Budget Rent A Car

A damage claim was filed against me for damages that clearly existed prior to me renting the vehilce. Thankfully, I took pictures which detailed the damages and the claim was promply closed. However, it should have never been opened and it was a huge waste of my time.

We were asked by a Budget agent if we would like to upgrade to a mini-van from a Ford Edge. We accepted the upgrade and reported the damage to the agent, who didn't write anything down. She stated Budget was aware of the damage. This vehicle had less than 15k miles on it but looked like it has been in a crash up derby contest. The agent told us we should take our own pictures, which we always do, but said we could report the damage again to the gate agent if we were concerned. Based on the amount of damage to this vehicle, we were concerned because we didn't want to be accused of the damage. We reported the damage to the gate agent, who again didn't write anything down and stated that Budget was aware of the damage but we could take our own pictures as well.

The damages were reported to 2 separate employees, who did nothing. This is a complete failure of the Budget LAX location. I find this to be fraudulent and criminal by Budget to create a claim against a renter that had clearly pointed out damage multiple times.

The real joke is the estimate of the damages was $1,000, which is absolutly ridiculous as the front door panel needed replaced and the rear panel. Plus significant other damages. I would love to have any damages to my own car fixed by their body shop if it is that cheap. Further showing how big of a scam this was and why the claim was closed so quickly.