I had booked a car at the Washington DC Union Station location for a 3pm arrival. I had entered my train information in the reservation. I am a FastBreak member who was using two coupons (MUVZ010 Coupon - $25 off). I understand that coupons do require manual processing and had anticipated that.
The telephone agent I spoke to advised that I could only add 1 coupon to the reservation, not more than one - even though the coupon said up to 3 certificates could be used. The telephone agent only added one coupon, making the base rate for the reservation go from $68 to $55.
Upon arrival at Union Station, the car was not ready. The FastBreak agent (in the kiosk in the parking garage) advised me that I couldn't use more than one coupon. Again, completely false. She said that they had already applied one & she couldn't apply a second one. I showed her the coupon and the verbiage which clearly states it's ok to use up to 3 certificates. She still said she couldn't do that.
As my reason for travel was to visit my father in the hospital who had just had a heart attack, I said ok - please leave as is and I will deal with it later, please just give me a car. The manager on-site, David, heard me and asked what the problem was. I let him know that I urgently needed a car and that the agent couldn't process the coupon properly and I didn't even care anymore as I needed to go.
He looked into it & said that it could be processed and they'd get me on my way.
Great!
Except that didn't happen. They processed it after several minutes, however at this time, despite at least 20 cars in the Budget aisles, no cars were available for me apparently. I said at this stage, I didn't care what car I drove, I just needed a car. He said the cars are being cleaned and that all the other cars were reserved for other customers.
This made no sense to me as I was a FastBreak Customer with a confirmed reservation and I should have been "one of the other customers with a reserved car."
After another 15 minutes, they finally had a car available. The interesting thing is that they didn't pull up a freshly cleaned car - they gave me one of the cars that was already sitting there in the lot.
I looked over the car for damages as one of the garage attendants asked me to do it. I marked where there was damages and signed the form.
Upon driving away, I noticed 2 things about the car: 1) It smelled like cigarette smoke and 2) the gas tank was 3/4 full.
I called David from the car (as he had given me his business card) and he said that if I look at the rental record, I'll notice that it's marked at 6/8th full and that I need to return the car at that level and if I return it higher, I would receive a credit for the excess gas (something I find very difficult to believe as I've rented literally hundreds of cars in my life as a regular business traveler and never had this be the case).
I drove the car with no issue and returned it 3 hours early at the Fair Oaks, VA location as it was a one-way rental.
Upon returning the car, the agent there processed the paperwork & gave me my receipt. He acknowledged the 6/8th gas level (as I did fill up the gas I used and returned at 6/8).
After walking away & reviewing the receipt, I was surprised to find that there was a charge for $13.99 for driving less than 75 miles.
I returned to the counter and asked about the charge. A manager came and told me that the charge was there because I had driven less than 75 miles and that's policy. I advised him that the policy (as written on the board behind him) was applicable when the car wasn't returned with gas and that I had returned the gas. He went out to look at the car and came back and said that I had returned it and that he'd credit me back the $13.99. He then told me that it looks like I had damaged the car and that there was a scratch on the back bumper. I called him out on this and advised him that that damage was there and was recorded. Luckily, I saved the pink sheet and he seemed annoyed that I had the damage report and begrudgingly said okay. The funny thing is that the car was so poorly cleaned that the previous renter's pink sheet (and contract) was still in the car and the previous driver's pink sheet had about 10 more damage marks than I had noted.
So what were the problems?
1) Poor reservations agents over the phone
2) Poor counter agent who advised me incorrectly that I couldn't use more than 1 certificate even though it clearly stated I could use 3 certificates
3) No car waiting for a Budget FastBreak member (I finally got the car around 3:50, I believe) - well, actually it was waiting, it just wasn't given to me and I feel like I was lied to.
4) A dirty car that smelled like smoke and wasn't cleaned thoroughly as evidenced by the previous renter's receipt in the car
5) A car that wasn't with a full tank of gas
6) A shady manager at the return in Fair Oaks. read more