all they could offer us was a $50 credit, even though they took almost $1000 from my checking account w/out authorization, overcharged us from our original quote, misdirected us several times on the phone, and sent us with an unsafe vehicle.
And what was the worst part about it was that they just didn't seem to care at all about our experience. I'm not a dishonest person and NEVER complain or send anything back, this was just so horrible it just made me cry... :O(
Lucinda
Brewer, Maine
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Budget Car & Truck Rental
