@Litehouse9, write them a letter stating what you told us, and be as pleasant as possible. Just like you are here. Be assertive (not aggressive) and demand that they remove the charge. There is no way to know when the tire was damaged, and blaming the last driver is a sure prescription for a lost customer. If they insist that you pay, call Budget’s customer service line to find out who to write a letter to. Here’s the customer service page:
You can keep writing letters all the way up to the president of the company. Attach a copy of each of the previous letters you wrote and the response each time. Eventually, you may get justice.
Renting a vehicle is always a gamble I guess. I rented a 16 foot moving truck from Budget 3 or 4 years ago, drove it from Denver to San Francisco, and was reasonably happy w/the truck and the Budget staff. My original plan was to rent a Penske, but I failed to make a reservation, and at the last minute Penske decided they didn’t have a truck available, so I phoned Budget, who did. A little lower price too. The only unusual thing that came up was I noticed the xmission fluid was 1 quart low, and when I asked what type it took, the type they told me the truck used was close to impossible to find. Big box auto stores simply didn’t carry it. I had to stop by to a shop that repaired and serviced nothing but 18 wheelers to get a quart of the proper xmission fluid. Besides that, which was minor issue, I was pleased with my Budget truck rental.
Docnik said: “…As said by others, a tire with TREAD SEPARATION is defective in my book. These things often happened when tubeless tires were first introduced in the 50s, but is now basically a thing of the past…”
First, this is a sidewall bulge, so it can not be a tread separation.
Second, the now classic “tread separation” is part of belted tires - as in radials. And while this problem was more prevalent when radials were first introduced and while it is true they have largely disappeared in passenger car tires, by the time radials were introduced, tubeless tires were long the norm and had nothing to do with tires developing tread separations.
@CapriRacer I misquoted. Our 1946 Buick in 1952 had 8.20x15 tubeless tires from US Royal and they developed sidewall bulges. The tire dealer called it “tread separation”, probably technically incorrect. Whatever it was, I had forgotten about these problems until OP posted his car rental problem.
I side with OP that this was not his fault, and could be a tire problem or abuse by the previous renter.
Re tire nomenclature, When constructing a bias ply tire the rubber that would be the outside of the tire was an extruded “camelback” and the sections that would become the sidewalls were called the “wings.” So any separation of the outside of the tire from the carcass could be called “tread separation.” In fact, the most common cause for the bulges was poor application of adhesives at the tread extruders and moisture on the treads from condensation on the storage trays.
So maybe the come-back should be “you rented us an unsafe car with a tire defect that could have blown out at any time causing severe injury or death”.
I rented a mini van to drive from FL to NJ for a 2 week vacation…On the way back about 30 miles from home coming off an exit ramp on the interstate the front of the van started swaying some making the turn. Pulled over as I thought may have a low tire…Tires looked ok but what caught my eye was the tread in one spot was coming off the left front tire like the old recap tires would sometimes do.
I pulled over into a gas station and called the number on the rental agreement and told them what was going on for their records and would try to nurse it home at low speeds as I did not feel like unpacking everything and getting the jack and spare out, plus told them they gave me an unsafe vehicle to drive.
I drove the rest of the way taking it easy and made it home.After unpacking everything I called them again and told them that I am not driving this vehicle back to the Orlando Airport ( 20 miles ) in this condition…They said not to worry and sent a flatbed the next day… Their tow driver looked at the tire and said it was a tire defect…never was charged anything extra or heard anything more. He looked at the other 3 and found the right front was developing a simula r problem…