Budget Truck Rental deceptive company taking advantage of students by trickery and lies Rip-off San Diego Nationwide

i went to rent a car from budget. although it is against their policy, for some reason they rented the car to my 19 yr old roomates credit card, w/me listed as an additional driver.

driving on I-5S, THURSDAY, 3/20/2003 i got pulled over for speeding in the vehicle. finding i had a suspended license i had never been informed of prior, the chp officer from lebec, on top of the grapevine, kern county, towed my rental car and left me stranded at a truck stop.

i had a final that day, as did my roommate. she was the only person whose number i had on me, but had a final at ucsd and therefore could not help at all.

calling budget, they kept transfering me to a woman named Karen, who is "the only person authorized to handle such a situation." of course karen had a voicebox messagae saying she'd be out of the office that day (and i believe the next as well).

finally i convinced a salesperson NOT to transfer me, speaking to a man named Johnny to whom i said "i am stranded 250 miles from home, and i WILL NOT LEAVE HERE until you tell me HOW TO HANDLE THE CAR SITUATION." i explained i was a student and could not pay for more than one more day + impound fees.

after hours at flying j's truck stop in lebec, talking to johnny, he informed me that someone from budget would pick up the car by FRIDAY 3/21/03 and take it to the nearest budget in santa clarita county. I hitchiked home (thank god, w/out incident).

calling friday morning, talking to johnny, he informed me someone was picking up the car as we spoke. i asked to come in and pay for it, but he said he since the car was being driving back at that moment, i should just wait until later. he said he would call me monday, and i should relax until then. (I had made it clear this incident was VERY important to me, although i was as professional as possible when i wasn't crying).

Monday morning (they are closed over the weekends). I call for johnny and he is not working. Perry is. The car has not been picked up, but we are told again is "in the process." We talk to Karen (my roommate and i) and she is the most unconcerned, brisk, highly irritated woman i have ever spoken to. she transfers us to Victor, the manager, who in the end says (and we wrote it down immediately)he will "take those (weekend) days off the bill." then he hangs up on me.

Monday still, talkign to Perry now, who doesn't understand why no one has done anything, but who is too busy handling customers for the entire day (i called every thirty minutes) to get to my concerns until 4pm, when he informs me that Karen and Victor have told him not to handle this, that we can only speak to one of them about the case. Karen gets off work at 4:30 pm and will not handle the situation further that day.

Tuesday now, my roommate and i drive there to speak to karen and victor face-to-face. She says they are in the process of pickign the car up. This time, while we are there, they finally close the account, now w/a bill of a thousand dollars on my roommates' credit card. But even though it is AGAINST THEIR POLICY to rent to my roommate b/c of her age, Victor made sure to stress it is NOT AGAINST THE LAW.

Karen claims she knew nothing of this entire ordeal unti 4:15pm Friday, and thus couldn't do anything about the car until the weekend was over (yet monday came and went, and they did jack-sh*t).

Victor says that they never lied to us, "merely told us what they wished was true" (thus, although they told us it was being picked up EVERY DAY, they werent' lying b/c they wished they could have picked it up...and that's somehow the same thing.)

I am not saying it is their fault for my suspended license or my speeding ticket. these are my faults no matter how much prior knowledge i had, and i accept that responsibility.

But i REFUSED TO LEAVE THE CAR. i made that very clear. I had already figured out i'd miss my group final (which i did and was not able to make up). The car was clearly my priority. I daily called, was daily lied to...and they have it all on tape since i know they record their calls...

What were they doing all that time?

I've had to drop out of college and may have to move out in order to pay this back.
thanks budget. thanks for your wishful lies.

Susan
san diego, California
U.S.A.

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