When returning a
rental car, I follow what I believe are best practices:
1) Bring it back
with a full tank, since I choose not to bring it back empty and pay
their high price for gas
2) Remember to
gather my belongings (of course) and clean up any other trash I’ve
left in the car
3) Bring it back to
and wait for a rental car representative to provide what I
consider the final bill
We did all these
things when returning the car to Budget at LAX this past April 29.
The printed bill seemed right. So imagine my surprise when I received
a letter from Budget to inform me that my credit card would be
charged an additional $450.00 cleaning fee for “excessive dirt and
sand.”
If you think I was a
little upset by this, you would be correct. My thought was that there
may have been some dirt or sand on the floor of the car, about what
you would expect after two weeks of normal use of the vehicle. But
wouldn’t Budget vacuum the car anyway in order to prepare it for
the next customer? I researched what to do at
Elliott
Advocacy. Christopher Elliott is also known as the “Travel
Ombudsman.” Sure enough, there are step-by-step instructions for
problems such as this.
First, I contacted
Budget’s Customer Service to request documentation. After they
partially complied, I sent a detailed signature-guarantee letter to
Budget’s VP of Customer Service. At the same time, I disputed the
$450.00 charge on my credit card and provided a copy of my letter.
The results? First,
the bank agreed with me and removed the charge. Then I received a
nice, almost apologetic letter from Budget saying, sorry, but they
still need to charge “something” for the cleaning. They made it a
$50.00 fee.
$50.00 to vacuum the
dirt that they should have vacuumed anyway? I felt like fighting it
further and certainly could have. The next step would have been to
contact the company CEO. But I decided not to. At some point, there
would be diminishing returns from all the effort.
The text of my
letter follows:
David
Holloway
Budget
Rent A Car
Director
Customer Service
6
Sylvan Way
Parsippany,
N.J 07054 May 15, 2021
Dear
David Holloway:
I
am writing to you regarding
a customer service issue related to an unexpected Budget Rent A Car
charge. I had recently created an account with Budget Rent A Car. The
rental (Rental Agreement Number: U340040573, returned to LAX on
04/29/2021) seemed
to go quite
well.
The agent checking the car in for the return said nothing about any
dirt or sand. I had just (the same morning) begun using Budget Rent A
Car’s website to search for future rentals when I received a letter
from Nora Henry of the Budget Operations Team informing me that “we
must assess customers for the cleaning service required to return the
vehicle to a tidy and sanitary condition that will meet the next
customer’s expectations.” The amount charged is $450.
I
believe the charge is unreasonable and unwarranted. Upon receipt of
this letter, I requested the following documentation:
-
A
copy of the original agreement and the receipt
-
Time-stamped and dated pictures of the damage
-
A picture of the mileage indicator showing the mileage on the car
when the damage was noted
-
A copy of the incident report
-
Copy of the invoice showing the cleaning cost estimation
-
A copy of the license plate number on the car to ensure it is the car
I rented
Virginia
(last name not provided), Representative - Email Customer Service,
responded with the first three items that I requested. From the
photos, I can see a
small amount of
sand/dirt, but certainly not
an excessive amount. These are the results from the normal use of the
car during the
period that I was using it.
Notably, Virginia did NOT respond with the requested copy of the
invoice showing the cleaning cost. Nor have I seen the incident
report.
I
am being charged $450 for a simple vacuuming. Budget Rent A Car ought
to be doing this vacuuming as part of its
standard cleaning practice between rentals. I feel fooled and robbed,
especially since I had been about to provide positive reviews on
social media, Tripadvisor, and Costco (where I made the
original reservation).
Also, as noted, I had been planning to use Budget Rent A Car for
upcoming rentals.
To
respect the employees of the company I took the time to clean the
car’s dashboard and doors, and I removed all the
papers/receipts/etc. The rest of the car was clean,
with no sand or
dirt. The
small amount of dirt and sand
was only
on some floor carpets, where you put your feet after walking outside.
David
Holloway, to resolve this issue to my satisfaction (and for me to
remain a loyal customer, as I had used Budget Rent A Car in the past
as well), I would like this unreasonable fee removed.
Sincerely,
Daniel
Horvath
1512
Troon Ave.
Brunswick,
OH 44212
danqpmg@gmail.com
cc:
Virginia (last name not provided), Representative - Email Customer
Service
