no more NTB, no more Budget Rental

Last Saturday, I took the car to NTB. For a routine oil change, and I also wanted the alignment to be adjusted because Kiwi said it was pulling a little to the left.

So I left it there while Kiwi and I ran some errands. An hour later, we get a message that a whole bunch of stuff with my car is all fucked up, it needs to be fixed to be able to fix the alignment.

I copied down the list of 5 items, and got a quote of about $2100. If we couldn't afford that, the minimum we needed to do was about $800.

I thought about it for awhile, and just took the car home. On Tuesday, I took the car to CarMax because when I purchased the car from them in May 2006, I had also purchased a 3 year warranty. So after waiting for 2 hours there, I was told that only 1 item out of the list needed to be done. And it would be covered by my warranty, I only need to pay my $50 deductible.

I'm driving a rental right now (warranty covers a $25.00/day rental vehicle). CarMax used to work with Speedy, or was it Thrifty Car Rental, on Morse Road at the Dennis dealership. The process there was fast and painless.

This time however, it was Budget. They wanted my credit card to hold $100 on it. And I would have to pay a fuel surcharge of $14.00. Unless I travelled less than 75 miles AND filled up the tank and showed a receipt for it. No such thing as peeking at the fuel meter and be good to go.

*eye roll*

Ridiculous money grubbing policies. However, I have to say that the employees are extremely polite. Very good personal customer service. Just lousy company policies. No reason to be nasty to people for things that they did not dictate.

However, I did call to CarMax and expressed my opinion that I did not like Budget, I preferred the previous rental company. Maybe if enough people complained, they would switch back. MAYBE.