Fred Rosett was planning a trip for his wife, daughters and grandchild.
It was a girls trip to Georgia, and he wanted to make sure the women were squared away and had a reliable vehicle for the road.
"I went through Hotwire to book an SUV," he said.
The full-size SUV came out to $560 for nine days. And best of all, it came with unlimited mileage.
"Six weeks later we show up at DFW to pick up the SUV," Rosett said.
But there was a problem.
He said the rental company informed him that there would be a charge for 50 cents per mile because Georgia fell out of their domestic boundaries.
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"That's going to cost us another $1,300 based on the mileage we'll end up using," he said. "We couldn't accept the car at that cost."
Rosett said he asked for a refund, but was told he'd have to go through Hotwire.
"I spent the following week trying to contact numerous supervisors at Hotwire and they all said the same thing, 'We'd like to help you, but the policy is no refunds,'" he explained. "We have a receipt that says unlimited mileage. That's what it should be."
But he was out nearly $600, and had to spend more money on another vehicle.
"That's when we called NBC Responds," Rosett explained.
NBC 5 Responds reached out to Hotwire and the company quickly looked into the matter.
Hotwire said in part:
"We've reviewed Mr. Rosett's case and absolutely understand his frustration with his rental car experience. Hotwire takes customer concerns very seriously and we're always willing to hear about what we can do better... We will be applying learnings from this case to improve how we service our customers. Thank you as always for bringing this to our attention."
About a week later, Rosett received a full refund of $560.70.
"We're confident that we would have never received our money if we didn't receive NBC Responds' help. You guys were great. I mean, you brought the pressure, and they responded," he said.
