Budget Rent A Car

On April 9th, 2023, I picked up my rental at Tampa International Airport. It was late in the night and I had a 2 year old child with us that had be on the go since earlier that day. I was tired myself but noticed a pair of track pants and socks in the back of the vehicle as I was placing the luggage in the vehicle. I figured it would be faster and easier for me to throw them out myself. While driving to my trailer, we found empty water bottles and a plastic butt ashtray and 2 rental agreements for another vehicle with a customers name attached. Our daughter also pointed out that under the rear floor mats there was a pile of beach sand. It was obvious the vehicle was not cleaned or serviced prior to my rental. It was an utter disgrace for your company to provide that vehicle to me in the condition it was in.

My girlfriend made an online reservation with Budget Rental Car for a Mazda which we were going to use on our recent visit to Tampa. When we arrived at Tampa International Airport to pick up the car the rental agent told us we could have a choice of a Mazda or a Ford Taurus. My girlfriend owns a Ford Taurus and had never driven a Mazda, so we decided the Taurus sounded more practical. What the agent did not tell us was that the Taurus was an upgrade and was going to cost us an additional $20 per day. Unfortunately, both of us were tired from our flight and did not read the contract carefully enough, and we failed to notice that the agent had my girlfriend put her initials next to the words "upgrade - $20 per day." Of course we should have paid closer attention to the contract, but the agent never told us that the Taurus was an upgrade and she never said how much it would cost. In fact, when my girlfriend asked what the total cost would be, the agent said "that will be figured out at the end when you return the car." Of course now we see that the rental agent was trying to hide the fact that we were going to pay more than we anticipated.
Needless to say, when we returned the car 4 days later we were shocked to find that the cost was $80 more than we planned. When we tried to explain to the agent at the return desk that the rental agent never told us (1) that the Taurus was an upgrade; (2) that it was going to cost $20 more per day; and (3) what the total would be, all he did was point to the contract and say "these are your initials so you must have known about the upgrade. We are not going to do anything." He was completely rude and unprofessional. Should we have read the contract more carefully? Of course. That having been said, it was unethical for the rental agent to not tell us that the Taurus would be an upgrade and that it would cost us $20 per day more than we expected. The fact that the return agent was rude and completely unsympathetic to us was also disconcerting. So much for the adage "the customer is always right." .