wrote in message
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I was scammed by Hotwire and Budget. I purchased 8 days of rental from
Hotwire, returned the rental car within that 8 day period. Later discovered
that Budget goes strictly by the times that you put into the pickup and
drop-off times you put into the Hotwire rental request, not a 24 hour period
for the amount of days you have paid for through Hotwire, so since I was off
by a few hours in my estimated pick-up and drop-off, they charged me an
additional day of use at the full rate of $50.39 (Mind you my Hotwire rate
was 20$ a day) Now Budget and Hotwire customer service will do nothing for
me. Oh and I purchased a mid-size and got a compact. (Hotwire did give me
a credit for this at least!) This is a complete scam by Budget! DO NOT USE
BUDGET!!!!!

Moral of the story, if you are going to use Hotwire (or other online travel
agencies) to book a car rental, make sure that you put the return time as
late as possible without incurring an additional days charge, otherwise the
rental agency can take you to town if there are any changes to your drop-off
time

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Why "scammed"? Didn't you confirm/verify/check the return time before you
left the rental lot? Typically, you have - if an 8 day rental - 24x8 hours
rental. If you picked the car up at 3:00pm, then you need to return the car
no later than 3:00pm on the eighth day...not at 5:00pm, 8:00pm, or 12:00pm
on the eighth day. (Some rental companies give you an hour's grace period,
some don't.) Go over/beyond/pass that period of time and, yes, expect to
be charged one day at the usual full (not discounted) rate. Your rental
agreement spells all this out. Didn't you read it? And if you did read it,
didn't you understand what you read?

"Moral of the story, if you are going to use Hotwire (or other online travel
agencies) to book a car rental, make sure..." before you leave the rental
facility that you (1) have read and fully understand the rental agreement
before you sign it, (2) verify in writing the return date and time of the
rental, and (3) understand the consequences of returning the vehicle later
than the specified date and time.