Starman

Rented a Budget car at BWI airport and drive it for 10 days entirely within Maryland, and incurred no EZ pass charges, making certain the box was closed the entire time. A month after the rental closed, got a credit card charge for $34 for EZ Pass tolls. The receipt site (www.e-tolls.com) shows the charge with my correct name and rental agreement number, and the correct pickup and dropoff dates and locations, but the tolls incurred were all in a different state (Delaware) on days when the car was parked in the parking lot of my Maryland hotel, unusued. Any recommendation on how to pursue this? Seems to me if I dispute it with my credit card company, Budget will simply supply them with the same receipt I downloaded, which backs up their charge.

guv1976

You say that you had the box closed the whole time. Did you ever open it to ensure that there was a transponder in it? If the transponder assigned to that vehicle had been previously removed by someone, it might have been used in a different vehicle.

Also, was your rental car self-parked or valet-parked at your hotel? And how far was your hotel from the Delaware border?

Starman

The car was self-parked and the keys in my possession the entire time, so I know the vehicle wasn't hijacked. And the bridges in the receipt are more than 100 miles away from my location. I must admit I never looked inside the box to see if there was a transponder there, so your suggestion is clever!! Since I wasn't going to use it, I just verified the door was closed. Presumably if someone stole it prior to my rental, there are going to be subsequent renters defrauded also, but I'm skeptical Budget is going to track everyone down who was charged, apologize, and issue refunds. They're just not going to do detective work like like for $30 or so. I guess the best I can do is supply them with receipts showing I was never in Delaware, including Maryland restaurant charges on that day, but if this were an episode of Law & Order, this will probably be insufficient evidence. I guess we'll see.

m907

They probably failed to take the transponder off your account when they gave it to the next customer.

guv1976

The OP states that the toll charges in question were incurred during the dates of the OP's rental, not subsequently.