Budget does not honor confirmed price.

Mrs. AlanLeroy had a confirmed 8 day rental through Costco Travel for a Budget Rental at Cleveland Airport. When she arrived the line was an hour long. When she got to the counter, she was told the rental will be an extra $80 because they would not honor the Costco price because it was a blackout period and according to the terms and conditions they can change the price whenever they like. At that point, she had no choice but to pay the 80 bucks.

I figured this was a rogue franchise trying to rip off unsuspecting vacation travelers so I called Budget Corporate and they had the same explanation...that the price on the confirmed reservation was just an estimate and they did not have to honor any coupons or codes during a blackout period. She also said it would not have mattered if I had made the reservation on their web site using the discount codes or on the Costco Web site, they were not going to honor the quoted price.

I have to believe this is not legal as there was no way to find the real price and they knew at the time the car was confirmed that they were not actually going to charge her the quoted price. I asked the agent to speak to her supervisor and she claimed she had no supervisor that I could speak to, but would submit my complaint to 'escalations'. If there is no satisfaction with 'escalations' we will dispute the $80 with American Express.

In many years of renting cars through Costco travel and directly through rental car web sites, I have never had a company refuse to honor their quoted price. Has anyone else experienced this kind of surprise?

Let us know how this turns out.

UPDATE: A call to Costco Travel has resolved the issue. it appears the clerk at the Cleveland Counter answered 'no' to the popup that was to verify Mrs. AlanLeroy's Costco card. That is what rejected the Costco Discounts which have be added back to the rental. Now the real questions are:

1. Was it a simple mistake that the clerk answered 'no' or was this a conscious effort to jack the price?
2. Why didn't the Budget customer service agent uncover the error and correct it.

The moral to the story is if you ever get to the rental counter and the price is way different than the confirmation then make sure the clerk has answered the verification pop-up correctly.

A+ for the Costco Customer Service. She knew exactly who to call at Budget and resolved this issue in less than 5 minutes.

Did you get your $80.00 back?

Costco Travel claims Budget has adjusted the rate. We won't know for sure until she returns the car on July 10 and she gets an actual receipt. If it's not right, Costco gave me an e-mail address to send a copy of the Budget receipt and they will make it right. Great Customer Service Costco.

Good customer service job with Costco, and a poor job with Budget. I can't imagine an employee essentially telling a customer that we no obligation to honor our promise. Some employees are unwilling to think, and this was one of them. I little hand holding and training is a must for this person.

Well, it was actually two Budget employees...the Clerk at the Rental Counter and the Customer Service Person I spoke to this morning. They said the exact same thing...which leads me to question whether this was 2 simple mistakes or a deceitful effort to pad their bottom line.

The Costco Travel woman claimed it was the first she's heard of something like this so either it's a new practice to honor our nation's birthday or an isolated incident. Of course not everyone would catch the mark-up and many would just pay it and others would stop at the first call to Budget. I'm pretty dogged when it comes to rip-offs.

Glad you got things straightened out. Reminds me a little of my one and only experience with Advantage in Las Vegas. Booked a great rate online, confirmed by phone with customer service and printed out confirmation. When I showed up at the counter they would not honor the rate, blaming a "computer glitch." The manager was conveniently "in a meeting and unavailable." Of course I had a backup reservation with PayLess and was on my way in ten minutes....

I rented from budget in vegas & I wound up having to get 3 cars, one of which didn't have any gas in it. They also came up with a ridiculous price when I returned the car. For my trouble they took $30 off the rental and a coupon for 1 free day in vegas only.

They are called budget for a reason.

This is not good news. I am actually killing time waiting to leave for Vegas where I will be renting a car from Budget. I can't remember if I used a coupon or discount code but I called them the other day to make sure I didn't need to bring my AAA card or school employee ID because those were some of the discounts offered when I was shopping around. My rate is $209 for 8 days. I have a bad feeling that they're going to try to screw me over. I would think that they would know their black out days when booking.