I rented a car online from Budget for pickup on June 19th. It was to be returned on June 27th. During this trip a death in my family occured and I was not able to return the car on the agreed upon date.
Per my contract, I contacted the Savannah, GA location on the 27th to extend the rental for another week. I further had to extend the rental for return on July 17th. At no time was it indicated to me that there was any sort of issue.in fact, they were very polite.
Upon returning the car on July 17th, I was checked out of the location and given my receipt. I paid the originally agreed upon amount and the extension fees in full. Again, never was there any indication that there were any problems with my rental.
Two days following the return, I began recieving phone calls from a third party (a repo firm, apparently) asking me where the car was. Huh?
I explained that I had returned the vehicle. They insisted that they could not find it and that I was responsible. Essentially, I was now a car thief! What the...?!?!
I immediately called Budget to get to the bottom of this. After explaining that there must be some sort of misunderstanding and relaying my entire account of the events... I was assured at the end of the call that everything was fine.
A few days later, I recieved a visit from a "repo man" at my home, again demanding the car. I explained to him the situation. I DON'T HAVE THE CAR! I gave it back to you people! I again called Budget and explained again my situation (a bit more angry now, of course) and they assured me that this would be resolved.
Needless to say, I am still recieving harassing letters, phone calls and requests for this car which I returned weeks (nearly a month) ago. Now, when I call Budget, I am told someone will return my call with a resolution. No one returns my call.
At this point, I am considering legal action. I'm not sure what sort of case I would have. I have filed BBB report against the company. I simply do not want this to effect my credit or good standing in any way.
Their records will show that I have been an upstanding customer of theirs for many years. I have spent thousands of dollars on rental cars through them for business purposes. I have never had an issue so absurd as this one.
Oh, and by the way, I also recieved a "friendly" letter from their corporate office informing me that I will never be allowed to rent a car from the Cedant Group again (this includes both Budget and Avis). I don't think they have to worry about that.
I fully expect a police officer to be knocking on my door any day now, arresting me for grand theft auto or something. This is the most ridiculous case of beauraucratic B.S. I have ever encountered.
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