Complaint / Review
Budget Car/Truck Rental
Budget Rent Budget Car / Truck Rental Chipped Windshield Scam

My fiance and I rented a truck to move from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. We are regular Budget customers, and as always the employee did the check of the vehicle with a brief check for any major damage. The reservation was quoted at $276 with a note stating that the $150 included in that quote would not be charged if we used the same credit card at checkout. I had my fiance finish up they payment while I went home to finish packing. Since I had placed the reservation, he did not think anything of it when we were charged $287, although we used the same credit card that the reservation had been made with.

We returned the truck, and as my fiance was walking into the office to return the keys, a man was yelling after him "this window has chips in it". So, he went back to take a look. He described the 'chips' more like small nicks, but agreed that they were there, although 'chips' like this were not checked for upon picking up the vehicle.

I realized shortly after my fiance returned home that we had not been reimbursed the $150 deposit. Not only that, but two days later, we were charged $389!! When he called to ask why, he was told that due to the chips they had placed this total on our account as a hold and that we would be reimbursed in five days for the difference of whatever it cost to do the repairs. They also told him that we would receive reimbursement for the $150 at that time.

One month, several phone calls, and a lot of runaround later - we have not been given back a dime. Budget claims that the window had to be replaced, but will not show us any proof of this with a receipt of the work that was done. We did not give consent of this additional charge, and I plan to dispute the charges as well as file a report with the Better Business Bureau.

Budget rental are thieves. This is not and never was their money. They owe us over $500! It is hard enough that we are planning a wedding and just bought our first house. This is NOT a good time for random money to be stolen from a company we always thought we could trust.