Budget sent us a fraudulent parking violation bill

[wjappraise]

The best way to solve these issues is to contact the company. It looks like it worked here. Too many people jump to say to dispute the credit card charge. That isn't the right step. Always contact the merchant first to fix the mistake.

Good advice.

I had a similar problem with Budget on a rental car in January. They sent me a notice they were charging me $450 for having to clean the car from my cigarette smoking.

Both my wife and I have never smoked, not even a single cigarette as kids. I emailed them and kindly but firmly made my case.

Three days later they informed me the charges were being reversed. AND they sent me a voucher good for three days free on my next rental. I used that last month during the higher costs of car rentals. Net savings from the voucher was $390.

I’m glad I didn’t read them the riot act. I probably should learn from that, but I’ll still probably be reactionary a good percentage of the time.

 

[easyrider]

Interesting is that the term "reading the riot act" came from an English law called the Riot Act in the early 1700's. All it was is a law that allowed authorities to clear out any group of 12 they thought rowdy. Now days it means to be assertive, not riotous or obnoxious.

Every one here would be assertive in this car rental caper situation. You could say, you all would be reading the riot act in your own way.

Bill

 

[wjappraise]

Interesting is that the term "reading the riot act" came from an English law called the Riot Act in the early 1700's. All it was is a law that allowed authorities to clear out any group of 12 they thought rowdy. Now days it means to be assertive, not riotous or obnoxious.

Every one here would be assertive in this car rental caper situation. You could say, you all would be reading the riot act in your own way.

Bill

I stand corrected.

 

[jehb2]

There was a time when every 3 or 4 years a charge would appear on our credit card from Hertz in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The charge was between $8-$14 dollars. I would simply call Citibank and have the charge removed. We have never been to Oklahoma but we used Hertz a lot and I thought maybe they had a head office there and it was an error.

Then one year a the same charge appeared on a Citibank credit card that had been closed for 6 months…It took me several calls to get it straightened out. Eventually Citibank gave me $300 for my troubles. I think there was something fishy going on at the Hertz in Oklahoma City, OK.

 

[beejaybee]

We are on Enterprise's DNR (rent not recusitate) list due to a false claim they made for nearly 1k in purported damages to a car we rented in Manchester UK in 2015. We disputed the charge by presenting cell phone video of the car we took when we picked it up. Never heard more from Enterprise until nearly 6 years later in April of this year when we got a phone call from the Santa Fe Enterprise location the night before we were to pick up the car we'd reserved there via Costco!

DH wants to pursue our innocence with Enterprise but I am done with them.

 

[dioxide45]

We are on Enterprise's DNR (rent not recusitate) list due to a false claim they made for nearly 1k in purported damages to a car we rented in Manchester UK in 2015. We disputed the charge by presenting cell phone video of the car we took when we picked it up. Never heard more from Enterprise until nearly 6 years later in April of this year when we got a phone call from the Santa Fe Enterprise location the night before we were to pick up the car we'd reserved there via Costco!

DH wants to pursue our innocence with Enterprise but I am done with them.

Does your Enterprise ban carry over to their other brands such as Alamo and National?

 

[beejaybee]

Probably! Since 2015 we've rented with Avis, Hertz and Europcar abroad. Santa Fe was our 1st US rental. Luckily that evening I found that Avis had availablity off-airport so I prepaid when that option came up. It was a hassle getting to the Avis office from the airport- delayed flights had us getting there just before the 4pm closing. Even more luck was that the vehicle we'd reserved was not available so we had to take a Dodge Caravan in its place-prefect since DD, DSiL and 2 young adult GSs were meeting us at our Ruidoso t/s! With that Caravan we didn't need to caravan sightseeing!

 

[dioxide45]

We are on Enterprise's DNR (rent not recusitate) list due to a false claim they made for nearly 1k in purported damages to a car we rented in Manchester UK in 2015. We disputed the charge by presenting cell phone video of the car we took when we picked it up. Never heard more from Enterprise until nearly 6 years later in April of this year when we got a phone call from the Santa Fe Enterprise location the night before we were to pick up the car we'd reserved there via Costco!

DH wants to pursue our innocence with Enterprise but I am done with them.

Did you simply dispute the charge with your credit card company? Or did you try to work with Enterprise first and present evidence to them that the damage was there when you picked up the car?

 

[beejaybee]

Did you simply dispute the charge with your credit card company? Or did you try to work with Enterprise first and present evidence to them that the damage was there when you picked up the car?

We never had a charge to our cc, thank goodness. That 2015 trip also resulted in a chipped windshield charge from Sixt in Iceland. It was "found" by the rental agent when she shined a flashlight onto the windshield from the interior of the car when we returned it. Had to pay 750 euro then & there!
Chase Visa reimbursed us that amount, whew!

 

[rapmarks]

That is probably a mistake, although who knows. We got an expensive ticket/credit card charge from Hertz months after we left the Marriott outside of Paris. We had rented a car, but there was never a time when I drove or parked illegally, and there was no documentation provided whatsoever about what we had purportedly done wrong. I disputed it with our credit card company and they deleted the charges.

that happened to my brother in law, but I believe he paid it

 

[Talent312]

Thrifty in Vegas tried to ding us for scratches + dents.
I had saved our copy of the check-out sheet which showed 'em all.
Corporate sent me an apology.

Later, I was charged for a violating a no-drive zone in Florence, IT.
I had no quarrel with that, as I knew I was doing it at the time.
.

 

[Laurie]

We are on Enterprise's DNR (rent not recusitate) list due to a false claim they made for nearly 1k in purported damages to a car we rented in Manchester UK in 2015.

Happened to us in Manchester UK also! Can't remember which of their affiliates, but this rental I think was thru Auto Europe, who for the first time was NO HELP in getting it resolved. Disputed with credit card co, then had to provide lots of documentation, no simple dispute and took forever. (We had spotted damage at pick-up, long story, desk staff was so wrapped up in watching soccer game seemed like they were barely paying attention to issuing correct ppw. But maybe it was their usual MO.)

 

[beejaybee]

Later, I was charged for a violating a no-drive zone in Florence, IT.
I had no quarrel with that, as I knew I was doing it at the time.
.

Don’t get me started! We did not realize we entered ZTLs in Lucca and Pisa as well as a parking violation in Lucca. Money, money money!

 

[jwalk03]

Most businesses I give the benefit of the doubt to- car rental companies are not one of them! Some of them are down right criminal.

Whatever you do- don’t ever try to rent from NEXTCAR in Orlando!! They advertise very low rates and then make it damn near impossible to leave the lot without agreeing to additional charges! They have a list of like 10 insurance providers that are acceptable- if your insurance isn’t on the list they require you to buy their insurance for $32/day, and of course they do not provide the list in advance when you make the reservation.

Even if your company is on the list they require that you have like $300,000 minimum in property damage coverage (which is more than any insurance provides!). Doesn’t matter if you have an over arching coverage in excess of a million dollars you still have to have the 300k specifically in property damage or they won’t rent to you unless of course you buy their coverage for $32/day.

They affix surpass stickers to every car to force you to either buy their ridiculously overpriced daily toll package or avoid all the toll roads. You can’t remove the sticker and use your own toll device or they charge you $500 to replace the $5 sticker!!

I have never in my life seen so many people arrive to get a car and leave without as I did in that place! Never ever again!! I actually filed a complaint with the Florida AG’s office about my experience last year, but I don’t know if anything ever came of it.

 

[davidvel]

Most businesses I give the benefit of the doubt to- car rental companies are not one of them! Some of them are down right criminal.

Whatever you do- don’t ever try to rent from NEXTCAR in Orlando!! They advertise very low rates and then make it damn near impossible to leave the lot without agreeing to additional charges! They have a list of like 10 insurance providers that are acceptable- if your insurance isn’t on the list they require you to buy their insurance for $32/day, and of course they do not provide the list in advance when you make the reservation.

Even if your company is on the list they require that you have like $300,000 minimum in property damage coverage (which is more than any insurance provides!). Doesn’t matter if you have an over arching coverage in excess of a million dollars you still have to have the 300k specifically in property damage or they won’t rent to you unless of course you buy their coverage for $32/day.

They affix surpass stickers to every car to force you to either buy their ridiculously overpriced daily toll package or avoid all the toll roads. You can’t remove the sticker and use your own toll device or they charge you $500 to replace the $5 sticker!!

I have never in my life seen so many people arrive to get a car and leave without as I did in that place! Never ever again!! I actually filed a complaint with the Florida AG’s office about my experience last year, but I don’t know if anything ever came of it.

Sounds like a pretty poor business model that will catch up to them, if the regulators don't first. Rental companies are in the business of renting cars, not turning people away.

 

[Talent312]

Whatever you do- don’t ever try to rent from NEXTCAR in Orlando!! They advertise very low rates and then make it damn near impossible to leave the lot without agreeing to additional charges!...

The old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true..." applies.
I won't rent from a no-name, el cheapo company I never heard of.
I stick to Alamo, Avis, Hertz, National, and bottom row, Budget, Enterprise & Thrifty.
.

 

[sfwilshire]

I received a fraudulent charge, a toll charge if I remember correctly. The total mileage on my rental was a couple of hundred miles and they had charged me for something 500 miles from the airport where I rented the car.

I pointed out that it was not possible that I incurred the charge and never heard anything else about it.

Sheila

 

[Talent312]

A few years ago, I rented a car in Toulouse, France, via Avis. It was a hybrid, which I had never driven before... I turned it on and nothing happened, not a peep. I finally figured out that if I stepped on the pedal, it would go.

That was almost as funny as the car I rented in Frankfurt whose GPS gave me commands in German.

Anyway, after I returned the car in Toulouse, they somehow charged double the rate.
After I pointed that out to corporate Avis, a credit was given for their error.
.

 

[TravelTime]

What does the riot act have to do with the parking ticket?

That is what I was thinking. Why get upset before you even call? Just adds stress to life. To me, it was obvious it was an error and it would be fixed. Sounds like it was an easy fix.

 

[dioxide45]

That is what I was thinking. Why get upset before you even call? Just adds stress to life. To me, it was obvious it was an error and it would be fixed. Sounds like it was an easy fix.

It seems that I originally misunderstood the meaning of the "riot act". That said, I always go with the thought of getting more flies with honey than with vinegar.

 

[TravelTime]

Thinking about the riot act…I just got a Disney refund for a cruise I canceled. They sent me the cancellation and the refund was off by over $700. My first thought was Disney was trying to screw me. Then I reminded myself that is impossible because I have proof as to how much we paid and how much has been refunded. So I decided to relax and I even waited a few days before calling. I called and it was not even something that needed to be fixed. Disney had sent out a cancellation email with the incorrect amount but on their end, they were refunding me the correct amount. I am so glad I waited and did not overreact because they had just processed the refund. Had I called any sooner, the rep would not have been able to access the correct information.

 

[TravelTime]

It seems that I originally misunderstood the meaning of the "riot act". That said, I always go with the thought of getting more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Ha ha! I never would have thought they literally meant the Riot Act. Cute!

 

[isisdave]

The phrase "read the Riot Act" has passed into common usage for a stern reprimand or warning of consequences, and here's the explanation