Sunbelt Rentals

After having a flood in our basement, we rented an industrial dehumidifier from Sunbelt in Noblesville. We had experienced OK rentals in the past with them via a community group we worked with so we had high hopes. We planned for a week-​long rental and picked up the unit at the end of the day on Tuesday. After not seeing any water running from the outlet hose on Wednesday morning and seeing no water when the system purge was activated, we didn’t believe the unit was working properly. Our other dehumidifiers were producing water and the humidity level in the basement was obvious. In addition, we found that the unit was leaking water from it’s bottom onto the basement floor, which was causing more issues with dehumidifying the basement. Thursday morning, the unit was returned to the store noting the issues.
The weekly rental was $ 140 and I would have reluctantly paid for 2 days of my 7-​day rental at $ 40. However, since we returned the unit after only 2 days, Sunbelt insisted on the $ 45 daily rate. After some argument from my husband, they allowed a $ 10 reduction for our «trouble». So we paid ~$ 85 for a 2-​day rental of a non-​functional, problematic unit. I believe that, since the unit we rented did not work properly, we should not have been charged at all.
The best resolution would have been to receive a working unit to fulfill the remainder of our 7-​day rental. Instead, we purchased a new home dehumidifier and felt Sunbelt had taken advantage of our situation as flood victims.
Update: After sending an e-​mail of this situation to the manager, got a call from him even though it sounded like he was on vacation in Florida. He apologized and offered lots advice on water damage management. He offered to set us up with carpet fans today if we wanted and said that he would take care of crediting us when he returned to the store. Timing didn’t allow to get the fans but it was nice to get a personal response and resolution.