I have to start with a bit of a rant. I booked my car on QEEQ in Chicago and I chose a Chrysler 300. It was a nice luxury sedan in my mind. My plan was to pick up the car around the afternoon of June twentieth in Chicago and then drop it off a few days later in New York in the afternoon of June twenty third. When I arrived at the Budget counter in Chicago airport I gave my voucher to the staff. In my head I was already driving that big sedan on a long road trip. The lady at the counter typed on her computer for a while then she looked at me and said “We give you a Toyota 4Runner. It is nice.” I was confused. I asked “But I booked a Chrysler 300. Is this an upgrade or something?” She just smiled and kept saying the car was great and bigger. Inside I was not sure at all. But it was my first time renting a car for a cross state trip in the US and I also needed to hit the road soon. The 4Runner looked ok in the parking lot. There were some small scratches outside but nothing serious. The inside was clean and the fuel level was almost full. I told myself it is only for a few days so maybe it is fine. At the counter they also asked if I wanted a fuel service so I did not need to worry about filling the tank before drop off. I thought a long drive between cities could be messy for fuel planning so I said yes. They charged my card. The staff did not explain every detail and I only took a quick look at the amount. It seemed still okay so I signed. Driving the 4Runner from Chicago toward New York was actually not bad. The car had enough power and felt stable on the highway. After a while I started to relax and even thought maybe this was really some kind of upgrade. I told my friend that I booked a sedan but got an SUV and it looked kind of cool. The real trouble started when I dropped the car in New York. I returned it around three in the afternoon on June twenty third. The staff checked the car quickly and said nothing about damage. I thought I was done. That evening I checked my credit card when the hold turned into the final charge and I woke up instantly. The total was clearly higher than the price I saw when I booked. I stared at the bill for a long time. There was a big fuel charge and some other fees I did not understand. In my head I kept asking if this was because they changed the car to a 4Runner or because of the fuel service or some extra tax. I felt something was wrong because I booked with one total price in mind but now it looked like the rental cost even more. I started to think maybe that talk about “nice SUV for you” was not an upgrade at all. Maybe it was actually a downgrade or just messy billing. I thought for a few minutes and then I remembered I had added Worry-Free Service when I made the booking exactly for this kind of problem with strange charges. So I contacted their customer service. I explained everything. I told them I booked a Chrysler 300 and ended up with a 4Runner and that my final bill was higher and very confusing. I said I wanted to know two things. First if the 4Runner counted as a downgrade. Second if the fuel charge and other fees were fair. At first they were also not sure because usually SUVs can be more expensive than sedans. I repeated the car group details and that my original booking was for a luxury sedan. After some time they got back to me. They told me they had checked with the rental company and that the 4Runner was in fact treated as a lower group than the car I booked. When I heard that I had mixed feelings. On one side I felt a bit annoyed that my feeling was right. On the other side I was really glad I had the service. The next problem was that even if the downgrade was clear nobody could give a simple number for the price difference. On my bill the fuel service was 104.42 dollars before tax but the other numbers did not match my original price. I was honestly lost when I looked at it so I just sent them every receipt and screenshot I had. Over the next days the support team kept following up and talking with the rental company. They told me they needed to wait until the contract was fully closed to confirm all amounts. I was a bit anxious on my side. I kept thinking I did not want to pay for their mistake. Every time I opened my banking app I checked if there was some new charge. Later they told me that after comparing the car groups and the prices with my original booking they had calculated a downgrade difference of a bit more than seventy dollars and that it was about eighty plus dollars in total. They said they would give me that as compensation. I felt much lighter when I heard that. It was like moving from feeling tricked to feeling that someone helped me clean up the mess. For a young traveler like me doing a first cross state rental in the US and not having perfect English this whole thing was stressful. At the counter I did not dare to argue too much with the staff because I did not want to waste time or cause trouble. Without this service I probably would have just accepted everything and told myself it was bad luck. Now when I look back I know that if I did not have it I would never push for a claim. No one would check if the 4Runner was really a downgrade and no one would try to fix the strange extra cost for me. Even though there were several rounds of waiting and questions I still felt like someone was on my side and not on the rental company’s side. That feeling of support was very real for me during this trip.
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