avoid contracting
At picking up the car at SPC Airport/La Palma on Oct-26-24, I was asked to transfer via credit card from my bank account €350 using a credit card, before being handed over the car for safeguarding any cost caused by a damage during the one week usage. This amount was assured to be promptly reimbursed, upon having returned the car with no claims at end of contract (Nov-02-24) which was confirmed by Budget by mail the very day.
I however right away detected a -so I presumed- “mistake“ on the line for “driven km“ stating 1140km, which I tried to correct ( though all mails were sent „no reply-mail“), stating that the contract included unlimited mileage and the given amount would have meant, that I had spend almost all of my holiday’s time on the road, driving circuits on the winding small Island‘s “Avenidas“.
No Reaction by Budget, except an Invoice, claiming exactly those € 350 security deposit, which I had been waiting for being transferred, with no clear explanation but a lame: “Cargos totales del servicio - Miscelaneo“, which I contradicted right away.
Meanwhile my Legal Protection Insurance has been involved in the case and hopefully will end further embezzlement and trouble .
Unfortunately instead of trusting the reputation of AVIS after having made use of their product so often, I rather should have crosschecked Trustpilot, where you can easily find out about that infamous “business model“ by cheating customers (jointly?? with outside service Agencies).
If you preferre spending your savings for some delicious candlelight dinners on the Canary Islands, avoid at all costs that company.
There are other reliable and trustworthy car rentals, also right at the airport.
driving circuits on that small island.
After some weeks of waiting for my imbursment, I became flappergasted when receiving an invoice from Budget, claiming exactly my deposit € 350 for those excessive extra km‘s (described as „Cargos totales del servicio miscellaneous“).