Miggles

One of my colleagues just turned in a Budget rental at the STL airport location, and they charged him $6 extra even though he had filled the tank, provided the receipt, and showed the fuel gauge pegged at F. The lot attendant said that the $6 is automatically added for all rentals that clock in under 75 miles, and the only way to remove it is to go inside, stand in line, and request the surcharge removal. What a scam! One more reason why I think this company is just plain grody.

Maxwell Smart

I ran into this at SJC (San Jose, CA) recently. Saw signs and a printed notice of this with my contract.
I had filled it myself, and upon return, before the lot attendant did anything, I told him I had filled gas and had the receipt if he wanted to see it. He didn't ask for the receipt, and I didn't get the $6 charge added.

Gotta admit, they came up with a slick way to grab some easy cash. The target is 1-2 day business travellers who drive short distances and don't want to be hassled with either tanking up or disputing the $6 charge.

In many cars, if the tank's really really full, you can drive up to 60-70 miles before the gauge drops down to the F line, so with this new policy, they can charge people who return a car with the gauge still showing full, even if they didn't buy any gas.

ezmonee

avis (like budget) is owned by cendant so several locations have tried this as well, with great success. many people love it, some dont. Here is how it works..

You get asked this question at rental return:

"did you buy gas?"

At that time, say "yes." if the tank is full, the computer will not charge you any fuel service charge, even if you selected the GSO option at car pickup. Any GSO/fee, 6 dollar or full tank, should not charge if you indicate "yes" on the gas question and show a car on F, or as we say "G8" for 8/8ths of a tank full.


Maxwell, your story jives perfectly fine with my explanation because the rover (lot attendant for car rental return) cannot remove the charges from that unit, the unit does it automatically. The only charges that the Rover can play with is how full your gas tank is (in 1/8 tank increments). They cannot even modify return time. The time the car is zapped is the "return" time.

Miggles, I think the RSA Rover messed up, or was just plain lazy. Unacceptable. I think the RSA was misinformed on the program, and even though he/she was informed of the gas bieng full, still thought they were supposed to "hit no" on the rover because they are under 75 miles. when rolling out a new program, stories like this are likely to pop up from time to time. The RSA may have even not known that the GSO falls of if you put in full. They may have thought "since its pre paid, it doesnt matter and its one less key stroke I have to do."

Bottom line, if you return the car full and indicate to the rover agent that you did buy gas, even if you traveled less than 75 miles, you should not be charged. If anyone has been charged after doing this, complain, and post your story here, or if someone has one of these contract notices, Id like to see it or the verbage on it.

Donna D

I live in Orlando and my car developed a problem on saturday and since I was leaving Sunday to fly to LAX, and didn't have time to deal with my car, I rented one from Budget on saturday morning so that I could simply drive myself to the airport the next day, turn in the car and be on my way. Just before getting to the airport, I stopped and filled up the car - I was running late and almost opted to just get charged for gas, but decided to stop anyway. When I turned in the car, person gets inside as usual, looks at gas, etc. then ask me if I put gas in it which I thought was odd since she JUST looked - and it was beyond full. I said of course and then she ask me for my receipt - which caused me to ask why - and only then was I told of their new "policy" to charge you $6 if you don't have a receipt - there was no mention of the 75 miles as mentioned in earlier posts. Since my rental was personal and not business, I didn't bother to get a receipt for the $2 of gas I put in it. I was most unhappy - and informed this person that I rented cars from budget at least several times a month, and had in fact rented cars from budget 5 times since mid-june and never heard of any such thing. I then ask why I was not told of this new policy when I rented the car and she rudely said to me, "I didn't rent you a car." I have never heard of anything so ridiculous. I went to the kiosk and complained, asked when this new policy suddenly went in to effect, at which point the guy stuck out a little peice of paper with something written on it that I did not bother to read - when I asked again why no one informed me of this "new policy" he basically ignored me but finally did remove the charge - just the sort of hassle I did not need. Given that i am a fastbreak member and never see any paperwork - is anyone aware if this is printed on the contracts?

TrojanHorse

I saw this horse.... policy when I rented at TPA, I did fill it, showed the receipt and was not charged but I do find this a BS policy and will find a way around it if I have to drive to a gas station and pick up a receipt off the ground just to screw these SOB's over. I have to use Budget on biz but will not use them on personal tvl at all. They also screw over the person who has a 6 AM flight and will not stop to get gas at 4AM if they drove 20 miles and the tank is on F

If they are going to do this crap, they should ensure that the tank is topped off when they rent it

How often do you get a car with the tank on F but about 2 or more gallons short of being really F

ColoBill1

Absolutely the case. Can't tell you how many times I've rented a car, only to find out a few miles down the road that the car was far from having been topped off by the rental location. Such was the case last week when I rented from Alamo at SAN, when the gauge dropped very quickly off "full" only 3.5 miles after I picked it up. My experience has been, with very few exceptions, that a topped off car will go 35-50 miles prior to the needle dropping off "full".

Also, when I am returning a rental, I'm not about to risk trying to find a gas station within a mile or two of the airport, then have to backtrack when I don't. If I must drive 10-12 miles after filling up, I feel that is entirely reasonable, and doing so is not an attempt on my part to scam the rental company.