Rental Car Taxes and Fees

[aj6574]

A couple months ago I rented a car thru AARP Travel Center/Budget. The confirmation email quoted a Base Price of $272.70 and Taxes and Fees of $102.40 for a total price of $375.10 and stated that the total price included all mandatory taxes and fees. A free second driver was also included, so I added my adult son.  He was the one that returned the car, so I didn't immediately see the final bill but came across it the other day. It was $481.74, $106.64 higher than your confirmation email. The base price was the same at $272.70 but the rest was all taxes, fees and optional services. I called Budget and they refunded the optional services of $32.86 but said there was nothing they could do about the taxes and fees and I should call AARP Travel to see how they determined the taxes and fees. I called AARP Travel and was told they couldn't give me a breakdown of the taxes and fees, which alarmed me because how can you use these services without trusting that the amount they're quoting you is accurate? I kept insisting and the heavily accented girl I spoke to finally found something about $5.00 taxes, a $10,00 service fee and $1.50/day excise tax, none of which matches the 11.11% Concession Recovery Fee, 8.00/day Customer Facility Charge, $.77/day Energy Recovery Fee, 8% tax, 4% Passenger Car Rent Tax, and $2.00/day State Surcharge listed on the Budget invoice. She said there was nothing she could do about the difference in cost. Needless to say I would never use the travel services again. Are there any people out there that only paid what they were quoted?

[AARPConsumerCare]

Hi AJ6574! We're sorry to hear you’re having trouble with one of our benefit providers. We are listening and would like the chance to help as soon as possible. Please visit https://help.aarp.org/s/article/contact-aarp to chat, text, or speak with a representative who can get you in touch with our Member Relations team. -Sue J