In November I used 23,186 airline miles to book a rental car to visit family for the holidays. The miles would only cover two day rental, so in early Novermber 2010 I called Budget reservations at 800-527-0700 to extend it to four days and pay for the remaining two. The customer service rep. Said he could only add a separate reservation for the remaining two days and that I would need to check the car back in at the rental office before the end of the second day.in other words, I would be required to drive six hours round trip to "check in" the car since Budget's computer system did not have the capability to combine the reservation with the airline miles and the additional two days; and company policy required that the car be returned at the end of the first reservation. He recommended that I call the Green Bay, WI rental office directly for further assistance. I called Green Bay Budget office directly on November 11 and spoke to the manager, Ronette. She confirmed it would be no problem to extend my reservation to 4 days and she would take care of it. I arrived at Green Bay, WI Budget office on December 23rd only to find that the system and the manager did NOT have the capability to change my reservation from two days to four and that they needed to charge me penalty fees in the form of a higher rate for the addition two days since I was "changing my reservation". How could I be changing my reservation when the manager confirmed it was taken care of? The Green Bay office manager was very appologetic and explained these were unfortunate "system constraints and company policy" and she had no way of resolving it. They explained that with using my 23,186 airline miles, my four day rental would cost me $140.65; however, if I was a "walk-up" without a resveration or airline miles, my cost would be $137.61. Yes, that is correct - my cost was actually MORE by using airline miles. I lost 23,186 airline miles that I could have used elsewhere. My cost should have been 50% of the total, not more than the total cost of a "walk-up".
If this were not enough, I had a family crisis on Christmas Eve and needed to travel home to KY immediately. I frantically called 1-800-527-7000 customer service to confirm if I could drive the car to KY and return it the next day, December 25th, rather than returning it to Green Bay on December 27th. For thirty minutes I was given the run around by reps. That could not find my information, or could not assist me with my request. I finally reached the Louisville, KY office at Louisville International Airport where I planned to drop the car. The gentleman on the phone in Louisville Budget office said it would be no problem to bring the car to Louisville office and there would be a charge of about $115 to do this. He also confirmed that if I returned the car prior to 2:30PM, I would be refunded the two days that I did not use. My $115 estimated fee turned into $212.78.
I arrived at Louisville International Airport around 5:00PM on December 25th -too late to get two days refunded, but certainly was entitled to one day refunded. When I arrived, there a different man behind the desk than the one that I had spoken to the night before. He seemed to have many issues with the computer system (same as the women in Green Bay). When I asked for a refund for the day that I did not use he said I was not entitled to it because I was a "pre-pay". I asked, "what is a pre-pay?". He said since I paid for the rental car when I rented it versus when I returned it, I am not entitled to a refund of any kind. He said as the customer I was "responsible for informing" the customer service rep. The night before that I was a "pre-pay" since this is not something that the Budget Louisville office could see in the system when pulling up my rental record. He then proceeded to tell me that the term "pre-pay" is a very common term in the rental car industry that everyone who rents cars is familiar with. He then emphasize again I should have known this and it was my responsibility to use the term "pre-pay" and not Budget's to know this from the reservation system. I was shocked by his comments, insulting behavior, and poor customer service.
I have been renting cars for over twenty years and I have never had such a horrible experience. According to my calculations, I lost 23,186 airline miles, two free days of car rental, and some % of the difference between the $115 fee I was quoted and the $212.78 that I was charged for driving the car to Louisville.
I hope that my painful experience will help Budget to truly focus on customer service and satisfaction.
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