Now deploying lawyers

[unixronin]

Budget Customer Service told us that after we got the truck returned, they could make an adjustment for all the shit we've gone through on this rental.  I got the truck returned this afternoon, and the agent at the local Budget franchise told me she could credit us for three days of overtime, but we'd have to talk to Customer Service to get the rest sorted out.  Now that they have our money, customer service is now stonewalling us and telling us it's out of their hands and there's nothing they can do.

The fuckers rented us an unsafe truck, they blamed us when the truck broke down, they declined to replace the truck so we could complete our move (breach of contract #1), they're charging us for the time we spent waiting for the truck to be repaired, thus de facto charging us for the repair even though their damage waiver (which we took) says we're not responsible for any damage to the truck from any cause, up to and including the total loss of the truck (breach of contract #2), and they lied to us to manipulate our money out of us.

No more Mr. Nice Guy.  We're deploying lawyers and we'll sue the fuckers if that's what it takes.  They want to play nasty?  OK, we are now officially playing nasty.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Good luck, and good hunting. And thanks for the warning.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for both wishes. The dealers are fine; the regional service managers are despoilers of virgin goats.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the RSM's rank the dealers, and if we get into trouble....

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

...Exactly.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Good luck.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

Don't deploy the best lawyers you can afford. Deploy the best lawyers available. The lawyers will find ways to get their fees out of this one. It seems pretty open-and-shut.

And in the meantime, we all know NOT to do business with Budget.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

I had a bad experience with renting a car, a few years back. I don't do Budget, either.
This one is open-and-shut enough you might be able to get it resolved in Small Claims without sending in the dogs of law. I think you can get them for something like $10,000 now, but it might vary by state. If not, send in the dogs of law.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I'm guessing we'll have to get a lawyer involved, because they're insisting we have to have hit something and therefore considering it an accident and our fault.

"When leaf springs break, it's usually because the customer hit something, so you must have hit something."

(Spot the logical error here....)

Fortunately, all they have is a "You must have hit something", and presumably would be under the burden to prove we did, whereas we have a signed statement from a police officer saying that, at least immediately prior to the breakdown, we did not hit anything.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

One question, did you pay with a credit card?

If so, they don't "have your money". And you have an extremely large organization on your side that might be willing to help make sure you achieve "customer satisfaction".

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

We paid with a Citizens Bank debit card which she ran as credit. And yes, I've already contacted the bank manager, and he's contacting their securities department to see if they can deny payment on it based on an affidavit that Budget is charging us for services not provided (which they are -- they're trying to charge us for the 13 days when the truck was out of our possession waiting to be repaired). We're also looking up a contract lawyer, since we're fairly sure they're in breach. And then there's the unsafe-truck issue ....

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

if you need the opinion of a proffessionial mechanic, let me know. i used to work at u-haul and leaf springs are a high mileage wear item. when they wear out they tend to break.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- we'll keep that in mind. In that context, is 110k high mileage?

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

on rental trucks it is, lots of people overload those beasts and it take a toll on the suspension. you might want to subpena (sp?) the maint. records for the truck in question.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I glanced at the maintenance record on the truck cab. One prior service interval had been missed, and it was due for service again when it broke down on us.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

~grinz~ there ya go. mention that to yer bank when you call to get the payment stopped.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually, bank called back this morning and said they can't do anything for us because it falls under the category of contract disputes.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

that bites, looks like it's lawyer timne?