Budget Squeezes A Little Extra From You

Posted by Barry Moltz on February 8, 2010

1 comments | 890 reads

One of my pet peeves in business has always been surcharges. These make me angry because it feels that the company is not providing value, just trying to get an extra dollar out of me.

I rented a car last week in Phoenix from Budget. They have a new policy to get money out of the customer during these tough times. Forget all the taxes and other fees that almost double your rental. Forget the car insurance they try to scare you into buying. Now they have a new method:

If you drive fewer than 75 miles for your rental, you must show them a receipt that you bought gas or they will add an “EZFUEL” charge of $13.99 to your bill! What a deal!

When I inquired about this new charge, they said that many cars show the tank still being full even though the car has been driven many miles. Budget says they are just trying to recoup what has been lost to them all these years.

One message I get from Budget is that when I rent their cars, they don’t trust me. If they are losing money on unfilled tanks, then I suggest they slightly increase their rates instead of using this type of policy that screams, “PROVE IT”!

Republished with author's permission from original post by Barry Moltz.

Barry Moltz

Barry Moltz has founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 15 years. Barry is a nationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging from 2 to 2,. His third book, BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World shows how customer service is the new marketing.

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Stephen Peacock

February 9, 2010

classic t-bird

I was recently in a Ford dealer where they had a classic t-bird on display. There was a fence around it that screamed.. “we don’t trust you” and the overall affect was not positive

Totally agree with you

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