Budget Rent a Car’s $3,000 Nightmare: Family Stranded, Facing Jail After Police Seize Vehicle
A Budget Rent a Car customer was pulled over by police, and had their Chrysler Pacifica confiscated. Police said that it was unregistered, and had fake plates. They were left on the side of the road for hours.
Budget had no new car to offer at Newark airport where they rented (or anywhere else nearby), so they had to scrounge to come up with another vehicle to make it to their daughter’s college graduation – paying for both.
The original rental was one-way, with a return in Canada. They couldn’t replicate that with another agency, so had to drive the car back to the United States taking up extra time, effort and $2,913 in expense.
- The original Budget rental was for $1,391
- They had to change their flights to return the second car where they rented it for $1,051
- And the trip back to Newark incurred an extra night’s hotel at $220, along with $251 in additional food and gas.
And Budget sent them a threat of prosecution for not returning the car and banned them as a customer.
“Failure to return the vehicle will subject you to prosecution. Unauthorized use of a vehicle is a Class A Misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine up to $1,000 or a sentence to a term of imprisonment for a period of up to one year, or both fine and imprisonment,” the letter said. “If the vehicle is not returned, a report will be made to the local Police Department and a request for warrant of arrest will be sought.”
Budget eventually picked up the vehicle from the impound lot, and acknowledged its error. The Police Department says they did their checks, but that it’s possible the databases they were searching weren’t properly up to date on out of state vehicles that were newly registered. The car company finally agreed to cover some costs, but we don’t know what because they’ve insisted on a non-disclosure agreement from the customer.
Fortunately the renters weren’t charged with car theft, though the police initially believed the rental had been stolen. Had they rented from Hertz they might not have been so lucky.
(HT: Jonathan)