Budget/Domicar Israel Auto Repair Scam

Budget Rent-a-Car of Israel, run by Domicar, Ltd., rented a car to my company that had a number of minor scratches. No big deal, and they were all accounted for. When I returned the car, they claimed there was new "damage," and they pointed out a grease smudge. On the spot, I wiped most of it off with my finger, but they still claimed it was damaged, which I vigorously protested. On the "damage report," I even stated that it was a dirt spot, nothing more. They said they would take a closer look, and not do anything if the mark was minor.

A few weeks later, I saw that my credit card was charged $539 from Budget, with no explanation. After after having my credit card impose a charge-back, and writing a note to Budget Customer Service, I found out that Budget Israel had gone ahead without my authorization and "fixed" the smudge.

Charges included: $115 for an Assessor's Report (which comes out to over $600/hr); $115 for paint (which comes out to about $1,000/gallon); and $93 for an inexplicable "handling fee."

Budget corporate washed its hands of any customer service, stating that I had to deal with the Israel office. Our company's local Israeli employee (who could have had the spot buffed out for under $50) contacted Budget directly, and was turned away -- they said they would only deal with me, even though our employee was the second driver of the car in question. They rejected all of our entreaties that the "mark" was not a scratch, and even it was, it was no different than the untreated scratches already on the car. And even if it was an actual scratch, the charges were outrageous. Their response was that we should take it up with our insurance company. If we were to do that, it would be a fraudulent procedure, since the insurance company would be paying for unnecessary work at an unacceptable rate.

Budget at no time responded directly to our questions about the high rate, or about the presence of other previous scratches, or any other point we made. They simply said in essence "our invoice remains."

We believe that they have a scam running in which they charge foreign customers outrageous sums for unnecessary work, and they usually get away with it because of insurance payments. Their parent company, Budget, is allowing this to happen, without concern for its customers. We make freguent trips to Israel, but we certainly will never deal with them or Budget again.