We rented a car from Budget in San Antonio TX using the internet. We ordered a mid-sized car with no insurance for four days and had the order confirmed. The e-mail we received from the company confirmed the amount and noted there was no additional insurance requested.
Our connecting flight out of Minneapolis was delayed and instead of arriving in San Antonio at 10 P.M. We arrived at 3:00 A.M. The next day. The rental store was closed until 5:00 am so we slept at the airport for two hours waiting for it to open.
When they were open we went to the center and picked up our car. The woman at the counter asked if we wanted additional loss damage waiver insurance to which we again answered "no." She asked me to initial the form in three places and sign it, which I did without reading anything due to the early hour.
Bad decision. They had apparently checked off the boxes for the additional insurance even though we had told them twice we didn't want it. When we returned the car, the shuttle driver took our paperwork inside and returned with the final bill. Since it was, again, 6:00 am we didn't get a chance to read the form until we were on the plane. And since I didn't think there was any need to, I wasn't concerned until I saw our credit card had apparently been charged $326 instead of the originally agreed upon price of $203.46.
When e returned to Columbus I tried calling the manager numerous times but was never able to reach him. Twice I left voice messages and once his secretary gave him a note to call me ASAP. When someone finally responded we were told we had checked off the boxes indicating we wanted the additional insurance and no refund was due.
This is similar to the old Bait and Switch procedure where you think you are buying one thing, sign for it, and then receive something else. Something that, in this case, cost 50% more than the original agreed upon price.
We have contacted the BBB in the San Antonio area but doubt that much can be done. We want other travelers to be aware of this ploy so they do not also become victims of this deceitful practice.
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