Tl;DR: rented a truck with mechanical problems. Was stranded for 6 hours on the freeway and was not able to return it due to issues beyond my control that were the fault of the originating dealer. I was charged for an additional day of rental ($225) and would prefer not to pay that.
Recently I rented a truck from a well known national moving truck company in the US. As soon as I entered the truck, I noted a message on the dash that it had low tire pressure on one of the rear tires. I obviously should have noted this to the dealer in person immediately, but due to schedules and enthusiasm, I did not. I filled it with air and it seemed alright.
2 days later when I had loaded the truck and was set to travel, I once more filled the tire. Unfortunately, as I drove with the loaded truck, it started slowly and steadily losing air. I stopped to fill it about every 60 miles before I noted, at 1 am at a remote outpost dozens of miles from civilization, air coming from the section of the tire near the fill valve. I decided further travel was ill advised. I made it to a nearby interstate rest stop and called the trucking company’s roadside assistance people.
They determined that there was nobody within 60 miles available to come and change the tire. The representative suggested I should just drive on the leaky tire and see what happened. I felt that wasn’t a very good idea. We ended up deciding that I would sleep at the rest stop and help would come in the morning. I was fine with that. However, I was due to return the truck in the morning, so I called them back. I was then told someone was arranging to have the entire truck towed to my destination, over 100 miles away. This seemed somewhat unnecessary, but sure. So next, that did occur. The truck was towed to where I was going, on a flatbed, at 6 am.
We still had to unload the truck, and wait for someone else to come change the tire before it could be driven to the local dealer to be returned. I called customer service to let them know we were returning the truck later than scheduled due to these problems. Somehow it turned out to be a Kafkaesque customer service archipelago- I talked to 18 different people and I still have no idea why since I wasn’t even asking for anything. Someone came and replaced the tire about 2 hours after I was originally scheduled to return the truck.
The local dealer closed at noon that day, 30 minutes after the tire was finally replaced, so we took it back the next day. We were told by some very stoned young man that he had no control over charging us $225 for the additional day of rental, and I’d have to talk to national customer service. I probably at that point should have just left, but instead I actually gave them my debit card. It was unclear whether I’d ever be charged, but finally 4 days later, they processed the payment.
I called the national customer service and they told me how sorry they were for my traumatizing experience, which was not why I was calling. They offered to refund 80 out of the 225, and I said I didn’t consider that sufficient. I was told someone would call me in 1-3 days. So, I called my bank and reported that wished to start the process of disputing the charge.
Any suggestions? The original payment was $575 and I haven’t even complained about that.
I think I’d start by looking at the rental agreement to get a better understanding of your and the company’s responsibilities under it. Then, if the terms were in my favor, I’d call them back and wave their terms of service in their face until they fix the problem. If the terms weren’t in my favor I’d remind myself that contract is written by the company and may or may not be enforceable. Then I’d call them and politely ask to speak with a manager. Tell them the story, say “I know this isn’t your fault but it is very frustrating” and hope they’ll actually do something. Finally, if they won’t do anything, I’d email corporate, write bad reviews on Google, yelp, and anywhere else I can think of as well as file a complaint with the BBB for both the local business and the large national business.
If that doesn’t get their attention I don’t know what will without spending more than you’ve lost.
One problem is I’m dealing with several different entities - the originating dealer, the return dealer, and national customer service. It’s not clear who to call. The local dealer told me I could only get a refund from the national service and the national service told me to call the originating dealer and the local dealer.
I’ve read the contract and it doesn’t seem to cover this circumstance, where equipment is faulty and roadside assistance takes 11 hours to fix the problem. Mainly I’m trying to figure out how perturbed to be… I think many people would ask for a refund on the original payment as well as the additional one.
A letter to the state attorney general can also be extremely effective at escalating disputes with a company. Typically the AG will forward the dispute to a contact higher up in the company and expect a summary from the company of the resolution