Budget Car Rental Ripoff on rented GPS unit San Francisco California

I rented a car from Budget at SFO (San Francisco airport.) I added a $30 GPS rental, thinking it might be useful in town.

As it happened, I didn't try it for a couple of days, until the morning that I returned the car. When I did, I found that the PIN number they supplied to activate the unit wouldn't work (said "Invalid PIN Number.") The guy at the rental return sent me to customer service; they tried it too, with the same result.

After a few phone calls, I was informed that a PIN number was tied to the day I rented, and only worked on that day. No one mentioned that, and since it was after 8pm when I picked it up I presumably didn't have long to make it work.

They did ask why I didn't call tech support: fair question. I didn't have much time, I wasn't desperate for directions, and at the end of the day I don't think I should penalized for not making a call I shouldn't have had to make.

Customer Service told me (reasonably) that she couldn't change my bill but she'd talk to her supervisor. I subsequently got left a message that they were not canceling the charge since the machine was technically workable.

Realistically, it was a mistake by a counter person (who didn't warn me about a serious flaw in their security system) and it's obviously not worth seriously fighting for. Hopefully, by never renting from them again and encouraging the rest of you not to either, I'll eventually cost them more than they cheated me out of. Oh, and take care if you rent a GPS!

Paul
Brevard, North Carolina
U.S.A.