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Report: #871695

Complaint Review: Hotwire.com - Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Marianne — Sanderson Florida United States of America
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
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  • Hotwire.com Internet United States of America

Hotwire.com Budget Car rip-off Internet

*Consumer Comment: Bait and Switch -- How to Report it to FTC

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I booked a car rental though Hotwire.com for Budget Rental Cars at the Jacksonville Fla airport. I had to rent a car because my truck had to go into the shop for repairs. My price was $151.00 for 9 days. When I showed up at the airport, they did not have a car available. I sat there for 3 hours and they still did not have a car available, so I called Hotwire.com. They said that I had 24 hours and that I could go back by noon the next day and still get the guaranteed price. I left and returned the next day (as I had to leave in order to get to work that night). I returned the next morining after working a 12 hour night shift. Again the airport did not have a rental available and I waited until I was 30 minutes from losing my "non-refundable" fee of $151.00.  At that point I was told that my car would not be available but I could get a different car for a slight upgrade. I was within minutes of losing the car and would be stranded 70 miles frm home. I took the upgrade which was supposed to be $54.00 additional. I said ok and it ended up being $54.00 additional per day X 9 days. They took the money out of my account. I lost over $600 for that transaction. Oh, they offered to fill the car with gas at a discount. I happened to see a small notice that said that they charged $9.29 per gallon! I bought my own gas but these people are loan sharks and will clean out your account.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/21/2012 09:18 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/hotwirecom/internet/hotwirecom-budget-car-rip-off-internet-871695. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#1 Consumer Comment

Bait and Switch -- How to Report it to FTC

AUTHOR: BAnders - ()

POSTED: Monday, January 05, 2015

I am just another consumer who has had a bad experience with Budget.  Your case sounds like you are victim of a bait and switch scam.   

Bait and switch is illegal and you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  They probably will not do anything -- but perhaps the will if enough people file complaint reports.

Filing a complaint is easy.   Go to ftccomplaintassistant.gov  to file your complaint.

On first page you will see a list of complaint categories on right hand side.   Select "Other" from bottom of list.

This will bring up another list of more "other" categories.   Select "Automobiles" and then continue.

Many states also have their own laws against bait and switch sales tactics.   Try doing a Google search for laws in your state.  If there is a law then there is also probably a state enforcement division that you can file a complaint with.  

Of course, as a practical matter filing complaints like this will not have much impact on a large company like Budget.  However, if enough people do this, it might just give their CEO a bad case of indigestion along with a healthy case of bad publicity.

In the meantime, good luck!

 

 

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