Budget failed to honor my reservation

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

I had to pay double for one in Alaska, being a world event was going
on at the Airbase and not one car was left, so I too went with the
high priced Subaru.

It was the best vehicle for traveling in the mountains anyway and such
great milage and performance and 4 wheel drive just when we needed
it.

Getting bent out of shape for a few dollars is just not worth it.
You can always have them call you when the vehicle you want gets back
in you know.

It's not like you have to build a fire to communicate.

Budget or any other rental company should not reserve what they do not
have in actual inventory at the time of rental, especially for
reserved vehicles.

Unfortunately, rental agencies have to deal with late returns all the
time. It's just not possible for them to be certain that a particular
class of vehicle is going to be available at the time you made your
reservation.

I had a car accident in January and needed a rental. We called
Enterprise because we knew we did not want the compact car the
insurance company authorized. I have a bad leg and was due for
surgery the following week. I needed something I could get into with
my leg. We reserved a small SUV (Ford Escape or similar).

We went to Enterprise the next day and unfortunately, they did not
have any cars available in that class because people had not returned
them. Our choices were the unsuitable compact car, a really beat up
PT Cruiser (which I love, I bought one but this one was really on it's
last legs) or a Chevy Tahoe. The Tahoe was much bigger than I needed
but we took that until a KIA Sorrento was returned and then we
exchanged it.

The only way Budget assures a particular vehicle is with their special
program (I forget the name). The Cadillac was probably reserved under
that program.

I do think Traci tried her best to get you a car that would meet your
needs but she just couldn't find one. I am surprised that they didn't
offer you some type of compensation right on the spot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7uvttu8ct0

I just got back from vacation and having rented two cars (one to NYC,
the other back), the first rental place (National) looked at my party
(4 people) and asked how many bags we had (4) and suggested that the
Pontiac G6 I'd reserved wouldn't be large enough for all of us to be
comfortable. The CSR pulled out a laminated book and showed me what
the passenger and truck capacities were and recommended a larger class
and also suggested I rent a SmartPass (for tolls) for $2.50 so I
didn't have to worry about cash.

The second CSR I dealt with (Avis) popped her chewing gum the entire
time and shrugged when I asked her about upgrading the car (at my own
expense) and whether I could get a FastPass for tolls. She rolled her
eyes when the customer next to me asked her CSR about a GPS system.

Guess which one I was most happy with?

Customer service can make or break a situation - especially when
people are travelling. Would I use this National Car Rental location
again? Absolutely. Would I use the same Avis location again. Doubt
it.

It sounds like there was an overbooking situation or the vehicle
suddenly became unavailable. In both situations, it is going to be
difficult to please customers who reserved something and it is now
going to be unavailable. Even when it is a "request" and not a
"guarantee" that you will get a specific vehicle, the customer still
is disappointed when the request cannot be met.

In this situation, the OP specifically posted in their original letter
that they booked a "Pontiac G6 or similar". It sounds like Budget was
invoking the "or similar" aspect of what this customer booked.
Although the G6 was not available, they did have "similar" vehicles
available, just slightly smaller. It sounds like they did have
vehicles available to honor the reservation (Versa/Same Class), but
they just did not meet the OPs needs. I think that is the risk you
take when you are not specifically guaranteed a certain vehicle.

I think Traci provided excellent customer service. Spending time to
call around to find a car to meet the customers needs is an excellent
example of going above and beyond. Instead of saying "Take the Versa,
it meet the criteria of what you booked, sorry.", she took time to
search other locations to find exactly what the customer needed.

I think this is an example of good service, and I fail to see how they
did not honor the reservation. It might not have been for the exact
car, but there was a similar vehicle available in the same class.

While "compensation" might be a nice gesture, I do not think that any
is absolutely necessarily owed since the company DID hold up their end
of the deal. In this case, the customer did not get what they wanted,
but got what the reservation was for. Not being able to get exactly
what you want when it was not guaranteed for you does not entitle one
to compensation. This is my opinion, but the final decision rests with
the company.

OP, let us know if and when you hear back. I am interested to know the
response.

For some of you that have commented failed to see or know that a
hatchback Vesa is smaller than the G6 with less leg room and storage.
Also if I turned those down it was for this reason. If Traci did her
her job or not is not the problem. The problem is that there was not a
suitable car for my needs or my upgrade for which I had a reservation.
Had I just walked in without one then there wouldn't have been
anything for me to say. Also for the fact that they were willing to
hold a car for someone else is crazy.

From the Budget Website:
'Can you reserve a specific make/model car for me?
Yes! Although our standard fleet isn’t reservable by specific make and
model, our Street Fleet is! Book your choice of any of our Street
Fleet vehicles, and we’ll do our best to have that exact car waiting
for you at the pick-up counter. And once you're behind the wheel of
your favorite rental car, if you decide to keep your vehicle for a few
more days, that's no problem at all. Since Budget offers each customer
this same flexibility, please understand that we can't guarantee that
the specific make or model you choose will always be available – some
of our renters undoubtedly will decide to keep their favorite car
longer than they originally planned which may overlap your rental
request. But if we have the car of your choice at the location when
you arrive, you'll get it!"

So, they don't promise the exact car you reserved and it makes sense,
since they can't control exactly when people return them. They
offered you two cars in the same category, that's really all they
could do. You chose to make it a longer process then it needed to
be.

"after confirming that neither car was suitable for my needs"

Uh huh. Your needs. Your needs are a vehicle with four wheels, a
vehicle that is safe and will hold passengers, briefcases, whatever.


You wanted what you wanted. When they didn't have it (maybe the
previous person was late turnign it in), you stuck to your guns.

You wasted your own time. You deserve nothing.

This is the nature of the car rental business. So they didn't have
the exact model you wanted. They offered you the Versa which was in
the intermediate category (the category you rented from) and you
declined. They offered you a Jetta and you also declined. They even
offered you the Mustang and you declined. I cannot understand why
none of these cars was acceptable.

In the end, it appears that this woman worked her tail off to find you
an acceptable car. I see absolutely no reason for Budget to
compensate you now. I would have thought that if the upgrade meant
that much to you, you would have asked for something in exchange of
the upgrade at the time of the rental rather than argue about your car
choices.

I dont think you deserve anything. They did everything they could to
please you and you just refused.

They even offered the Mustang for the same price as the G6. If you
were looking for sporty that works. Then they offered you a Nissan
versa which looks almost the same as the pontiac, but you refused
that.

I think you should pay Traci for her time trying to please you.

There may be a reason for overbooking but that doesn't mean the
customer has to be happy about it.

The only party that benefits when a car rental company overbooks is
the car rental company. And when they do something solely to benefit
themselves, if that ends up conflicting with a customer who has done
absolutely nothing except show up to pick up their car then the car
company should expect to do something to make up for having caused the
situation in the first place. And if they don't then they should
expect a complaint letter from an unhappy customer.

Because you know what? That's common too. And there is a reason for
it.

Sometimes cars, hotels, planes are overbooked.

Traci tried hard to come up with a work around. You in fact turned
down the upgrade of the Mustang for the same price of the G6.

They don't compensate "time", and I don't think they owe you a refund.
I wonder how much they would bill for Traci's time spent attempting
to help you.

Sounds like they went out of their way to help you.

They did nothing wrong



Good Day