Budget Truck Rental blocked me from returning truck, then charged me a late fee Cleveland Tennessee

The website for the Cleveland, TN Budget Truck Rental states that they are open from 8:30 AM-3 PM on Fridays, and 8 AM-12 PM on Saturdays.

I arrived at 2:30 PM on a Friday to return our truck only to find a sign taped to main office door stating that they were closed. Since I couldn't check the truck in, I left the truck there with a padlock on the back door since there were furniture pads and a hand dolly in the back.

I returned at 11:00 AM on Saturday to check in the truck and retrieve my padlock, but once again, they were closed. On a door of an adjacent building was another sign stating that they would be closed Friday AND Saturday!

I made a third trip on Monday to check in the truck and retrieve my padlock.

To my utter astonishment, the man and woman on duty (the owners?) told me that they were going to charge me an additional $426 because I was checking in the truck late!

I told them that I had been there Friday AND Saturday to check in the truck during the hours THEIR website stated they would be open. Their reply was that I should have called to verify they would be open and that they have family they need to go see and therefore sometimes shut the place down for the weekend!

I said they should add that "somewhat significant" information to their website so that people can plan accordingly. Gee, ya think?? I also reminded them that customers actually expect businesses to be open when they say they will be open, and that my inability to check in the truck on time was their fault, not mine, and that they had no grounds to charge me for checking the truck in late.

They replied that I should have left the key in the drop box and left the truck. My response was that as a responsible customer, I was protecting Budget's property (the furniture pads & hand dolly) with a padlock until I could check in the truck and retrieve my lock.

By this point the man had left and I was dealing only with the cold and unfriendly woman. Neither she nor the man seemed even remotely inclined to work with me, or to demonstrate any fairness, or to accept any responsibility for the problem (not to mention the inconvenience) they caused me by closing their store for the weekend.

Then the woman asked me if the furniture pads were folded. I replied that some of them were. Then, to my further astonishment, she told me that they were going to charge me for any unfolded pads! I then asked her in my growing anger, "What are you going to charge me? A dollar a pad?" Her answer was "No - TWO dollars a pad."!!!

Unwilling for them to gouge me any more than they already had, I spent 20 minutes in the back of the hot truck folding pads.

I therefore add my 1-star rating to this unprofessional, unfriendly, unfair, and irresponsible business, and do so with great regret, because a single star is still about 1000% more than they deserve. You would have to pay me HUGE money to ever do business with these people again!