Budget car hire scam

[Mr Tom Morrow]

To be honest every rental clerk is at it. Harsh comment I know but sadly it's true.
With frequent renters like me they have more chance of raising the Titanic than me signing a document that doesn't say zero?

Even Alamo can try it on at the exit barrier hence I take a minute to triple check the agreement they hand back.

As regards roadside assistance. The Lincoln I am driving is flashing up as tire pressures low. No they aren't but if this continues they will be swapping the car out at a time convenient to me, not them. Plus I will be wanting a free tank of fuel for my troubles.

Lots of good comments about Alamo and I love them, do I trust them? Not on your life.

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

To be honest every rental clerk is at it. Harsh comment I know but sadly it's true.
With frequent renters like me they have more chance of raising the Titanic than me signing a document that doesn't say zero?

Even Alamo can try it on at the exit barrier hence I take a minute to triple check the agreement they hand back.

As regards roadside assistance. The Lincoln I am driving is flashing up as tire pressures low. No they aren't but if this continues they will be swapping the car out at a time convenient to me, not them. Plus I will be wanting a free tank of fuel for my troubles.

Lots of good comments about Alamo and I love them, do I trust them? Not on your life.

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These tricks really bug me MrT, the commission based upsell in itself is appalling, but add in the unpaid toll trick and it makes my blood boil at the amount of people being duped - some claim it's an 'administrative error'... BS, they know what they're doing and in my humble opinion, it's borderline fraud. I've only fallen victim to the unpaid toll once, no way were they getting away with it especially as I was 160 miles away in SW Fla and nowhere near the toll. As is our right I insisted on photographic evidence and surprise, surprise they couldn't produce and refunded the charge. The lad was really surprised I was still in the US, I bet he was, they probably thought I was back in the UK and would let it go, not a chance. When we arrive at MCO we only go thro one toll on the way to our friends home for the night afore driving down to the island, I ensure I get a receipt for payment, keeping it for 6 months, only discarding just afore we leave Fla. Our friends who live in Orlando were stung for tolls even tho the charge had been taken via their Sunpass, they fought and were refunded, Sunpass claimed they hadn't sent a bill to the hire company - unbelievable.

My friends son was stung with over $300 of unpaid tolls in the Miami area, and the fight began, the emailed photo's were not of the vehicle he'd had but still they refused to accept and refund, although he gave up the will to live with the fight his mother wouldn't - the car supplier finally conceeded that the vehicle mileage meant he couldn't have driven from Orlando to Miami and only then they refunded.

A few years ago a lady reported one supplier to Lee County Sheriff's Office for fraud when they collected unpaid tolls from her credit card. One of the photo's they sent showed a car parked up, nowhere near a toll, another was a different make and colour of the vehicle she had! Admin error my Jim Royle!

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by ChrisS

These tricks really bug me MrT, the commission based upsell in itself is appalling, but add in the unpaid toll trick and it makes my blood boil at the amount of people being duped - some claim it's an 'administrative error'... BS, they know what they're doing and in my humble opinion, it's borderline fraud. I've only fallen victim to the unpaid toll once, no way were they getting away with it especially as I was 160 miles away in SW Fla and nowhere near the toll. As is our right I insisted on photographic evidence and surprise, surprise they couldn't produce and refunded the charge. The lad was really surprised I was still in the US, I bet he was, they probably thought I was back in the UK and would let it go, not a chance. When we arrive at MCO we only go thro one toll on the way to our friends home for the night afore driving down to the island, I ensure I get a receipt for payment, keeping it for 6 months, only discarding just afore we leave Fla. Our friends who live in Orlando were stung for tolls even tho the charge had been taken via their Sunpass, they fought and were refunded, Sunpass claimed they hadn't sent a bill to the hire company - unbelievable.

My friends son was stung with over $300 of unpaid tolls in the Miami area, and the fight began, the emailed photo's were not of the vehicle he'd had but still they refused to accept and refund, although he gave up the will to live with the fight his mother wouldn't - the car supplier finally conceeded that the vehicle mileage meant he couldn't have driven from Orlando to Miami and only then they refunded.

A few years ago a lady reported one supplier to Lee County Sheriff's Office for fraud when they collected unpaid tolls from her credit card. One of the photo's they sent showed a car parked up, nowhere near a toll, another was a different make and colour of the vehicle she had! Admin error my Jim Royle!

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Chris. Very wise words. I do feel so sorry for the tired first timers. It's all surreal and not easy to navigate the rental process.

[taycar1011]

Budget have also hit us for supposed unpaid tolls too. So it looks like they've used their full bag of tricks on us.

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by taycar1011

Budget have also hit us for supposed unpaid tolls too. So it looks like they've used their full bag of tricks on us.

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Aww man, did you perchance keep any receipts from manned tolls? If not, insist, as is your right, that photographic evidence is emailed and advise you have spoken to your credit card company about these charges... do speak to your cc company with regard to them intervening if necessary. Budget are obliged to comply taycar. I messaged my cc who advised they'd step in if I couldn't obtain a refund.

This shower need taking placing against a wall and shooting with stinky brown stuff for their appalling tricks.

Next time you go don't hesitate to ask experienced Dibbers taycar, they'll help you any which way they can with advice on anything relative to Fla travel.

[taycar1011]

Originally Posted by ChrisS

Aww man, did you perchance keep any receipts from manned tolls? If not, insist, as is your right, that photographic evidence is emailed and advise you have spoken to your credit card company about these charges... do speak to your cc company with regard to them intervening if necessary. Budget are obliged to comply taycar. I messaged my cc who advised they'd step in if I couldn't obtain a refund.

This shower need taking placing against a wall and shooting with stinky brown stuff for their appalling tricks.

Next time you go don't hesitate to ask experienced Dibbers taycar, they'll help you any which way they can with advice on anything relative to Fla travel.

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I have contacted my CC but I haven't relayed that to budget or asked for photo evidence. I'll get on that now.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

[Essex Benjy's!]

Just finalising my quotes for car hire here in the UK and they all seem to offer this daft extra policy for undercarriage etc. what a con?!
Fully comp insurance should mean just that-full not the bits only you can see and they can claim when you're long back in the UK you damaged when you had the car.

If they are allowed to do this then they need to put the car on a ramp while you are dropping it off and before you leave the area.

[taycar1011]

Originally Posted by Essex Benjy's!

Just finalising my quotes for car hire here in the UK and they all seem to offer this daft extra policy for undercarriage etc. what a con?!
Fully comp insurance should mean just that-full not the bits only you can see and they can claim when you're long back in the UK you damaged when you had the car.

If they are allowed to do this then they need to put the car on a ramp while you are dropping it off and before you leave the area.

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Based on my experience and the comments above, I wouldn't look past Alamo

[Tb2tb2]

Originally Posted by taycar1011

We hired two cars from budget in our holiday group who travelled to Orlando last month and both hires were subject to what we believe is a scam to con unsuspecting customers of their money.

We are aware of the need to buy excess waiver policies before travelling to the states to avoid hefty excess policies on offer when you collect the car. So we purchased policies here in the UK before travelling.

On arrival both cars on offer were lesser spec than paid for. After a lengthy debate with the two seperate members of staff they eventually gave us what we'd paid for before presenting a lengthy and complex contract and saying sign here, here, here, here and here. At this point we stupidly signed where asked without reading all the small print. We were armed with our excess waiver policies ready to say no to any offer of expensive ones, but we were never offered or asked if we wanted a policy of that type.

On taking the cars back at the end of the holiday we were then told there was an outstanding balance of over $300 on the accounts. When we challenged this we were then told that the branch supervisor was at a conference for 4 days and nobody else could authorise an amendment to our account.

Endless correspondence with Budget in the UK and US since our return has resulted in them giving us less than half the money back with no more forthcoming.

We shouldn't have signed the contracts without reading everything thoroughly, but be warned as they will sneak these unwanted items into your account with no warning whatsoever.

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The same thing happened to us. i had booked my car through bookers but it was using budget.
the whole thing went smoothly, i wasn't asked if i wanted any other upgrade or excess on the policy but was asked to sign in a few places on the contract - which i had briefly skimmed through.
on returning the car i was given a receipt which i noticed a bill for over $100 i did go through a sun pass lane in the toll roads but this wasn't on the receipt.
i took it to the little office in the carpark where you drop the car off and queried the amount. the man amended the amount there and then and i paid nothing, apart from the toll fee which appeared on my card a few weeks later.
If i had walked away i would have had this amount debited to my card and had no come back. (a similar thing happened the year before with dollar so the only reason i check it).
it seems to be an ongoing complaint with car hire companies.
sorry to hear that you didn't get all your money back.

[DIBBadmin]

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