I rented a car using Hotwire.com for our arrival in Palm Springs. I had to pay Hotwire in advance at time of booking, and then found out the agency was Budget car rentals. Unfortunately, I could not pick up the car on the date of the contract. When we arrived, we went to the Budget car rental and found out that our "desired" time of pickup was approximately 24.5 hours earlier, and therefore our contract was voided by Hotwire. Budget still had our car on the lot, and was willing to honor the contract, but Hotwire refused to reinstate the expired discount code. Their position is that the contract can not be changed, refunded, or cancelled. I am saying that I did not try to change or cancel the contract, and did not want a refund, I simply wanted to be able to get the car I had already reserved and paid for for the balance of the time. I had no problem paying for the day that I did not use it. The fact that the car sat at the airport for an extra day instead of a parking lot somewhere should be irrelevant. Budget stated that they would not get paid by Hotwire unless they could access the contract, so we had to rent the car at counter prices. HOTWIRE STILL HAS OUR MONEY, AND INTENDS TO KEEP IT!!! Any way I look at it, this amounts to STEALING. Nowhere in the contract did it say that the car would not be available after 24 hours. There has to be some way that the company is held accountable. They say they can re-instate a contract if you are delayed because of weather, etc., so I know it was possible to change the discount code.
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