Help! Budget Charged Us $450 to Clean Our Rental Car. Can They Do That?

Dear Tripped Up,

We rented a car from the Budget agency at Kennedy Airport in New York this past August for a two-week family vacation. When we returned it, the staff member who checked it in told me everything was fine. But four days later Budget sent a letter saying it was charging my credit card $450 for “Excessive Interior Dirt — Sand.” I complained multiple times via email, sending them time-stamped photos and video I had taken of the car’s interior, to no avail. Can you help? Arden, Kells, Ireland

Dear Arden,

I took a look at your images, but also those from Budget’s own damage report, and could see little grime beyond kid footprints on the back of the driver’s seat and some dirt in the footwells.

The company’s terms and conditions note that it can bill you “for what we determine in our sole discretion are excessive stains, trash, dirt, soilage, odors or pet hair,” and elsewhere on its website states that fees max out at $450, noting that “tobacco odor and residue” might result in such a charge.

Determining cleaning fees is not an exact science, but it’s also not brain surgery: Budget went overboard here. As far as I can see, there’s no excessive anywhere.

Soon after I contacted Budget, an employee called you to offer a full refund and you said the company admitted the charge was disproportionate. But in a statement sent to me, Lauren Bristow, Budget’s director of marketing and communications, avoided admitting the company was at fault.

“In this case, the vehicle did require additional cleaning, which resulted in the cleaning fee,” she wrote. “However, as part of our commitment to customer satisfaction and based on this customer’s overall rental experience, we did refund the charge in full as a gesture of goodwill.”

Oh no. Regular readers know that I interpret refunds given “as a gesture of goodwill,” or “as a courtesy,” as one-time exceptions because the media is involved. We don’t know if companies have any intention of changing a wrongheaded policy or retraining a worker who made a mistake.

Jonathan Weinberg, the founder of AutoSlash, a car rental platform that offers discounts and support to customers, said issues with cleaning charges are not as frequent as other billing complaints. But he, too, just recently heard of a customer complaining that a rental company (not Budget) had charged $275 for an “exterior wash” well after the car was returned.

“It was just egregious,” Mr. Weinberg said. “Beyond egregious.”

In your case, he reviewed the damage report photos and said he believed that you were in the right. But it was not necessarily the fault of the person who checked you in, he noted. He said the staff members actually doing the cleaning often impose a fee, though he wishes that would change.

“It’s a bad policy by the rental car companies,” he said. “They should let you know when the car is returned, and not be able to contact you a month later and then hit you with the charges.”

Ms. Bristow, the Budget spokeswoman, encouraged customers to “contact customer service should they have any issues before, during or after the rental period and we appreciate the opportunity to work together to resolve any concerns.”

That means scrutiny by you, the traveler, before, during and after the rental period. When you pick up the car, don’t just look for (and document) external damage, sniff and snoop around inside for any tobacco odors, pet hair, sand or anything else out of the ordinary. If you find something — especially an undocumentable smell — ask for a different car or be sure a staff member documents the situation before you leave the lot. Then at drop-off, take images of the exterior of the car (an absolute must), as well as comprehensive videos and photographs of the interior.

In your case, you admitted, your images were far from complete — more a byproduct of filming the exterior with the doors open, though the photos in Budget’s own damage report really convinced me the charge was indefensible.

But even a foolproof case may not cut it if you catch a customer service agent on a bad day. In that case, Mr. Weinberg suggested peppering company executives with emails using addresses found on a page from the Elliott Report’s site that I often recommend, elliott.org/company-contacts. You can also try the Better Business Bureau, which some readers have found effective.

Mr. Weinberg was reluctant to recommend enlisting your credit card company to claw back the fee — what is known as a chargeback. This step, he said, can land a customer on a “do not rent” list, and not just for the agency itself, but also for brands owned by the same parent company. (Budget, Avis and Payless are all part of the Avis Budget Group.) You yourself told me that you attempted a chargeback against Budget, so I asked the company if you would be able to rent in the future; I did not get a response.

Sharky Laguana, who runs Bandago, a van rental company, and is president of the American Car Rental Association, said he could not comment on a specific case involving one of its members. But he did encourage companies in general to be more flexible — and admit when they have erred.

“We’ve made a mistake or two upon occasion — it happens, just like the customers make mistakes,” he said. “There’s no upside for the car rental industry in manufacturing disputes or trying to squeeze people for things that we aren’t entitled to. There’s only tears and problems.”

Tears and problems? Just our specialty here at Tripped Up.

If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to [email protected].

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.