LIVID at budget. Help me fine tune my letter before I send it please

[TheWoman]

My family was planning to drive to Utah where my 4 children and I were going to stay with relatives while my husband went on to attend a wedding out of state. Since my parents did not have a vehicle big enough to transport us all, we decided to rent a small, fuel-efficient car for my husband to drive and keep our van with us.

While I was searching for a rental car, I found at least one site with better rates than budget, but they had a limitation as to which states the car could be driven in, so we went with budget. I looked everywhere on that website in order to make sure that there were no similar restrictions at budget. I then reserved a car on July 31 from the Salt Lake City, UT airport location and received a confirmation email. In that email there were 2 pages of terms and conditions, which I read carefully. Nowhere were there any restrictions about where the car could be driven.

So we arrived at the Salt Lake airport late at night on July 31, 2008 after driving all day from Oregon. I dropped my husband off to pick up the car. They would not let him pick it up without either proof of insurance or agreeing to buy insurance from them. He was stranded and it was late at night, so he agreed to buy the insurance.

I had reserved the car through USAA, which provided that insurance was included. Also, he was renting it with his USAA MasterCard, which also provided insurance. Both of these coverages should have been known to your employees, so there was no excuse that they demanded that he provide proof of insurance.

When my husband arrived at my parents home with the car and the contract he signed, I started reading the find print. In print that is 1milimeter tall, it states "VEHICLE MUST NOT BE USED OR OPERATED OUTSIDE THE STATE OF UTAH/IDAHO/WYO OR IN MEXICO, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF BUDGET". This created a huge problem for us as it was now past midnight and my husband was leaving at 7:00 am to drive to Iowa in time for the wedding. I called the budget office where the car was rented and told them of the problem and that I needed written permission to drive it to Iowa.

The lady who answered the phone told me that there was nothing she could do and that the manager would be in at 10:00 in the morning. I told her that wasn’t good enough so she agreed to contact her supervisor and call me back. At 4:00 am when I had not received a call back I called again. There was no answer.

At 7:00am my husband left for Iowa, taking my van because he couldn’t take the car we rented for this purpose. This left me and my 4 children stranded at my parents’ house for a week, completely ruining our vacation.

I took the car back to Budget that morning. After waiting for a half an hour to speak to the manager we discussed the matter with him. He immediately conceded that my husband should not have been required to purchase insurance. I pointed out that it was completely unfair to change the conditions of the rental when it was time to pick up the car and he eventually agreed. He did something at a computer claiming that he was voiding the contract and my credit card would not be charged. I demanded a written statement to that effect, which I received.
I was not too surprised when my card was indeed charged so I filed a dispute with my credit card company. I really thought that Budget would realize the mistake and agree to drop the charges. Instead they reaffirmed the charges.

In summery: First Budget bullied my husband into buying unneeded insurance. Second, they changed the terms and conditions of the rental at the time of pick up, when it was too late for us to make other plans. This ruined our vacation. Third, after agreeing that I would not be charged anything I was charged and that charge was reaffirmed when I tried to challenge it.

I demand that all the charges be reversed by November 7, 2008. Also, by that date I also want all the restrictions that will be placed upon a rental to be posted clearly and plainly on the Budget website and in the email confirmation so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I also want a written apology for ruining our vacation and for all the time and effort I have had to put in to get this problem resolved.

Attachments: Copy of the contract, where the manager wrote VOID on the front
...................Copy of the written statement from the manager indicating that I will not be charged.

Cc: Budget Corporate Headquarters
......Utah state attorney general
......USAA



Please advise any changes that should be made before I send this letter. I know it is long, but the situation is long and involved.

[ncbrunet]

"In summery"

should be spelled in summary

[zoeys_mom]

Capitilize Budget as it is a proper Noun

[puakinikini]

Fantastic letter - I would change the word "bullied" to "coerced" - bullied is slang and coerced is a legal term that to me seems more appropriate.

I would also spell out your demands more clearly by doing it like a check list and give different dates for completion.

Something like this:

In response to this situation, I ask that the following take place:
1. All charges on the credit card (statement included) be reversed by November 7, 2008.
2. A letter be written from Budget documenting that the charges were made in error. In addition I would like a writtenapology for ruining my family's vacation and for all the time and effort I have had to put in to get this problem resolved.
3. I would like to see all restrictions placed upon a car rental to be posted clearly and plainly on the Budget website. This includes states in which the car can be driven, as well as insurance requirements. I would also like to see that this information be included in the email confirmation so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Other car rental companies include this information on their websites.

Great letter.

[zoeys_mom]

BTW, Great letter.

[pennywatcher]

I'd recommend adding a summary paragraph at the top before you start telling the story. Maybe something like,

On July 31, I rented a car from Budget at the Salt Lake City airport. Several things went wrong with the rental proceedings. The next day, the manager at the site promised a specific resolution to the problem, but has not followed through on that promise. Below I have detailed the events, what I was promised, and what I now require to resolve this situation.

[TheWoman]

Thanks--done, done, and done. Where were all of you when I was writing papers for school 15 years ago?

[queenofthehivemomof5]

Great advice already given. But man that totally sucks. I am suprised that when you went to take the rental car back the next day that they did not offer to just give you a bigger can (mini van or something) so that you could accomodate your family.

That is what I would have done if I was the Manager at Budget. So much for making the customer happy eh?

[melodyjg]

If I was me I would demand (probably not receive but still DEMAND) that they compensate you for the fuel that your husband had to spend driving your van to the wedding because of their underhanded ways...That was when gas was waaay up there and there is no reason that you should have had to spend that extra gas when you were thinking ahead and they were thinking underhanded!!!!

[nateNnatsmommy]

Wow...definitely keep us posted on this one.