Budget Rent A Car was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1958 by Morris Mirkin. The original fleet consisted of 10 vehicles. The company got the name budget by undercutting competitors rates.
In 1960, the company headquarters moved to Chicago, Illinois and the company began to expand through franchising.
In 1986, the company was purchased in a leveraged buyout by Gibbons, Green and van Amerongen. The company went public in 1987.
In 1997, Budget was purchased by Team Rental Group, its largest franchisee and the stock was listed on the NYSE. The company was renamed to Budget Group. 
In 2002, the company was purchased by the Cendant Corporation, who owned Avis. In 2006, the company separated into four division and Budget became the Avis Budget Group. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol: CAR.
A Forbes article in March 2018 states that Budget has seen a steady decline in profits over the past decade.
Today, there are over 3,000 Budget Rent A Car locations in 120 countries worldwide.
Budget Rent-A-Car
Budget Rent A Car was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1958 by Morris Mirkin. The original fleet consisted of 10 vehicles. The company got the name budget by undercutting competitors rates.
In 1960, the company headquarters moved to Chicago, Illinois and the company began to expand through franchising.
History
In 1986, the company was purchased in a leveraged buyout by Gibbons, Green and van Amerongen. The company went public in 1987.
In 1997, Budget was purchased by Team Rental Group, its largest franchisee and the stock was listed on the NYSE. The company was renamed to Budget Group.
In 2002, the company was purchased by the Cendant Corporation, who owned Avis. In 2006, the company separated into four division and Budget became the Avis Budget Group. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol: CAR.
A Forbes article in March 2018 states that Budget has seen a steady decline in profits over the past decade.
Today, there are over 3,000 Budget Rent A Car locations in 120 countries worldwide.
WORST CAR RENTAL COMPANY I’VE EVERY DEALT WITH. HAD NUMEROUS ISSUES WITH GETTING THE VEHICLE ON THE APP, TO MANAGE IT WHILE RENTING IT. WHICH NEVER HAPPENED. THE RATE OF WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FOR A MIDSIZE SUV FOR A WEEK WAS WAS I WAS CHARGED FOR A COMPACT VEHICLE. TRIED TO CALL CORPORATE NUMEROUS TIMES AND WHILE RENTING THE VEHICLE HAD A MEDICAL EMERGENCY WHICH I ENDED UP IN THE HOSPITAL AND THEY WERE RUDE DISRESPECTFUL AND THREATENING ABOUT A RENTAL I HAD CALLED AND EXTENDED OVER THE PHONE AND GOT CONFIRMATION, WHICH I SHOULD HAVE MADE SURE TO GET IT EMAILED TO ME. BUT THIS IS THE WORST COMPANY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD AND WILL NPT RECOMMEND NOR DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AGAIN. AMD I WANT A RESPONSE FROM CORPORATE TO FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THEM AND POSSIBLE FILE CHARGES FOR HARASSMENT, THREATS AND BOGUS AND EXCESSIVE FEES. YOU DO NOT TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS THIS WAY AND THIS IS NOT HOW YOU CONDUCT BUSINESS. I SEE WHY THEY ARE NOT ACCREDITED BY THE BBB. MY NAME IS KATHERINE FREY MY CONTACT NUMBER IS 657-585-XXXX OR 702-689-XXXX OR EMAIL AT katherine.frey1991@ gmail.com MY MVA NUMBER IS 99288630. PLEASE CONTACT ME FROM CORPORATE THIS OFFICE REALLY NEEDS TO BE RAN BY SOMEONE ELSE.
Rented a pickup from Budget. Read that they were cleaning their vehicles according to CDC guidelines for Covid. Entered the vehicle and it had food crumbs all over the seat and center console, smelled like cigarettes, the steering wheel was greasy, the dashboard was dirty with what appeared to be white frosting of some sort, and floors were dirty. No smell inside the vehicle that would indicate that the vehicle had been cleaned. Drove the vehicle about 50 miles and hit the brakes only to have the steering wheel shaking violently (UNSAFE BRAKES). Went to use the windshield wipers to clear off the bugs left from not cleaning the outside of vehicle, the rubber on the wiper was falling off. Called the customer service number and 40 minutes later got ahold of customers service. Told me no pickups in the area for an exchange. Mind you that I had to have a pickup to help move my dad into assisted living 300 miles away. Returned the vehicle and explained to the lady checking me in of all the problems. She took my name and advised that the manager would be calling me. Manager never called. Attempted to contact the manager but you can’t call the place you picked up the vehicle directly as they will not answer. Don’t get me started with how it was explained to me how Budget requires you to pay tolls!! apparently they do not understand that you can no longer pay your tolls in person. I got three different explanations from three different employees. The only thing good to come out of this was that I was able to teach my daughter on how NOT to run a business. Make sure you take disinfectant to clean the rental if you rent from this company!!!!
This is so disheartening…. I don’t know who is monitoring these but I thought I would piggyback on your comment…
I rented a car from Budget Sep 2021 from the Myrtle Beach, SC Airport and forgot my purse in the car. I didn’t realize at the time that I had left it in the car. One of the agents there (a woman) contacted me a few days later and told me they had found my purse when they were cleaning the car (the car I had was very clean). The purse was found under the driver’s side seat. I thanked her and asked if they could overnight. I gave her my debit card number and she said it should get it soon. (No worries still no charge on my card)
A few days later I still hadn’t received my purse and called more than 20 times that weekend and probably 75-100 calls now and 2weeks have gone by. I can’t get a hold of one person at that airport location. I have spoken to a dozen customer service agents that have all told me the same thing “You will have to contact that Location to find out”. I did contact the corporate office and left a message for someone in the complaint department at least that’s the department I asked the receptionist to connect me to. I left a voice message and was surprised that the gentlemen called me back. He told me he would reach out to the Myrtle Beach location and have them reach out to me. It has been 5 days since that call from the corporate office and 2 week since the Myrtle Beach location called me and I still have not heard a thing from anyone.
I just can’t understand why they would call me to tell me they found my purse, then the corporate office assured me that I would hear something back and now 2weeks after the call I can’t get a hold of anyone. My family travels all the time in and out of the US and we will not be using Budget or Avis since the have merged.
Obviously I had cancelled my cards as soon as I realized my purse was missing but I had my Military retirement ID that is a pain to replace in my purse. Customer Service Has Gone down in a lot of places but this experience was frustrating and upsetting because they called me???
For Christmas (2020) I gave my mother, my kids and their families a family vacation. I rented a 15 passenger van for this trip and reserved it months ago (2/8/21)! I have talked to the reservation department several times to confirm I would be able to get a 15 passenger van, as I had a friend that arrived to pick up the same for a sporting event and the day of was told there was not a van available. I was advised that I would be getting the 15 passenger van because I had reserved it so much in advance, there would not be an issue. I even received a call last week confirming the 15 passenger van, confirming the time of pick up and drop off, and asking where I would be traveling and if paying with a credit card. Today I get a call that there is not a 15 passenger van available. I have called all over the Kansas City area to try to get one and can’t. I understand there is a shortage of inventory – but that should have been determined prior to the day before!!!!!!!! Especially when it was just confirmed last week. I am beyond frustrated and upset!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then to call you – I can’t even get a person – I just get automated and eventually the call drops. So incredibly saddened by what Budget has done to my family vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have tried calling – too automated and can never reach a person. Finally do and they tell me to speak with the manager at the local facility I was supposed to pick up the van at – which is the person that called me and obviously that has been of no resolution.
The best way to gain customers is word of mouth – also the best way to lose them.
23441381US5 Reservation needed to be cancelled due to situations out of my control. The event received pressure from the vendor community to cancel the event because of the spread of the Coronavirus in CA. The event was to take place in Anaheim, CA March 5-7. I understand if it was my choice to not attend, but this was not my choice and I would be VERY surprised if I am the only one trying to cancel because of this. It is not right or fair for any company to have a monetary gain for a service not provided, especially in a circumstance like this. My company is being charged $150 for this cancellation and feel this is wrong. I have other rental car companies to choose from and will begin using them from this date forward. I hope someone looks into this and sees that is not good business and lets them know that. Thank you for listening. This is what was sent to the BBB….
I went 2 Budget today 2 pick up my truck I rented. They did not have it the wanted 2 give me a jeep no I won’t drive a jeep rag top laughing and remarking in different languages the girl was nice she told me now 2 modify my reservation. I’ve rented from budget 30 yes. Ice contacted my daughter in LA when u make a pro.use u should keep it right. This company was founded in 58 ok. My daughter says change reservation just go modify it no help in Port charlitte for us baby boomers in my opinion the customer comes first right. They r not nice at all speaking languages I don’t understand my husband feels they should speak a certain. Language and he’s from Argentina were he learned 4 languages but I tell him 2 talk 2 them he says no. The rag top jeep did not fit my needs no trucks no nothing. My mother always said go 2 the top. Well since no one is answering ur phones I decided 2 leave this message I’ve traveled this country my whole life & what happened in Port Charlotte 2 day was extremely rude and degrading 2 me and my husband. I the extremely fast. I live here permanently year round no excuses ok. I’ve spent alot of money with ur company & I worked for Enterprise as well. This time was extremely awful and I’m being nice and we just got our of the doctors office as well no more excuses 4 Budgets behavior today u acceptable behavior 2 an old couple trying 2 leave 2 go down to my son in homestead a government son of mine 2 lend us a mower 2 help us up here.
I will never use Budget again. I was back into in a parking lot. The driver of the truck and I reported it to the Anderson Indiana Police. A report was filed and i got the number. When i returned the car to Budget. I gave the desk at budget the number and also the person inspection the car. 6 months later< I received a bill for $951.48. I called Sedgwick and tried to explain there was a police report showing i was not responsible. They tried to get me to pay and I refused. After many, many rude phone calls from Sedgwick saying they tried to get the police report from the Anderson Police department but couldn't.
I called the Anderson, Indiana Police records office and they emailed it to me immediately. I asked the if Budget or Sedgwick collection has contacted them and they said NO. The collection officers were rude, abrasive and unprofessional. When I asked for a supervisor they said they were not available. I left my number and I am still waiting. BUDGET YOU JUST LOST MY BUSINESS, AND MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS' BUSINEES.
reservation was made by daughter for mom. when on the phone placing the reservation i had agreed with agent that reservation pick up was at 3p.m since the westin hotel in Waltham location was to close at 4pm. mom shows up to pick up the rental and location was closed, when i (daughter) called cust svc to inquire i was told location in fact closed at 1p.m and reservation was made on their system for 1pm. i asked to speak to a manager and was told in rude manner that unfortunately nothing else can be done other than offer another location. i then asked to speak to a supervisor and was bumped into the customer service line for reservations, i hang up call again and ask to speak to manager to speak directly to the rude manager again and was told by the manager that the call cannot be transferred to that female manager i had spoken with instead i should hang up and call again with hopes to get her. i then call a 3rd time and spoke with another Spanish speaking manager named Gabriel and was told that they can offer another pick up location (boston airport located in Bedford??? ) for the same amount at a farther distant and couldn’t apply a discount out of courtesy. so i asked let me get this straight, my mom once again has to not drive 40 mins this time instead over an hour to get to the airport and pay tolls from her pocket and no courtesy can be made?
this is UNREAL, worse customer service EVER. no compassion for anyone’s situation. here we are left unable to travel to a very important date and meeting thanks to the poor service offered and the lack of discipline and understanding by not only customer service team but also management. in addition, asked for corporate number and was given instead 2 customer service numbers (18006212844/18002146094) again as if its a game to agents.
i was also told by the last manager i spoke with Gabriel that although i made the reservation myself under my moms name with MY phone number on file they would have to speak directly to my mom, so i had to call my mom to grant authorization to speak to me in regards to the issue, this is after speaking to 3 diff managers and idk how many agents and discussed situation. all the manager named Gabriel asked my mom was for her name as if the person sitting next to me couldn’t have just provided that.
i too work for a calling center and know the ins and outs in regards to attempting to avoid the calls and no definitive answer. this company seems to be loosing out on a lot of business, my family travels 4 times a year by car at the very least, its a shame that my recommendation will not be good and that i will for sure never allow my parents, friends nor myself rent from budget or avis ever again and i will make sure that social media gets a hold of this information, as it seems that unprofessionalism reigns the company and reading above i am not the only person who has gotten screwed.
“managers” name i was able to record from all 4 were Gabriel and Liza.
customer service rep name able to record was Fatima.
more than happy to have a chat over the phone with CEO or whomever wishes to be courteous and professional enough to follow up on the dissatisfaction and frustration.
I reserved a truck over a month ago and my reservation was cancelled 3 days before my moving day. I have been told by your competitors that this is normal for Budget Trucks. That Budget Truck is known for cancelling on customers THE DAY OF PICK UP DATE. Budget Truck abandoned my family and I with no remorse. Your competitors also mentioned that what you do is make 100 reservations and out of those 100 reservations, 50% are usually cancelled. You DO NOT guarantee your reservations, nor do you guarantee your actual trucks. Your competitors also said that it is VERY OBVIOUS that you will bid out your trucks to the highest paying customer. That makes your services null and void! I will be writing a letter to your corporate office and as a paying customer, I am completely dissatisfied. You refused to make this right. You abandoned us right before Thanksgiving!!! You should be ashamed of yourselves. My reservation was # 0891041348837. You made a serious mistake.
Terrible rental company. Last two rentals were the worst experience of my life. I should have learned after the first rental when I filled out a survey from John O’Neil and the guy that emailed me Antonio Murray gave me a measly $25 credit and nothing for a future rental. In September I had to wait 45-50 minutes to get my car in the garage after leaving the Jacksonville airport counter. This past Fri night/Sat morning 11/08-09/2019 I spent 45 minutes at the Jacksonville airport counter and another 25 minutes in the garage waiting for them to find me a vehicle that I had reserved and paid for weeks in advance. All this after midnight following a two hour flight from Philly. Worst customer service ever. Run, don’t walk to a different company. I can’t stress to you enough how pissed I was. Not too many other options at Jax. I will use the others though and I will tell anyone who will listen how bad they are. Email me if you need the details which makes the whole experience even worse. I will be more than happy to respond.
I rented a car from Budget on Sept. 13 from Las Vegas, NV McCarran Airport and returned it on Sept. 16 to your 1366 E. Holt Ontario, CA location. I had never rented a car before and thought I would be charged a reasonable daily rate plus your other fees. I needed to rent a car so I had to accept the outrageous amount Budget charged for one-way rentals being returned to a different location than the pick up location. So a three day rental same pick up and return location at $32 per day (3 days = ~$96) turned into a 3 day different return location at $178 per day (3 days = ~$534). The difference = $438. I was going to rent a cart from the Budget location in Ontario, CA where I returned my rental picked up in Las Vegas, NV McCarran Airport but the representative said he did not have any cars at that location for rent. I asked if I could rent the car that I had just returned and the rep said “yes”. Unfortunately, my credit card was denied, so I was not able to do it. So I’m sure that the Nissan Sentra that I dropped off in Ontario, CA was re-rented from that same location. Yet, I was charged, basically, $534 as a “drop” charge for a rental car that did not have to be transported back to Las Vegas, NV. I make $9/hour and live in low income housing and because I had to pay $741.24 for my Budget rental car, I had to borrow $500 to pay my rent in October. Is there anyway that I could be credited back for most of the $534 “drop” fee. I realize that the $534 is not the actual “drop” fee but it is the difference between what I would have paid with the same pick up and return location as opposed to a different return location. I would be OK with a $75-$100 fee on top of the $32 per day plus tax and the other non “drop” fees. My phone#: 361-434-XXXX
Customer reference number; 3040400003718
Suzan Tiemroth-Zavala
I am writing to advise you of a situation I encountered while renting one of your trucks. On August 6 I drove to Los Angeles in a rented 16-foot truck. I rented it from El Cerrito. When I arrived, the 12’ truck I had requested was not available because the one they had been counting on to give me was not returned on time as expected. They offered me the bigger truck for the same price and I accepted. I did not really want a bigger truck, but I was promised that it had been carefully inspected and ready to go.
I drove down US 5 without incident until I arrived at the Grapevine. I am from Southern California and quite familiar with the Grapevine and how steep it is to get out of the valley and into Los Angeles. I drove carefully and slowly in the truck lanes so to try to prevent the truck from overheating, which can happen. I was about halfway up when the truck temperature gauge went from the middle to severely overheat in about 5 seconds. Luckily, I was in the second lane to the right and was able to pull over. I immediately called road service as I had paid for it in my insurance package. It was almost 100 degrees out and although I had pulled over as far as I could, I was still dangerously close to trucks speeding up the hill. I was afraid I might get hit so I got out of the cab and waited off the road. It took 2.5 hours for help to arrive and although I did have some water, it did not last.
When the tow truck arrived, the mechanic checked my engine and showed me that the radiator hose had not been properly connected and because it was connected too far down, it slipped off easily and all my coolant spilled out. That was the reason I overheat so quickly. He took so long to arrive because he needed a special coolant for the truck and had had to stop and get it. He used several containers of it since I was completely empty. He then drove the truck off the road and said he wanted to check all of my fluid levels. In addition, the problem with the radiator connection, he found that my transmission fluid was dangerously low and asked if the truck had been shaking as it shifted gears. Yes, it had. He also said there is a 10 point inspection required to send these trucks on the road and that my truck had obviously not been inspected. He did write all of this up on the report because when I called Budget, I was offered a $50.00 refund for my “trouble” and told it was as high as they could go. I declined because $50 is really laughable as I had been put into danger by renting an uninspected truck. I am 63 years old and was alone on the road. I even had two “freelancers” stop to offer me help at an exorbitant rate.
The reason I am so late in reporting this to corporate is that I arrived home to find my elderly mother very ill and I have been caring for her since. She is a bit better now and I am following up.
I will be reporting the company to the state agency responsible for this and I will be leaving bad reviews where I can so that some other client does not have the experience that I had. This is absolutely inexcusable and I will not be renting from you again nor allow any friend, family, or acquaintances from doing this either.
I had to rent a car due to someone rear ended me and my insurance said I had to pay for rental and they would reimburse me. So I went through aarp and reserved a car . I own a 2019 BMW so I rented a Kia Sol did not know what kind of car it was but when I got the car cigarettes ashes where in the car and it reeked of smoke and was still dirty. So I took the car because I had to go drop my car to shop for beginning of repairs called customer service. They told me I could take. Back. I took car back Rep. Briana was. Still there very rude to me said customer. Service lies. And there privately owned and they do what they want and she also said you just don’t like the car and that’s why I am returning and i said not true and she got mad and so did I and she walked out and never came back someone else from another rental company helped And gave me another car. I asked for manager name and number called Danny Bustos left him a detailed message never returned nt call. I returned the rental to re rent and was told could not rent from that location again manger came in very rude said I could not rent left and rerented charged 100 more and was very upset Long Beach Airport Budget is the worst. EVER!!!!!
I’ve rented from Budget every month since February. Due to my recent experience I will not be doing business with them again. An employee waited three days to check in my rental and I was charged for those extra days. After talking to Oscar in Customer Care and sending him supporting documents, that employees error still cost me $70. I got refunded only two days in spite of the evidence I provided. When I brought the matter to the location manager, I got no apology, even from the responsible employee that was standing next to him.
They acknowledged the error and that was it.
Poor way to treat a regular customer. I’ll take my business to Turo,
Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC 8 August 2019
6 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, NJ 07054 U.S.
(973) 496-4700
CEO: Mr. Larry De Shon,
CFO: Martyn Smith,
COO: Mark J. Servodidio,
I am writing this letter with complete discontent and disbelief at the customer service representative name Mark @ 1-800-214-6094 on 8 August 2019 at 0810 AM. I am a federal employee calling from overseas. He was rude and disrespectful and he claims that he was the director, I apologize for not getting more information on Mark. I told him that I was overseas and he stated, “Call back when customer service opens” You are going to be on the phone a long time. I said again, “I am calling from overseas” I will be filing a complaint with the DOD against this agency because not only is it difficult to reach an individual person but to reach one that is completely rude, nasty and disrespectful. The organization we work for utilizes this company and all its affiliates but I will process a complaint. I am not satisfied nor happy with how I was recently treated. This is really disheartening to know that this company uses directors/managers that are disrespectful and rude, in which we have given this company a lot of business.
Dear Mr. Larry DeShon-
On July 15th I reserved a SUV for our family vacation on July 19th. A few days prior, I received a confirmation that the prepaid car would be ready to pick up from the Wickliffe location. On July 19 I called at 11:45am checking to see if I could pick up the car at noon instead of 2pm. The agent said the car was being returned at 1:30 so I wasn’t able to get it earlier, which was fine. What WAS NOT fine was upon my arrival there wasn’t a car. Wesley, the GM was of NO help. I started to get upset because all he would say was, “sorry” and “what do you want me to do?” Well, my expectation was a work around, a phone call or even SOME help to resolve the situation. Instead, Wesley, gave me a brochure, circled the toll free phone number and the office phone and said, “call the number.” Imagine, Mr. DeShon, how you would feel? Getting ready and excited for a family vacation and being stranded at a rental car place with no car or any solutions. After 2 hours, customer service found me a car at the Cleveland Airport, which is 45 minutes away. When I got there, the upgraded SUV that was reserved for me wasn’t available for the price that was quoted. In fact, Wesley, somehow charged me double with limited miles. I got to the counter and the rep, Aliza, (who was amazing in this whole ordeal and should be promoted) and tried helping. She called her manager, John, and he said we can give you the SUV you originally paid for but didn’t offer a upgrade or anything to help or a dissolve an already BAD situation. The service and lack of help or accountability was ASTONISHING to me. All that John was telling me was, “sorry but you picked up from a franchise store.” As a consumer, Mr. DeShon, why does that make a difference to me? Don’t all your companies have the Budget sign on them…one umbrella, one company? Is there a disclosure I missed that stated I should only rent from a non franchise store in order to actually get a car that was paid for already? I cannot believe the customer experience I had and the lack of empathy from almost any of your employees.
Another dissatisfied Budget Customer. Las Vegas Airport location
We requested a Ford Fusion however was provided with a Toyota Camry. After lengthy discussions with the agent we told him over and over again that we did not want any insurance. We have various types of insurance and did not want any
additional coverage. He finally agreed however instead of a waiver he input acceptance. Told us to initial for the waiver but added $84.48 to the cost. When questioned why the amount was different than the amount quoted when we rented the car online we were advised no problem when you bring the car back you will be charged the amount of the original agreement. (205.17) This was not true. We were charged the amount of the insurance in addition to fuel fees.
We had 5/8 of a tank when we took possession of the car. We brought it back with 3/4 full. They charged us $18.58 for fuel. They told us that the car must be full when returned and the car was full when we took it. Which it was not.
We filled out an incident report on July 12,2019. I called for an update on July 17. Was told it took a week to review the audio/visual tapes. Some one would call me back on Friday July 19. No call so called back on Tuesday July 23. Was once again told customer service manager would call me back. No call. Called back Wed July 24 was put on hold for 15 minutes. Finally gave up and hung up.
They did credit us for the fuel charge but no response to the incident report on the insurance issue. Be very careful to read every word on the contract as what they tell you is not what you get. Very disappointed in Budget and lack of care and concern from all the employees we dealt with.
I picked up our rental in Ft. Wayne, In. this morning and when I return it at the end of the rental I will never rent from Budget again. En route to Indiana from California, I lost my Drivers License, luckily my wife mad a photo copy of both sides of the license. When I notified the State Police I was told, ” if the occasion should arise, inform the officer of the lost license and show the photo copy, that will be sufficient”.
When I tried to pick up our rental, that was pre paid, they asked for my license. I explained it was lost and my wife would be driving but I had a photo copy and they wouldn’t accept that. Then when they asked for the credit card for verification, it was in my name, not my wife’s so they charged me $100.00 dollars on another card to ” insure payment”.
This company makes hustlers look good. They will not work with you in the case of emergency, I recommend any company other than Budget.
I would not.rent a car from budget rent car in Las Vegas again they are lying thief’s. When we went to pick the car budget rent car in Las Vegas said they no car available and had us wait over a hour for the car. When got the car it was piece junk and budget rent cars responce was to try rent us a more expensive car. When I asked for corporates phone number they laughed and gave me afake number.
I went to pick up my reserved rental this morning and was going to pay w/ my debit card. When he swiped it, the manager said that my credit check didn’t meet the requirement. I asked what the credit score had to be, and then I went on my phone to check my credit score. My credit score was way above the required score. Then he said to call customer service to see why it would not accept my payment, or pay with my credit card. I would’ve used my credit card, but the point that they said that they accept debit cards if you meet all their thresholds. At this point, it was more about principle. So I called the 800 number and spoke with someone in customer service. I was on the line for over 25 minutes and the call was dropped. So I had to call again, this time after being on the line with a customer service representative, he hung up on me because he didn’t have an answer for a question. So once again I had to call, and this time I spoke w/ a supervisor. She had no answers for me and seemed like she was just reading talking points. I still never got a legitimate answers for why they declined my card b/c of my credit score because I looked it up and again, it was above the requirements. This was all while I was at the rental location. I even offered them to take out more then $100 hold. I told them that they can take out $500, $1,000, or whatever would make them comfortable. I spent over $1,300 buck the month before with them for a previous rental and rented from them numerous times prior. Loyalty did not matter to them. So on principle I felt like I shouldn’t rent with them w/ my credit card. The 800 number would not give me any other supervisor to speak to. I was told that I would get a call within 24-48 hours. Why do I need to speak to a supervisor after the fact, so I went to the Enterprise down the road and they had no problems renting to me. Thanks for not renting to me! Enterprise just got a new loyal customer.
Also, I made BBB aware of this company’s practices and showed them proof of my credit score.
To readers interested, when they look up your credit score it usually will bring it down. The manager swiped my card three or four times. I really hope and I am in contact w/ Equifax to see if that means they checked my credit score every time he swiped it. If they find that was the case, I will for sure make sure this is known and these practices are stopped immediately.
Me and My Wife bought a car from budget car sales in Columbus Georgia, they didn’t even have the paperwork cleared from the previous owners to sell it is what they claimed. I think we have been scammed
I was planning on sending a message directly to the CEO but after reading some of the reviews I thought that might be “piling on.” I am a long time Budget customer – not a great deal of volume – but a loyal customer. On May 3rd I was returning a rental at the Palm Springs CA airport. It was dark – not well signed – and as we entered the rental car area no one was around. There were, howerver, 2 lines of cars in the Budget/Avis lanes….one was about 20 cars long – the other had only 2 cars. I looked down the lines and saw two shadows at the end of the shortest line so we proceeded to head in that direction. When I got there, a woman walked passed our car and said: “You are in the wrong lane.” As she walked passed us, I asked: “What lane do you want us in?” She would not answer. I got out of the car and raised my voice – she was now 30 feet away – and said: “Where do you want us/” No answer. So we backed up to the end of the longest line where another couple had pulled in and were being checked in by the Budget Representative. We pulled behind their car and after they left I got out of our car and, as she was walking away from us, I asked: “Aren’t you going to check us in.” She informed me – without looking at me – that she had called the manager. I said “Great”, I would LOVE to talk to the manager. I walked towards the terminal as the manager was walking out. We met halfway and I told him what had gone on. We were trying to return our rental after a week enjoying our vacation in Palm Springs and his employee would not check us in because we asked her: “Where do you want us?” The manager apologized and checked us in and said he would talk to this woman. As we walked off I could her arguing with the manager. This person SHOULD HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH THE PUBLIC….IN FACT, I DON”T THINK SHE HAS ANY PLACE WORKING FOR BUDGET. I should point out that this person’s colleague – working for Avis – told me that she was going “to call security” on us. I was only trying to return a rental after a week of lying in the sun. Our interacting lasted about 1 minute….. I could not believe what transpired. But after reading others’ reviews, I am not surprised. I hope that someone from Budget/Avis reads these reviews. Contact the manager on duty the evening of Friday, 3 May and he will fill you in. I hope he wrote up this employee. If he didn’t, it just leaves you vulnerable to further customer complaints. This person’s behavior/attiude was inexcuseable and I hope that she is let go. If I could post a photo I took of her from a distance – one that I intended to send to the CEO to validate my complaint – I would. I will still rent from Budget in hopes that they get their crap together and improve their customer service. Customer service is the key to success. How does a CEO NOT KNOW THAT?
On March 20th I rented a car thru Budget at 1 Jeff Fuqua Blvd. Orlando, Florida. The car was an add on when I purchased my airline ticket with Frontier Airlines. The counter was in terminal A at the Orlando International Airport. When I got to the counter the salesman asked me if I wanted to purchase insurance. I stated no, that I had my own insurance. He then told me that budget did not deal with private insurance companies. I argued the point to no avail. He would not rent to me if I didn’t purchase the insurance. I might add that I am a 72 year old woman. Obviously he thought I would be a sucker, which sadly enough, at the end I was. I did end up getting the insurance for +$130. I had waited in line a long time, I needed to get to a funeral, and I had argued long enough. Shame on me for not having insisted on talking to the manager. The salesman then asked if I wanted a car at terminal A or B. As the counter was located in terminal A, I said A. He smiled, handed me the paperwork and low and behold, my car was parked in terminal B. Clear case of intimidation and disregard. Reading the other reviews, it’s clear that customer service cares not. Be assured I will never rent from Budget again. I will post a complaint with Frontier, with AARP, and on Facebook. Let’s see where things go from there.
The final locations contact information, telephone number, does not exist on your invoice. When calling Budget they would neither release the drop off location telephone number nor give the locations number of my cell to contact me.This resulted in driving around parking lots until I discovered their proper location was inside, not outside the mall as described by Budget agents.
I was provided a location in the parking lot outside a Sears storefront… which no longer exists. I attempted three phone calls and no agent was allowed to give a proper location as it related to the Mall. I wasted over one hour and 30 minutes,
… missed my connection, and was outraged by customer relations inability to understand my situation. Needless to say I’ve given it time and remain disappointed in Budgets handling of the situation wouldn’t you be?
Made reservation with Priceline for a vehicle on the March 11, 2019, arriving in Raleigh NC to pick up vehicle from March 14, 2019 to March 22, 2019. Was told by receptionist that they DO NOT ACCEPT DEBIT CARDS, so i canceled the reservation with BUDGET @ THE CAR RENTAL OFFICE IN MORRISVILLE NC IN PERSON and walked over to Dollar car rental who supplied me a vehicle using my visa debit card. Upon returning home on the March 22, 2019, my bank informed me that PRICELINE AND BUDGET had withdrawn $344.24 from my debit account and charged me for a vehicle they claimed i had picked up. Have filed a case with them for the withdrawal of my funds to be deposited back into my account ASAP….Still have NOT heard anything from them, will take LEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST PRICELINE AND BUDGET IF FUNDS ARE NOT DEPOSITED BACK INTO MY ACCOUNT SOON….PRICELINE AND BUDGET THIS IS BAD BUSINESS, I PRAY YOUR CORPORATE OFFICE HAS SOMEONE READING THIS, YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED…GOD DON’T LIKE UGILY!!!
I put in a complaint with Budget Corporate and I never heard back from them.
Good luck with waiting for a response. I know this company will not be in existence in the near future. Worst company that I have ever dealt with.
My Budget nightmare all started on March 4, 2019 at 4:05 PM , on Baldwin Boulevard in Shamokin Dam Pennsylvania, when my Budget Rental Car completely shut down for no apparent reason. I was unable to get any power or even place the auto in neutral .
I immediately called Budget emergency roadside assistance at 800-354-2847 and reported my location. I emphasized the seriousness of my situation, indicating that I was disabled in the middle of the road, causing a serious safety condition for not only my vehicle and my occupants, but also for other motorists.
I further advised Budget that my wife and I , both in our 70’s, and accompanied by our granddaughter, were in extreme danger because of the freezing temperature (23 degrees ) and the fact that the area is not well lighted and nightfall will be shortly setting in.
The Budget call center assured me that a tow truck, and a replacement auto would be dispatched and should be there shortly, and to remain in the car. I was very relieved to hear this from them.
During the first two hours of being out there, the temperature dropped and darkness had set in.
I called Budget at least 20 times during this period and they repeatedly told me that they were working on the tow. My phone calls, on numerous occasions , were either transferred, put on hold, or just plain hung up. One lady, calling her Lasandra, told me that she will be getting off at 10:00 P.M. and hopefully she would call me back.
At this point, I felt helpless. For the safety of my family and to avoid an accident with other motorist, I called my own tow to take us out of harms way, and also to safeguard Budgets Auto.
The auto was taken to Danville Pennsylvania, and parked safely in front of 823 The Highlands . I notified the call center as to where my new location was, and they collectively told me that they were still working on my breakdown. Up until 11:00 P.M. I continued to call Budget and once again I was either transferred, put on hold, and actually hung up on. One gentleman, told me that he had to transfer me because he was in Mexico. It was totally unbelievable.
The next morning, March 5th, starting at 6:30 A.M. I tried getting information on the progress of the tow. I was told that it was being “escalated” and the escalating department would be in touch with me. I could never be transferred to that department.
At 9:00 A.M. I finally received a call personally from Budget telling me that the tow had been dispatched and should arrive shortly. Five minutes later I received a call from a tow truck driver, wanting to verify my location . He advised me that he was 160 miles away and that he would not be there until 12 or 12:30 P.M.
At 12:28 P.M.the tow truck arrived from Auto Motor Corp. 3101 Grays Ferry, Philadelphia ,Pa. and picked up the Budget Auto.
Over twenty (20) hours had elapsed since the nightmare began.
I learned that the tow driver took the vehicle to Budget located at 6615 Norwich Drive in Philadelphia . I know Budget has other offices much closer, such as Williamsport Regional Airport , yet I had to wait for a tow from Philadelphia , 160 miles away.
If I had not taken the initiative to call for my own tow , in order to protect my wife and granddaughter, and also to safeguard Budget’s auto, I would hate to imagine our outcome. I could have been struck by another vehicle causing serious injury or we could have very well froze to death.
When I rented this auto, I planned on spending a few days with my granddaughter in Pennsylvania and then returning to Washington D.C. on March 5th for a Southwest Airlines flight at 2:25 P.M. to return to Florida.
Due to this unfortunate incident, I had to get my own tow, cancel my airline flight, and rent another auto to get me back to Washington D.C.
On March 7th , I once again attempted to speak with someone in customer service and I was transferred to “Zack” of Budget Customer Service . Zack informed me that my invoice is still open, and that nothing could be done until it is closed. He had no idea about the location of the auto , or that the auto was picked up . I supplied him with this info.
I am a reasonable and prudent man and I understand that breakdowns and accidents occur , which are beyond your control, but what I don’t understand is how we were treated.
The emergency call center personnel in Mexico, should be instructed on customer service and to never lie to a customer who is in danger and at their mercy.
Please contact me at the below listed e-mail, to discuss this matter.
Respectfully Yours,
John J. Daly
E-mail. jjdalysr@ aol.com
I rented a car in West Palm. I noticed a bad odor in the car but thought perhaps it was from sitting in the lot. Once I started driving on the freeway I realized that it was stale smoke I was smelling. The car had never been cleaned. I called the Budget office and explained the situation. The guy said that since I was on my way to Jupiter that I should just exchanged car at that Budget office. When I got there I was told that there were no extra cars and they gave me a can of spray to hide the odor…..what a joke! I tried cleaning the car and it helped but WHY should I need to clean a car after renting ???? after all they probably charged the previous renter $200 for cleaning fees and then never cleaned the car. Upon return I notified the Budget rental office and the manager said ” Sorry for what happened, we’ll try to make sure that never happens again.”
He should be fired for giving that lame response!
I WILL NEVER RENT A CAR FROM BUDGET AGAIN ….WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE INDUSTRY.
Their customer service is located throughout Mexico. Good luck trying to speak with an American at Budget. They are the worst company for service or customer assistance. I am surprised that Avis, the parent company, is permitting this terrible company to continue in business.
Never pre pay for a car with Budget. I rented a car from FLL Airport and pre paid. Took the car back early and was told they never credit money back when you pre pay. They stole $60.33 from me. Just a word of caution, never pre pay. The nice lady at the counter told me never to pre pay again, they will keep your money every time. And if you bring it back late they will charge you for every minute the car is late. Budget just lost another customer….
I am 80 years old. I have had business dealings with major companies. Never have I been treated so poorly as I have been by Budget. We have a rental reserved at Atlantic City Inter. Airport for Feb. 20, 2019. Snow is forecast and I called AC Budget to ask if scrapers and brushes are provided. Since we live in Florida we do not have these items. Six calls to your number at the Airport connected me to reservations in Ca. each time. I had a simple question. Not one of the six people I dealt with could help -they had no answer, they could not connect me to the Airport, they could not get an answer nor could any supervisor help me. This is no way to treat customers – maybe for Budget it is. Con#00079648US2.
Your calls to Budget were not answered by clerks in California. They are answered by Mexicans in Tijuana Mexico. They will tell you Baja California.
To whom it may concern; It sicken me to know how customer service has reach its lowest point these day’s, I made reservation for a rental on Monday January 28 , 2019 at noon for a compact rental at a Budget at The Mall sear auto part in Brandon fl 33510. Today at noon I received a call that the car I had reserved was not available , she told me that there were no car’s available and that I should call around 2:30 to see if something came in. What happen to [ if we don’t have a compact car , we will get you a full size and honor what you prepaid for or we will have to charge you another fee] Because apparently its first come first service not only did this girl tell’s me that but a supervisor in headquarter as well then why make reservation ! . they talk to the customer as if they were robot and I’am still due 23.08 the cost’s of the rental my confirmation number is or was 00803460US0 I will never rent from Budget again.
Attention Customer:
On 1/14/19 I rented a white toyota prius for LAX location. I was coming to LA for my son’s wedding from Boston. From day one my Budget car had serious mechanical problems. The Toyota would intermediately not start. Also, the low tire indicator on the dashboard was always on. After many, many calls to Budget road side emergency. Hours on hold. My complaint is that the Prius should never have been allowed to leave the rental lot at LAX in that condition. Budget was no help for day. Finally Budget sent a replacement to my sons home Hollywood. I will be returning the replacement rental car to your LAX location. today. I will be contacting my CC company when I return to Boston for further action.
This story is all over Hawaii about your company, front page in the newspapers, not good for your reputation.
Might want to pass this along to some of the corporate bosses.
westhawaiitoday.com/2019/01/12/hawaii-news/avis-budget-reservations-go-unfulfilled-companies-attribute-problem-to-hurricane-season/
We have used Budget rental car many time and never have we ever been treated this way. As you can see in the email below we reserved the car on 12/18/18 and confirmation was given also on 12/25/18. We reserve the car for our son so he could come up here after Christmas. When he arrived at the Citadal Mall to pick up the car on 12/27/18 at 8 before going to work, Your employee Gary told him they did not have a car for him, He also told him that they get the cars from the airport and a bunch of flights had been canceled, and told him that reservation did not matter and was not a contract, so our son called us. When my husband call and spoke with Gary he was was very rude and unprofessional and We told him that he need to car to come see us that I am sick and he wanted to see his dad and he stated everyone has personal problems. He went on to say that he was working on a car for us but if my husband said anything else he would not get it. Again my son had to leave work early to go pick up the car by 4. When he pick up the car another employee say oh your the one Gary made cry. This was very upsetting to my son, my husband has COPD and on oxygen all the time and runs out of air, when he gets upset. He is not doing very well. I think this is a very unprofessional way to treat people, we don’t know what kind of day he was having but we both have work with the public and know this not the way to treat people no matter what kind of day you are having. We wanted to bring this to you attention.
I just had to cancel a reservation #4820962US6 due to a weather situation in Boise, Idaho. The charge was only going to be $36.64. I was told that I was going to be charge a $50 cancelation fee. First of all that is more than the reservation. I do not need the car to pick up my grand-daughter as her mother is going to bring her down to the airport a day earlier. The person ( and supervisor) that I spook to were very adamant that I agreed to the $50 charge when I placed my reservation. I was under the impression that if I cancelled within the 24 hrs. before the pick up time that I would not be charged. Most companies will not charge you if you do not use their service . I really do not think that this is a fair policy and am requesting my full amount back. Please acknowledge this email and submit it to the proper channels.
I reserved a car thru Budget using Orbitz over the Thanksgiving weekend. When arriving at the airport, Budget stated NO cars were available. They gave up our reservation along with many others. The counter clerk told us to find what we could and Budget would reimburse us the difference. We ended up with a very expensive pickup truck for one day at 3x the original rate. We then had to find something off airport for the remainder of our trip plus having to find rides to return the car and get back to the airport as the off airport company wasn’t open early a.m. for our return flight. The whole experience took multiple hours out of our short trip and cost us 4x what we originally reserved for. Budget has just informed us they will not reimburse us for any of it, all we asked for was the one day for the expensive truck. Budget also claims reservations are based on availability not a guarantee that vehicles will be available. Why take reservations if you don’t intend to honor them. IMHO it became a matter of greed, with so many travelers, Budget opted to make more money and cheat those that made reservations.
Hi, I was rudely dismissed at the Detroit airport Budget car rental by customer service agent Desmond. My flight got in midnight on 12/17, It was about 7 people in line, Desmond spent over 15 minutes talking to a customer, that had nothing to do with is rental. I suggested they exchange phone numbers and talk to each other after hours, Desmond (customer service agent) says to the customer, “they can complain all they want, it’s not going to make me move any faster” and began to laugh. Since the employee was not wearing a badge, I needed his name so I would know who to send the complaint about, well I took his picture, and he says you can go ahead and leave because I am not going to service you, I didn’t give you permission to take my picture, I advised him i will be notifying corporate, and he informed me I can notify who ever I want, and that he is customer service. This agent put me out of your place of business after midnight, he was very rude and unprofessional.
This past weekend, I flew into Palm Springs on Friday 11/2/18 for a short visit due to a birthday party to celebrate my 93 year old mother-in-laws birthday and my 73rd birthday. I stood in line at the counter for awhile and finally received a 2018 Malibu. I drove the 25 miles to Banning and checked into the hotel where I would be staying. On Saturday morning I went out to the car and the car remote was working and the car would not open. This was around 9 am Saturday and I was supposed to be at my mother-in-law’s by 10am. I called Budget and the guy told me to open the remote and there should be a key inside, when I was finally able to open the remote, the little key inside the remote would not open anything, I called Budget and explained the problem and told then I had to be somewhere at 10 am. It was 9:45 by now. I received a text from Budget Roadside assistance that a tow truck would be there within the hour. I called Budget and asked when my replacement vehicle would be arriving. I was informed that I would be riding back to Palm Springs with the tow truck driver to pick a new vehicle. This really upset me. The tow truck driver arrived around 11 am. He had to use a device to get the door of the car open and then he used jumper cables to try to get the car to start. Nothing…the car was dead,. After all the attempts to get it started and filling out paperwork, he gets the vehicle loaded on his truck and we head for Palm Springs. It is now a little after 12. I have missed the birthday luncheon and Budged didn’t seem to care at all. The tow truck driver goes to the vehicle return and lets me out and I walk back to the rental office where I was told to go to get a replacement vehicle. I was told that they must verify that the other vehicle has been returned before they can give me another car. This was ridiculous and I am stressed and upset because I have not seen my in-laws and cousins in over 3 years and had planned on visiting and enjoying them but I am stuck at a Budget Rental office. They finally got me another car and I left for Banning again and arrived at the celebration at 1:30 pm – only 3 1/2 hours late. I was not happy about the way their customer service handled the matter. They were very unconcerned and uncaring. I had an early flight back to Texas on Sunday morning and I returned the vehicle around 8 am., I had filled the car with gas before I left Banning and when I got to the return placem the guy checking me in told me he couldn’t print a receipt. I would have to go to the counter. I had a flight to catch and did not want to deal with them then. When I got home, I went online and requested a print out of my receipt. The receipt shows a gas of $32.59 and a car rental charge of $200. This $200 charge was more than the original contract amount and there should have been no gas charged at all. I told them I felt they should reimburse me at least 1 day of the 2 day rental because of all the stress and anguish that was caused by the incident with the car. They were very cold and uncaring and not really willing to compensate anything for my time and trouble. I also was requested to send a copy of the gas receipt for the gas I purchased for the car and then they would possibly reimburse this erroneous gas charge. I have rented cars many times in the past and never have I had to deal with anything like this and the uncaring attitude. I don’t know how Budget stays in business, I do know they will never have my business or any of my relatives or friends business again. (P.S. I am filing a dispute with my credit card company until we can hopefully get something settled ) It is so wrong to treat people this way and I feel that I should receive a full refund because they did not fulfill their contract nor did they provide a car that was in good condition. Also because of the time I missed visiting with loved ones and missing the birthday luncheon/celebration for my mother-in-law and I. I made this short trip to celebrate this day with people I love and had not seen in over 3 years. Shame on you Budget –
RENTED A BOX TRUCK IN LOMBARD ILLINOIS,TRUCK LOOKED LIKE IT WAS IN AN FRONT END ACCIDENT. WAS TOLD TRUCK WAS IN GREAT SHAPE, THEY KNEW IT WAS A ONE WAY TRIP TO VENICE FLORIDA. WHILE DRIVING DOWN TO FLORIDA NOTICED GAS MILEAGE WAS NOT WHAT THE BUDGET OFFICE SAID. ON WAY DOWN STOPPED AT A WEIGH STATION TO SEE IF I WAS OVER WEIGHT BUT WAS 800 LBS UNDER THE LIMIT.GOING UP AND DOWN THE MOUNTAINS POOR ACCELERATION . WHEN GETTING GAS NOTICED GREASE ON TIRES SPATTED. WHEN ENTERING FLORIDA ACCELERATION WAS GETTING WORST GETTING 7 TO 8 MILES PER GALLON WHEN ARRIVING AT MY PLACE IN FLORIDA PUT THE TRUCK IN REVERSE AND HAD TIME GOING BACKWARDS. CALLED AGAINN THE NUMBER FOR BUDGET AND KNOW THEY SAY TO ME IS THE TRUCK EMPTY WERE GOING TO COME OUT TO YOUR PLACE AND GET IT THE VECHILE HAD TO BE TOWED OUT OF MY DRIVE WAY WHEN LIFTING THE TRUCK UP NOTICED BRAKE FLUID,AXLE GREASE SPLATTERED ALL OVER BRAKE UNIT AND AXLE GREASE IM VERY MAD ABOUT THIS BECAUSE RIDING WITH ME WAS MY 8 YEAR OLD SON IN THE CAB IF SOMETHING WENT WRONG ,IT WOULD OF BEEN A MAJOR PROBLEM IF THE TRUCKS BRAKES FAIL THRU THE MOUNTAINS, I HAVE 8 CHILDREN AND THE 2 YOUNGEST CAME DOWN TO FLORIDA WITH MY WIFE TO MAKE FLORIDA OUR HOME. IM WRITING THIS BECAUSE BUDGET TOLD ME SOME TIME AGO THEY WILL SEND 150.00 DOLLARS BACK FOR MY PROBLEM ,I TOLD THEM TO GET BACK TO ME WITH A CORPORATE RESPONSE BUT NO PHONE CALL MY NUMBER IS 630-788-XXXX YOURS TRULY ROBERT J WELTER
I rented a car from the Asheville NC office on a Friday. I booked the car online. When I got to the office to get the vehicle, the lady at the desk said I didnt have the supplemental insurance. i told her I elected to get it and paid for it online when I rented the car. she basically said no worries.
iI went to NC to visit a friend and take a class. I got to my friends house let the car sit all weekend. When I got in it on Monday to drive to the class, I had a flat tire. I was going to change the tire myself. I opened the trunk and THERE WAS NO SPARE. I called the roadside service they provided. I got contacted by their tow company. I told them there was no spare. THEY CONTACTED BUDGET to see if budget would provide a spare tire or allow them to repair the tire. BUDGET TOLD THEM TO TOW THE CAR TO THEIR REPAIR FACILITY AND STOP BY THE AIRPORT SO I CAN GET ANOTHER VEHICLE. NOW I GET a $157.17 CHARGE FOR TOWING. At no time was I advised by anyone that there would be a additional charge. After recieving the invioce already chrged to my card, I called the roadside Assistance and told them that this was all on them THEY MADE THE DECISION TO HAVE THE CAR TOWED AND NOT PROVIDE A SPARE OR ALLOWED THE TIRE TO BE REPAIRED. THEIR REPRESENTATIVE TOLD ME IT WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY AS I DIDNT HAVE THE SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE. EVEN THOUGH I TOLD THEM THE CAR WASNT DAMAGED IT WAS A FLAT TIRE AND TIRES ARE CONSUMABLES THEY GO FLAT AND WEAR OUT.
MY COMPLAINT IS THEY MADE THE DECISIONS THEY DIRECTED THE TOW COMPANY TOLD THEM TO TOW THE CAR, REFUSED TO ALLOW THEM TO REPAIR THE TIRE AND STICK ME WITH THE BILL.
I will never rent another vehicle from Budget/Avis or anyother affilitate of them. I do my best to ensure my famiy and friends business associates and anyone I come in contact with to NOT rent a car from them.
A 2 Star rating is to high.
I am available if anyone from corparate wishes to contact me and discuss this. I sincerely doubt that they will as this seems to be a company that takes your money and dont care about their customers.
We were appalled at how bad service was for our recent car rental at Ft. Lauderdale airport. We had a prepaid rental and my wife is a Fastbreak member. None the less, we had to wait almost 40 minutes in line while a greatly understaffed desk — just 2 clerks –dealt with a long line of customers. The car we received was NOT what we ordered, although the upgrade was nice, it was too large for my wife to drive and dirty. Later we discovered one of the tires was way too low. We were unable to fit it and called Budget and told to go to a Budget office the next (Saturday) morning nearby. When I got there, the clerk had no cars to make an exchange and no mechanic to look at the problem. (I finally took care of it at a nearby tire retailer! For free.)
Returning the car was almost as bad as picking it up. There was total chaos in the parking garage. The return line was backed up and no one was checking cars in. After about 15 minutes (we had lots of time) the person checking cars in said her electronic check-in device was not functioning and to take our completed return form to the rental desk inside. After a short wait and barging ahead of a long line of customers waiting to rent cars, a nice and competent clerk checked us in.
Although we have often used Budget in the past, I doubt we will in the future. It appears your entire system is broken, including renting cars, returning cars and handling problems with cars out on rent. Something is terribly wrong when it takes 15 minutes or more to simply rent a car. Especially when one has already selected and paid for it online.
I rented a car last week for a Myrtle Beach vacation. Confirmation Number:
43149785US0. Pretty disappointed. The interior windows were pretty dirty as were ALL the mirrors…Encountered some rain and realized the wiper blades were bad…April, I rented for vaca Confirmation Number:
49690840US3 The car was definitely cleaner, however, on the second day I had to buy a gallon of windshield washer fluid….I guess this explains your extremely competitive pricing. Pretty typical for customer service in this day and age….Ken Wells.
On 8/24 I rented a car. It is 10/21/18 and I just got a letter I owe $184.00 for damage. The car was checked out when returned and had no damage. I also was not alone, I have proof it was fine nothing wrong and that she checked it out. .I will be seeing my attorney tomorrow as I am sure this can not happen. How can it be right. It could have been rented out again. There is no reason for this and near 3 months later???/. A shame I have to pay an attorney to rent a car. I am very upset with this scam to get money. To potential customers BEWARE .Budget WILL MAKE UP THINGS OUT OF THE BLUE WHENEVER THEY WANT.
My experience at your location is SLC was so horrible I feel that your corporate needs to be informed so you can improve your staff at SLC and your Customer Service team. I rented a car from SLC (Sept 19-24). I frequently travel to SLC as I have a rental home in Utah.
I frequently rent cars as I travel a lot, and my experience with SLC location is the worst rental I have had due to the following:
1. Waited more than an hour in line for pick up. There were not lines at the other counters, just Budget due to inadequate staffing. You had one employee working at the counter.
2.Vehicle not maintained properly. There was not the inventory for the SUV class I rented, and I was given a car that needed maintenance. The rental counter person alerted me that the car needed maintenance and that the light was on but to ignore.
3. Waited 15 minutes upon return because there was no one to accept the car. I had to hunt around for someone and even ask other rental kiosks if there were any Budget employees around.
4. Location incorrectly charged me for gas. I always check the receipt to confirm it shows that there were no gas charges. Budget incorrectly charged me $112 for gas after the fact as an additional charge. (Plus, as a principle issue it was an exorbitant amount at $8.49 gallon which is not Salt Lake City pricing per gallon and taking advantage of their customers.)
5. Customer service is ineffective and rude. I alerted Customer Service to the incorrect gas charge and they were rude but said they would look into it and call me back. They called back to tell me I was wrong and the charge stands.
I have never had such a miserable rental car experience. Due to inadequate staffing, not maintaining the vehicles and rude customer service I will never rent from Budget again and will share with others to choose different rental car companies when in SLC.
Reading these reviews, I am surprised this company is still in business.
This was the worst car rental experience I ever had. When I arrived at the McAllen TX airport on 9/18/18, I called the budget phone number to be picked up to check in for my car, there was no answer for an hour. When I did finally did get an answer, the young gentleman (Ross) was the only one working and he had to check people in and could not come get me. An hour and a half later, out of desperation, I took a taxi 2 miles to the budget office ($15.00). Come to find out, Ross often works the evening shift alone which is unfair to him and an horrible way to run a business. He did a great job considering he was working under horrible and unfair circumstances.
Dropping off the car I got turned around driving to the budget office and could not get gas, when I asked how much it would be a gallon to fill up my car, they said $7.50 a gallon. I got back in the car and drove to get gas chancing missing my flight. A wonderful driver for Budget (Raul), saw my distress and showed me a way to get to the gas station quickly, he then followed me to drop off my car at the hotel across from the airport and drove me up to the airport departure so I didn’t have to walk. Maybe Budget should have more people like Ross and Raul running their company. I will never use Budget again and now speaking with others about it, the are a ton of horror stories about Budget out there. Back to Enterprise.
I live in a beach town and am retired. My main mode of transportation is my golfcart.I need to rent a car to go out of town.MADE RESERVATION WITH DEBIT CARD AND WAS ADVISED THAT A CREDIT CHECK HAD TO BE MADE BUT COULD’NT BE DONE UNTIL PICKUP.TOTALLY TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!! PAID 22 BUCKS FOR TAXI TO GET TO BUDGET ONLY TO BE TOLD THAT MY CREDIT WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO RENT CAR!! COST ANOTHER 22 BUCKS TO GET BACK HOME!!BUDGET YOU SUCK AND YOUR PROTCAL IS MISLEADING! 3 TO 5DAYS TO GET MY MONEY BACK INTO MY ACCOUNT!!! MY A** !!! GONNA GET MY F-ING TAXI MONEY BACK TOO !!
Totally cannot get the paperwork we need from these people, and their phones are set up so nobody has to have contact with any customer except the people in China they’ve outsourced to handle all their customer contact.
In July 2018 I booked a girls trip to punta gorda florida for August .Since this was a girls weekend we wanted a sporty car so I pre booked a mustang or similar and was willing to pay the extra for it! However on Aug 10th when I arrived at the airport and was standing in line, the gentleman in front of me asked the attendant if he could get an upgrade, at first he said no, than a second later realized there was a upgrade in the parking lot and right before my eyes gave my car away. By the time I reached the desk and the other attendant reliezed the car was just given away….he tried to tell the other guy but he rudely said “who cares” I then spoke up and said I care I paid extra for that car. He then Proceeded to accuse me of drinking or even as much as being drunk in front of other customers. At this point I was fit to be tied, not only was the car I paid for gone I was called a drunk and to top it off only one car was available in the parking lot, which was a 300. It is not what I wanted but I had no other choice as the very rude attendant told me it was that or nothing…actually he didn’t he have to rent to me if he didn’t want to as I was informed. This Has been the worst car rental experience I have ever had. I callled customer service and they offered me a 100 credit, as I didn’t get the car I pre booked and the service was horrible and humiliating. I was ok with that. However when my statement came I only had a 30 dollar credit…I called customer service and basically spoke to another rude lady and she said I still got an upgrade and too bad that’s all I get. Honestly I will never under no cirXXXXstance rent from budget again and I’ll be sure to share my story about how rude and unreliable budget is. So basically I paid the same price for a car I didn’t want when I could have originally booked a much cheaper car.
I rented a car from your Omaha Airport location online.Elder travel is difficult at best. I (no spring chicken myself at 64) was traveling with my elderly mother to Lied Lodge in NE for my niece’s wedding. It was very important for me to get my elderly mother there as my niece was one of the people seriously injured in the Las Vegas shootings…an absolute miracle she is still with us and we all headed to NE to celebrate her wedding. After two delayed flights, we arrived very late in the evening and proceeded to the Budget kiosk. The man I encountered sitting on his large a** in the kiosk glared at me and said “you’re late”. He continued to give me this angry glare and say “You’re late” several times. I apologized, explained both flights were delayed, and asked about my car. I was told it was there at 8PM…he was speaking in abbreviated sentences, the entire time glaring at me. I decided to take another approach and ask what was available. As he sat watching my 84 year old mother surrounded by luggage, I was offered a Dodge Tacoma pickup truck….I declined. I was then offered a large van…also declined. I saw a 4 door sedan ((similar in size to the Ford Focus I had reserved), and asked about that. After staring a bit more, he decided I could have that vehicle and proceeded to process my paperwork,…all with a beyond bad attitude. I have NEVER been treated so disrespectfully by a person representing a company I am buying a service from. It caused us great stress in an already stressful situation…Welcome to NE! Having said that, I must say our return to Budget was amazing. I was lucky to be able to deal with an employee that, in spite of her own obvious physical challenges, went above and beyond to help us. This woman deserves praise and a raise….awesome and I am very grateful to have met you at the kiosk when I returned my vehicle…..So I will NEVER use Budget again, for personal or business, and hope someone is able to actually read this, and fix the man that treats people this way….not good for your business.
i prepaid a 7 seater SUV (Ford Explorer) to pick up in Fort Lauderdale Airport. When I arrived, the Lady assisting me advised they do not have a vehicle for me. She continued to be rude while she worked on her computer. I said to her, with all due respect, shouldn’t it be me who’s upset? i pay for a vehicle which is now not there???? after 30 minutes, they arrive with a red minivan and tell me its all they have. So basically i have no choice. by this time my kids are antsy and just want to leave, so we take it and leave. A few days later, the FOB is not working on the van. i call budget and let them know, and 5 hours later, a flatbed pickup arrives with a filthy ford flex!!! A long ways from the ford explorer i rented i would say…. This can only get better. The Flex is filthy!!!! actually disgusting. garbage, paper, and what appeared to be human or animal waste on the floor and seats. Budget should be embarrassed by the overall service and treatment provided. i have never had anything close to experiences as such with thrifty, enterprise, or EZ. Don’t fix whats not broken is the moral. Shame on you budget to treat an honest hardworking family who simply wanted what they paid for on their family vacation.
Went to syracuse new york for bowling competition. Rented our car on friday night. Took off Saturday morning to go sight seeing. Went into new york city. Saw the statue of liberty, so belmont race park, and so many other things. Got to our room around midnight. Then got up Sunday and went to niagra falls. Started bowing on Monday. Took the car back on wednesday, just before our flight. Feeling like we had an awesome trip. We get our credit card bill. Almost $1,ooo.oo charged for impounding on saturday,. Hello, we had the car till wednesday,. We have worked on this since the first part of July. We even missed a toll lane, and they billed our credit card on Sunday for going through the wrong lane. So even though they know we had the car on sunday, they say they impounded it on Saturday. We are beyond mad. We sent in copies of all the places we took the car for all those days. It’s so stupid. We keep hearing, we will reply in 14 days. Stay away from budget
I prepaid for a car rental at the Budget location in Memphis, TN last November. When we arrived to pick up the car the Memphis location at the airport claimed they did not have a record of this payment even though my credit card had been charged. After a long, late night argument with the airport office we finally left with a car. About one week later, we received a demand letter from Budget Memphis claiming we owed for the care we had prepaid. I forwarded the prepayment information to Cindy Maxwell in collections in Memphis and never received a response. Just a week ago, I received another statement on this issue. I prepaid the car and will not double pay. The Memphis office is totally unresponsive. Budget’s main customer service office in Atlanta will not assist because Memphis is a “offline” location. WTF! All of this is under Budget’s name. After renting with Budget for over 25 year, I will never rent from them again. Minus 5 stars!!
Good evening, I recently rented a suv from Budget I was a first time customer. I rental the vehicle for one week. I was very disappointed in the service I received from Budget. First I rental the vehicle on line two days before time to get the vehicle. Prepaid with my credit card when getting to the location I rented from there was already problem. I was asked for two forms of proofs of resident and so on. I wasn’t greed when entering the building. The women there was ruled and had attitudes. One never looked up from the computer when I entered the building. As I stated I prepaid with my credit card the woman never asked me about my payment. She just assumed I had a debit card which I didn’t. Very unprofessional stating my credit card looks like a debit card. I was being inconvenience for no reason. Which I should have followed my first mind and not rental from this place. But I had a trip planned that I was late for because of budget. So I get this straight out about my credit card. But then another problem occurs I waa giving a Toyota truck. That already had a crack in the window shield. That had other small marks on it. I spoke with the two men who showed me the truck. One was in training told me that’s nothing. To just sign the paper and I am late so that’s what I do so I can go already. So when returning the vehicle one of the ruled women that had check me in. Stated did you see the small scrap on the vehicle. I told her yes I see it and didn’t no where it came from. So I wasn’t going to argue with her. So I sign the paper. I was charged for that damage. I have never been in a business that is ran so unprofessional in my life. And I have been renting cars from AVIS for years. Never had these problem before. BUT I WILL NEVER EVER RENTED FROM BUDGET AGAIN AND I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE. THE SERVICE WAS VERY UNSATISFACTORY. THANKS BUT NO THANKS NEVER AGO.
****Someone damaged rental car AFTER it was returned and I got charged****
Rented a car from the Dallas-Love Field (Texas) location on May 3, returned it on May 6. Received email 5-weeks later stating that the two front tires were damaged by the “gate spikes” and my wife and I were being charged for the repair. Called 800 Customer Service and the call was referred. We received a call today from a curt and unresponsive customer service person saying that we were responsible because 1) we didn’t buy Budget insurance and 2), the rental location has pictures of the damaged tires and the odometer. The caller was not receptive to facts, only that the rental location told them we damaged the tires. The pics show that the two front tires are flat. The repair bill states’ “Front tires flat spiked at gate”. (see below) She said no video would be reviewed and the employee who checked us in could not be identified (even though he walked up to the car as we drove in, directed us to a parking space, gave us a receipt). Hmmm.
We returned the car by driving through the rental return entrance, approached a Budget employee who told us to park it in a parking space (he even pointed to a particular space). After parking, he walked to meet us and I asked if we needed to sign any paperwork and he said, “No”. I received a slip from him that does not state any damage. He then directed us to a waiting airport shuttle. (Reference the spike gate statement – it’s interesting that a rental location employee has identified the damage as having been caused by gate spikes – how would someone know the cause of damage? They probably know because they did it) The above employee saw us drive through the rental return gate, drive to his location, then into a space at his direction with no mention of us operating on two flattened tires. Seems like he would have noticed a car on the lot being driven into the return area with two flat tires, especially since he walked up to the car.
My guess is that someone attempted to drive the car from the lot causing front tire damage, then blamed it on us. My wife and I at no time drove over spikes (except at the return entrance but those are facing inward). We would have had to try to leave the lot to damage the tires. And if damaged upon entry, why didn’t the back tires get the same damage? It is my guess that an employee or an employee’s friend tried to “borrow” the car, damaged the tires driving out of the entrance gate (because employees are stationed at the exit gate to verify rental agreements and this would have led to getting caught), then drove it 30 or 40 yards back to the return area, blaming us.
My family, my employer (city government at which I am responsible for booking all nationwide travel of employees), nor my wife’s employer (national real estate attorney’s), nor my son (Chick-fil-A marketing) and hopefully, me daughter (FEMA Washington, DC) will ever use Budget/Avis again. And our Facebook friends will hear of our experience. Besides the dis-honest rental location, Budget made NO effort to verify the claim. No video review, no contact with receiving employee, no acceptance of my receipt that does not state damage. Only that someone told them there was damage, and we’re being charged. In the end, this will cost Budget a lot of money in lost/re-directed business.
Budget has no process in-place to resolve such matters except to say ” you didn’t buy insurance and we have pictures”. Neither of which make us liable for damages caused to the vehicle AFTER we returned it. I would be surprised if Budget attempts to follow up with our concern of the dis-honesty we have experienced. If so, Reference Budget Case: 23839249, Reservation: 28210509USS, Rental Agreement: 780764423 will provide contact info.
i was over charged nearly double because i picked a car up early. until this is resolved i will not rent from budget. i rent a lot of cars for my work. others i work with rent a lot of cars for work. they will not rent from budget any more until this is resolved. this will cost budget a lot of money for cheating me.
Received a response from your Customer Service Depart which appears to be a generic response.
7/7/2018
Budget Case: 24051859
Reservation: 35476155US1
Rental Agreement: U166144506
Dear Jose Torres
Thank you for contacting Budget Customer Service. We sincerely
apologize for the excessive wait time and we are glad that you have
brought this to our attention. We will be very happy to address this
matter for you.
Budget prides itself on prompt, attentive service, and we very much
appreciate your business. We are sincerely sorry that you were
inconvenienced, and extremely disappointed that we fell short of your
expectations.
Aside from stressing the importance of dependable vehicles, we also feel
that quick and efficient service is equally important, whether you are
traveling on business or pleasure. Budget values its customers and
recognizes that travel can sometimes result in some frustrating
experiences.
We appreciate your feedback because it helps us maintain our high
service levels in the areas you mentioned. At Budget, it is our goal to
deliver a safe, dependable, hassle-free rental.
We know there are many companies out there, so thank you for choosing
us.
Kind Regards,
Mayra A.
Representative | Email Customer Service
Budget Rent A Car System, Inc.
Original Message Follows:
————————
From: joto144@ verizon.net
To: budgetcustomerservice@ budgetgroup.com
Subject: Car Rental Question
Date: July 3, 2018 4:05:41 PM PDT
Budget.com Car Rental Experience
********************************
Customer Information:
*********************
First Name : Jose
Last Name : Torres
Email : joto144@ verizon.net
Phone :
Fax :
Rental Information:
********************
BCN : NA846Z
Rental location : Orlando, United States
Date of Rental : 06/29/2018
Return location :
Date of return : 07/02/2018
Reservation confirmation number : 35476155US1
Rental agreement number : 166144506
Amount Billed : 165.93
Currency : USD
Questions/Comments:
——————
I’m writing to inform you of the worst experience I’ve had with Budget
in Orlando, Florida, Terminal A, compared to every car rental agency
that I have ever used. I arrived on a JetBlue flight from Newark to
Orlando on June 29, 2018, at approximately 12:15AM. Since I only
traveled with a carry on bag, I was at the Budget Counter at
approximately 12::30AM. At the counter, I saw a sign which read to
proceed to the Budget Booth at the Garage if you were a Fastbreak
Member. I then proceeded to the Garage to find out that the Booth
closes at midnight. Since I was traveling with my 80 year old mother
and my brother. They stayed at the garage while I returned to the
Counter. To my shock, there were approximately 30-40 people waiting in
line. After consulting with the counter attendant, I was informed to
wait in line although I was a Fastbreak Member. Well, the Counter only
had two Reps assisting the customers and later a third person joined in.
Approximately, an hour and a half later I was able to be next in line to
be called when two of the Reps walked out and disappeared to the back
room leaving one Rep for all these people. I, along with everyone else
in line were completely frustrated and angry. A few customers became
irate causing a dangerous situation. Once I was able to complete my
paperwork, I was told to pick up my car at Terminal B. At this time, I
had to return to the garage at Terminal A to retrieve my 80 year old
mother and my brother. After getting lost attempting to get to the
Garage at Terminal B, I was able to locate the car in spot #W37. I just
do not understand why Budget had such a long line when no other Rental
Car Company had any lines. This is the worst experience I’ve ever had
of any company I’ve dealt with while traveling. At this time, I’m not
sure if I’ll ever use Budget or its other companies again. However,
this problem in Orlando should be addressed. I’ve been to other
airports where the paperwork is accessible to Fastbreak Members when the
Booth is closed. I just do not understand how Management did not
facilitate better customer service let alone access to vehicles for
members of the Fastbreak service.
on or about April 28, 2018 I rented a vehicle from there LGA location. on or about May 5, 2018 I called repeatedly the LGA location to extend the rental, as I always do, no one answered. I called the 1-800 number, was told that the customer service people at the 1-800 number can not extend car rentals. only the branch that the car was rented from. I called again repeatedly, still no answer. I called the 1-800 number back again to complain that no one is answering the phone and I needed to extend my rental. the 1-800 customer service agent put me on hold verified the last 4 of my cc number and said everything is straight, if there are any problems we will call. come to find out they reported the car stolen on june 8, 2018 and I was arrested. smh wow…that’s ok lawsuit on the way as we speak. so be aware ppl.
rented a midsize car and went to pick in airport in Miami and waited line with the rest people who were in front me and notice couple black men who look basketball player because they 6.8 tall so we were next and the woman there said they were next but they were not in line so my wife told woman behind the counter that we were next but she said they were next so we just waited until they call us up. we book midsize car but they gave me compact car and told them that I am 6.2 and I ask for midsize car we could barely get golf clubs in the car.then my notice damage to the car and we told the poeple when pull out that there was damage to car and told not to worry about it so my wife took pictures and we stared to drive to key largo and check engine light come on so park car at hotel and call budget in key largo and told them the problem.so they had hybrid auto and it was pretty small it was prius so we get every thing the car and I go back to see the girl and she gone. when finally got to go back to Miami the check engine light came on and also it said the needed maintance needed we park car for 3 days at hotel and use lyft to get around for 3 days hotel charge 40 dollars day to park .I would never rent junk from them again they rude , horrible person skills and there cars are junks I am disputing the charges because I never got to really drive the car
Reserved a car to be picked up at the airport by 1pm. Well let me just say what is the point of reserving a car if its not ready by the time you reserve it. I was told to wait 45min. so I did then I was asked to wait another 10min. I told them that I had an appointment I couldn’t wait no more. The manager started giving us attitude after telling us we had to wait another 30 to 40min. I asked her what is the point of reserving the car then. NEVER DOING BUSINESS AT THIS PLACE AGAIN. SHE argued with me and my wife. I told her to refund everything we were going somewhere else. If this is how this company treats it customers and train there employees there is a big problem here. Your Manager Carla at the El Paso Airport branch
Two hours to finally get a van 12 passenger ! 7 people had to talk too and I had to drive to another state to get the van ! other van we rented was not there everything was pre paid weeks ahead you guys r not recommendable lousy service we rent these van s every year and stuff in between! Never again.
I think we should start a DONT rent from Budget hashtag and include a lot of our reviews and flood social media. I was literally scammed and they’ve taken over $1500 from me for a four day rental. I also paid on Priceline and they won’t release my hold back to my bank. I’m going to copy all of the reviews over the past few years with our information amd start a DONTRENTFROMBUDGET#
I prepaid a car online to travel out of state. Decided that I did not need the car and called reservations to cancel, was told that my card would be charged $150 to cancel. The total cost of the rental was $204.11. Decided to change it for one day, the agent on the phone stated that I would have to call or go to the location to change or modify. I called the location on 4232 Lavista rd, Decatur Ga and they told me that I could not change or modify on a prepaid but I need to call reservations, who told me to come to the location where I rented. I decided to rent the car; traveled to the location. Asked the agent Brian, the very same questions that I asked on the phone. Received the same bs. I was given a clipboard to go out and mark on a makeshift car of all the scratches/dents. They reserved a passot with dark, deep scratches on the fender in the back; all the way across. The passenger sige from the front to the back had key marks in long “x” marks and straight to the trunk. I told them that is not acceptable. They stated that’s all they had, I reserved it and I had to get it or they would charge me full price as if I rented it…not acceptable. I contacted reservations…bs/same run around and told me that I could travel to another location, which is on Norcross and see what they have. I asked did she live in Atlanta and did she know the traffic. She connected me to someone else who had sympathy but wanted to know why I did not want the car. I gave him the ear full; while in the location. The young young girl stated, you have it; rent it. I asked for the supervisor which I was directed to Brian. Who was not the supervisor, she finally came out from behind the door whispering as if I wasn’t there. I asked what did you say. The young lady waved me away like the ignorant person she was. I told them that was bad business, rude and disrespectful to paying customers. Called reservations and corporate, I have nothing against anyone, but please put someone on the phone who understands the English language. I had to speak to several people. I’m furious and there needs to be something done. I’m getting my money back…hopefully. And the deposit without a cancellation fee, so they say. We’ll see
I had an amazing experience with Budget Rent a-car, I needed to make an emergent trip to visit my elderly dad who was having health issue, my plane landed at 1220 am and budget stayed open for me, even though I know they were supposed to close a 1230. Having never rented a car before, I found the process easy and the young man who assisted me extremely friendly. I had no difficulty returning the car on my way home, and was surprised to have a budget representative (Jenna?) call me several days after I returned the car to notify me that they found my ATM card on the floor of the car. She was extremely friendly and told me she would be sending my ATM card out in the mail that day, and it arrived 2 days later.
Boise Airport Budget – Thank you for your assistance, and for having my back when my mind was on a thousand other thoughts, I appreciate the service, but most of all I appreciate your kindness. Thank you
DO NOT USE BUDGET. This business double charged me to start my rental off and after multiple promises of a refunded, i had a supervisor FINALLY speak to me, and told me it was my problem and that i need to dispute the charge with the credit card company. I have never felt so lied to and used as i have with budget rent a car. Please stay away if you want to be charged what your promised, or keep your dignity and deal with good customer service, budget has by far the worst customer service i have ever seen.
It is with considerable frustration that I write to contest charges you made to my American Express account on February 16, 2018 for a Budget Rent A Car I had from December 21, 2017 through December 27, 2017. Here are the pertinent facts: On December 27, 2017 as I was driving back to Washington D.C., I encountered a patch of ice and lost control of the car driving south on Ohio State Route 9 near New Athens Ohio. Fortunately, I was not driving fast, and the car went into a snow bank rather than on-coming traffic. After calling 911, while I was still trapped in the car, I called Geico and then Budget Roadside Assistance. After an extensive wait on hold, Budget Roadside Assistance finally answered. I reported the accident to Budget, and then gave my cell phone to the Ohio Highway Patrol to arrange with Budget Roadside Assistance where to have the car towed. They did not provide me with any information about getting another car or what steps to take next. I was in the ambulance with the EMS staff who heard the call.
Later that afternoon, I called the Budget Rent A Car office at Union Station in Washington, D.C. where I had rented the vehicle to also let them know about the accident. I learned from the Ohio Highway Patrol that the car had been towed to Blackie’s Garage in Cadiz, Ohio. I gave Budget the address and phone number of Blackie’s Garage and asked if there was anything else I needed to do. They said that I did not need to do anything else. I followed up with e-mails to be conscientious. When I returned to Washington I called the Union Station office just to confirm that I did not need to come to the rental office to sign any forms.
In February I received a phone call from someone representing Budget who asked about the rental car I had rented on December 21, 2017. I explained about the car accident and said the car left my possession on December 27, 2017. On my March American Express statement, there was a charge for $3,889.17 from Budget. I immediately called Budget to find out how a $438 weekly rate had turned into such a charge.
What I subsequently learned has unearthed incompetence on the part of Budget that is staggering. With the help of GEICO insurance company and American Express and through several conversations with the staff at Blackie’s Garage, I found that Budget opted to let the car stay at the Blackie’s for 52 days after the accident. Budget also charged me the daily rental rate for the same period even though I no longer had possession of the car and had diligently notified Budget of the accident and the location of the car. I had read the rental agreement and excepted to be charged for towing the car back to the nearest Budget location; however, it is very clear that I am not legally bound to pay for the damaged car’s indefinite storage. Budget apparently did not make a diligent and honest effort to retrieve the car in a timely fashion. Moreover, to also continue to charge me a daily rate for the car while Budget was also charging me for storage appears to be malfeasance on Budget’s part.
Please remove the inappropriate charges from my American Express card and instruct the person who is handling the case at Sedgwick that I did not have possession of the car after December 27, 2017. I trust you will respond at your earliest opportunity.
STAY AWAY FROM AVIS AND BUDGET and You’ll do yourself a BIG Favor. I reserved a car for the Wilmington, NC (ILM Airport). Once I arrived the person on duty, Sharlene Dodd who “claimed” to be the lead agent stated that the car type I reserved is not available and I would have to pay more money to “UPGRADE”. I responded that I should “NOT” have to pay more money for any upgrade when I should be accommodated without having to pay, and the website should not have allowed me to reserve if “they” were not going to have the car. This so-called lead Sharlene Dodd stated that I would have to pay, if you’re not you can go somewhere else, you need to move from this counter or I am going to call TSA, etc., and she did call TSA and lied to say I was ‘Rant & Raving’ not knowing I was recording the conversation. NOW, for this to happen she got extremely “quiet” afterwards. TSA does not have anything to do with renting a car and/or problems in that area. This overzealous employee was hoping I would get arrested, and now I am taking this to another level regarding my complaint. DO NOT BOTHER TO RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!!!1
Good Afternoon,
I am severely unhappy with the way Budget conducts business. I rented a vehicle in Downtown Nashville on April 8th and returned it with a Full tank of Gas to the Memphis Airport on April 9th. Seven days later I received a threatening text that I would have a warrant put out for my arrest if I didn’t return the car. THE CAR I ALREADY RETURNED! It took another week for the security team to figure out that the car was in your possession the entire time, not that they called and notified me. In the meantime I received a certified letter stating that I was no longer welcome to rent from Budget/Avis. Once they did figure out that we returned the car as contracted on April 24th, we were way over charged to the tune of $214.89. The charge should have been under $100.00. I spoke with a women named Lorraine in Loss Prevention that said she would refer my case to finance and adjust 67.95 that we were charged for the certified letter that was sent. I have not heard back from Finance. I still have an outstanding charge of $147.94 on my credit card. The RA# was 764090165 and the MVA was 83861035. I would like to speak to someone at Corporate immediately. My phone number is on fill and begins 702-349-XXXXx.
Im very disappointed in this companies customer service services. I rented a car from Apr 6 to Apr 22 paid 200$ i believe in deposits. Its now May 3 2018 n i have not seen or recieved any of my 200$ not 124 not even that deposit back into my account. Guy tries to tell me about my bank and how they system works while im telling him. My bank and i been looking and checking every other day and i know they about tired of me calling n coming in. Just like budget is about to start getting tired of hanging up in my damn face 2x another time will be a major problem. Someone from. Corporate HQ needs to look into my account ASAP and resolve my issue. Or else i will keep calling and sending emails for my money. I dont have money to give away i got bills just like the next person. And another thing i dont understand is why im not being refunded my whole 200 n something $$$ deposit back when i prepaid for everything on that car. Insurance mostly fuel. What the hell was i charged 78$ for. For what i kept being told the whole deposit is not to be touched unless there was some issues n there wasnt. How what where who and why am i not getting my money.
I rented a Budget rental car in Cancun, MX and, unfortunately had a car accident which was taken car of with care and help at the site. My problem with this office at a busy airport was that NO ONE told me that I couldn’t use my State Farm insurance. They asked if I wanted insurance, I said that I would use my usual coverage and they did not tell me that my insurance wasn’t applicable if I drove in Mexico. I am a senior traveler and would have aprreciated this warning. I had an accident and now am being billed for close to $5,000. I also didn’t get a bill with explanation. I called Budget and am now waiting for a response. I would like to see a bill that shows what was necessary to repair. KByrne
Just rented a car in Aruba for 5 days. On Monday when we left my husband left his cell phone in the car by accident. He ran back to the car, searched the car and asked the woman at the front desk to call his cell phone, she said no she couldn’t do that. We were getting ready to leave Aruba so my husband ran back to us. We called Sprint and canceled the phone and we called Budget again and spoke with the same woman. She would not help us or go any further in helping us to find the phone. She said the car we rented had been taken off site to get cleaned for the next renters. My opinion is this was an inside job and we will NEVER rent from Budget again. We visit Aruba often and shame on Budget for not taking the time to help a paying customer out!
Truly unsafe practices at this company and would tell everyone to stay away for your life will be in danger driving one of Budgets cars. Was given a car for a long trip with completely bald tires to the point of cracking and splitting rubber. Called road side for assistance with a flat and they never showed. Tried to return the car and even though they had rental was told they could not help me. Had to get the tired fixed myself but could not fix the condition of the tires. I feel lucky that I did not experience a blowout on the highway. Asked them to take the car out of service in Sacramento but not sure they will. It a black Ford Explorer Limited. Cannot get any response from Corporate and was only offered a 25% credit for all my trouble. They do not value the lives of the people renting cars from them so I will never rent from them again!!!! you shouldn’t either!!!
I rented a car in New York in August 2017, and another car in September 2017 with no problem. In December 2017 I got a invoice for six hundred plus dollars for damage to the car in August from a Viking Billing Services. After 4 months of talk or various statements and I am not sure what to call all this crap – Viking tells me they represent Budget and they do no keep records of previous damage – so when they decide to fix damage on a car – no matter how many times it has been rented – it is that person’s responsibility unless you can prove the damage already existed. Apparently Budget does not doXXXXent any previous damage – it is the renters responsibility – and they reserve the right to come after you for multiple years after you rent a vehicle. I am finding a lot of people that have had this happen to them. x-customer of Budget
gscott745@ gmail.com
I rented a car and left over $2000 dollars worth of jewelry in the vehicle in Fayetteville NC airport. I called several days trying to contact someone. Three days later I finally talk to someone who can help they tell me the car has been rented for a month and they would contact someone who rented the car to get my possession. After that I have made several attempts to get my possession to no avail. They suck!!!!
They promised to call back on three different occasions and no return call
BAIT AND SWITCH
My last two rentals at Fort Myers and John Wayne airports eventually turned out OK. My problem occured when the agent tried to rent me really “crappy” vehicles supposedly in the same class as the posted example.
I had prepaid for a Ford Escape or equivalent. The agents continuously tried to puit me in vehicles that were not equivalent in size and were the most basic vehicle offered by their manufacturers.
Each time they offered me a vehicle, I viewed it and then declined. Finally, as if by a miracle, they found a Ford Escape. All power, sunroof, leather. etc Just what I expected and demanded. The brand was not critical only the upmarket features.
Why play these silly games, why purchase and lease vehicles that give customers a reason to check out the competition. Lose a customer and savings in vehicle purchase price disappears quickly.That is an attitude that only works with a monoply.
Agent booked wrong reservation- date and distance. Booked on Monday, needed it on Friday; they are calling me Wednesday asking when I am coming that day (Wednesday), to get the truck. Friday I arrived at 1pm as originally booked and was told I reserved the truck for a 10 mile trip. It was 100 miles, not 10 miles!
Agent never explained when asked about the difference in the two insurance offers other than one had a $500 deductible and other did not. Roadside Assistance was never discussed.
Agent hung up on and yelled at me when truck was in need of roadside assistance.
My personal vehicle was parked in perpendicular and parallel within centimeters of two others cars in Budget parking lot.
My entire experience on rental day took 5 extra hours after I was done moving items.
My customer service experience has taken 6 hours and still counting to resolve this issue.
A compensation of $29.00 was offered to me by two different employees (James and Emma) and was supposed to be credited back to my account by today. I had to call again today and James said it was never put in and now I’m told I would have to wait another 5-7 business days. I was never given an escalation number or issue #, so I am unable to complete and escalation for to be left for the office of the President. I did however locate a phone number for corporate offices. I left two voicemails now for Larry DeShon, CEO, President and Director of Avis Budget Rental. My next course of action will be to get my lawyer involved. Your company should be shut down, bottom line. Your entire customer sevice at the reservation level all the way to the supervisor role in customer servoce is less than incompetent. The best and most professional service I received that day was from the third party towing sevice utilized for roadside assistance and he was over the age of retirement. Does anyone at this company have any pride in their work? Shame on you Mr. DeShon, earning over a million dollars a year with a poorly ran, rude, deceptive company.
My son rented a car from Budget in Palm Springs and experienced the absolute worst customer service ever. The car broke down on an isolated area on highway 74. After many attempts to contact their roadside assistance ( the auto prompts kept repeating and repeating with no ability to actually get through to anyone) he called the desk at the airport who eventually arranged dispatch of the tow truck after hours of being stranded.When he actually went to the desk at Palm Springs airport to try facilitate some kind of recognition for the significant inconvenience he was met with an extremely rude agent who did nothing to represent Budget in a positive way. The complaints agent at the national number has her name and took the information but absolutely no follow up from that end. After multiple calls to multiple people there remains no resolution. In fact he was charged full fees including the days after the break down even though he did not take a replacement vehicle. To add insult to injury ANOTHER charge was posted to his account for $800 CAD allegedly to cover Budget’s lost use charges while the car was being repaired. That is apparently due to him signing the insurance waiver which he always does due to his MC covering rentals insurance. In short , none of our family or friends who rent will ever use Budget again. Their customer service is absolutely atrocious for a large international company.Never again.
Thanks for narrowing down my choices on car rentals by eliminating your company from the list. I am not a customer that makes or breaks your business as I only rent cars 10 to 12 times a year, but I can promise you none of those rentals will be going to your company. It’s a shame you decided to throw your corporations hat into the political ring. I am not even an NRA member but I am strongly in support of the 2nd amendment. So long Avis, Enterprise, Budget, Hertz…..good luck. Hmm I don’t think National and Alamo were as foolish.
I recently rented a Budget rental car. Then I read today that Budget Rent-a-car gives discounts to members of the National Rifle Association. Until that policy changes, I will never rent a Budget Rent-a-car again. Instead, I will rent from Enterprise, which just cancelled a similar policy. Actually, I’ll look for a rental car company that never had such a policy and rent their cars.
Do you give reduced rates to victims of gun violence? Parents of children shot by AR-15’s? All the hand-gun victims? They are the ones who had to spend money on funerals and medical expenses–not Wayne LaPierre and his NRA members. Oh wait, maybe they do but just through their taxes of paying for all the costs associated with mass shootings and singular shootings caused by the NRA’s actions to restrict safe gun safety rules a.k.a. gun control.
Please stop supporting the proliferation of guns, the gun manufacturers, and wanton killing and shooting of people of all ages by cancelling the stupid policy of giving any kind of financial break to the National Rifle Association and its members.
Thank you.
Absolutely the worst, worst customer service having been given a vehicle with thread bare front tires, all I wanted was a safe vehicle. Tow truck picked up my rental vehicle and swap car NEVER arrived. I was completely stranded in Port St. Lucie Florida. After 9 phone calls to customer service, reservations, cancellations, 2 supervisors; 1 named Rick who promised to return my call to let me know what was going on NEVER called, I gave up. Thankfully, I called American Express to file a complaint against Budget, and Amex arranged for me to get a rental from Enterprise the next day. Zero customer service, Zero satisfaction, mishandling, discourteous, uninformed staff unable and unwilling to accommodate customers. I will tell all my associates and friends to NEVER use Budget and I will never use Budget again.
So imagine on Christmas Day traveling from the US to Trinidad and Tobago and after clearing customs and immigration with your family and all your bags you go to the budget office to pick up the van you reserved and the office is CLOSED!!! The office in the airport which is supposed to be open 24/7 CLOSED…guess that employee just didn’t feel like it on Christmas Day. All other rental offices had representatives there however with it being Christmas Day all were sold out except for Alamo who had only 3 cars left. This was the worst experience that I have ever encountered. I reserved the van a week ahead received a confirmation email and a reservation reminder email on the day before from budget. I ended up having to get a compact car from the other company at a much more expensive rate. When I got back to the US and contacted budget this was the response I got “Thank you for contacting Budget Customer Service regarding your recent rental not available. We really apologize for this experience and we can understand any frustration. We are more than happy to assist today with this request.
Our records indicate that the location is open 24/7 on the Trinidad Piarco Airport location. We don’t have any records of the issue you had with the location on that day but until 9 days later. We really apologize for the inconvenience but based on this information we won’t be able to process a refund in your account. We are sorry for any misunderstandings.”
The office was not at all open and I’m sure they can run reports to see that non of the reservations for that day was picked up!!! I was told by the budget representative that initially spoke with that they would refund me the difference of the car rental, but from the email I received after I sent in doXXXXentation that is not going to happen.
To add insult to injury, when I requested the corporate office number Oliver the rep I spoke with told me he didn’t have it. He told me there was no one else I can contact and that there was nothing else that can be done.
This was the worst experience that I have ever encountered. I reserved a car yesterday, received a confirmation code and was called 1 hour prior to my pick up by budget that they had no cars. I was given a phone number to call and cancel which I did. I ended up talking to Luis badge #2324991 who told me that they would issue me a refund within 24 hours which I had a problem with because I did not cancel the rental, Budget did he in turn passed me to Michelle badge# 93355 who then told me it would be 3-5 business days and she was “very sorry” that I had been misinformed. To top it all off, when I requested the corporate office number she told me she didn’t have it. When I asked for the corporate office address she didn’t have it. When I asked her who the CEO was she didn’t know. Who doesn’t know their business information and shame on Budget for telling their employees that it’s okay to put their problems into the customers hands.
I am amazed at the comments I am seeing on this corp website. If I was the CEO I would be doing some investigation into the organization.
Two weeks ago I flew in from Beijing and had rented a car over the internet a few days in advance. Upon landing and going through customers I went out front of terminal 5 to wait on the Budget shuttle bus. I saw every kind of shuttle buses for other car rentals but not for Budget. When one did show up he didn’t stop. He just went right on by even though I was waving for him to stop. Another kind driver from another company took me to Budget.
Renting the car wasn’t too bad. Had to wait 20-30 minutes and the man who waited on me was nice. This was a Saturday morning and I was driving around 200 miles to Decatur Illinois. I was informed that the rental office in Decatur was closed until Monday morning and just return the car sunday morning and drop the key in the drop box. Sunday morning I took the car to the airport and dropped the key in a slot on top of the desk which I assumed was for the key. My mistake!! The drop box was on the other side of a file which holds budget pamplets. I honestly did not see the key box, but it was there. Monday afternoon the rental company called and wanted to know where the keys were. I told her that I had dropped them in the slot on the desk. She said not there and I must still have them. I went to the airport and by the time I got there she had found them. I apologized for not putting them into the right place, but she kept badgering me about the box and made me feel stupid. Then she said I would have to pay for an extra day because she didn’t find the keys until the afternoon. She even told me others had made the same mistake in the past. Her name is Becky and works at the Decatur Illinois airport. My bill was suppose to be less than $100 and after she charged me for two extra days and added extra insurance and other coverages the bill came to $613. I have communicated with 4 different employees in Budgets office and they said Becky did nothing wrong. I know the woman lied to her superiors. The woman had a bad attitude and mean spirited. My daughter talked to her and she told me that lady has a problem. I am sure I am not the only one this lady has cheated. very sad to have someone work for you that treats customers this way. SAD, SAD, SAD
On Friday, Dec. 8th, 2017, I proceeded to rent a car on line since it seemed cheaper and more convenient. I entered my card number, however, they rejected my request in the amount of $370.29. I reentered the information, just to make sure the previous transaction was an glitch on my part. They rejected the second request as well… No Problem. I check my bank statement the next day & they withdrew 2 transactions for $370.29!!! I called the customer service line & they explained it would take 24-48 hours for the money to release. They NEVER released the money!!! I had to call my bank & Budget to do an conference call & asked if they could fax info to my bank to release the money, MY MONEY. It took an nasty phone call & 3 bank reps to finalize the transaction & release MY MONEY THAT THEY WERE HOLDING. It’s safe to say that Budget will never get my business again. Its an piss poor company with customer service reps whom could care less about your time or money. SPREAD THE WORD… Budget Sucks!!!!
We rented a car in Denver for the weekend (picking up Friday night and returning Sunday morning) and we dropped off the car and flew home to LA on Sunday afternoon, the car rental was supposed to only be $200 something, but Budget charged us over $1100 saying we didn’t return the car until 4 days later in Denver and that we returned it with half the tank. We had filled it up before returning and we were also no longer in that state when we allegedly returned it 4 days later. We contacted customer service, they said they did not find any information of an early return (or rather on time), we disputed the charge on credit card and after providing all the doXXXXents and evidence that obviously proves our car was not properly checked back in by Budget, our credit card company told us that Budget was not honoring the chargeback. We will now escalate the issue for further investigation with Budget and may take legal action if necessary to recover the loss. Seeing all these other complaints from others, we really regret renting from Budget.
I rented a car from Budget with a confirmed price of $1180.43 but was charged $3368.35.
I was told on the day I returned the car it was a glitch in the system and my account would be reimbursed within 48 hours. Its been a month without an explanation or reimbursement.
I received terrible service from start-to-finish when I rented a car from Budget at the Orlando airport. After the employees ran me around the parking garage for over an hour looking for vehicles that did not exist, I was assigned a damaged and dirty car that smelled of smoke and chemical spray and was not the upgraded vehicle I paid for. I contacted Budget Customer Service and left a message for the manager on duty (who never returned my call). After having an asthma attack and a continuous migraine for several days that ruined my trip, I returned the car early after calling Budget Customer Service and advising them I was going to do so. After returning home I learned that I was charge for an upgraded car I did not receive, was billed for days that I did not have the car, and was charged for insurance that I did not want. Calls, complaints, emails, etc. to this company are worthless as it seems that everyone I speak with is a trained liar. Do not rent from Budget, or their sister company Avis. They do not care about their customers and every aspect of dealing with them seems fraudulent. I keep reading now all the same complaints about this company and their poor ratings. Where is the CEO in all this????
Rented a car in October from the Budget at the Pittsburgh Airport. After getting on the plane to return home I realize that my wallet had fallen out of my bag and was in the car. I called my husband who was not traveling and he spend the better part of an hour trying to get ahold of someone to locate my wallet. When I landed an hour later I was finally able to reach someone at the Budget counter in Pittsburgh and explain the situation. The young man said he would call out and have them get my wallet and would call me back in 10 minutes. After not hearing for an hour I called back and was placed on hold for over 15 minutes. Finally he came on and said that my wallet was found and it was turned into lost and found, he gave me the direct line to lost and found and told me to all on Monday to work out arrangements for getting my wallet back. The wallet was found before the car had been rented again.
On Monday morning I received a call from the lady in lost and found who had received a message left on the weekend. We made arrangements to have my small wallet returned (with out insurance). I asked her to please look in my wallet to see if the credit cards were there. She did and said the cards were there. Over a week later I received by wallet in the mail. There was $150 in cash that had been stolen out of my wallet and I was charged $34 to ship it (the wallet wasn’t even worth that much).
When I saw the money had been stolen and the amount I was charged I called the Budget at the airport to speak to a supervisor about the situation. After being placed on hold for a very long time I was bounced around until I was finally put on with someone who said they were the manager. When I explained the situation he said “what would you like me to do about it.” SERIOUSLY? No apology but rather “give me your rental car agreement and we see what happened can call you back.” It has been a month and I have not received a call back.
I did post my complaint on social media and received a response back of send your agreement number and we will research it. Yet again I have not received an response back.
Budget was my go to company but not anymore. So disappointed!
Has anyone tried calling head office?
Dont bother.
No matter which button you push it says
We are sorry you are having problems. Please try again later and phone goes dead.
Tried calling the number on the resevation and got some idiot that didnt even understand English.
Repeated my rental agreement # 3 times
My reservation # twice
My email address SIX TIMES
And i still dont have the details i need.
My advice
GO TO ANOTHER COMPANY
EXCEPT AVIS BECAUSE THEY OWN THAT AS WELL
So unbelievably rude dealing with Marietta budget office. I was put in the hospital during the time of my rental and while sick I still was considerate to inform them of the situation by having my daughter call and inform them that I’m stuck in the hospital 3 hours away and unable to bring the car back until released. i was unable to deposit more funds since I was in the hospital by myself so they tell her that they can’t speak to her about my rental and they started to call and call apparently from my voicemail and I was unable to get to my phone until I was released 3 days later but after calling them to inform them that I was going to bring it by since I just was released and for a week I had the vehicle I already paid $700 and had a balance of 700 more I only rented a jeep so I had to wait on funds to pay it took an additional2 days but then then rude calls and texts came in and this entire time ice been communicating not ignoring but it seems they care more on the vehicle than making money texting to bring the car now!! So I’m intending to pay even tho it’s outrageous but they just want the jeep back how is that fair they should just let me use it if I’m paying and if I’m communicating. But they are being judgemental because if I was an older man they would have been ok but they want to screw me
We rented a car for a weekend and I received a letter in the mail a month later that they were charging us $150:00 because there was pet hair in the back seat.! I called customer service to inform them that the charge was absurd and that I didn’t travel with a pet! They didn’t care; I then find out that ITS NOT EVEN IN THE RENTAL AGREEMENT that pets are prohibited in the vehicle! So if there was NO pet and if there was you could have them in the car, why are the charging me $150.00!!!!!! I spoke with 2 supervisors and they basically told me too bad, so bottom line is DONT USE BUDGET BECAUSE THEY DONT KNOW WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS AND THEY EXTORT MONEY FROM THEIR PATRONS! I am livid and am not done fighting this matter. I just hope someone doesn’t eat cookies in their rental and get ab$150.00 bill for leaving crumbs.
Please share your email with me so once get the media involved we have many to back us up. They’ve stole money from use and even after returning the car and canceling our card they are still taking money out of our account. We’re still trying to despite the charges and it’s been almost 3 months now.
Worst ever. EVER…… Customer support has no clue what or how the staff at the locations operate behind the counter. Huge HUGE inconvenience this company is. How are they still in business but I will tell you I would not recommend this company to anyone and sure as HELL I will necer use them again. Not even to look at the price difference between other company’s. I will rather spend the extra 50 to 100 dollars to avoid Budget.
I prepaid for my Budget rental car with a credit card for the better part of a month; unfortunately I had to return it early due to a family emergency. Upon returning the car I was given a receipt showing I was due a $535.25 refund; this was back in mid August. I assumed the refund would be placed on the credit card I used so I waited a week until I finally called to inquire about the status of my refund. I was initially was told I would receive a check in about 6-8 weeks; yes, you read that right! So, I waited the full 8 weeks and still nothing. Again, I called and called and called until finally I got someone who could help me with my dilemma. I then was told I should of received a refund on my initial credit card but it would take 7 business days to process. I was also told the San Diego airport personnel who told me I would receive a check were wrong and that the matter will be taken up with the staff at that location. I am 70 years old and thank God still have my faculties and am a persistent person when it comes to matters such as this. My question and frustration is, what if I were an older person and did not pursue the matter or had forgotten about the refund or simply did not know who to turn to next when the initial phone calls led nowhere? I found the whole matter to be wholly avoidable and frustrating to the point that I seriously considered legal action. I will deal with Budget again as I already had another reservation in place, and feel this was an isolated incident. I do however strongly suggest if the same situation occurs with anyone else, make sure you know the refund is supposed to be put on your credit card and get the correct phone number to call if for some reason the refund takes longer you will feel confident you will hopefully know where to call to get answers. I will add that Budget gave me an unsolicited $50 discount coupon good for a year, If anything, I hope this post helps somebody else is aware of this kind of situation and will have the tools to better handle it.
Had flat tire on a Budget Rental car. Called Roadside Assistance at 730 pm and was told that someone would be on site in 45 minutes. 1 hour later got a call the said the truck was running 45 minutes late because they weren’t told they had to pull a car out of the ditch. Then I was told that someone would bring us another car. Got a call a 915 pm that the truck broke down and an another truck would be dispatched by 945. Didn’t hear back. So at 10pm I called for an update. Im now told that that the truck was called by the police that takes priority. Now I asked them to give me a supervisor. A person gets on the phone and apologizes and Im told they would set up for another car to be bought to me. That was at 10pm. It is noe 10:42 and have recivec a call bavk confirming that another car would be delivered. On top of all the lies I flew up from Florida and missed my friends wedding because of this. First and last time I will do service with Budget.
I can’t seem to get any assistance with your organization. I reserved and paid for passenger van to accommodate my family and, I during our vacation in Jamaica. To our surprise our return vehicle was given away despite it being paid for. I was given an explanation that FEMA needed a fleet of vehicles for disaster relief errors during hurricane Irma. I contacted Budget to cancel my return vehicle which was scheduled for pick-up on September 9, 2017 from 89 SE 2nd St, Miami, FL 33131. I was informed that I would be given a full refund in the amount of $166.61; additionally I wouldn’t incur a termination fee due to the cirXXXXstances of the hurricane. Needless to say I never received my refund, and was told that it was processed on the same day it was canceled. Just to shed a little on this situation we were also impacted and could not leave our cruise ship; therefore our six day vacation turned into ten. On September 14, 2017 I called and spoke to a pleasant representative by the name of Christina who struggled to find the inconsistencies within Budget’s computer system. Shortly after I requested to speak to a supervisor, and was connected to a young man by the name of Trevis (ID: 32149). After I explained my dilemma for what seemed to be twenty minutes or so. He apologized for the inconvenience and advised me that I would be given a full refund in the amount of $324.30 within 3-5 business days. So far I have yet to receive a refund. I rented another vehicle on September 12, 2017 from 3900 NW 25th St #403, Miami, FL 33142 and was charged $182.61 however; I had already reserved and paid for a vehicle online and was charged $141.69. Trevis provided me with a reference number of (20979985). He informed me that my refund would be processed within the normal parameters to my bank account. Again this never happened. It’s hard enough to deal with my own reality with damages to my home; maintaining responsibilities as a husband/father. I never expected in a million years that I would endure such a headache with Avis/Budget Car Rental, LLC. At this point I just want what was promised to me $166.61, $141.69, and $182.61 = $490.91. I have been more than patient and will give Budget another chance to make this right; despite my urge to contact the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General’s Office. Please resolve this issue as soon as possible.
Respectfully,
Detrick Wilson
I reserved a van about a month in advance to take my daughter, grandsons and two of their friends on a cruise from Miami. I don’t fly and I havebeen battling cancer. I thought this would be a good time to have with my family before i get to the point that I am unable to enjoy time with them. Budget in maryland ran a “soft credit check” when I picked the van up and it was approved without problems. We drove from maryland to miami and dropped the van off and went on our cruise. When we returned, budget picked us up from thecruise port and took us to pickup the van to return home. Well they ran another “soft credit report” but this time denied me the van I had reserved a month ago. I asked them how was it possi3for me to be approved in our nations capital and be drnied in Miami. Especially sincenothing has changed in that week. They could. not give me a logical explanation other than “it’s our policy”. I had to call and borrow money to put us up in a hotel and figure out how we were going to gey home. ( they did not seem a bit concerned about any of this). I couldn’t get through to budget via phone so after learning that we could getback via amtrak because no vehicles were available anywhere else,I had to borrow more money as it cost nearly $900.00. With all the additional cost and inconvenience, I had to pay $1500.00 + to get home where we didn’t have to pay even half the cost. We are on amtrak as I write this and the cost of food on the train is outrageous. Also we can’t stop when we want and can not control the temperature on this freezing train which mean we also had to purchase blankets at $15.00 each (×6). I feel as though I was setup by budget. How dare you treat people this way! I am so hurt and disappointed!
Worst experience ever!!!!! We rented a truck from here and it broke down within an hour of driving. When the roadside service mechanic came to look at the truck he noticed that it was missing a full gallon of oil and 5 gallons of DEF fluid and also an obvious problem with the intake.. I wish this budget location would have checked their truck before giving it to us.. our entire lives are in the truck as we are moving from Los Angeles to Idaho … we have been stuck in Gordon, CA which is about 50 miles out of Los Angeles and had to call budget customer service to get updates on when we will get a new truck.. we waited all day yesterday and we just woke up and they said it’s another 5-6 hours.. we have a 1200 mile destination and a lease we were supposed to sign by tomorrow… it has now been 31 hours and we are still waiting in this F*&ING parking lot waiting for the other budget truck to come we called roadside and spoke with the manager Tim and he hung up on us.. This is incredibly disappointing
I Rented a Budget Truck on the 8th of September. Moved to another part of the state. We moved just in time before Hurricane Irma hit. The Truck was due back Sunday. The Hurricane made Landfall Sunday into Monday. I called and a Customer Service Rep told me do not worry you wont be charged for late days bring it back Tuesday. I also called the return location and there number was wrong and they were not open.
A few days ago I received a $272 dollar bill for Late return. When I called to complain I was given $60 dollars back and there is nothing else they could do. So I guess I was suppose to drive in a State of Emergency/Hurricane and Risk my life? Nice to know Budget cares.
Furthermore, I was told the fees would be waived and if charged to call and they would take care of it. Well that was a lie and I was lied to.
I have used Budget many times and this has never happened. I would like this to be fixed or what a disgrace it would be.
Thank you
rented a car on friday to leave jacksonville fl due to approaching hurricane irma. we were heading toward panama city. drivers side rear tire blew out. tried to reach road side assistance and could not get thru. call kept dropping from where we were. my daugher who was in jacksonville was able to get thru on a 3 way call. woman took information. my husband had to change the tire. i also tried again once we arrived from 3 different cell phones and landline. CALL WAS DROPPED. YOU HAVE SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH YOUR ROAD SIDE ASSISTANCE. we finally arrived in panama city. i was waiting for confirmation of tow company to exchange vehicle. needless to say the text message was sent to the wrong number after the woman repeated my number 3 times to confirm where to send text message. luckily the tow company called and said they were here to pick up car. from what i understood from the tow company they normally bring back a replacement car. that did not happen. my husband had to ride w/the tow driver to the airport to get the replacement vehicle. i am sorry but this was so wrong on so many levels. why was a replacement car not brought to us????????????? i expect some sort of compensation for all this inconvenience. we had just sat down at about 7 pm to eat. my husband never got to place an order for food. i did order food for both of us and then get a text message from him stating he had to go and get the car. i have never encountered this type of mess from budget before. i have been using budget for quite some time. an explanation is necessary for all this mess.
I have been unable to reach anyone with any authority for 5 days…a company that reserved a vehicle with a full tank of gas and 2 car seats, confirmed personally by me with employee at pick up site, daily for 3 days, turned into a nightmare. My daughter and family (including 2 small children) were dropped off by Disney Cruise Line in an evacuation zone (another nightmare) late last Thursday afternoon and were told reservation was for next day (really???!!!) and were given a recalled vehicle with an empty gas tank (yes on E, with warning light). Am not done trying to locate someone accountable for this fiasco.
I’m writing to let Budget Corporate know how horrifying my recent experience with the Budget Hartsfield Airport, Atlanta, GA was. I flew into Hartsfield on Saturday, 9/2. My daughter and family were coming to pick me up. Around 7:15am, she texted to let me know they had hit something on I285 and their vehicle was going to be towed. There were 5 in the vehicle; the youngest is 5 months old. I figured I’d have to rent a van to be able to accommodate all of them. My daughter-in-law found a reserved a van from your Budget at the airport and she reserved it for me. (Atlanta had many things going on that weekend – football, DragonCon, etc) She found the only van she could get. I stood in Budget’s line for at least 20 minutes, only to be told when I got to the agent, “it takes 45 minutes for it to download”. No matter how many times I explained that my whole family was stranded on I285, she told me the same thing. So, I went to several other car rental desks; no vans available. So I got back in the Budget line; even longer this time. When I got back to the desk, I told her the reservation had been made at least an hour ago. She took my credit card info and I asked several times if I’ll be able to add my son-in-law and daughter as drivers at another location. I also told her we were driving to KY and they would drive it back to Georgia, but return it at the office in Snellville. She assured me this would be no problem and ANY Budget office could add them as drivers and change it over to their name. So I stood in ANOTHER line in the parking garage to get the van that “was being washed – it will be right out”. Another 30 minutes, with my family standing, by now, on the side of I285. They had the accident at 7:15am. I pulled out of the rental garage at 10:30am. On Sunday morning, we went to the Budget office on Taylorsville Rd in Louisville, KY. The gentlemen could not pull up the Atlanta contract; their systems didn’t work together. He could not add my daughter as a driver OR change the check-in date to Tuesday. (we thought we did that later, via telephone, but that didn’t happen) Holiday weekend – we got it. So, we went BACK to the Louisville office on Monday, the return date on the original contract. Jenn, the Louisville agent (who was the ONLY helpful employee throughout this whole ordeal) tried to add my daughter. She even spoke to someone on the phone who still couldn’t add my daughter since “we weren’t in Atlanta at the Hartsfield location”. She was able to email someone at Budget who got in touch with Heather at Hartsfield on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, Heather still wouldn’t add my daughter as an authorized driver, even though she was standing right in front of Jenn. Heather changed my round trip rental to a one-way, which would NOT have been a one-way if they had added my daughter as a driver. She added .75 per mile, a drop charge, tons of taxes, another day’s rental, etc, etc, etc…. So 4 days ended up costing $1279. If she had added my daughter as a driver, she would have driven it BACK to Georgia on Monday and it would have stayed a round-trip rental and returned on Monday as it should have been. When I tried to complain to Heather that her agent lied to me about being able to add authorized drivers at ANY Budget office, she told me I was never lied to and “she was glad they could find a vehicle to accommodate our needs”. That was it. No apologies; nothing. This has been the worst customer service experience in my life and I deal with multiple customer service offices on a daily basis in my job. I will NEVER rent from Budget again and I’ll be sure all of my traveling friends and family who frequent Atlanta NEVER rent from that office again. I would like to give Jenn, at the Taylorsville Rd location, a thank you for going out of her way to help us out. Her hands were tied so she could do nothing, but at least she tried!
I rented a 15 passenger van to drive my family to visit family and friends over 500 miles away. My family was myself, my wife, kids and grand kids. The dates were from Aug 8th to the 14th. After driving to my destination I got a low tire pressure alert. When I re-inflated the tire, I noticed the excessive tread wear on all the tires. The van only had 12,000 miles on it, the tires looked as though they had 40,000 miles of wear. I was not able to visit all the people I wanted to see. I will be 68 next month, so the friends and family are not that young. I did not want to RISK driving any more than I had to, and I still had to drive back the 500+ miles. The roads I drove on were expressways and thruways, with speeds of 55 mph to 70 mph, depending what state I was driving through. Seems that Budget only vacuums and washes their vehicles, and pays no attention to the SAFETY needs, such as tires. If I rent a vehicle, I expect it be SAFE, this includes good tires!I cut my visit short and returned the van a day early on the 13th. I told the rep at the counter about the tires, she called some one, and told me that I would be contacted. It is now September 6th and NO ONE has called!. In the meantime I attempted to call Budget. but was told, each time, that they were busy and to call back later. Their online form to fill out is nothing but a scam or farce, take your pick. Either way it would not allow me to send my complaint. It asked for my cost of the rental. I put in the cost displayed on my credit card. it said to put in a correct amount. What amount was there other than what I was charged? I took pictures of the worn tires using the Lincoln head penny method. Budget, to me endangered my family. On my own vehicle I do NOT leave tires this badly worn. Since Budget will not contact me I am contacting the Michigan Attorney General and sending the pictures to Attorney General Bill Schuette.
We tried to call them several times over this past weekend and always got a recording that said “we will call you back in 48 hours”. Not helpful at all!
I rented a Van from the Budget in Las Vegas Nevada on the 27th of August through the 5th of Sept. 20I7 I was greeted by a lady helping me and then told me that I had to purchase their insurance on the Van because its a State Law even know I have USAA and they cover car rentals. She stated to me that in case I have a flat tire or something they can have road side service to help me change it. After arguing with her I asked her where is this state law that specifies we as customers must be charged another 57.00 a day to have their insurance on the van. When the lady couldn’t provide me with the State Law she circled it in Budgets brochure. I told her that isn’t a State Law that is a Policy your pushing on Customers to make more money. After telling her I wanted to speak with a supervisor or Manager she brought me a Supervisor. When I told the supervisor what she told me that it is now a State Law I must accept their insurance she started saying she never said that. So now you know they lie to you here in Las Vegas Nevada. Second problem I traveled to California in that Van and noticed a pull to the right was super bad when you travel over 60 mph. So thinking the van might have a small alignment problem and I was out of Las Vegas heading to California. I was doing fine till I was on Frwy 210 in California when I started feeling like I was in a major bumpy road on the passenger side so I was attempting to pull over to the right side to find out what or why I was feeling that odd bumping on that side. Before I could get to the far right shoulder the passenger tire blew out. I was able to control the vehicle to stop safely on the right shoulder of the 210 freeway in California. After calling my insurance they were getting someone to come out and help me but before my insurance tow truck made it an individual from the state of California stopped and said he can change the tire for me for free as a curtsy. I told him that is cool if he could do so as I had 4 kids in the car with me and one is disabled so he was scared thinking someone was going to hit us because the cars on the freeway were super close going by you can feel the van move from the air. Anyways after pulling the tire I noticed there is an alignment problem and was more than I was thinking so I took pictures showing the inside of the tire was completely bald. That is the same area that blew out so how did something like this get missed if they do maintenance check before renting to customers this problem was very noticeable and driving the van you would of noticed it didn’t stay in the lane you are driving in because it veered off to the right super bad. I call this negligent on their side and putting lives in danger I will never rent from Budget again and I can’t post the pics of the tire on here as there is no way to do so but I will post them in Social Media for sure you can see them on Facebook if Budget doesn’t fix this problem I will post not only on FB but I am also in the Service so I will also send out a global email with the pics to all service members to make sure they understand not to trust Budget rental cars and to do a full inspection before you rent the car and to have doXXXXentation to prove the maintenance was completed before you rent.
I have filled a complaint with Budget concerning a flat tire and oil change light on a van we rented for vacation. The customer service department continues to say they are working on the problem but nothing is being accomplished. I bought all the extra insurances for these types of issues but we still set on I77 for 4 hours, with seven people in a van before they brought us a replacement. Totally unacceptable. I have read other like stories from other people. I know your name is Budget but to travel with this company is costly. Never again for me. I will continue to fight until I am compensated for putting my family in danger on the side of the road for 4 hours, and lost vacation time, all due to poor maintenance (I had to put air in the tire shortly after leaving the rental office, they were closed) and poor customer service.
This company needs to be reported on by the media…. my experience was just as bad as everyone on this site overcharged and not reimbursed lied to multiple times terrible experience
I am very disappointed. Every-time I travel JFK I have always rented from Budget. This time was the worse experience I have had, it started i had to wait 2 hours and 17 minute on line. Once I got to the counter it only felt I was there only for 10 minutes I was then told I had to wait for my car that was another 21 minutes this was becoming ridicules. When I finally received a car it was not the style I requested It was much smaller it was told to me that`s all they had available. I was forced to take the car, I need to get to an appointment that I was running late for thank you budget. Once i received I had to pull over to a gas station to purchase some glass cleaner products. The windows especially the inside of the windshield in the car were very dirty to the point I felt it was a safety concern. I know I am only one person and you can just blow me off what`s one person to a company that deals with thousands of people daily. I am and have been in the past a loyal customer, I would like to hear back from someone from the corporate office thank you you have my email address send me a response.
Greetings!!
I hope this message finds you well.
The intent of this letter is to let you know that I have never been in a situation were the approach from a customer “care” team was to get us our vehicle back by any means possible so you don’t acXXXXulate any additional charges at your own expense. I live in an area that was part of the flooding so I don’t know if my home or car has been damage from the flood. I did my due diligence by contacting budget and the response that was given to me was inaccurate information by your insensitive customer care representatives and supervisors. I would never wish this experience on anyone and I know I am more fortunate than the other residents that live near me since I was able to evacuate.
Not sure if you have a protocol set up for natural disasters but this is an example of why you should have something in place. I am aware that this is business and you have to make a business decision that affects the bottom line however, I am in possession of your vehicle and I tried to go through the proper channels to return the vehicle but was not met with any solution but additional fees.
Below I have explained the events that occurred in the last few days. I would encourage you to review not only the doXXXXented notes but also, the recordings of my several conversations with your staff.
On Saturday, August 12, I reserved a vehicle through budget online to go to Dallas, Texas for the weekend. On Friday, August 25, 2017, I picked up the rental that I reserved in Richmond, Texas with a return date on Monday, August 28, 2017. As you all know Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday night in southeast Texas. Shortly, after Hurricane Harvey became a tropical storm. A flash flood emergency was in effect for parts of the Houston area. National Weather Service and local officials are advising everyone to avoid traveling.
On Saturday, August 26, 2017, I contacted your Customer Care Department advising them that I was unsure if I was able to return by Monday, August 28, 2017 at 8:00a.m. based off the continuous flooding from the tropical storm. A Customer Care Representative stated that I would be charged late fees, and an additional $95.00 dollars per day. He also stated that the rate would change so I should make a modification to my reservation as soon as possible. I did not understand why I would be charged an additional $95.00 per day when my receipt stated that, I would be charged an additional $64.99 per day. I requested to speak to a supervisor. I spoke to a supervisor named Anthony, he informed me that I should call back on Monday morning at 7:30am and they would waive all of the additional fees and late charges due to the natural disaster, which was out of my control. Hearing that put my mind at ease because I was concern about my safety and returning the vehicle by the return date.
On Monday morning, August 28, 2017 at 7:30am the flooding took a turn for the worse and there was no way I could drive back to Houston, Texas. I contacted the Customer Service Department just as I was told to do so on Saturday. The first representative I spoke to told me I would be charged for additional days, late fees and the rate has changed since Saturday. I immediately requested to speak to a supervisor because that is not what I was told on Saturday. The supervisor that I spoke to stated that I would need to file a claim and she couldn’t speak on the additional charges but I needed to contact someone in a different department at 8:00a.m. She provided me with a new phone number. After contacting someone at the number that was provided to me, I was given the number to Avis. A representative from Avis provided me with a different number to Budget. After being transferred several times, I immediately requested to speak to a supervisor.
At this point, I’m beyond frustrated. This supervisor stated that I was given incorrect information on Saturday and I would need to pay for the additional days however, he would waive the late and return fees. I explained to the supervisor that I would have returned the car by the appropriate deadline however, due to the tropical storm, I was not able too. He stated that there’s nothing he could do. Again, another insensitive person not understanding the risk I would be taking by driving the vehicle back to Houston, Texas. I then requested to speak with his manager. He stated that a manager would contact me in the next 24-48 hours.
I decided to give them a call again not because I wanted to cause any more frustration but I had a different approach so I wouldn’t acXXXXulate any additional charges. I asked the supervisor if I could return the vehicle in Dallas, Texas and not get charged any additional fees and rent another vehicle when it was clear to drive in Houston, Texas. That conversation with the supervisor didn’t go well. The supervisor offered me a $50.00 dollar credit to take an uber back to Houston, Texas. The suggested that he provided didn’t make any sense. He also suggested that I return the vehicle to the location in Sugarland, Texas. I stated that the location was probably closed due to the flood and the ongoing press conferences telling everyone to stay off the roads and to stay in your homes. He didn’t believe me so he placed me on a brief hold to contact the location. He offered several alternatives that didn’t make any sense. Any suggestions that was suggested was a risk I was not willing to take until the roads were clear to drive back to Houston, Texas. We were not getting anywhere so once he got back on the line he stated that he could tell that I spoke to several different individuals all day and a manager would contact me in the next 24-48 hours.
A manager was requested to contact me however; a supervisor contacted me from an unknown number and did not provide her name. All she provided me with was the same insensitive suggestions that I was provided before. At this present time, the issue has not resolved. I will return the vehicle to the Richmond, Texas location once the highways are clear. Were I’m told I’ll be charged all of these additional days due to the natural disasters that I had no control over.
I look forward to hearing from someone on the leadership team as soon as possible.
Tasha Strickland
Tstrickland25 at gmail.com
314-583-XXXXX
Reservation Number 12825478-US-1
Thank you for time spent to write this “very sad” letter…
There is no comment!
Make conclusion about “BUDGET” by yourself!
My wife and I have rented cars from Budget for years, we finally got a chance to use some points to pay for our airline and rental car! When I got home I received a shocking letter telling me I owed $548.05 in charges that I never agreed to That I have never agreed to
on any rental I have used. Now I am trying to pay a bill so it does not go to collection and I have never missed a payment for anything and I cannot get through on the phone because they are in meetings and never return phone calls. This company “SUCKS”
Please contact me so we can band together with others who have had issues with Budget. We must get the word out so this awful customer service stops. Please read similar stories on Buget site.
Thank you
You can find me on FB
Manette Smith Chukwumah
On 8/18/2017 I arrived at the budget location on North mechanic street in XXXXberland, MD to pick up my 16′ budget truck to move from Keyser, WV to XXXXberland, MD. I did the truck reservation online. Upon arriving at 8:50am I waited almost 35 minutes for the worker by the name of Courtney to decide that she was ready to walk across the street and open the store. She tried to illegally charge extra to my brother’s debit card twice before I spoke up and had her do the transaction on my card where she knew she was not going to be able to pull that illegal stuff. Got the truck and handled the move. Returned the truck at 12:15am on 08/19/2017 but kept the key to come back in the morning to ensure the rental was closed. Arrived at the budget truck place on North mechanic street in XXXXberland, MD at 8:56am. Waited until 9:30am then called the customer service nugget. Representative told me just put the keys in the drop box. My issue with that is i need the rental closed. Sat and waited. Called customer service back AGAIN where I was basically told oh well on my issue. So a little after 11am I knocked on the budget worker’s apartment door which is directly across the street from the budget place. The Worley named Courtney told me she’s not opening the budget store today and that she is charging me a additional 2 days on my card, to go f**k myself, and she will close my rental when she’s ready. I called budget customer service back just to be hung up on. Called back again and was refused a supervisor. Called backagain and got a supervisor who told me that this isn’t her issue and maybe the place will be open Monday. In other words, not a single person at budget cares about the customers. NONE OF THE BUDGET REPS THAT I SPOKE WITH CARE. I was pretty much told oh well several times. I will NEVER rent a budget truck again and I will always tell people about how shady the budget truck company is. I have spent my entire day just trying to close a budget rental. I do intend on contacting legal aid to pursue this matter as I am a customer who was treated the absolute worst. I have never dealt with such an unprofessional company in my life. I will be calling customer service back every single day until my rental is closed and I’m twingettingreconciledreimbursed my money IN FULL FOR THE ENTIRE RENTAL.
Please contact me so we can band together and get the word out against this terrible unnecessary treatment by Buget. Feel free to contact me on FB, Manette Smith Chukwumah or email me mchukwumah at yahoo.com
Budget / Avis car rental from Norfolk Airport – cars are not maintained to safe conditions to drive. Counter Agents have attitude, don’t smile and are nasty doing business. The agents need to learn customer service 101. Budget needs to be investigated and audited, they have definitely ripped off people with all their fees. I will never used them again, and will let all military members and military members using their USAA discount to rent from Budget / Avis not to recommend; Budget / Avis rental cars are not safe to ride, their maintenance is horrible. Do NOT USE BUDGET / AVIS RENTAL CAR… NO GOOD. NIGHTMARE OF AN EXPERIENCE WITH MY LAST RENTAL WITH BUDGET.
Budget Rent-A-Car; car maintenance is not being done on their vehicles. Their cars are UNSAFE. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET or AVIS RENTAL CARS. I had an nightmare experiences with this last car rental. I went through 3 cars that were unsafe to drive in one rental agreement. Then to add insult to injury Budget tried to charge me all kinds of fees plus fuel service fee on the vehicle that I returned that was unsafe. My travel to florida was unsafe and frustrating in Budget Vehicles. I will never rent from Budget / Avis again. I will LET USAA know about my experience to not refer military folks like myself to use USAA discount with Budget / Avis. Budget / AVIS VEHICLE ARE UNSAFE, THEY DO NOT MAINTAIN THEIR CARS IN GOOD AND SAFE RUNNING CONDITIONS. To add another insult to injury, when I complained to the counter agent, they were nasty with attitudes, rude and no pleasant customer service. They acted like it was my fault that the cars were unsafe. Never again will I rent from them. Never again.
On 8/11/17 I rented a 12′ box truck to move my daughter for her final year of college at a large metroplitan Medical Center. Started out fine, but 10 miles from the apartment the truck broke down, nearly locked up driving 70 mph on a 4 lane Interstate highway. I called roadside assistance and was towed to the residence. I found out that the truck they rented me had “known” issues at the corporate level with the transmission and/or rear axle/differential. So first, they knowingly rented me a dangerous vehicle. Secondly, the rental contract was for 2 days so I requested a replacement truck to finish moving. Never got the replacement. In-fact, the truck they found for me and supposedly had on “hold”, they let the vendor rent it out – never called me about it, and yes they had my number from the tow I needed. Kept me in limbo for another 36 hours and never got a replacemet vehicle. Ended up calling friends to borrow a full size pickup and help me move the remainder of my daughters belongings. Third, I called customer service to adjust my bill and got nothing but total aggravation and a huge hassle. They were still charging me for the entire contract !! I had to call no less than 4 times over a period of 2 additional days to finally speak with a CS supervisor. I had to keep telling the supervisor I would pay what I owed for using the truck under the contract which was 1 day of rental. I had the vehicle 22 hours before it broke down and was loaded on the tow truck. Once that happened I ceased to be in possession of thier vehicle. Plus I never got the replacement so they left me stranded in the middle of a 200 mile move. That didn’t matter to CS, the rental “was a package deal”. All CS kept saying was “we can’t”. This entire ordeal was absolutely ridiculous. Even had to threaten legal action for breach of contract and fraud. I finally got them to refund half of the rental, i.e. – I payed what I owed for time I had the vehicle, but not without a huge fight on my part. I should have been refunded the entire amount immediately for what transpired if this was a credible company. Be careful people, Budget is not what it used to be. Worst experience I have ever had with any rental agency and will never use them again, ever.
My bf works for this company, and the location he is at they use his vacation time without his permission and dont give him his breaks until lunch time and even then he has to call them and wait around for someone to come cover him. He has been with the company for over 15 yrs and they say he has no senority to get the hours he wants not even for one day out of the week but yet someone new can come in and request certain hours and only be part time and get approved. They are treating him unfairly and are illeagally using his vactaion time. This company needs to be reported to the better business buerau and they need to be investagated, im sure that they owe a lot of people money for unreported hours as well.
then report them.
My husband and I had ask .Can we rent a car at Union Station . this Agent name Crystal Beth Gaskins. And she told me hi pretty pu**y. and said can i suck your husbands d**k. someone please fired her. This location in Washington, dc
I have been trying 5 days to reach Albany Airport location, phone system and customer service are both horrible. Please pass the word.
I had a 10 am reservation at Palm Harbor on 7/29. 1808324650076 There were no trucks on the lot as corporate promised to have them there. I had to meet the guys I hired to move me at storage so my brother in-law went back to Largo where we came from to get the truck. He didn’t know I had full coverage and got the insurance. I drove the truck from storage to High Springs FL. I lost 100.00to the 2 guys that showed up to move me. I still had to pay them if they moved me or not. Plus was charged $271.00 for the truck which should have been 150.00 I chose Budget over Uhaul because of the free mileage and better trucks. I am disabled and have a boot on my foot and also have a bad back and my brother in-law just had a pacemaker put in today and wasn’t supposed to exert himself in any way. My brother in-law and I had to move everything into the truck. I am in extreme pain now in my foot. This is no way to run a business and is obvious that corporate doesn’t care about their employees to even put them in that situation no less the customer!! Ronald Nelson needs to go on Undercover Boss and see what is going on with his business. This is the worst and most painful move I have ever had and won’t ever recommend this company!! And I want a refund as I had no truck as promised at 10 and didn’t get back with a truck until 12:45. The movers were there at 11 and get paid 100.00 per hour if they work or sit there waiting for a truck and was charged 121.00 for insurance that I already have.
Please be advised of the fact that the fuel service option is a rip off. You get charged for $22.15 for this option to have Budget to refill car + you get charged for a full tank fill up even if you return the car with half a tank. If you fail to take this option they will charge you $9.99 per gallon of gas. Either way you lose. Also, if you try calling the corporate office it is a circular call and the systems says you cannot get through at this time call back. In any case this is the worst rent a car company to deal with.,
“BUDGET” didn’t make a false promise about my refund!
This morning I found on my account…
”
July 25, 2017
BUDGET TRK CUST SVC TULSA OK
-45.42 ”
Thank you!
I called on for a truck to tow a vehicle back to Arkansas. On the phone I asked the person do their cars or trucks have tow bars,he said they would. Asked for F-150 or similar. When I came to the St. Louis airport to pick up the vehicle I asked the gut behind the counter did they have a trailer hitch and he said that they don’t allow towing because of the transmission. So he called around to see if there were any budget moving trucks, all were being used. So since there was no sense in me getting the rental I had to cancel it. I am a over the road truck driver so transporting my vehicle is hard. When I called customer service about me canceling they told me that I was being charged a 150 dollar fee. For no show. I was there in person. Also I have been dealing with budget for over 10 years. I have seen your vehicles tow other vehicles. I am still waiting on my refund from them. I am very unhappy with this. And my problem is I am recovering my stolen vehicle from St. Louis to bring back to Arkansas. It is not enough that I have to pay impound fees, then get penalized for canceling under no control of my own. Here is my reservation number. 1019-2553-us-o. Please call me or send me an email regarding this matter.I would like to get all of my money back. Which totals to $ 209.10. I will no longer be dealing with budget.
Customer Service representative with name Alex told me that I am credited for amount of money that I was charged at Tucson!
Thank you!
But, always that “but”-We (on both sides) wasted so much time for “no reason”…
Why?
Hi!
Thank you for fast response.
Budget employees at Phoenix (2640 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85016) provided excellent service to me. So, there is no complain about them!
They are very polite and willing to help.
They told me their names (what difference comparing with employee at Tucson) which are Teresa and David!
On other side at Tucson there is person who is badly damaging your good reputation in my mind build for 15 -20 years. He charged me additional amount od money ( July 17, 2017 – BUDGET3040300000392 TUCSON AZ – $45.42)
And there is my bill/statement about purchase of gas at Tucson (July 15, 2017 – SHELL OIL 10056479008 TUCSON AZ – $30.00)
I provided that bill with purchase of $30,00 for gas in envelope (mine envelope-there is no envelope that you can drop all your doXXXXents with a keys at Budget drop box) and dropped with all other paperwork at Budget location at Tucson!
I took pictures of truck and gas gadget to have a proof that everything is OK!
Just to add(you know that very well) when you are filing up the truck wit gas the nozzle clicks off (stop filling) so many times that you have to be persistent and to raise nozzle in order to fill up the truck to satisfactory level (full)!
First time nozzle clicked off when I put gas for just $15,00.So, I had to continue at least three times more…My son and friend of mine are telling that it stopped much more times then what I am referring to you!
That is normal issue for me and I made so many jokes how this malfunction can create so many “manipulative” cases from your employees toward customers. That jokes where made on other locations where I rented your trucks. Everyone new that it is impossible to fill truck on a way that gadget fill stay in line with marker which is showing FULL!
Nobody ever gave to me truck with gadget for gas showing FULL.
It was always billow that line.
When I started engine to see the level of gas – it was showing satisfactory level and I didn’t want to expose myself and others and to go against “general advice which is: fill as slowly as possible and the moment that the nozzle clicks off, stop filling. The tank is full.”
OK , I am not telling the truth – I was going a few times against that advice knowing that the difference/shortage is going to be huge and I didn’t want to leave a space for any conflict situation!
It was fine to add additional gas for about $15,00 and to ignore and to raise nozzle a few times.
So, taking picture is showing a sign of my confidence that I am doing “fair play” and that I am telling the truth.
For 20 years being loyal to Budget nobody accused or mentioned that I am not honest about my statements!
Nobody!
And finally there is Mr. Liar ( your employee didn’t want to tell me his name and he was not telling the truth) at Tucson location who wants to make money on unacceptable way and to damage your reputation in my eyes.
Shame!
I am asking for full cooperation.
It is much more about my dignity than about financial punishment and I hope that you understand that!
Sincerely,
Dragan Lekic
Because I don’t have any doXXXXent in my hands (everything is in Tucson) I had to call Phoenix location (Teresa) and they provided me with confirmation number for my truck rental#0891038555732.
Truck # 615392
This morning I received a email from Budget customer service and I want to share with all people who are badly damaged by Budget…
CEO Ronald L. Nelson didn’t make contact with me which I am expecting!
I am self confident that I can help Budget to fix all trashy issues and to bring ethic and moral back to the table!
So, there is email from customer service…
” Dear Dragan Lekic,
Thank you for contacting the E-mail Customer Service team. On behalf of
our entire Budget team, I apologize for the issues you encountered with
this rental and I will be pleased to assist with your concerns.
We view with extreme gravity any report of discourteous treatment of a
customer, as there is never an excuse for bad manners. Under all
cirXXXXstances our customers should be treated with respect and
professionalism. We regret any breach of this standard made by the
Budget agent with whom you spoke.
Reports such as this are not taken lightly and the inappropriate
behavior you encountered at the PHX facility will be addressed in a most
urgent manner so any necessary coaching, training or disciplinary action
can be taken to prevent any future occurrence. As you can understand,
Budget Customer Care is not privy to the details of the actions taken as
these records are restricted to the individual employees personal files.
Again, the behavior you experienced is considered highly unacceptable
under any cirXXXXstances and we can assure you all necessary actions will
be taken to ensure this is stopped. However, Our customers’ impression
of our service is most important to us. We understand that the service
we provide will be key in your decision to utilize our service in the
future.
Please respond with your rental information so that customer service can
assist with the incorrect charge applied to you.
Your feedback is extremely important because it helps us maintain our
high service levels. We appreciate your business and hope you will give
us another opportunity to meet your rental needs in the future.
Kind Regards,
Nikki Gaines
Representative | Email Customer Service
Budget Rent A Car System, Inc.
Original Message Follows:
————————
Budget.com Billing Service
*******************************
The valuable feedback from the Customer
Customer Information:
*********************
Rental Information:
********************
BCN :
Rental location : Phoenix,AZ
Date of Rental : 7/14/2017
Return location : Tucson,AZ
Date of return : 7/15/2017
Reservation confirmation number :
Rental agreement number :
Amount Billed :
Currency : USD
Questions/Comments:
——————
You deserve to know that you have very unhealthy people at Tucson. They
are doing totally unacceptable things toward customers. In my eyes they
are stilling money. In my case they charged me for a gas even that I
provided a bill from a closest gas station. Shame! I will try to make a
contact with your CEO Ronald L. Nelson and to see what is his perception
about this shameful actions from his (Budget) employees! I am deeply
disappointed after 20 years being loyal customer to Budget! Shame that
you are letting liars and thiefs to work for your company. I am not
letting this bed experience to be done on way that bed guys from Budget
are going to finalize! Bed guys at Budget has to go out from the
company or something has to be fixed in order that you have good
reputation in my eyes (customer)again.
I will continue to inform you about next step made by BUDGET and Mr.(CEO) Ronald L. Nelson…
This fight is good for all of us!
Maybe I am too much IDEALISTIC!!!
It will be nice to be connected with Mr. Liar ( representative from Tucson who didn’t wont to tell me his name when I asked with whom I am talking), with Mr. Scott Finney ( truck manager in AZ) and with CEO of BUDGET Mr. Ronald L. Nelson!
Thank you!
I would like to talk with Mr Ronald L. Nelson( CEO) and to inform him personally about damages toward BUDGET made by their employees!
Sincerely,
Dragan Lekic
I was loyal to BUDGET for twenty years, and finally someone of their employee found that I am not honest about “filling up” truck with gasoline …
Shame!
My all complains went to garbage and I was offered $30.00 for a credit which I refused!
I offered to them additional $50.00 from my pocket to resolve the problem and to see WHO IS LIER!!!
They said: WE ARE SORRY!
What is the meaning of that?
BUDGET is not the same company anymore!
I reserved a rental truck for my impending move on July 11, 2017. In the midst of looking for a rental truck, I received an email from Budget offering a 30% discount. They beat the competitors, and I made a reservation and received a confirmation email with a reservation number. The amount of the rental was $987.69 (total). When I went to check something on the reservation today, the total had changed to $1,536.18! Customer service was no help and said it was my fault for not confirming. I received a CONFIRMATION email! No where in this email do I see that I need to do anything further. When I have rented cars, I never had to CHECK on my reservation. The CS rep gave me an email address to send my complaint to. If Budget does not make amends and honor the quote, I will be going with Penske and blasting Budget anywhere and everywhere I possibly can.
My wife and I have been customers of Budget for many years. Service, unfortunately, has been very poor on our last three leases at Baltimore Washington Airport (BWI). On Christmas Eve, 12/24/16, no employees were on duty at the pick-up area for Fastbreak (Fastbreak? What a misnomer!). I had to go back into the office area and wait in line 15 minutes! On 6/28/17, I went to the Fastbreak area to pick up a car and—-the attendant said no cars were available. On 7/16/17, my wife, who is also a Fastbreak customer, went to the Fastbreak area to pick up a car and no attendant was on duty! Hey, senior management, time to kick a** and take names!!
Horrible experience renting from Budget at the St. Louis Intl. Airport location. I am 50 years old, have traveled to many countries and four continents. NEVER have I experienced such chaos when renting and returning a vehicle. Talk about dysfunctional! Had to wait in line for over one hour to get the car, then nobody was there to accept the return after we were directed into the return lane. I walked four lanes over to talk to the person who had directed us to the lane, was told that someone should be there and that I was in the correct lane. She was moving vehicles around – no other customer in sight. But nobody was there, and we had parked and unloaded the vehicle. Another AVIS employee walked-up but stated that he didn’t handle the returns. Who the hell does actually handle the returns there???? Even the shuttle driver who waited for us was not sure what was going on and why nobody was there to take our return. I went to the office, slammed the keys on the counter and told them to email me my receipt. Came out of the office, just to find the same lady and same AVIS employee that I had talked to previously by my rental vehicle. They were looking for the keys. I told them that I left them inside. That same lady had the gull to tell me that she was going to check my car in but that she had another customer….. I was disgusted with the change of her story, said this was bull**** and boarded the shuttle. Then, I had thus gut feeling telling me that I should take photos of the vehicle, just in case they were trying pull something on me… So, I got off the shuttle took photos of all four sides of the vehicle, showing it clearly parked in the return lane with another rental vehicle in front of it. Well, what do you know? I returned home to Colorado, didn’t get an email, couldn’t get an e-receipt printed, called customer service just to find out that my vehicle hadn’t been checked-in yet. I called customer service this morning (the vehicle was returned yesterday), and still, my car was not checked-in yet. Are you kidding me? I called all possible extensions at the airport location rental counter, and not one of the employees will answer the phone. Asked my friend to give it a try as well, and she had the luck of getting an answer, either. Finally, I called Customer Service and the billing dept. and got a case number assigned to me. They had no record of the car being checked in one day after it was returned. They asked for my odometer reading, which I didn’t have, but I have a refuel receipt for $6.66, so we didn’t drive more than 70 miles, I would guess. NEVER, EVER have I experienced anything this bad in all my years of travel. I actually made a reservation under AVIS, since I am a Preferred Member there, while I was standing in line waiting for the Budget rental car. That’s how long it took to get a car. Unfortunately, the Preferred Member side wasn’t any better, and two Preferred Member customers came actually inside the office building because of problems they experienced outside on the lot. We were given excuses of “slow/crashing computer systems” of which corporate supposedly was made aware for months….. Then, it was that two flights came in late…… Well, our flight was delayed but only by 15 – 20 minutes, and we didn’t have checked bags and went straight for the rental car shuttle. Clearly, this location is under-staffed, agents are not well trained and lack basic customer service skills, one of them is flat-out dishonest (which prompted me to take photos of the car in the first place). I encourage the Budget corporate office to look into this, check-out the camera footage from the lobby area around 12:01 to 12:45 a.m. on 07/15/2017 as well as the return lane footage of 07/16/2017 at approx 12:45 p.m. It’s all there – nothing else needs to be said here.
Stay away from this location!!! I am actually considering renting from Hertz in the future. I rented from them during my last two trips (one was just last weekend), and United Airlines no longer partners with AVIS – a wise choice for United Airlines!!! Hertz has been wonderful in Omaha as well as Fort Myers – a breeze and such friendly service. Also, they now have more competitive pricing compared to past years.
I sure hope that Budget takes this seriously. The integrity of their staff at the St. Louis location, in particular the one female Budget employee who should have checked the car in, is highly questionable. They lost my business for good.
Rented a car for three weeks, and within just 1 day, we noticed something was wrong with the tire. Spent days dealing with Budget and hours wasted. Budget won’t exchange the car for the same car and wants to give us a smaller car than we rented claiming they are out of larger cars. We got stuck with the contract. We are paying for a car that we cannot use. They won’t come to fix the tire. This was our worst experience with any car rental company. Customer service is difficult to reach and not helpful. When you reach them, some of them are rude.
I have made six phones calls to various “customer service” agents over the last five days. NO one can answer my question and when I requested a supervisor, I was told that no supervisors were available. Really? Who runs a company that way? The “best” the “customer service” agent could do was to say that if I left a call back number, a supervisor would call me back in 24 to 48 hours! There is no way to get anyone to answer a phone at the corporate office either. No one can explain why a hold was placed on my credit card AFTER I returned a rental and paid in full. And no one has the authority to reverse what they admit is a charge that does not make sense. Just think about how much money Budget is making by using our (the consumers’) money AFTER we’ve complete our transaction with them AND paid them IN FULL! What a racket. I’ve never had any company in the hospitality industry (car rental or hotels) take unauthorized money from my credit card AFTER our business has been concluded. And to add insult to injury, no one can answer my questions and all the supervisors are too busy to call back for two days! Very shoddy business practices. What a scam.
Horrible customer service. Was told I would get a certain rate by the manager at Greensboro, NC but when I returned the car it was not honored. They told me to call customer service who was a joke.
I guess I can join the club of dissatisfied customers who will NEVER rent from Budget nor Avis again. HORRIBLE service! I arrived at La Guardia airport/NYC knowing I had to go to a remote site to get my vehicle. I discovered there were no vans from the terminals going to Budget. Instead I had to take a shuttle to a site where there was a Budget Shuttle. It was 25 minutes until the first shuttle arrived and it was jammed-this is NY transit problem. We eventaully made it to the location for the Budget shuttle. (If you do not speak English you would never know what to do.) When I finally got to budget, I could NOT believe my eyes. The line went on forever and there were only 2 agents helping people. At times only one. Some people jumped the line because they are part of Budgets elite group. Others for some other invisible reason. It took 1.5 hours to get a vehicle. The woman who helped me was hanging on by a thread. Everyone waiting was disgusted. Budget has the data to provide more people to accommodate those coming for cars at an airport locaton. We pay a fortune to use a car for a few days and are treated like crap. NEVER again will I use Budget AND I will be sure to steer family and friends away from this company.
The WORST! And I can only assume the same with AVIS their partner.
Rented a car at the Orlando Airport on 6/23/2017. Waited 2 hours and 15 minutes in line. They had no cars so people just stood around for hours waiting for a car to be turned in. I finally rented a SUV. It had damages which I reported. I rented it for two days and returned it as stated in the rental agreement and returned it on time. Budget was so screwed up during the rental process they never attached the vehicle to my contract, but yet they charged me $2,466 in late rental fees and $1,066 in damages and $60 in gas. None of these charges are accurate. Budget is trying to credit my account. Imagine renting a car and spending $253 dollars and days later seeing over $3,500 in charges on your Visa card. Customer service person didn’t speak English well which is not a surprise. Took a while before I was able to get to a English speaking supervisor who stated she could resolve all of my issues. Just waiting now to see my Visa account with credits.
Great customer service before you pick up your car this time. After that they treat you so poorly. I did reserve car from budget on the June 7th in mckinney Texas for my 5th anniversary which always do it due to great customer and good pricing. I never had problem up until this time. I went to pick up my car on the 7th of June from Mckinney location they did not have the car that I booked, I called customer service they told me they going to send me different location to pick up my car which I had to get another UBER to go to different location which was 35 miles away from Mckinney location. They send,me to frisco TX location, they also did not have enough car I had to upgraded to SUV. FINALLY I could get it car in order to not mess up my travel. AFTER I returned the car to them I saw two different charges in my account one was the one I did prepaid and one was actual charge which one for 184 and second charge for 264. I called to customer service 3 times they told me they will fix it and put difference back to my account but has been past over 23 days I have not see the refund. I called 5 days ago I spoke to Manager name Rickey which I do not know who choose him to be manager because he does not know,how to speak to his customer, how to listen to his customer extremely rude person I feel sorry for big company like budget to have this kind of manager. He told me he will listen to my conversation due to my issue and will call me back which he never did. I call today to speak to district manger from customer service department they give me phone number which was non work I g phone number. I will advise to not get car from budget anymore if this kind of service is provided I rather to pay more and get treated right rather than pay less and get treated crap.
This is a horrible company and no one should ever have to do business with such incompetent and disrespectful human beings. They should be ashamed of themselves. They can not feel proud of the way that they conduct their business. They should feel embarrassed and the company must be going down in flames to have such terrible customer service and poor performance.
Absolutely a disgrace …..
June 23, 2017
Budget Rent-A-Car Corporate
6 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, N.J 07054
Attn: CEO: Ronald Nelson
Re: Alyssa Medina
Rental Confirmation# 04419480US2
Budget Case#20212638
Sir,
On June 1st, 2017 per our telephone conversation with Budget Rent -A-Car, I reserved a Dodge Caravan to be picked up on Saturday, June 17. 2017 at 9:00am. We had to take the bus to pickup the vehicle. Upon our arrival to Budget Rental Center 1515 Hwy 99 N. Eugene, OR 97402. I was informed that they did not have the Dodge Grand Caravan or anything similar and I was offered a smaller vehicle. I explained to the Manager that I needed a larger car because I was driving my sister home from the University of Oregon and had lots of luggage and boxes.
Another customer showed up as we were looking at the smaller cars and they were returning a mini Van rental. We were going through the process of paying for the mini Van, when she stated I did not pass the “soft credit check” of 675 credit score or higher. I advised her that I was not aware of the credit check and she stated its part of confirming the reservation in the fine print. I never gave her or any other representative my social security number or permission to run my credit report. I asked to speak with a higher supervisor and she stated she runs that Budget. She then handed me a card with the number for a higher Supervisor, then states “It’s the weekend, they are closed very well knowing we had to leave Saturday. I was very upset and started crying from the stress this lady was putting me through. I was stranded in Oregon because I failed a credit check that did not take place.
She stated the only other option I had was to rent a 16′ ft U-Haul Moving Truck. She also advised me that all other nearby car rental locations were sold out and I took a moment to step outside to verify that her statement was correct. The 16′ ft U-Haul Moving Truck cost me $418.15 with a $150.00 deposit. That was nearly $300.00 more than the car. She accepted a personal check as payment for the truck rental, but would not accept the check or Debit card for Mini Van. She kept contradicting herself and she manipulated me into this and gave me an ultimatum. I was put into a position to where I had no other choice but to rent the large moving truck.
It took me 16 hours to drive from Eugene, Oregon to Santa Ana, Ca. I have never driven such a large truck and I was terrified and stressed every mile of the way home. I have never in my life felt so emotionally distressed. I had to get my sister home and I had two babies waiting for me at home. On top of the $418.15 I spent $250.00 more in gas for this large truck. The financial burden added additional stress. We spent more money than anticipated due to your useless employee.
On June 18, 2017, I spoke with Marcos in Customer Service to advise him of the situation. He notated the account and advised me to call back after I returned the truck.
On June 19, 2017, I spoke with Jessica in customer service. I explained my situation and asked to be transferred to a Supervisor. I was then transferred to Michael, a Customer Service Supervisor, and I explained my concerns to him. He said he might be able to compensate the difference, but then realized that one reservation was through Budget Car Rental and the other was through Budget Truck rental, which I did not understand the difference. Its still Budget.
My overall complaint here is that the employee at the Budget location in Eugene, Oregon was uncooperative and did not care about our situation of two young girls driving a 16′ ft U-Haul Truck for 16 hours.
Why I could rent a 16’ft U-Haul Truck when I supposedly did not pass the credit check and why I could not rent the Mini Van is obscure ?????????????????
I will tell you WHY, because I rented the U-HAUL Truck for $418.15, instead of the Mini Van which was our original reservation for $118.00, a $300.00 more PROFIT FOR Budget. I would like to be compensated and reimbursed the additional $300.00 we could not afford.
Sir, Ronald Nelson, I don’t know if you are aware of these situations happening at your Company. But if I were YOU I certainly would change your employee’s patterns of doing business. Your reviews online are ridiculous and I wish I would have read them beforehand. I would love to do business with your company again, but my experience was absurd. I not only deserve our money back, but deserve for the “Supervisor” in Eugene, Oregon to be questioned if she follows proper company rules and regulations. I would not like this distress to be put on any other future customers.
I hope I have explained my situation clearly and I hope you can assist me. If you do not assist me, I will know Budget Car Rental are managed by a bunch of inconsiderate manipulators.
Thank you for your cooperation in this very important matter.
Alyssa Medina,
714-855-XXXXX
medina.alyssa23 at gmail.com
CC: Attorney General Office
California Department of Justice
I think the only people that visit this site are upset customer’s. I’m no different. =) We returned a Budget car 2 months ago. and have been waiting since then to get the $100 they took from us. I sent an email and was told it could take a month to get my money back. (I’ve NEVER had to wait that long to ever get a deposit credited back to my account) But, oh well, I was willing to wait and be patient. A month passed and still no money. I email back, and was told to call CS with my bank to have the funds released. I call CS, and was told he saw that the money had been sent to me via check! He could not tell me when the check was sent but asked me to wait a couple weeks for it!! Again, I’ve never known any piece of mail to take 2 weeks when sent to and from the US. Still, I’m willing to be patient and wait…a week. =)
I call back this time no longer patient or happy. I feel at this point that Budget has stolen my money. And I’m starting to think, “Is this a sneaky ploy of Budget to hold people’s money and wait them out, and hope they forget about their money?” Well, I won’t forget. $100 may not be much to some people, but it is a lot to this family. I’m told, when I call the 2nd time, that no check was ever mailed. This CS Rep, Alex, can see the emails telling me to call with bank, but conveniently no evidence of my interaction with the previous CS rep about the check being mailed.
Due to not being able to conference call, he get’s my bank’s fax and confirms with me that he has sent the release code to my bank to release the $100. It has now been over a week and still no money!! So now what? I’m trying so hard to be kind, and patient. But all I want to do is cry. How does 1 person go up against a large company? I’ve jumped through every hoop they have thrown at me. I’m so tired but I will not give up. We need this money.
waxlady at swbell.net
On May 7 I reserved a Budget van for 7 people to arrive at LAX on June 8 and return in June 15. Upon arrival at your LA sight we saw about 100 people standing outside with their luggage. The employee outside gave me a number and said it would be about 2 hours wait. R U kidding! I’m 70 yrs old and could no way stand around for 2 hours waiting for a car I had reserved s month before. My family and I called Uber and had 2 cars within 3 minutes who drove us to our Air B&B in Garden Grove. The charge was $50 each car.
Then I called Enterprise who brought us a van about 15 minutes later. It was last minute and, so, cost $200 more.
Your employee couldn’t have cared less about the situation. However, 2 Enterprise employees called me to make sure we were happy.
I’m out $300 because Budget obviously doesn’t care or know how to properly operate its business. Perhaps Enterprise would be willing to give you a few lessons!!
Rented car online and pre-paid for it. I arrived at location and explained to agent that I didn’t have paperwork but will get reservation info from phone. He told me no need just ask for my last name. He found my reservation he said and being offering me extra add-ons, which I declined. He ask to see credit card that I reserved the car under. I gave him that. He name is Sean by the way at the Fort Wayne Airport Budget. I had no idea that he had swiped my card and added prepaid fuel on the card. He swiped it for $212.00 mind you that I prepaid for the vehicle when I made the reservation. After retuning the vehicle I was given a totally different amount. So card is charged for that amount and I have a hold on my debit card for two different amounts $212 and $77 but was charged $90 at the end. My complaint is that there is a hold on my account until September 5, 2017 for $212 and $77 that doesn’t make sense. I called the 1-800 number and was given various email address to submit my bank statement and doXXXXents by they are all fake. I even went to the location that I dropped the car at and they gave me a number to call 1-866-806-3637 and it just rings. I will be contacting the media and others regarding this Budget don’t have to worry about me renting from them again. They are thieves and their employees are trained to lie and steal for customers.
I wish I had read this page before I rented from Budget. I have been trying to get a refund for a car I didn’t rent. Some how my credit card was put on another person’s account. I was charged for that person’s rental plus damage.I cancelled the card so no more charges could be applied. I filed a fraud claim with my credit card company. I have been fighting this since April 20. I call every day and ask for someone in corporate. I ask if my claim has been resolved. Today I am contacting my local TV station and newspaper to see if they will investigate this.DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a horrible experience. Representative at the pick up office was unfriendly and annoyed that she actually had to do her job. I questioned why I was being charged for 2 days of insurance for a 1 day rental. She told me I would only be charged for 1 day based on the time I returned the truck. Of course I was billed for 2 days. Gas cap on truck was missing and she said it wasn’t needed. When I questioned her, she left and returned with a gas cap that did not fit. I searched the lot and found a truck with the proper gas cap and switched it to the truck I rented. At the drop off location, I waited with my son and daughter for the police to arrive. The return site had all the lights on and the doors unlocked but no employee present. For this we didn’t even get a thank you call from the operator.
What a shoddy operation.
I have called several times on this location asking for the manager to file a complaint and dispute a charge that I never authorized. someone took all the details as she refused to transfer me, only gave a name don fayela and nothing more. So far no one has called me back 2wks ago. I called today and some lady got my call she said she was going to transfer me to the manager and I ended up in the general reservation line. A**HOLES. You are nothing but a bunch of THIEVES. SCAMMERS. I WILL MAKE SURE TO SPREAD THE WORD OF THE DISGUSTING EXPERIENCE.
I just returned from Maui. Budget is a complete mess there. It took 5 hours to receive my car that I had a reservation for but that is not the problem. There was a woman named Vinnie who was supposed to be taking names to allow a person into the building . 1 1/2 hours outside the building another 1 1/2 once you were inside then another hour for it to be cleaned and brought around the building. ALL that and that still is not the issue. The issue was Vinnie was caught taking bribes to allow people to go to the head of the line! VERY UNPROFESSIONAL! EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED THE OPTION OF PAYING AN EXTRA HUNDRED TO VINNIE TO GET TO THE FRONT!!
I rented a car next to the Mexican border in San Diego. I had no windshield wiper fluid and the gas tank was not full. They give you the keys….. and then send you off to a huge parking lot full of cars in the dark. Good luck finding your car!!! Oh yes I forgot to add…… the parking lot isn’t close to the rental building, so you will be walking in the dark alone searching for your car.
And then when you try to call Budget to get help…. that’s impossible as well. I tried reaching my direct location many times. One phone didn’t work and no one would answer the other. So then you spend your vacation time (hours) being transferred to many didn’t locations and customer service reps that can’t help you.
And then when you ask to change locations due to all the issues you’ve had……. they want to charge you 300-400.
Very bad experience my 1st and last time ever renting from them again been trying to reach someone about an issue that accured can’t reach anyone but you want to charge my card for something I didn’t acXXXXulate. Come on who handles business like this?
flew into JFK on May 27 with a reservation for a car to drive to Pa a two hour drive. scheduled for 6 am as time was of the essence. Car sign outside said cars available, and once I reached the counter I realized I had put the 26 th on the reservation that I had confirmed as it as an overnight flight….but no worries as the sign said cars available…..here is the problem…not only did they take pleasure in telling me no cars were available since I made the mistake of the wrong date, but they lied to my face when I asked about the sign outside the door……My panic as it was memeorial day weekend took over and I finally scrambled to get a car at national for triple the price but I ma de it to my destination late but made it ……called customer service to see if budget had cars available at that site JFK and guess what they did …..now that I want to file a complaint with customer service they either direct me to call a different number or just cut me off the line…..corporate needs to see how people are getting treated and maybe try doing customer care inservices as my example of rude and power to make me late is just one example of what is happening on a daily basis as when I walked out of the budget car rental site an elderly woman said to me did you find a personality in there…..luckily I was able to get a car but knowing there were cars available not only are they aggravating people they are costing corporate money just saying
Reserved truck the day I needed it no truck available. Customer service was to call me within 2 hrs on matter no call. I containers them they said that would get back within hr I sent email to customer service 2 min. Later they call me truck is at different location to pick up , it’s 3:00 PM my day is done told them I would pick up truck tomorrow early and that now I had to take another day off , Budget representative did not seem interested of that matter . I have heard of this happening to other people recently also with truck rentals so I’m thinking this is a new type of scam . your customer service is below incompetent and I think your hiring practices are at the same level .
I got the same problem lying bastards and Mexico City Call Center tell me they’ll call me back the highest priority blah blah blah blah pieces of crap.
You know what is the moderator or whoever the hell is going to to get approved doesn’t like what I had to say and tell them to call me my number is 515-208-XXXXX cuz I’m sick of this crap your company sucks so far I have the lowest piece of crap opinion of your company it’s just pisses me off I’ll go over a G-damn Facebook and I’ll just post everything on there telling how it what a crappy bunch of idiots you are if you don’t get this G-
G-damn problem
My acct was hit for unauthorized amount whn calles customer service they did not see were the amount was taken out of my account how can budget take out money out of your account without your authorization and not know that they took money out your account I’m so done my account is overdraft and all they keep is asking is send a damn email I have no money because wht They did to me I will never tell anyone to to Budget
Historically, I rent from National Car Rental. After my recent experience with Budget Rental I now remember why. I signed a contract in the amount of $251.05. Which I agreed to pay. Budget decided to charge $514.67 to my credit card. I am currently having to file a dispute with my credit card company in order to get this resolved. Now I understand why the gentleman at the return counter, who was obviously out of control based on the way he dealing with everyone, said he would e-mail my receipt. Well, he never did e-mail the receipt. It wasn’t until the charge cleared my credit card that I had any idea this was happening. Make no mistake this will not end quietly !
DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET. THE STAFF SPECIFICALLY, STEVE, WHO WOULD NOT GIVE HIS LAST NAME SHOULD NOT BE WORKING IN CUSTOMER SERVICE. I MADE A RESERVATION FOR MY DAUGHTER AS THE TRIP WAS A GRADUATION GIFT. I SELECTED BUDGET BECAUSE THEY RENT TO DRIVER UNDER 25. I CALLED BUDGET ON THURSDAY, MAY 11TH AND WAS TOLD THAT SHE WOULD NEED A VALID DL, PROOF OF INSURANCE, A CREDIT CARD IN HER NAME. I WAS ALSO TOLD THAT SHE WOULD BE CHARGED $27.00 PER DAY. UPON ARRIVAL AT THE COUNTER SHE WAS TOLD THAT HER DL WAS NOT VALID AND THEY REFUSED TO RENT TO HER. STEVE TOLD HER TO GO ACROSS THE STREET AND PERHAPS ALAMO WOULD RENT TO HER. MY DAUGHTER CALLED HOME VERY STRESSED AS SHE IS OVER 4000 MILES AWAY FROM HOME WITH NO MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION. I COULD HEAR STEVE SAY THAT HE DID NOT WANT TO TALK TO ME AS I WAS NOT IN HAWAII. HE WAS VERY RUDE. JUST IMAGE BEING 22 OVER 4000 MILES FROM HOME AND ALONE WITH NO TRANSPORTATION. SHE WALKED ACROSS THE STREET TO ALAMO AND RENTED A CAR WITH NO PROBLEMS!!!!!! IMAGE THAT BUDGET STATED HER DRIVER LICENSE WAS NOT VALID AND WITHIN 30 MINUTES SHE WAS IN A CAR. I TYPICALLY RENT FROM ENTERPRISE DURING OUR TRIPS TO KAUAI AND HAVE HAD GREAT SERVICE. SO IF YOU VISIT THE ISLAND DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET AND THERE UNDERAGE FEE IS MORE THAN OTHER RENTAL COMPANIES. THIS HAPPENED TODAY AT APPROXIMATELY 3PM ON MAY 13TH. THE PERSON WHO REFUSED TO RENT TO MY DAUGHTER IS STEVEN QUINTON.
Very bad customer service at Budget. Rented a car with credit card and prepaid but having problems getting a refund it was not indicated on website which cards are acceptable the clerk tried to put an additional fee on card it declined not my fault but Budget wants me to wait a week plus have supervisor approval for refund I didn’t need one to get my money. Very bad customer service Budget has just lost a loyal customer
The owner of the Kokomo IN location tried to fight me in his store. This is by far the worst customer service I have ever received in a business. Do not use this company for any reason. I have tried to get this resolved and only get put on hold or transferred to someone else.
TERRIBLE local customer service at both SA”V and HHI Airport locations. Desk and phone reps are rude and unaccommodating. I reserved an F150 and was given a down-graded Nissan truck that doesn’t fit my needs. I was offered NO other options and UNFRIENDLY service. I picked up the vehicle at 9:00 am this morning and have been on hold, been hung-up on, given attitude on the phone…. something about “it’s the weekend’ (when its only Thursday) – I got put on hold for saying it is only Thursday, I have been on hold for about 20 cycles of the same song now as I am typing this message. I have a Case ID# 19724678 from Cust. Service Corp…..Mr. Nelson, CEO – Mr. Wyshner, CFO and Mr. Gartland, COO… summer is here in Low Country, I hope you are reading this because you are in for an ugly rental season in these parts.
As a DOD member, I was forced to use Budget Rental car. I needed to extend a four-month lease by 7 days and after two days of attempts totaling 3 hours, I supposedly reached a supervisor (Newton) at Dulles International and he extended the lease stating that all his staff knew they could and who I spoke with. When I said I do not remember her name he blew it off and stated well it could be done. I stated that not only did the person state I couldn’t extend but needed to drive to Dulles to renew the contract they also said the supervisor was not in and provided a nonworking number to contact them. Not surprising though as the customer service line listed on the webpage doesn’t work as well. Newton never apologized and stated he would email the new contract. That has yet to arrive some 40 minutes later. If you attempt to call the corporate numbers listed above, they will not connect to a person without you knowing an extension. After seeing the aforementioned comments, I cannot imagine why rental with this company continues to be a practice by DOD and would not recommend their service to anyone.
This company is by far crazy as hell
I would really like to know who in the hell is operating the Budget Truck Rental you are too French-fried shy of your godd**n Happy Meal you call up to get information and you end up in eight different departments and still no word with a human on February 3rd 2017 a friend of mine rented a budget truck out of Asheville North Carolina February 4th 2017 he had an incident at 3:30 a.m. Commerce Georgia for three weeks we had no idea what happened were you that or nothing from my understanding when you rent a budget truck they asked for to emergency contacts I was not notified and another person was not notified that truck has all his personal belongings onto it any disabled there is too much bulls**t going on with this company our poor friend that has disability problems lost all his belongings and his furniture because no one at budget seems to know what’s going on so fair warning do not rent a truck from budget they lie and they still the owner of Budget Truck Rental City in barest so why don’t he or she get off their fat a** and straighten your company out hello stupid wake up
Reserved car online 2/28/17 for Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport 3/13/2017 returning 3/15/2017. Reserved the most car that I was willing to pay for mid size and was content with that decision. $185.11 total.
Arrived at locating after 7:30 pm on 3/13/2017. I am from Central time zone so that was after 9:30 pm. A really long day. Waited in line for 30+ minutes to reach one of the 3 agents working. Gave him my name and confirmation number 47083432US4. Agent asked what airline I flew in on. I said Southwest. He said I get Airline discount and free upgrade. New total $136.08 need to scan your card now. Was billed twice and customer service will not fix it. Said I signed contract and got the upgrade. But I never asked for an upgrade and I was intentionally misled. Late, waited a long time in line. 30 people in line behind me and only 3 agents working. I trusted your agent and signed the contract. When he asked to scan my card, I thought that was canceling first charge and entering a new one. When customer service said that I signed the contract and should have read what I signed he is saying never trust a Budget Rental Car employee? If your employees cannot be trusted not to cheat the customer then you are running a dishonest business. I ask, are there incentives for your employees to upgrade a customer after they reserved what they wanted online? What benefits or bonuses do you offer that employee to add things on at the counter? This is not fair and I am trying to work this out with you before I take other actions. Harlan Miguez Marshall Texas 75672. 903-930-XXXXX
hi i rented car from budget in march,2017, i had premium but when i went there lady was like they only have 2 cars, jeep liberty or mini van and i was so dissapointed they didn’t had car for me, i had to stay more then hour and ended up getting car from alamo. please if you’ll can fix this problem, bottom is address where i went car rent.
2491 Winchester Rd
Memphis, TN, 38116, United States
MEMPHIS INTL AIRPORT Phone Number:
901-332-2222
I was very disappointed with the customer service I received at the Frys 90th Street office. They did not have the car I requested and the Jeep SUV offered to me was not acceptable. I would not be comfortable driving a SUV. I was told they had no other cars and I could possibly wait for another car to be returned…unfortunately I did not get the man’s name..he was an older guy with black hair.
My nephew went to ask if another auto was available at another location and he was rudely told I’m speaking only to Margaret since the reservation is in her name. I asked if he could call another location to see if a similar car was available and he said he didn’t know any phone numbers. In the meantime my nephew got in touch with customer service and they directed him to your Doubletree Resort on Scottsdale Road who had a car available. Joshua couldn’t have been nicer. We were treated courteously and were on our way within 20 minutes.
When your representative found out my nephew called customer service he said he wanted nothing to do with it and you can just handle it yourselves. This was my first time even renting a car. Next time I will think twice about renting from Budget. I think that customer service was terrible and confirmed auto reservations should be honored. If nothing is available I think your representative should do all he can to locate a vehicle for us and not leave us to find one on our own.
Budget Confirmation Rental # 48093303US6
Rental Dates: Pick up 3/17/17- 3/24/17
Location: 1830 S. Wabash Chicago, IL
This is the worst budget rental car establishment EVER!! The management is very rude and not customer service friendly. I prepaid for a SUV Ford Explorer. But, instead, I received a dented dirty SUV and was told this was the only thing they had available. I requested another vehicle but they claimed nothing was available?!! I asked the manager if he could locate another vehicle for me at another location. He told me I could call around myself. I told him that per the agreement I should have received a car that was NOT dented and clean. I didn’t have time to argue with him so I left and took the Vehicle. I am seeking a full refund for my rental. I am a rapid rewards member and rent from you very often. I am planning to rent a tahoe for our Florida vacation for 10 days. Please respond ASAP!!!
Thanks,
Akilah Wiles
Ph: 312 465 XXXXX
I do not see my post so I will do it again. We rented a 12ft truck from the Woodbridge location. While waiting in line the customer before us told your service person that there was a problem with the truck she had just rented his reply was that a mechanic would look at it. The truck was then rented to us . The truck was pulling really bad to the right making it hard to keep in the lane and it was a very scary 4 hour drive we called customer service with in 10min after getting onto 95 she was no help. I have paperwork which shows the guy did not fill out the necessary information on there like the license plate number the milage on the truck and the papers to show the truck had been checked before being re rented. We also have a estimate for the rental and when we got there we were charged a extra $104 for insurance we did not want. We were told we could not rent the truck without it. We have rented 2 other trucks this month due to moving from penske and we had better service and the rate was better .l am hoping to hear from someone from the company because I will not stop till my $104 is refunded.
We rented a 12ft truck at the Woodbridge location. While waiting in line a customer returned a truck with a problem. The truck we were given was the same truck. It was not checked out before giving it to us .we experienced a very we believe a unsafe trip.l have paperwork to show that it was not filled out by the man. We were also forced to pay over $100 in insurance that we did not want.
Just adding one more ….totally dissatisfied client to this long list of issues….
My Advise BUDGET get out of the TRUCK RENTAL business….you don’t have the customer service support…every departments is in its own franchise world…and then not to have a Corporate access number is the worst….look at the long list of complaints below.
Shame on Budget
i rented a nightmare at budget i payed for a 7 day rental fee and was only 4 days late returning the full size car and was charged 3700 hundred dollars there full size rental suv ony cost 2300 for a month.when i ask why they pulled so much for rental cost they really caint answer me. what to do i will tell you the lies the distric mgr told me he said they whould reverse charges for latte fee and whatever else they racked up and it stills shows on my bank account .it hurts the most when your in the midde of a move and you dont have money to pay for your new place .i whould tell anybody do not rent from budget they are heartless and crooks.
The week of Jan 16 2017 my father let me know that I needed to hurry and get to Fl to come say goodbye to my grandmother. She had been in the hospital for almost a month and was doing quite poorly. While I was booking everything a friend recommended that I use priceline for my car rental. I did. The price was really good and it came out that For my trip to Sanford, Fl airport I was given Budget rent a car as my location. I had never used them in the past as I always use Enterprise. But being it was a good price and emergency I didnt care. My flight was booked for 1/23 and the airlines canceled it and rescheduled it to 1/24. When I called priceline I was told once I dont arrive to pick up the rental they can sent something to confirm and refund me the rental charge and go ahead and rebook another reservation. I did so once I was at the airport and saw the flight was truly going to happen. It went through with no issue. Upon landing we headed to get our luggage then went to pick up the rental car. The young man at the counter stated he couldnt find my rental. I gave him the confirmation #. He then stated that they need 24 hours notice on a reservation. I said then why would you not state that to priceline and allow a reservation to go through AND charge me the cost! He opened a few drawers and pulled out a set of keys and said oh luckily I have a car you can use. We filled out all the paperwork and were directed to pick up the vehicle not in the area immediately behind the counter designated for cars to be picked up, but in the car return lot across the parking lot. We walked across the lot with all of our suitcases and belongings located the car in the spot D15 and went on our way. After a short visit to say goodbye to my grandmother we returned the vehicle on 1/26 at 1pm. Made sure everything was ok in the car that the gas tank was filled and went to the counter. The same young man saw me waiting behind the couple he was caring for and said are you picking up or returning? I said Returning. He asked for the keys and told me to have a good day. I said thats it you dont come out to look at the vehicle? He said no thats it. Huge mistake. A couple weeks after I was home I got a letter from Budget. Upon opening it I saw I was being charged for a Cleaning maintenance Fee $250 and other various misc fees that totaled $294.24!!!!! I immediately called customer service. The young man Eric said he saw I owed nothing and all was paid up then stated my total. I said no my rental was only $55 for 2 days not $349.24 like he had just stated. So he dug deeper placed me on hold and when he came back on the line he said the fee was for smoking in the car. I said are you kidding me! He said no they have pictures and ashes were everywhere and the car smelled highly of smoke. I said 1 I had the car less than 48 hours. I assure you the car was NOT dirty did NOT highly smell of smoke and was not as you claim!!! I dont smoke. The rep stated I had to call the location at the Sanford airport (407)585-4427 and speak to a manager. Fine. I called and called and called. No answer at the location. Finally a few hours later an answer. I asked for a manager and Anne got on the line. I explained the letter I received, how I had 2 reservations, calling customer service and how when I picked up my vehicle I was given 1 form the return lot NOT the pick up lot. That the young man told me no vehicles then aha I have 1! She said ohhhhhh. Ok give me 48 hours and let me look into this no more than 72 hours I will call you back. She took my info. Well that was the last I ever heard from her. I have since received 2 letters. After the 2nd letter I again called the location. All of a sudden Anne only works days. When we originally spoke it was an evening. This man told me they rent from the return lot a often since the other lot only holds so many cars but that the return lot holds the rest. Let me mention they only have very limited spaces (maybe 5 if that) for return cars. So I didnt believe him. I told him I was waiting for her to call! He said he would relay the message and she would call. Since then I received no call. I then emailed the customer service email. I got a reply that was automated and assigned a # KMM14419693V6775L0KM on 2/27. Nothing since that automated reply that someone would help me. Since then I have received a 3rd letter. It states Due to your lack of response to our requests for payment of your rental agreement referenced below, we will be suspending your rental priveleges. And I had 10 days to pay or I would be sent to collections!!!!! I have since emailed again. I have given them 12 hours to reply and then I will contact the attorney general as well as the better business bureau. I can prove all my calls on my phone log as my emails. Also no incoming calls from them on the call log! This is ridiculous! You give me an unclean car and then want to charge me $294 for it to be cleaned! It was dirty! It has been a horrible experience. I will place myself on the list and suspend my own rental “privileges”. I should have stuck with Enterprise. I have used them for years and NEVER an issue. I just wanted to save $ after having to book an impromptu trip to see my dyeing grandmother! This has been the worst rental experience and Customer Service experience of my entire life. I will let everyone know and spread it like wildfire on social media if it is not resolved soon. I will contact the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau. Customers should be valued not taken for granted. On this page I see an awful lot of employees that treat customers badly with no penalty and a Company that doesn’t care about Customers. How sad. I am hoping someone from Corporate cares and doesn’t want this to continue. I need someone to help me with this matter!!!!
Has anyone got their problems resolved? Or did they just ignore you because we are currently having issues akndbthey aren’t helping at all. My husband and I are veterans and I’m going to contact every military personnel that I am connected with to NEVER rent from BUDGET for their PCS moves
I have been ignored for almost 2 months now. I am giving them 12 more hours then I will be contacting the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau! I have never had such a poor experience.
I had an awful experience with Budget Rental cars in Orlando Florida. Very dishonest employees that are targeting women and seniors and charging them additional fees without their consent. I told them I did NOT want the gas option. Instead they checked that I agreed to it. I brought the car back with a full tank and when I reviewed my receipt it said that I had agreed to the gas option. I knew I had not agreed so I contacted customer service and was told tough luck – we have a contract that says you agreed to the gas option. I even included a receipt that showed I had bought the gas at a station next to my hotel. Who brings back a car with a full tank of gas if they agreed to the gas option? Really Budget – never again and I am using social media to let as many as possible know how rude you are and all about your dishonest practices. Check twitter – it is already there.
I said I don’t hate, but today I HATE Budget rental truck.
Budget Car Rental on Independence Blvd. at 4430 E Independence Blvd. has some very dishonest, untrustworthy people working there. (Gonna try to shorten events) On February 11, 2017 I rented a truck in Greenville, NC to bring my daughters apartment items home to Charlotte. The rental was supposed to be from February 11-13th. We did not need the truck that long, so as it states on their website and per the customer service representative, if they have a drop off box, we can leave the keys AND my paperwork in their box. We delivered the rental truck on Sunday February 12, 2017 around 8pm and dropped the keys in the section on the drop box and the paperwork in the other section and parked the rental truck in their parking lot. We followed instructions.
On February 20th I received an email from Steve Saint Louis | Inventory Manager | Local Market Southeast Region (that’s the way it was in my email) indicating that the local office had not received the truck….. I emailed him back saying we had already turned in the truck. He said I needed to contact the local office. I called the local office on Independence Blvd. The associate on the line said they did not have the vehicle. I asked if they had filed a police report because obviously it had to be stolen. She said they had not. I told her I would be there the next day with police to file a report. On February 21st I arrived before the police and spoke to the manager. She seemed very nonchalant about the fact that the vehicle not being there and informed me that they don’t handle stolen vehicles, missing vehicles in their office and that’s its done through corporate. I waited for the police. Once there we walked the building, looking at the drop box and parking lot. Now, there is A LETTER SAYING NOT TO PUT KEYS AND PAPERWORK IN DROPBOX. I attached it.That letter was NOT there before. Long story short, I filled out necessary paperwork with police, Budget reporting and had not received any contact until today our account was debited $1681.00. They said it’s because we kept the truck for 17 DAYS!!! WHAT AM I DOING WITH A DAMN BUDGET TRUCK FOR 17 $$%^#%$ DAYS??!!! SO THEY HAVE THE TRUCK.
After being transferred 5 times and on the phone with Budget for 2 hours, I was able to get through to the local store and was informed by Briana (employee) that they don’t have records of when the truck was returned because after 48 hours their local records are wiped clean… WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?! Briana has me on hold for 45 minutes because she’s “looking for the receipts of when the truck was returned”. I’m sure she spoke to the untrustworthy manager so they could get their lie together. When I spoke to Customer Service they said they could not see what happened between 2/21 and today when the $1681 charge hit our account. That’s why he called the local store with no answer. I am contacting corporate because this company has dishonest employees who did something with the truck, did not correctly follow policy and procedures and tried to stick their dishonestly on a customer and need to refund us our hard earned money.
I rented a vehicle from the Budget in Tampa Airport. NEVER again will I use budget. I rented a car January 22, had to get to Florida as my father died. No one at the counter told me if you use the Sun Pass you pay tolls and a $3.75 charge per day for the entire rental even if you use it only one day. I spent $4.76 in tolls and $19.75 for the pass in the car. If they told me I would not have used the toll roads.That was a scam which I reported to Budget. I had to return in February, to bring my mother back, and we got in late and found the computers were down. Good thing I carry paper reservation confirmation or I would not have revived a car! The employee helping me was writing out my rental while the other employee kept complaining she wanted to go home. After I was finished they both left. They had no American cars so instead of the focus I requested the day before I got a Hyundai, which was garbage. There was now a sheet on the dash explaining the sun pass which I did not use this time, I took all non toll roads.Drove my parents car and only used to get to their house and back from the airport. I called to complain and waited 30 minutes to get an agent at customer service number, I was told I would receive a credit. I returned the car and was told there was NO credit, I am misinformed. Very rude person at the counter, it resulted in us yelling at each other and another 30 minute wait on customer service. I was then told they have the credit but it takes a week AFTER the rental to receive it on my card. Would have been nice if they told me! VERY POOR customer service, 2 times and you are out for me. I will use Hertz in future!
To start off I thought my roommate was renting a car from Enterprise not from budget but when we got to budget I told him that I had friends in Executive offices at Enterprise and that he could get a better deal at Enterprise because of the people that I know but I figured I would give budget a try since the car was going to be for me I wanted to see what kind of deal he would get for me when we got there I had forgotten bring my driver’s license and had to go home for it to bring it back I got back there the office is closed but they released the car earlier to my friend when we went to return the car we were told that the car was a no-smoking car and that somebody had smoked in the car and they produced one that was about an eighth of an inch long and said because of that little ass they had to charge us $75 for a detail when I asked the person that was working there woman who was rude obnoxious and by the way she also is your biggest liar there I have been in business and the health department finance department also GSM and general manager of different car dealerships when she said she was sending it out to have a detailed in Victorville California I asked her which shop would you be sending it to you since it was 3 in the afternoon and most shots won’t take car after 3 because there’s no way they can get it done in time to give it back to them that day she told me she was taking it to these local picture the car wash on 7th Street and it would be leaving and going there shortly I know the owner of the Victorville Car Wash George is the owner’s name and I had used him for years for details my cars and also other dealerships that I’ve worked for when I drove time the budget Office later I saw the car had all four doors open plus the hatch the lot man was vacuuming cleaning windows and I believe he had already washed the car which is what your company does with every car and it’s no charge on further review and she said it was going to go to the Victorville car wash I drove by the Victorville car wash with another friend of mine so I have a witness the car never made it there the car wasn’t going to go there because your lot man and sprayed new car scent in the car so that it would kill the supposes cigarette smell in the car I was the one that had a cigarette but not actually in the car the wind blew that ass in the car because I have a disease of the spine and I cannot stand for a very long time so with my feet outside of the car I sat down in the driver seat Bobby extended out of the car the wind must have blown them one single Ash in that car and she proceeded to charge my friend $75 for a detail that was never done by Victorville car wash I told my friend right from the start Enterprise because I had dealt with them for years buying cars from them that are coming out of their inventory and going to the auction I have bought hundreds if not thousands of cars from Enterprise and have a good relationship with them my connect at Enterprise is Steve Nasser so if you want to run his name and check to see does he really work there please do and ask him if he knows me because my name is at the top of this I will be contacting Steve at Enterprise on Monday morning when he’s in his office and we’ll get a upgrade on any car for the lower price for my friend and he will become a member of I believe it’s that are prized club or whatever because they give the members special discounts upgrades when they want to run Sub Compact it will upgrade them to the next level for free the gentleman that rented this car is dealt only with you people you treated him like garbage she gave him a hard time she was rude to me because I didn’t give them my license well they told me to go home and get it and that’s what I did and when I got back they were closed and she was very rude about that and made the comment that they shouldn’t have done it if you look at my email address it’s also the business address I would love to hear from you and have you explain this one I even made the comment to the woman and I know the owner of that car wash I know the owners of just about every car wash in Victorville California because I try shop them and I try shop rental cars I try shop clothing I try shop everything and when she pulled that cheap bow down Shrek on the guy that’s been in the car business for 40 years Not only was that a stupid move but it’s a move she’ll soon regret because I will let everybody at the Chamber of Commerce know I will let everybody at the Better Business Bureau know I will tell all of my friends which are doctors lawyers judges not to even think about renting a car from budget Avis again and your office is right by the court house so you can cherish all those judges to buying when they have a repair being done on your car and they need a rental car I will have front door service from Enterprise for them I gave you guys a shot guess what you blew it now I can see why you’re out of the retail car business you had a big facility here in Victorville and whoever was running it ran it into the ground and you guys closed now I can see why because your rental car I was going through Google and looking at your different ads how you have special pricing all the good stuff why don’t you tell your loyal customers when they go in person to rent a car the specials you have why are you trying to rip them off at they don’t ask no tell them 40 years in the car business the first thing my salesman or trained to do is argue here for the sailboats it’s good people at armagosa budget office worked for me they would have a paycheck waiting for him at the end of the day and I would ask them where do you plan on working now and when they told me I would call the other people and warn them what the Liars cheats they are thieves I learned a hard lesson in the car business and that was I lied to a customer and it came back to haunt me over and over and over again and I made a vow to myself that was never again goodbye to a customer and to be honest at all costs for any questions that they ask me my salespeople my management anybody lies when the customer leaves so do they you must have big problems with in your corporate structure you need to hire a training team to retrain your people because they’re killing you they’re slowly taking you down the drain and this is how they’re doing it lie cheat steal what else would you call it I don’t call it good business when the gentleman is probably rented up hundreds of cars from me because he will not drive his Mercedes-Benz down the hill to other towns because he doesn’t want to put the wear and tear on it and he always uses you when he rents a car but guess what as of today starting Monday he will be using Enterprise exclusively and you can kiss that customer goodbye because I know I will never hear from you some idiot at a reception desk Marie this and trash it it’ll never ever get to any upper executive branches to read in ending this the only thing I can say is you need a training seminar or hire a training company to go in and weed out the bad keep the good hire new people that have never been in the business and train them to your specifications and you might have a chance at surviving I trained my own sales people when they came to work at any dealership that I was running my last class was for people started hunting sales they are all management today and not just at car dealerships cuz two of them are in the furniture business management because of my train Carr’s Furniture we all know jewelry we all know it’s all the same I really hope I get a response from you because if I don’t a copy of this to sound of going to the Better Business Bureau and anyone else that I can think of the send it to and anyone else that I can think of the send it to to let them know have a great weekend if you read this from your home you might want to think how many are they losing in Victorville in a week
PAYLESS CAR RENTAL TAMPA
1965 N WESTSHORE BLVD, TAMPA, FL 33607
(813) 289-2671
09:00 AM
WEDNESDAY 03/01/2017
This is where I picked up a 26′ rental truck that I had made reservations for over the phone on 2/28/17. I got this truck from this facility, drove 3.4 miles to arrive where I needed to pick up cabinets. Once I got there, I started loading truck with my cabinets, and I needed to move the truck to the other side of the parking lot to start loading the other set of cabinets. However the truck failed to start. I called the office listed above, where I rented the truck, they informed me to call the roadside service, which I did. This was around 10:00am. The roadside service man showed up about an hour later, and he replaced a fuse in the dash, then he started the truck 2 times and said, “your good to go”. He left and when I got into the truck to move it within 10 minutes, it didn’t start. I called the roadside service man back and told him the truck will not start again. The man said he knew he recognized this truck, as it was NOT supposed to be rented due to repair issues, and that they should have NEVER rented me the truck.
The mechanic also said this truck was “FLAGGED” for repairs over 3 weeks as it was known to have serious ignition issues, and it was an electrical issue and causing the fuses to blow.
With this being said from him, he stated he would try and get back shortly with a new ignition switch, within an hour. He showed up with new ignition at 3:00pm, and installed it. However he didn’t get a “NEW SET OF KEYS” for the new ignition switch.How the hell do they expect the old key to work with a new ignition? The mechanic said we will have to get the truck towed, and he called his supervisor to inform them that they needed to get me a “replacement truck”, and get this one towed for repairs.
Please keep in mind that I am in a very bad part of town with my wife, a truck loaded with cabinets that won’t start, in the heart of MLK crime infested neighborhood. It was a good thing I carry a gun legally, because I may have to protect myself and my wife. It is now 4:00pm in the afternoon, and no replacement truck. Budget left my wife and I there stranded in the heart of MLK. I called up the place where I rented the truck once again and asked “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THE REPLACEMENT TRUCK”. The person stated that “I’m RESPONSIBLE” for the truck and to call roadside service. I told this MORON from Budget Truck Rental, “You rented me a bad truck and it’s not my responsibility, it’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY”.
I told my son to go to UHUAL and see if they have a truck, which they did thank GOD. We got the UHAUL truck, unloaded all cabinets from the budget truck, then loaded them into the UHAUL truck, along with all the other cabinets that were on other side of parking lot. We finally started our journey back at 5:45pm to Cape Coral, FL. Budget Truck rental roadside service calls me up, saying they have found a replacement truck for me and they were going to get it out to me when they come and tow their truck. I told the dispatch for roadside service, that they can keep their truck, that I rented a UHAUL, and I was on my way back home. They said they needed to pick up the broken down truck, and asked me where it was located. Can you believe they don’t know where the mechanic came out to repair the truck? I said to the roadside truck service dispatch, “Are you that incompetent that you don’t know where your truck is located for towing”. I had stated that whoever comes out to get the truck had better have a gun for protection, because they will need one.
After a very STRESSFUL day of removing 10 sets of kitchen upper and lower cabinets from all the apartments, loading them up on a broken Budget truck, only to unload them just to load them again in the UHAUL, and unload them again at my final destination, I’m DONE with Budget Truck Rental, and AVIS. Poor service, truck was filthy, looked like they haven’t cleaned the windshield in months as it was filthy, the gas gauge showed full at pickup, and showed 3/4 full after driving 3.4 miles when truck broke down. Budget should be ashamed of themselves.
My son used to work for Uhaul and said “Dad I bet Budget rented this truck to you because it was a one way rental, and they could pawn it off onto the other drop off facility so they didn’t have to deal with the truck repairs, and make it their problem, at your expense”. I told my son that he’s probably right, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
I DEMAND an explanation, and apology from Budget. Even if I get one I will NEVER rent anything from Budget or Avis. They can POUND SALT where the sun doesn’t shine. Budget should be glad that something bad didn’t happen to us, by leaving us stranded in the heart of MLK Blvd. I can assure you of this much. If something did happen to myself or my wife, being budget left us stranded, they would need to be worried about me, because the owners of Budget would see the other end of a fully loaded gun pointed at them. BTW I would never pull my gun out unless I plan to use it, Get the POINT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had a HORRIBLE experience with the Budget Truck Rental located at 500 Newtown Rd, Suite C, Virginia Beach, VA. I spoke with a “Lisa” who was the most rude and unhelpful representative. There was a reservation set for 2/26/17 at 10am to pick up a truck. Upon arrival, there was no truck. So here we are, wondering how a reservation was made and there is no truck available- no phone call was given to even let us know that prior to arrival. She began talking about another location we could “try” but there was no guarantee because that location wasn’t answering the phone. I work in the legal field and I understand what a reservation is, as well as taking accountability for errors made. Lisa wanted to send us to another location, however, that is not the location in which the truck was reserved and that wasn’t a sure plan. If a truck was available, it should have been sent to this location. When I let her know this, she began to raise her voice at me, told me to “figure it out, Good luck” and hung up on me. Needless to say, I am shocked the Budget allows it’s employees to treat customers this way!
Feb 21,2017 They are horrible and they LIE I tried to set a reservation and online it saved the incorrect name, I tried to get them change it ” according to them they couldn’t the person name is WAS in had to cancel it keep in mind it was my CREDIT CARD,MY BILLING ADDRESS, MY EMAIL the person name it saved was underage. so either way they could not get the car. I had my child call to change the name and the 7 reps I spoke with stated ” the name can not be changed” after being told ” it could”. During this time the proceeded to process, the charges. no I am out of the money and NO rental car, or my own vehicle because after being told they could change name , then they couldn’t. They have the audacity to want to charge me a cancellation fee ? Then they last rep tells me he can wave the cancellation fee yet I get a confirmation of cancellation and thry took the cancellations fee after all. I can not get ahold of the ” corporate number, its just a BS phone system.
Everybody needs to read the comments of Angela Dotson below. My experience was not typical? It was exactly like hers.
On 2/9/17 at 12:12 pm, I rented a Budget truck at your rental facility located at 1250 N Federal Hwy, Pompano Beach. The truck drove fine when empty at normal city speeds so I assumed that it was fine. I loaded it with my son’s furniture that afternoon.
The next morning, I began my journey to drop off the furniture in my son’s new home in St. Petersburg, FL. Even loaded, the truck drove normally on city streets. I took the Sawgrass Expressway from Deerfield Beach, FL to I-75. Then I-75 to St. Petersburg, FL. Basically, interstate limited access highway the entire way.
Once on the highway, the truck would wander from side to side. You could not correct your course too quickly or the truck would veer into the next lane. Every time I was passed by a semi truck, the air build up on the front of the semi would push me to the side. Even pickup trucks and some cars caused the same effect. I had to slow to 20 miles per hour below the speed limit to control the truck. I had to drive in the right lane the whole way so that when I was pushed out of my lane by air build up from a passing vehicle, I would drive off of the road to the right where there were no other vehicles to hit. If someone was going slower or entering the highway at a slower speed, I just had to slow down and stay in the right lane. I could not risk driving into the adjacent lane to the left because of the aforementioned handling characteristics of the truck. It was exhausting driving this truck and constantly making steering adjustments for 260 miles.
After unloading it, it drove fine on city streets below 45 miles per hour. It was when the truck was loaded that it became unstable. This truck is unsafe to keep in the active rental inventory until it is repaired. This truck shows every bit of its 114,000 miles both in appearance (dents, worn upholstery, bad smelling cab, etc.) and performance. I turned it in to Budget Truck Rental of Largo on 2/10/17. I advised the female clerk of the condition of the truck. She told me that she would take it off line until it can be repaired.
After contacting Customer Service by phone, I was offered a 10% discount. I told them it was unacceptable and I was then offered a 15% discount. I told Customer Service that I wanted to complain further and I was told to contact them by email at btr-customerservice @avisbudget.com. I gave them the above information. I emailed them and Adrianne
Level 2 Customer Service Agent 32537 responded. She said that Budget strives to maintain a mechanically sound truck fleet. She said that my experience was not typical and because the truck was used and served its purpose, she could only offer a $42 refund.
Yes I rented a car on Tues 2-07-2017 and drop off sat the 11th. 1st of all i selected the gas opp but when i got to the counter it was not on their I picked up the car early on that day they ask me did I want to include that opp i said yes. So on sat the day to return i call and ask for an extra day and i will return the car by 7 instead of 5 the rep said 29.00 has been added to the account. Now when i return the car i see the bill it’s 129.00 extra now they want to offer me 30 credit saying i have it all wrong. i will never rent with this company ever again and i will make sure to tell everyone.
I have going to Budget Fastbreak customer for years. But now I’ve had it I’ve called the customer service number and ask them to refund me the money that they have on hold in my account. They have not refunded the money and it’s been over 24 hours they said it only takes a couple of hours. I am filing a complaint as we speak with the Better Business Bureau. That money was used as an emergency out of my student account I attend the University of Houston. I will never use Budget rental car again. The people that answer the phone can speak a little English but can’t interpret English. They want you to give them a fax number to your bank they want to know the name of your bank and want to know the number on your credit card when they have everything that they’re asking you for on file and then they want a fax number to fax the bank to reverse the charges. What a backwards operation. Budgets customer service is horrible! This isn’t my first experience with this with Budget! They will receive my complaint for the Better Business Bureau in two days according to the Better Business Bureau website. By the way they have already charged me for the rental and they’re still holding cash so they’ve gotten their money and they’re still holding my money! BEWARE!
On January 28, 2017 I picked up a truck from Budget Truck Rental in Jackson, TN. The truck we rented was horrible! After we loaded up my whole apartment that morning and proceeded to get on the interstate later that evening I realized something was wrong with the truck. The steering wheel was uncontrollable like the truck was so bad out of line i had to drive 35-40 miles pee hour on the interstate! I called budget multiple times only to be transferred to multiple people who didn’t speak clear English and when they didn’t understand they kept hanging up on me numerous times!! When someone finally was able to talk to me to explain the situation I was disconnected once again! I couldn’t receive any help I was stuck driving a bad dangerous truck with my two children inside all the way from Jackson, TN to Greensboro, NC over 700 miles. What normally takes 8.5-9 hours took two days because the truck was swaying and the steering wheel was uncontrollable!! The most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in within all my life. I normally rent from Uhaul this was my first time renting from Budget and my last. The customer service I received was horrible and my two kids and I could have lost our lives traveling in an unsafe truck. When I returned the truck on yesterday Jan 30, 2017 the man at the 1820 Battleground Ave Greensboro, NC location was the only one who showed concern. I paid too much money and had to spend out extra money due to stops because the truck was so badly out of line. Budget should care more about the safety of their customers. If there is legal action that can be taken I will be seeking it. No one should have to pay $525 and risk the lives and safety of their families or belongings due to poor service and consideration. I will be seeking further advice on this matter. I am still a nervous wreck over all this. I will never ever refer anyone to this company!!
I don”t see my comment I made on this page yesterday that’s ok, I did post it on Facebook and no one can take it down but “ME”! Thank You, at least I know you saw and are aware of my concern
Correction ( I wasn’t able to correct or edit my initial comment)
To all that this “May Concern ” Especially within ‘The Corporate Office”‘, I was writing initially on my situation which I have found on your “Corporate Office Page”, the same issues that I am having as well. As a former “Customer Service Representative”, I don’t see how you got your Customer Service Reps are satisfied with their jobs on the front lines dealing with these messy issues, You must be paying them very well with all these complaints that I’m seeing on your “Corporate” page. Don’t be surprised if you end up with a “Class Action” suit against you and Your Company”. I wonder if any of these complaints or page have been shared it on “Facebook”! (Hum) ?
The worst experience I have ever had!!!!!!! Im still trying to get to my destination. The first truck we had the check engine light came on and we didnt even leave yet!!! Wtf so they clearly dont check their trucks prior to renting to customers. Then we had to get our stuff moved to tryck #2 and guess what the f-ing check engine like just came on in that truck!!! Now we are stranded in God only knows where
They better get back to me ASAP or they will get this blasted on social media and im callin corporate until they pick up!!! Also i will report to better business Bureau because this is FRAUD!!!!!!!
On my reservation I was scheduled to rent a Buick Verano or something similar, however when I arrived at Budget that was not the case. The non friendly representative advised me he had a Hyundai available, which was fine. When I inspected the Hyundai the front window was down and it was raining, so the seat was window, so that car was not an option. The representative advised me he had a Kia Optima which I inspected and it was fine. The agent advised me the Kia was more money since it was in a different class, I felt it was unfair because the Hyundai I would have taken if the seat wasn’t wet. He stated it was going to be $10.00 more however, he would give me a 5% discount. I took the Kia, because I was in a bind and needed a rental. I still felt I was taken advantage of,and his nonchalant attitude didn’t help at all. He said I can go to other car rentals and see if they can rent me a car within the airport. However, no other company had cars available due to the weather and I’m sure he knew that was the case. I checked my credit card statement yesterday and I was charged $84.92 and the rental agreement was $43 and change due to the upgrade. I returned the car with a full tank of gas and no damages so so i am unsure where the additional amount is coming from. I attempted to call customer service and the phone hangs up. I am still attempting to reach them.
We rented a car at Tampa international on 12/23-12/31. 18 days later, I received a letter stating, due to “finding pet hair in the interior of the car” I am going to be charged 150.00 cleaning fee. 1st off, the “pet” hair is not from a pet, but a service dog that my 6yr old type 1 diabetic needs. 2nd, you are going to charge me 150.00 to vacuum, which that is something you should be doing anyway? There was no pictures sent with said letter, the hair was not excessive, and this is a SERVICE DOG. I’m sure the ADA is going to love this story! I contacted the number on the letter, spoke to a Jackie who stated she was going to “file” this complaint. I received no complaint number. She also told me to call the manager of the Tampa location, which I did, to never receive a call back. I’ve let everyone know on every social media outlet that I can, filed a complaint with the BBB, and you will NOT be receiving 150.00 from me or my business…ever again. For anyone reading this, for your sake, do NOT use Budget/Avis rental car company! I wish I would have read reviews before I did, they have a lot of complaints. After posting on social media, I also learned of quite a few friends that had been scammed as well.
After renting from budget this will be the last time I do so . I rented a truck from Budget as you can see below the return time clearly states 5:00 PM they charged my card without notice $187.35 for a extra day rental when I returned it 2 hours early . When I tried to speak to CS about it they said it was a 9:00 am drop off , clearly they have different paperwork than me . I was shuffled around to the point that they could not or would not give me corporate number to dispute this nor did they provide me with a reciept for the additional charges . THIS IS THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE DEALT WITH IN A LONG TIME !
Location, Date & Time
Pick Up
Budget Of Everett
12415 Highway 99 South,
Everett, WA 98204
(425) 355-8349
09:00 AM, Fri, Jan 06
Drop Off
Budget Of Wenatchee
1 Pangborn Drive,
East Wenatchee, WA 98802
(509) 886-1066
05:00 PM, Sun, Jan 08 that
Budgets employees are horrible when it comes to customer service. I received my credit card statement and noticed an increase of approximately $500.00. I reviewed the information and noted that Budget not only charged me for the vehicle I actually rented (not included in the $500.00) but also for a vehicle I didn’t rent. I contacted Budget and the representative stated that I (and I’m only saying I because the agent accused me of being the person who rented the car) rented a car at the Orlando Airport on October 21st and was to return the vehicle on October 23rd. However, I kept the vehicle and did not return it until October 28, 2016 around 12:30pm (I was in New Orleans at work at that time). I informed the representative that I did not rent a vehicle on the the 21st of October and I was no where near the state of Florida at that time. I further stated that I reside in New Orleans, Louisiana and did not arrive in Florida until October 28, 2016 at approximately 6:30 pm on a Southwest flight at which time, I proceeded to the outside (Fastbreak counter) airport rental area to retrieve my reserved vehicle. I informed the representative who that I did not rent the vehicle in question, however she continued to accuse me. I offered to provide my Southwest flight itinerary, my time sheets from work for the week in question (required to clock in using my finger or via my mobile phone which logs my location and city coordinates) as well as a notice from the Primary Care Physician (Doctor’s appt. on 10/27/2016), statements from the employees that I manage, my supervisor and sign in sheets from meetings I attended during the week. In return, I requested a copy of the rental agreement for the time in question as well as the identification used when the car was rented on October 21st, 2016. I requested a dispute of the charges and as of this writing, I have yet to hear from anyone regarding the findings of the investigation. Since my initial contact to dispute the $463.62 charge an additional charge of $20.75 has been charged to my card for the use of tolls. I’ve reviewed the rental agreements and noticed it reads “Your vehicle was rented to you by Steve” on October 21st as well as the car I actually rented on October 28th. Additionally, I was informed that my credit card number was manually entered as opposed to swiped for the October 21st, 2016 rental. I received a dispute number for an investigation and an email from Jose Cintron asking for more info. More than 2 and a half months later not one Budget employee has called me with a resolution. I flew back to Orlando, Florida to investigate myself and after an hour and a half of research, was informed that this person had three open contracts at the same time (2 budget and 1 with Avis) a and vehicle trace should have been completed.
Additionally, before I exit the Orlando airport rental area, I’m required to provide my rental agreement and a license to an attendant in a Budget booth. How did this person exit the premises without being stopped and/or questioned when presenting an ID that did not match the rental agreement? I followed up with Budget regarding the claim and was informed that it is my responsibility to contact the company to learn the resolution and a 30 dollar voucher was given to me to cover the cost of the toll charges placed on my card. I’ll be filing a complaint with the BBB.
Hi: I just wanted to get back with you All … I have had the worst troubles trying to get a car rented from you All . I have Spent many Hours this week trying to get things in line or a trip im taking in Apr…… So let me give you a briefing of what I have been through.. first call to reserve a car the Service rep. had me at 205.07 with taxes and fees … said he would send Email to me never got this so called back and when I did your ph. it recalled my # and asked if I was Bicus I said No because my last name was spelled wrong By Rep. taking my call and they wouldn’t honor the same Price I was Quoted on the same date and time of pick up of the car and drop off … so when I was in the Phone with them had to set up new reservation well the price just went up for Your mistake I had them redo the order for same date and pick up and drop off it went up to the price of 214.82 now … so after Getting the email Conf# of the reservation of the car noticed that the Pick up Time was Not right and the drop Off time was not right had me getting the car at 7:30 PM not what I had asked them to put me at 7:30-8 Am because my Flight gets in at 7:05AM and yes I told them what time it was landing in DENVER that morning ….. So Yes Once Again I had to Call Back For YOUR Mistake Again for the Time of Pick UP and Drop Off time were Messed Up .So after talking to a REP. on the Phone for another 45 Mins they told me because of the times messed up I would have to pay More Again it has now went to $220.73 …So they Gave me the # to try and get this all straighten Up with All the Pricing I have Incurred over this week they wouldn’t Honor the First price quoted I only got another Price that was Higher then I had before Now it was 221.?? this was with My Discount for Toyota … so Once Again I locked it in and went over the Reservation in the Email they had me down for the Wrong Car this TIME … So at this time I have had Enough I just Now Canceled the Reservations and will not be Going with you All. thank you Very Dissatisfied with the service I had with you team.. P.S. get Rep that Can Speak English I think this is the reason for All of the Troubles
This was Not Fair for me to Keep having the Increase in Prices which was NEVER my Fault All on the Budget REPS.
Ok gotta complain; Budget truck rentals is the WORST! Thought I saw the last of these people when the truck we rented BROKE DOWN 50 miles outside our destination in Boise. We waited 2 hours for a mechanic to come out and check the truck and THEN had to wait another 2 hours before they paid for a ride back to our destination in the cold!
2 months later I check my account and these people removed the truck rental charges from my account AGAIN- where I was shocked to see another over 1000.00$ removed from my account and had to spend literally hours on the phone to fix! These people were called on the 26th of December and again today to see why I am not reimbursed for what was taken from my account. Currently looking into taking legal action for what happened. I never get onto these comments but had to say something; STAY AWAY FROM BUDGET-what a nightmare.
San Jose del Cabo- Budget… STAY AWAY from these people. All contracts only in Spanish.. you have no idea what you are signing. They put the fear of “all things Mexico” before you drive away.. the charges are nowhere near what you agree to in the initial contract… they are horrendously inflated… and finally- there is an employee who latches on to your car.. trying to sell you a timeshare— before you are off the lot, promising to get you the car rental for free. Seriously? I expect this at the resort/beaches… but not here.. NEVER going back to this budget, and will share experience everywhere… Paid a ridiculous sum of money for nothing.
My car was hit by a budget car rental who did not buy the insurance this accident was totally the budget car rental fault he did not give me ins informationand I thought I could get info from budget…Budget car rental failed to get instant n for from client n they claim they r not responsible for rented car this is a horrible way to run a business….n I planned n reporting your company to the BBB so this doesn’t happen to any one else !!!!!
They suck! Do not rent from them! I flew to my destination with a reservation for a truck on the other end and they did not have it and no interest in my problem! I had to call U haul and I don’t think anyone gave a dam or would give a dam with Budget from what I have been reading as to other situations which sound so much like what I just went through! Do NOT Trust them, Period
Skip it and call U haul!
i am 63 yrs old and dont work,but my husband is a Truck Driver (Semi)- I have tried twice to rent a car from the budget in wichita,ks
on E Kellogg -first time they said that i had to have a bill in my name to prove i lived there and that i could use our Debit card to rent one–
today i talked to the manager at that location –She was extremely RUDE to me –even when i told her im 63 and dont work –she rudely replied well then we can rent u a car…With a manager like that with that kind of attitude I or my Family will never ever rent from them and will in turn let my friends know what my experience
was with this woman….we feel this was totally uncalled for –I did nothing to ask for that kind of treatment….
Military community, if u have a move coming up and u don’t want to be left without a moving truck two days before you are moving DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT rent trucks with budget. That is what is happening to us right now, two days before a move Budget decides to cancel our reservation we’ve had for over three weeks now. HANG TO DRY. Probably to pay hundreds of dollars for a last minute reservation. Not to mention we dealt with the most incompetent, unwilling to help an to solve the situation for us, customer service I’ve ever seen. Beware of Kevin (inventory supervisor in the area, Havelock, NC).
I am shocked, that someone has 3 young black adults, all the same age, working together at the customer counter in Walnut Creek California. It is a fact, black people LOVE their cell phones, and LOVE to chit chat with each other constantly. As a former Store Manager, I cannot believe anyone would schedule 3 at the same time. Yes, they were chit chatting, yes, they all had their cell phones out and on the counter, and yes, they all were rather loud.
Oh, and yes, the “Manager” was in her office the entire time and did not say a word about the phones or the chatting.
YOU ARE JUST A RACIST DEVIL THAT HATES YOUR LIFE AS WELL AS YOUR KIDS. YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO TALK DOWN ON SOMEONE BECAUSE OF THEIR COLOR . I HOPE YOU AND YOUR KIDS ROT IN HELL YOU DEVIL.
42422 8th St E #103, Lancaster, CA 93535
Phone: (661) 942-0510
THE WORST SERVICE EVER!
We went to Lancaster 11/18/16, to move my 90 year old grandmother out of California and closer to family. It was 6 of my family members, 5 pm we got a phone call from Budget saying that they didn’t have a truck for us til Wed. even though we made reservations 2 months ago. As we kept calling budget because they didn’t close til 6 pm. We were switch from call center to call center didn’t get any answers what so ever! The next day we went to budget to see what other options we had. We got there a guy running the store ‘Kenny’ said well we tested the truck and it was a sensor, Kenny turned off the check engine light and we should be good to go. We are moving my 90 year old grandmother 1000 miles in this truck. As we load the truck My mother and father leave on the road to get home before us. Well the truck only made it 30 miles out of Lancaster California. We called budget it took Kenny’s brother Sam 2 hours, when Sam got to them he looked at the truck and told them that the truck needs to be towed back to the shop he will call a tow truck. It took the tow truck 3 hours to get to my parents as they were waiting they kept in touch with Kenny, Kenny said the tow truck should be there in 20 mins than 25 mins which turned into 3 hours so my husband brother said forget this we are going to pick them up which took 25 mins as they approached our parents the tow truck showed up and said “I only have room for 1 person” good thing my husband and brother showed up!. The next day which was 11/20/16 We went to Budget to see what was going on well Kenny told us that the lot got broken into including our truck. We have yet to see what was stolen and had all my 90 year old grandmothers stuff in there. Kenny said it would be a couple hours before a cop could get there to fail a report. By Now we had enough so we took matters into our own hands. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET YOU WILL BE DEALING WITH A NIGHTMARE! Thank you U-Haul
nnacynt at aol.com after traveling four hours to get to my destination I arrived at budget 30 minutes early to be told I would need to wait until my rental time or I could be charged for the prior day, which jacked up the cost considerably it doesn’t make sense that you wait for at least 20 minutes in line and another 25 minutes for processing. System needs updating. The rep Taghi worked out my anxiety.
please see below the correspondence with myself and the manager of the Budget rental in Montreal and they still haven’t done anything about it…she is mailing gift cert…haha
I will never rent from Budget again and will advise anyone else who is renting a car to never use budget
Hello,
Unfortunately I cannot remove insurance off a contract after the contract is closed. You have every right to rent the car without accepting the insurance but you will be fully responsible if there were an accident or damage to the car. Why did you not ask to speak to a manager at time of rental? I had 2 managers on duty that day.
Any modification that has to be done on rentals has to be done at the time of renting the car. I do apologize for the inconvenience and again, as a courtesy gesture I will send you customer service coupons in the mail that can be used next rental.
Budget rental #948058414
Thanks,
Rita
From: kaeti bahm [mailto:kaetibahm at hotmail.com]
Sent: November-03-16 12:12 PM
To: Khouri, Rita
Subject: Re: car rental issue third request
I never received this email and we did refuse the insurance as I stated in my first email and we were made to purchase it from u in order to get car…we had our own insurance and did not need yours but again we were told we had to even when we refused it??? So therefore we want the $ credited back to our card…gift certificates for future rentals is not what we want…I would like this dealt with properly please
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 3, 2016, at 9:09 AM, Khouri, Rita wrote:
Hello,
I had answered you back yesterday 02November 2016. Please see my email response below.
Thanks,
Rita
From: kaeti bahm [mailto:kaetibahm at hotmail.com]
Sent: November-03-16 11:02 AM
To: Khouri, Rita
Cc: brentlong88 at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: car rental issue third request
Hello,
This is the third email I am sending in regards to our rental car(see below)…I would like a responses back today from you or I will be calling budget head-office in New Jersey and will be dealing with the issue myself as well as mentioning that you the manager of budget Montreal airport have not done your job by emailing us back and letting us know you are handling our issue.
Thanks
Kaeti and Brent Long
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 2, 2016, at 7:41 AM, kaeti bahm wrote:
Hello Rita,
Again I am emailing you in regards to our car rental from at the Montreal airport Friday Oct 28 – Oct 31 Reservation # 38592311CA0. When we picked up the vehicle from your employee Vanessa on Friday she told us we could not rent a vehicle if we did not purchase insurance through budget??? We have rental insurance through our own insurance as well as through our credit card and did not need it but again were told we needed to purchase your insurance in order to get the rental. Upon bringing the vehicle back on Monday i went to your counter as were billed the 162.00$ for insurance we did not want or need through you. We spoke to Julie on shift who informed us that we did not need to purchase your insurance and she wasn’t sure why we were made to get it?? with that being said we want the 162.00$ credited back to our credit card for this insurance charge. This is the second time we have rented a car from budget and the second time we have had an issue. This is not a very good way to run a business if your employees don’t know the actual protocol when renting a vehicle to your customers and we now have a very bad taste in our mouths for Budget rental. If you could please get back to me in regards to this as soon as possible it would be much appreciated.
Thank you
Brent Long
I would like to file a grievance with Budget. My car rental experience
was a horrible one. I had a terrible experience not with any employee of
the company but with the vehicle itself. Upon driving the tire came off
the vehicle which caused us to nearly lose total control of the car.
Thank God we were not killed. The emergency service that came said that
this should have never happened and this car should have been checked by
maintenance before being rented out. I have all the pictures that I
would like to send in. When I rented the car at JFK Airport The
Operations manager Hyacinth said we would get a discount and we would
not be charged a penny more due to our unfortunate cirXXXXstances. The
clerk who rented us the vehicle Aldosia assured us we had complete
coverage when we rented. and the Senior Manager Leslie did not even want
to come to the counter to speak with us. Very unprofessional. I am now
being charged an extra $87.17. 2 months later after being guaranteed I
wouldnt be charged a penny more, I already paid $239.08 the night of the
car return which I paid but honestly, after what we went through being
no fault of our own, this fee should have been waived. What kind of
company puts your life at risk and then has the audacity to charge you?
After speaking to other companies, this car should have been inspected
upon being returned and if it was this would have never happened to us.
Please get back to me as my card keeps getting extra charges. I am one
outraged customer!
11/16/16
RE: Rental Experience
Budget Case: 18053313
Reservation: 38022036US3
Rental Agreement: U614867562
Dear Ms. Nilda,
Thank you for contacting Budget Customer Service regarding the flat
tire. We apologize for the mechanical issues you encountered with this
rental and we will be pleased to assist you with your concerns.
Budget takes great pride in our fleet of mechanically sound,
well-maintained vehicles, and we are extremely disappointed that we fell
short of your expectations. Budget values its customers and recognizes
that travel can sometimes result in some frustrating experiences. We are
committed to providing our customers with the finest service possible
as
well as a vehicle of their liking, and try to minimize these problems by
making your rental process trouble-free.
You may choose to exchange the vehicle as soon as possible, or at your
earliest convenience at the nearest Budget location. Please do not feel
that you have to keep driving if the vehicle issues make you feel
unsafe. You may also contact our Emergency Roadside Assistance to
arrange an exchange, and if the vehicle is not drivable they will
arrange to bring you an exchange vehicle. You can reach our Emergency
Roadside Assistance team at 1-800-354-2847; this number should also be
listed on your keychain.
We appreciate you taking the time to report your experience to us. You
have helped in a continuing effort to provide you, and all Budget
customers, with the service you expect and deserve.
Thanks for choosing Budget, we appreciate your business and hope you
have a great day.
Kind Regards,
Adrian Luna
Representative | Email Customer Service
Budget Rent A Car System, Inc.
How is this even a response to what I have written? Did anyone even read
what I wrote? According to your response I will have to go with “NO” my
letter was not read. Please forward me the number to headquarters or an
email address to the complaint dept. At Headquarters. Thank you.
Upon picking up my truck after waiting for about an hour on June 27 in Denver, I was given a truck that smelled like a smoking convention had just ended. After climbing in the windshield had a crack of about 14 inches right in the middle. When I returned the truck on 7/4/16 it had a FULL tank of gas. With nobody to check us in, I dropped the truck in the line with all the others similarly situated and headed for the bus and caught an early flight. Several weeks later my charge showed double the amount on the agreement. Budget claimed I did not return the truck for another week and the tank was half empty.
I have declarations from the person with me in the truck and on the plane to LA on july 4th, from a police Lt. and 9 officers who were with me 7/6 at a board meeting and plane tickets for 3 days later to board a plane for NYC where I stayed for a week, during which time Budget says I returned the truck in Denver.
It is clear a budget employee took the truck for a joy ride although the truck’s mileage would not be accurate. So while the joy-ride may have taken place, Budget is simply lying about the gas trying to obtain more money from a customer. when I posted by great experience on Yelp I got an email from a female who said they did the same thing to her at the Denver office.
Then when I receive a confirmation that the claim is resolved it won’t print properly and the pdf doesn’t work at all. This operation is not quite up with rent-a-wreck, but keep working at it.
I do think the local police department and district attorney needs to look into this crooked operation as I have never been treated like this at a car rental facility in the past or a business in many a moon. Neither I nor my organization will use this company again, we will take our 2-300 car rentals every year elsewhere!
Budget stuck me with overages for every extra insurance possible after I declined them. They refuse to give me my money back and won’t even return my phone call. One guy I spoke to went as far as saying he would refund me half of my money if I didn’t dispute the charge with my bank or get in contact with the Better Business Bureau. This is the worst rental experience I’ve ever encountered. This company greatly lacks in customer service and is only out to make money and they are clearly fine with stealing from people!!!
My returning time was 6:30 pm on November 14th, I got there maybe 5 ‘minutes after 6:30 pm I was charged more than $100. Gas tank was filled up and I still end up being charged for a lot of money worth of gas. It has been the worst experience ever. From being charged originally less than $100 for a rental I ended up paying over $250 for a 2 days rental. Without leaving behind the way I was treated by Peter N. and Aniria at the counter
I had reserved online just about 3 weeks in advance a 12ft. moving truck. Come day of rental pickup (9am) local pickup in NJ.. no truck was there. John, the worker there, had no personality, and one word answers, very poor customer service. Said.. It’s not here..On it’s way from another customer and she’s running late..probably around 12PM. (meanwhile I had people with me to help, now we are delayed) I explained to John, I am traveling alone, to NC my dad is ill and I need to get there asap preferably before dark. Again, John, Mr. personality, could not offer solutions just negativity, What do you expect me to do, I can’t make her bring it here. Long story short. I finally got the truck at 2pm. I could not get on the road at this late hour, so I called reservation number, and explained my experience, and Oscar was more than happy to accommodate me by giving me the truck an extra day for free. However, what was charged on my credit card was $100 more than quote because I had to have the extra day of insurance. No one told me of that extra cost. When I called to try to get a refund, of that amount, (after all it was not me who had no truck ready) I was told there was nothing they could do. Ironic I had to pay for their incompetence. I won’t be using this rental company, and I hope you all reading this think twice before you do.
San Antonio Budget Truck Rental sent me out the door with a 16 foot truck that had no brakes. I was going over a 1,000 miles one way to South Dakota. Was forced to stop in Oklahoma City because the trucks brakes were grinding loudly and barely stopping. Called Budget’s Roadside Service. Their manager, Matt refused to get me another truck and insisted I wait to have the brakes fixed which ended up being two days later because the parts needed to fix the truck weren’t available at the shop and they had to wait to be delivered. (Rotors were also shot due to metal on metal) When I contacted customer service, I got a call center from India or China. No one could speak good English and they were ZERO help. They said there was nothing they could do. Ended up renting a Uhaul truck, unloading and reloading my belongings to be able to continue my journey. I don’t recommend renting from Budget Rental and will NEVER rent from them again.
We dropped off our car on Oct.1, 2016. We thought we searched the car carefully, but when we returned home we realized that we left our digital camera in the car. We called immediately, but when pressing the option for lost and found at Boston Logan airport, no one ever answered the phone after a dozen calls. The only way I could talk to a human was to go through the act of renting a car. That was the only way to speak to a human being. Those that I spoke to tried to connect me to the right people. I had already filed a report online about the lost camera and then a customer service agent did the same for me. I was then given a tracking number and a case number. They are to notify me every 3 days on the status of my claim. The every 3 day thing makes no sense. The item would be found upon inspection after a car is turned in. They would know right then and there if something is left in the car. I received an email that said at the top FOUND ITEM NOTIFICATION, which indicated to me that the item was found. However there were no directives on what to do to have the camera returned. I was able to speak to another customer service agent who agreed that the camera was found. He would not send that information to me. I was then sure that my camera was found. Through all of this, I was never able to speak to a lost a found person at Boston Logan even though I was told that when I pressed the correct option, I would be able to leave a message. THAT NEVER HAPPENED. The call kept reverting back to the reservation desk. This is unbelievable that no one will answer the phone. I was transferred to the Corporate Accounts dept., which has nothing to do with lost items. The women did try to help by calling all the numbers she had to enable me to speak to someone. She called 5 different numbers and no one would answer her calls either. ALL I WANT TO DO IS TALK TO SOMEONE AT BOSTON LOGAN AIRPORT LOST AND FOUND FOR BUDGET TO ASK IF MY CAMERA WAS FOUND. THAT, HOWEVER, IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE NO ONE WILL ANSWER THE PHONE, EVER. Once Budget gets their money for the rental, there is no one to help one speak to someone at the location. I was emailed that I must talk to someone at the location. How can I do that when no one will answer the phone? Customer Service can do nothing more that fill our a lost and found claim. This is extremely disappointing because it’s a lost camera, not a scarf or a shirt. It’s an expensive item that by now must be a ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’ scenario. How sad for the losers. I am very disappointed in Budget Rent a Car. I’ve been renting from Budget or Avis almost exclusively, but probably won’t any longer. However, all rental agencies probably treat customers the same way.
I returned my rental car in Memphis airport Budget rental, had injured my hip by lifting suitcase. I ask for someone to drive me over to terminal because it is quite a walk from rental building, they said they had no way to do that. I asked if they could call the terminal, they couldn’t do that either. I asked for the number to the terminal so that I could call myself, they didn’t have that information either. With my iPhone I found number & arranged a wheel chair but they could not come to car rental bldg to get me. They thought it was ridiculous that there was no way to get me to terminal from rental car bldg.
There’s absolutely no excuse for a business at airport not to have a shuttle or something for handicapped people to get to terminal. I will not be giving Budget a good review.
*****DO NOT USE BUDGET OR AVIS!!!*****
We picked up our truck on Thursday September 1st. The truck broke down in the lot. The man came out and “fixed: it. Then we drove home 12 miles – check that – we broke down again in 10 miles. Same issue. The truck would only go 10 MPH. We called Roadside after the lot guy said “nothing I can do, you drove it off the lot.” We drove the rest of the way home and called road side. They said they would be here in 2 hours. We asked, since our movers were already there and getting paid by the hour is we could have them pack the truck. Roadside said no. We paid the movers the two hour minimum and sent them away. Roadside showed up and “fixed” the truck. The movers returned on Friday, our original drive day, and packed the truck. Saturday morning we started on the trip. After an amazing 35 miles the truck broke down again with the same issue. We pulled off the highway at 10 mph and the truck stopped in front of a small restaurant in the east side of Detroit. We called roadside and they said 2 hours. As we were waiting, we started counting the bullet holes in the building. Roadside came and within 2 minutes said, “You have no rear brakes so the computer in the engine is stopping you from going fast.” He said it was dangerous to drive with a full load and had we tried to go down a hill there would have been big problems. He declared the vehicle as not drive-able or fixable. He said the others should have known and he said “Im kinda glad I can’t fix this because i DON’T WANT TOP BE IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD AFTER DARK.” He then left. The tow truck showed up approximately 3 hours later. He quickly put us at ease when he said “Don’t worry I have a gun. I wouldn’t come here without one.” He towed us out of town to a hotel. Buidget was supposed the get us a truck early the next morning.
After repeated calls by us, we were told a truck would be here at noon. At 2:30, the trruck showed up. Gas tank not full. Budget had told us a swap team of 4 would be with the truck to unpack and re-pack the truck. A swap team of two showed up and quickly got mad because
Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend and they were told it was a 15 foot truck and a lite load. It was infact a 24 foot truck with a 2 bedroom house inside it. The swap team finished the job between 7 and 8pm. To recap, on the 4 day of a 5 day rental, at 8pm, we had made it 35 miles from our start and could now drive.
We drove most of the night and took a 5 hour nap at 330am. We then started driving. It was now Monday, Labor Day, and the truck let us get to mid South Carolina when the new truck broke down. After over 3 and a half hours, during which time the roadside guy tried to get me to buy the need items for repair, we started going the last 134 miles of our trip.
During the entire trip we were constantly in touch with Roadside and Customer Service who continually promised to “return money at the end of the trip.” When we completed the trip, the offered $200. Tehn $260. Then $300 and finally $400. I refused and demanded a full refund. They said no. I asked for the contact for legal and he said “Only your lawyer can contact legal.” I informed him that that is against the law. That here in America I am not compelled to you legal counsel. He kept repeating only my lawyer could contact Leagl. Then he hung up on me.
DO NOT USE BUDGET OR AVIS!!!
THEY ARE A TERRIBLE COMPANY!!!!
Dianne
Apologize for spelling, didn’t proof
To whom it may concern:
I just got off the telephone with David at customer care 800-214-6094. I was interested in a 12 passenger van in Panama City, FL toward he end of next month. He did say he would make sure I received the lowest price compared to local pickup vs airport. He asked if I had a discount…yes AARP. He checked and quoted me a price of $418.76. I then asked him if Budge had any discounts and was told they had one for 1 free day on weekends (total changed to $287.76) I told him that he should have offered that to me in the beginning. He responded discounts usually were for cars. I told him that since he was in customer service he should know Budget offerings and that I was disappointed and would called elsewhere because of that. He simply hung up. I am retired from a major telecommunications company and worked in customer service. Wish I knew his last name to pass on to you.
Sincerely
Budget nightmare summary: I reserved a truck from Budget for pick-up at a Madison WI location (DBs 66 Service) weeks in advance of a Saturday, July 30, 2016 moving day from apartment (expiring apartment rental lease on July 31st). The corporate office even sent a confirmation email regarding the reservation a few days prior to the July 30, 2016 reserved pick-up day. Upon arriving at the location for the truck pick-up at 8:30 a.m. there was a sign on the door indicating that the business was closed for the day due to a “family emergency”. Are you kidding me? The last Saturday of the month which is a critical moving day and they can’t get someone to work the pick-up location? What a nightmare. Three other customers arrived minutes after I did looking for their truck pick-up only to find-out about the similar mistake we all made by trusting Budget. I sent Budget an email regarding the moving trauma they put me through, but they didn’t even have the courtesy to respond. Budget is the worst rental company of all time. The location in question, DB 66 Service, 902 Atlas Ave, Madison, WI should be stripped of their Budget franchise license if Budget has any conscience about customer service.
My number one concern is to playback all the tapped customer service recordings I have from yesterday august 12, 2016 at 4:54pm where my problem begin with a new situation. These Executives should be ashamed of themselves and they should get rid of budget as a whole. I will continue to sell my story to the News station as a former producer and director as well as manager of TV networks I was worked with. I will not stop until budget whole hearted get what is due to them and that is being shut down permanently, all of you guys that have had it with budget or have had a horrible experience even as a first time feel free to send me all you guys information so work to destroy this company. Horrible service, disgusting customer service, hung up on, transferred all around the company, given incorrect numbers and extensions, being cursed at and yelled at by management and regular staff at the call center and upper level management, being asked to do a 3 hours drive to get a truck because they sold all trucks even thought I had reservations in Clifton NJ, Orange, NJ and New York. Nasty disgusting staff and behavior. They did not care for customer service or their customers to do the right thing. This company is disgusting and does not deserve to survive in America. They should have their business license revoked and burned. Never ever use this company. I will stop at nothing to see this company go down as worthless. Whatever idea was set forth was seen as a scam and Its an unpleasant experience with this company. From the inventory manager, to the customer reps, to supervisorsee to corporate and each facility. I spoke to over 40 reps in one day and visited the worst station in stAten Island NY with Michelle and Mike they need to be fired. I am filing a lawsuit against this company. Join in the petition to have them taken out of the industry for trucks and cars. They have nasty service in every department and they do not own up to their issues or problems and they do not know how to service their customers or full their needs. Make your customers happy and pleased to come back and send more people to your business. You do not live up to your name.
These guys should find new jobs you should be ashamed and disgusted with yourself and this business. FOX, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN all local stationery from East, West, South, Midwest all over the USA.
CEO: Ronald L. Nelson
CFO: David B. Wyshner
COO: Thomas M. Gartland
Over 16 reps in one day and another 12 the next day and all had nasty reps and rude workers and employees at Budget. I’m glad I have taping and reordering of Budget employees at their best which is in reality their worst.
Contact me after you read my report here under Carly Wescott. As of 10/6/2016 I am the top person to report.
Budget Truck Rental sent me out the door with a truck that had no brakes, knowing I was driving at least 1,000 miles one way.
I am so livid with Budget right now. I rented a moving truck online yesterday (8/12/16), with no problems. Set it up to pick up today (8/13/16) at 10am at Shamrock Self Storage in KCK and drop off closer to my home in KCMO (drop off at N. Oak Trfwy). I drove out to Shamrock Self Storage to pick up the truck (mind you, I do NOT live close to this location) and was told there that they do NOT have a truck for me and that I would have to call Budget. First of all, why would they allow me to reserve a truck online, if they do NOT have one available. Other places online would say “trucks not available at this location” but this particular location showed one or more available. Anyway, I called Budget at 10:17am and the call lasted for 10 minutes. I was told that an inventory manager would have to look up other locations to find a replacement truck and that I would have to wait for a call back from them within 15 minutes to NO MORE than 2 hours, I told them that I do not live out that way and can not sit and wait for a call for 2 hours to see if I can get a truck or not. I was told there was nothing else they could do. So, ok, I said file the report and I want a call back ASAP. At 12:42pm, I still had not received a call, at this point I had went ahead and come back home and I had also called several different Budget locations to see if there was a truck available and some places told me no and some told me that I would have to call Budget (so that didn’t help either). When I called Budget back at 12:42pm, and spoke with a Customer Service Manager (Stanley), I was told yet again that they don’t know what happened and that I would have to wait for a call back from an Inventory Manager, which could take 15 minutes to NO MORE than 2 hours. I tried explaining to him that I had already waited for over 2 hours for a call, so to tell me that I need to wait for another 2 hours is wrong and a lie to begin with. That they shouldn’t be telling people that they will get a call back within 2 hours, if they don’t plan to call back or if they are understaffed or whatever the case may be, then they need to just say it will be longer than 2 hours to receive a call. After yet another 2 hours, at 3pm, I finally received a call back from an Inventory Manager (Mitchell) and was told the best he could do is get me a truck for tomorrow (8/14/16) in Blue Springs, which is the complete opposite direction of where I need to go. So, at this point, now not only am I out the gas, mileage, time, and help that I had set up for Saturday morning, my only option is to drive even further out to pick up a truck. REALLY?? That’s the best they can do. He said that he would give me free miles (well I would hope so, since I would have to drive 40 miles out of the way just to pick up the truck) but he couldn’t help with the price of the truck. REALLY?? At this point, I would think I should get the truck for FREE. Budget has wasted my time with a run-around on who can help me and who can’t, they have ruined my day, as I had a plan to pick up furniture from KS and bring to MO, they have wasted my gas because I drove out to KS to pick up a truck (that wasn’t available) and not to mention, I had to get help from people to help me move the items, so their day was wasted as well because they drove out there with me and then waited for 3 hours for a phone call that I never received. Budget’s customer service is VERY unprofessional and non-helpful. DO NOT reserve a truck online, because even if you get a confirmation that everything is set up and ready to go, there is NO GUARANTEE on that. So, basically, be ware because you have to hold up your end of the contract (meaning they will charge you and take your money) but they don’t have to hold up their end of the contract by providing an actual truck.
I reserved a car from Budget through American Airlines on Saturday August 6 picking up at Norfolk Airport at 11:30 am. My reservation was for a full-size car which had been upgraded online from a mid-side car with an estimated cost of $70.76. When I arrived at the check out counter the representative by the name of John (older man in his 60’s) proceeded to guide me through the prompts telling me to sign here, sign here, sign here, sign here. Apparently one of the screens was an automatic upgrade from a full-size regular car to full-size premium which I did not see since my expectation was that I was getting a full size car anyway. I paid no attention to the fact that it was now a premium full-size which I had not asked for. Later on after I picked up the rental and looked at the bill it was an estimated charge of $90.00 which was more than my initial quoted price. Upon dropping the car off the next day, I brought it to the attention of the representative who told me that I needed to discuss it with the rental agent in the terminal. I proceeded to the terminal through torrential rain and spoke to the rep at the counter who apologized for the mix up and said that I should expect a credit within 2-3 business days. After I did not see the credit, I called customer service and spoke with a Josh #38654 who stated that he could not issue a refund because I agreed to it in a contract. I asked if he could transfer me to a manager and he told me that there was no one he would transfer me to and was persistent that It was up to me to read the contract before accepting the terms. While I understand contracts, I disagreed that I should not be automatically offered any upgrades through an electronic method without verbal explanation and or confirmation of such upgrade prior to being told to “Sign here” I was in town for only one day to pick my nephew up from the hospital after an operation and I was not focused, nor did I expect to be offered an upgrade I did not want or ask for. I told the rep that this is a deceptive rental practice and that I should not be responsible for the additional $20 overage. After refusing to transfer me, I was very agitated at the lack of service, rudeness on behalf of the rep and his lack of understanding and readiness to help. I hung up.
Five minutes later I called back and spoke to another customer service representative by the name of Irving. I asked him if there was a manager on site that I could speak with and he said yes, but he first needed to know why I was calling. I explained the whole situation once again and Irving proceeded to tell me that there was nothing he could do and that Budget’s policy was all based on contracts and I did not read it there was nothing they could do. I told Irving that I actually went to the ticket counter upon my return and was told by the women there that I would be refunded and that made no difference. I said to Irving that I would like to speak to a manager and he thanked me for my call and hung up without transferring me. I will never use Budget again and as a spouse of a airline attendant, I will encourage her and her colleagues to avoid Budget/Avis deceptive rental practice. While this is not just about the overcharge, it is the principal that I was treated poorly, lied to and deceived by three different Budget/Avis employees. I am not done with this.
Not happy right now. My parents picked up a truck in MA to drive down to me in FL. They initially were going to go with Penske but I found a better rate at Budget. They pick up the truck and it had a broken drivers side mirror. It was doXXXXented and they were told it had been like that for the last 2 rentals. My father (retired Veteran) was offered another larger truck but he knew the fuel would be more expensive so he declined. After taking the truck, the windshield needed to be cleaned to see properly. They soon discovered there was no washer fluid in the vehicle and the wipers barely worked. They had to clean the windshield and purchase washer fluid. Then they hit a nasty storm and the drivers side leaked all over my father while he was driving. It was very dangerous considering he was being rained on and the wipers were not working properly which was a HUGE safety concern. We called today to complain and explain our concerns and were offered $69 for our troubles. My parents were nice enough to drive down furniture for me and could have been seriously injured. To think Budget wasn’t able to offer at the very least $250 is remarkable.
had a reservation for 7-14-2016 to 7-18-2016 for 134.00 decided to add one more day and was charged 74.70 for one more day that is double for the rate I was charged and double for the going rate now not very happy with this called customer service and they could tell me why the rare had doubled that day I will not rent from budget again.
I have been renting cars from Budget for a long time, I just landed in Atlanta GA airport to pick up my reservations. After they swipe my credit card and I signed the contract, they told me it was going to be a 30 min wait for my car.
I not happy
I have been renting from Budget for a long time. With my traveling I there are two locations that always have problems at.
Chicago Midway airport budget – cars last 3 out 4 cars were not a full tank and when I asked them about it, said I could complain if I wanted.
Detroit Airport budget rental – now this one takes the cake, I rent cars and they have yet to me clean (yes they are full of gas) but dirty inside and out, wine or some kind of grape color stuff on the seats – I bring it to the persons attention and they note it. I ask for a clean car and told don’t have or this is what you get.
Lastly I rented a car and during my travel a rod from a semi flew off and blew the back tire, I was on the side of the road for over an hour and when the tow truck came they just put the donut tire on. So I had to travel with a donut tire that is only suppose to be for 50 miles and drive at low speed. I still had 200 miles to, SO they do not care about safety and or customer care. You would think they would bring you a safe car or bring you to one but nope, Tell you to have a good day and by the why don’t die when the spare tire blows
My letter is more of a concern for Budget Rent-A-Car lack of corporate and local management insight. I rented from Budget at three different locations a total of four times over the month of June. I had no issues with the reservations, costs, or vehicle rented. I am concerned with the lack of leadership from management at Detroit International Airport.
My first experience with your company’s shortcomings was on June 8 2016. When I arrived at the rental office, there was a line out the door. Other customers in line had said they were waiting for an hour and a half already. With only two agents working, the line was by no means going to speed up anytime soon. After an hour of waiting with little progress three other agents were added. My total time waiting was still two hours. The agent that assisted myself was very proficient and professional. While the majority of others were at a snails pace.
I did notice that there was construction on the Budget lot. I would understand if there was a problem with navigating the area. Although the office was the huge problem with delaying customers.
The line was still out the door when I received my vehicle.
My next experience at Detroit was about two weeks later after a late arrival at 2 am.
Once I arrived at the pickup area for the courtesy van. I waited 30 minutes while calling the local number(no answer). A driver from Hertz saw my frustration and told me to ask the Avis driver to see if they could give me a ride. I did and was given a ride to Budget.
Once I walked across the Budget lot (which was still under construction) to the office, there was one agent and three customers. I walked to the counter and was told “We don’t have any cars.” Now the lot was fairly empty but there were cars sitting on the ready line.
While the agent gave cars to the others before me. A few others had come in and were told the same thing. I stood in line the whole time, which was only about 20 to 30 minutes. When I approached the desk. The agent looked pass me and asked “Who’s next?” I handed her my paper, work drivers license, and credit card. Without saying “one” word, she handed me paper work and keys to a car. Then said “Who’s next?”
I was put back by her demeanor and walked out trying to find my car by clicking the remote.
When I returned the vehicle a week later, the receiving agent said “Nothing is filled out! Mileage, insurance refusal, gas purchase.” I had to go back to the office for my receipt. The agent without much of a conversation gave me my receipt.
As a stated earlier, I had no problems with the reservations or charges. But the lack of professionalism and total disregard customers in Detroit. Reflects directly on local management and corporate training.
I’m sorry to say I will not rent from Detroit Budget Rent-A-Car in the future. And will discourage all others from renting as well.
It is a sad representation of were your company is heading.
I booked my rental through Southwest and was given an estimate of $262.65 (confirmation number 32106386US4). We arrived in Houston’s Hobby Airport around 10PM and then, once we arrived at the service location, we waited in line for over an hour. The agent was pleasant, but when she asked if I wanted insurance, I said NO, since I had this coverage on my own insurance. She then told me to go ahead and hit the YES key. Being tired from the flight and long wait, I did what I was told and hit the YES button. When I saw the charge appear on my receipt, I called customer service and was put on hold three times and then CUT OFF each time — after waiting nearly 20 minutes on line. I then e-mailed them and got no response. Finally was able to talk to a representative the next day and was very disappointed with the POOR Customer Service I was given. They were not willing to take off the extra fees that should never have been charged in the first place.
I did write earlier and got a response from Kay S. who was not helpful at all. She just referred to my receipt and I wanted some clarifications but no response from her. I am very unsatisfied with the service of your agent at Reagan airport budget office for giving me mis-information.
I do have a copy of my e-receipt and need some clarification – what is the fuel service ($26.92) and optional service total non taxable ($31.50); and optional services total taxable ($66.00), charged on the receipt.
When the total given to me online when I called for reservations is $196.00. Then I get to the airport and a charge for liability is added on when I already opted for full coverage online. I frankly think that your agents are rude when you call and talk to them on the phone and don’t care for their customers.
I will file a complaint with the Better Bureau for this rudeness and mis information from your agents. You have given me a number to call for this dispute and you have not helped me either in sorting out this mess.
Thank you
yes the budget company they are bad busniess.I rent my car july 01 and return it back on july 06 in here it is that these people still didnt return my refund. Yes they charge me extra money that i didnt asking on my rental car. I call the 800 hundred number in they told me that the deposit my money in my account on july 18 an i still didnt receive, i nerver ever seem a business that take this long to deposite money back in your account.So i am asking do any one no how can i get my money back or do any back no the headquarters number or do i need to take this people to court.
Dear Corporate
This has been the WORST EXPERIENCE EVER IN RENTAL CAR!!!!
I rented a car because I was on a business trip, the following day the trunk stop working, didn’t open in any way. I call road service and because I was in a remote location and the answer was they are going to charge me to drop me off a new car !!! Really ? Why? I refuse to pay extra I call Costumer Service and they keep transfer my call to different departments and guess what ? No solution!
I went to different locations to change my car and they were “sold out”, one of the front desk persons came to check if they can help me and he find out that the thunk doesn’t work as I said, but still not cars. After days of frustration one person help me to open the trunk and leave the back seats open so this way I can remove the stuff out of the trunk, I went to other location Santa Maria Airport California and the lady said to me that she have cars but not the type I rented ( full size) and they have bigger size and they have to charge me $15 a day extra????? So I refuse and keep going with the defective car. No to mention how many calls I made to Costumer Service, I requested to speak with superior or surpevisor and I explain my story again and she said that I need to call on business hours to billing department to get a compensation!!! I said the compensation comes after you solve my problem and by the way you haven’t !
Finally another location change my car and they said they are going to give me an “upgrade ” for my problem, they give me a small SUV which in many other rentals counts as full size as well, and guess what ? Another issue comes along
The key was broken and I just have the metal part to turn on the car, I broke my nails it was just I shame.
I went to different location because I really want to get rid off this rental car and I request that for all the inconveniences they shouldn’t charge me a drop off fee because is been a night mare so far and they said no, we can’t we have to charge you $450 drop off fee , of course I refuse because was more expensive than the rental itself, so I have no choice to keep Budget against to my will,
I call again Costumer Service and the conpesation was $40 for all my inconvenience and I have to keep this rental because I have no choice! Or I will say yes I have but cost me $450
I been with Avis for very long time as costumer, I rent cars every month and I give a try to this company and I regret the moment I pick them as a second choice.
I went to another location to change the XXXXXty rental and they said they can’t change it for me and I said here we go again! I want a SUV and bigger size I don’t care if I have to pay the difference and they said they can’t that I cannot do an upgrade even if I PAY!!! Because initially I book full size ? Wanna hear more ? They said oh Miss anyway bigger cars spent more gas ……excuse me, but is not your business, is my money and am the costumer and I should get what I want specially if I’m paying for it!
PS: one more time I call Costumer Service and speak with “supervisor” and let them know how bad is the service and she said that she can’t find any record of my calls, that because I made the reservation with third party they don’t keep record on that ..::
They don’t know anything about Costumer Service and they have no clue how make business and lack of knowledge of sales.
Dear Budget,
Your company SUCKS!! My husband rented a car from you, which was overpriced for an intermediate car. He forgot to use his AARP card to receive a discount. I called and ask that we be reimbursed and the rude lady on the other end of the phone said it could not be done after the completion of the rental. This was the airport budget in Philadelphia, PA. This is wrong. I called the hotel he stayed at and they gladly took my AARP card number and gave me the discount. Your company is a ripoff and i does not surprise me that it is failing. I called your corporate number and I put the prompts in as it directed me and the recording just kept repeating itself. Great job guys, keep up the shoddy work. Pretty soon nobody will have to answer the phones.
I contacted your reservation line on 6/25/2016 at approximately 12:02p ET. I was inquiring about a 7 day reservation with one of your representatives. My question was specifically around paying with a different card than the one used to reserve the vehicle. The rep asked me in a very rude tone “what you don’t want to use your credit card to pay for it?” I responded that I did not which is what I had already explained. I then told the rep that I didn’t really appreciate the tone he was using as I was simply trying to inquire on the payment piece before proceeding with making a reservation. He then says “Oh, you don’t like my tone?” I responded “No, I don’t” and asked to speak with a supervisor. He then said “sure” and proceeded to hang up on me. I’ve never experienced such horrific customer service in my life. Is this the norm for Budget? If so, I will be taking my business elsewhere.
Contact Information for my comment submitted at 10:21 on Friday, June 24, 2016:
Laura Schick
860-287-XXXXX
lvschick at hotmail.com
Thank you,
Laura
I have literally become sick, over the stress that Budget Rent A Car has put me through this past month.
We went on vacation to South Dakota May 14-21, 2016. We reserved a car on the Budget website about 2 mos. ahead of the vacation. When we landed in Denver, CO, and went to Budget to pick up the car, we had to wait in line for over an hour and a half. When we got to the counter, we were told they didn’t have the car we reserved, but they could “Upgrade us to a better car for $199!” We asked when they would get the car in that we had reserved and were told it would be at least 2 hours. The man at the counter asked if we wanted to upgrade. We were so frustrated, hot, and tired we were considering it. He offered a discount on the upgrade to $99.00 and we agreed.
My husband checked out the car and familiarized himself with the cars difference from what he was used to driving (screen monitor, push button start, etc.). We started pulled the car out of Budget and on to the road and the “check tire light” kept coming on. It said it had air but was low, so we planned on pulling over to the first gas station we saw, to put air in the tire, which we did. We kept having to do this every 20 mins. or so, until we hit out hotel in Cheyenne, WY. When we got there, we called Budget and roadside assistance. The man we spoke with at Budget (in Denver, CO where we rented the car from) was extremely nasty and unhelpful. We told him we were on the phone with road side assistance also and they suggested we call him (they were on another telephone line at the same time). Roadside assistance was extremely helpful to us, being we were halfway across the country from home, in an unfamiliar area, with a car that was unsafe to drive and had been rented to us in that condition. My husband would have gladly changed the tire himself, but there was no spare tire in the car we were rented. Roadside Assistance also called Budget in Denver, CO, and they let us know, that they would come and tow the car and bring us a comparable on in it’s place. They let us know they would leave the keys at the hotel front desk for us. They also let us know, that we would not be charged anything for the services, repair, tow, or any other charges. It should be noted, that the man we spoke with at Budget in Denver, CO told us that we could continue to drive the car for the entire week of our vacation, as long as we kept it under 50 mph. The speed limit out there is 75 mph! We were on the phone in the unsafe vehicle outside our hotel for 1 1/2 hours straightening out this mess, and securing another vehicle and checked into our hotel very stressed-out and tired.
WE WERE RENTED AN UNSAFE VEHICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
About 3 wks. after we returned home from vacation, we received a letter/invoice from Budget, stating they were going to debit the account we rented the car under $283.16 for the repairs and associated fees for the malfunctioning car we were rented.
I called them three times over the week I received the letter, refusing to pay the charges, and let them know not only was I told we would not be charged by Roadside Assistance, but that WE WERE NOT RESPONSIBLE AND WERE RENTED AN UNSAFE VEHICLE!!!! A dispute was opened up. I asked to speak with a supervisor and spoke at length with David Murphy and he said he would research everything and “reach out to me in a couple of days”. It is now five days later, and they went ahead and debited my account the $283.16, WIHOUT MY PERMISSION!!!!!
I have met with my bank and they are going to go after our money and open up a dispute on the charges.
I have become very stressed out and physically, emotionally, and mentally sick and frustrated over this situation, and frankly cannot spare that kind of money.
I WOULD LIKE THE CORPORATE OFFICERS TO SEE TO IT, THAT I AM REFUNDED THE ENTIRE $283.16. IN FACT, I SHOULD BE REFUNDED THE UPGRADE FEE OF $99.00 FOR A CAR I DID NOT RESERVE!!!!!!!!
I am disgusted with Budget Rent A Car, and I am going to spread the word to the numerous people I work with who travel regularly on business, and rent cars, to STAY AWAY FROM BUDGET!!!
I will expect to hear from you soon, with resolution. If I don’t, I will be contacting my attorney.
Sincerely,
Laura V. Schick
Budget … broke ‘my budget’ –> Confirmation # 27489352US2 <–
Here is hoping that Budget will do something about it.
On Friday June 17th we arrived at the Sat Lake City – International Airport at 5:00pm to pickup our vehicle (mini-van). The person at the counter took my information and told me to mo over to a sitting area since they were waitng on keys (I assume these were car keys). In the sitting area there were another three or four customers. After waiting for 20 minutes I asked one of the other customers waiting, how long have they been waiting, he replied close to 40 minutes. When I approached the counter I was ignored by the two persons behind the counter until I directed my question to them. Their reponse was the same 'we are waiting on keys'. So, I asked 'how much longer will this take?'. They replied 'we don't know, could be 20 to 40 minutes'. To this response I realized we were not going to be ontime to an engagement we had scheduled in Park City so I asked if there were anyother vehicles types we might be able to rent and I was told no, there are only small vehicles yet a family that came after us was given a large SUV within 15 minutes from the time they arrived a the counter. After waiting for over an hour and a half I decided to go to 'enterprise' were I had to agree to pay twice what I budheted for to get into a similar vehicle. My budget was $280 and I ended having to pay $580. Not only did you bust my budget but you also caused me to miss an engagement I had scheduled in advance for two months; I was counting on your company (Budget-Rent-A-Car) to deliver ontime and as promised. The folks at the counter should be coached on how to treat customers already waiting on a vehicle; it felt like we were the screwed customers, and we were placed at the end of the list as if we were getting something for free. Although I do not expect that you will do anything about this, but at least others will know how unreliable Budget-Rent-A-Car can be.
Dear Corporate,
I’m hoping I can get an answer from someone. I’ve had the worst customer service with three of your “supervisors”. How this all began was me picking up the car on June 4th from Orlando international airport. We waited a very long time and was told at first they didn’t have the type of vehicle I rented. Finally they found a car and we left the airport. We returned it the next day before we left for the cruise on the 5th. When we returned it, they didn’t even show I had a car rented with them. It took forever for the lady when we dropped it off and she still couldn’t find the car. Gave me a number to call and said if you have problems contact them. I even reserved a car for when we got back from the cruise before we departed. We went and picked up the car on the 9th this time with no problem. On the 15th I get a charge for $295.86 from Budget and then my one day charge from the 9th when we got back from the cruise. I only had the car a total of one day two times. Call customer service and got charged for the 4th to the 9th plus my June 9th rental. They were charging me for a whole week! Trevis said he was going to refund my whole total of $295.86 for my trouble and I would see the refund in 1-3 business days. Today is the 3rd day and I called back and was told they had no notes in the system from Kimberly and that they wouldn’t refund the whole amount and my new balance was $88 and some change. My rental was only $44 and some change and they were going to charge me for two days because of the return. Kimberly was rude and not very helpful and didn’t seem to want to help me. We only had the car one day. So I contacted my bank for a dispute. I later called Budget back and spoke to Megan who said they tried to process my refund but since I called the bank it wouldn’t go through. I am going to contact my bank to cancel the dispute, but they wouldn’t credit everything back as Trevis had mentioned on Thursday the 16th. They needed to pull the call to see what was said, but when they find out thats what he told me, they still wont credit everything back. I was also told that Trevis wouldn’t have lied about the refund and he wouldn’t have said it would be for the full amount. I was lied to and it’s not right! Budget took almost $300 and didn’t seem to care when they would put it back. Plus the first time I called on the 16th when I saw this charge, it was never doXXXXented or even refunded to begin with! Every person I spoke to didn’t seem to care. Why should I have to wait so long for a return on Budget’s mistake? It’s not right! Plus the first car was disgusting and had a huge stain on the ceiling of some sort and the second car had no gas! Which I was also told I would be refunded for and didn’t see that either! This is ridiculous and someone needs to help out and get this taken care of!
ORIGINAL MESSAGE AT BOTTOM OF PAGE
From: John
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 2:04 PM
While I do appreciate that you made an offer for a refund, I don’t believe it is a fair offer.
No A/C? Ok, I can work with that.
Poor Wipers? Troublesome.
Drive Line Shimmy? Ok, I slowed down.
BUT…The carbon monoxide fumes entering the Cab thru the gap on the floor, causing me to shut it off when stuck in traffic, could have been fatal.
I take that issue very seriously. Someone who didn’t notice that issue and drove with the windows up could have died in that vehicle.
I will be glad to send you the photos I took of the Cab, along with all the identifying numbers of the truck., as well as the recent truck service sticker.
I’m thinking a full refund should be in order.
Please feel free to call my cell @ 412-527-8XXXX to discuss further.
Thanks
John
From: BTR – Customer Service [mailto:BTR-CustomerService at avisbudget.com]
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 12:19 PM
To: , John
Subject: Re: A really bad rental experience…18083-1832-XXXXx
(KMM13131990V80323L0KM)
Dear John,
very much appreciate your taking the time to tell Budget Truck about your recent experience. On behalf of our entire team, I sincerely apologize for the mechanical problems you had with your rental truck
Budget Truck strives to provide a mechanically sound, well-maintained truck fleet, and your experience is not typical. We are sincerely sorry that you were inconvenienced, and extremely disappointed that we fell short of your expectations. We are able to go ahead and refund back $50 for the issues that you had. If you would like to accept this please do let us know and we can get that processed for you.
John, Budget Truck strives to go the extra mile to give each of our customers a positive experience that includes a well-maintained, dependable truck delivered at a reasonable price by a friendly staff. Please allow us to serve your rental needs in the future, and we will do our best to make it a more positive experience.
Thank you,
Cynthia
Level 2 Customer Service
Agent 31426
Budget Truck Customer Service Team
avisbudgetgroup
4500 South 129th East Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74134
Tel: (800) 462-8343 (Option 1,5,2)
Fax: (303) 824-3087
Email: btr-customerservice at avisbudget.com
P Consider the environment. Please do not print this e-mail unless you really need to.
Original Message Follows: ————————
THIS IS IN REGARDS TO MY RECENT TRUCK RENTAL.
John —One way rental from Elyria South Storage to drop off at Horne’s Auto Service , Canonsburg, Pa. 06/13/16-06/15/16
I dropped it off on the 14th at Horne’s automotive.
CUSTOMER REFERENCE # 180831832XXXXx.
TRUCK #227291. US DOT #1092543
picked this truck up in Elyria, Ohio at 1PM on 6/13/16 and drove it to Sandusky, Ohio (approx. 30 miles.) Spent the rest of the day loading it and departed to Pittsburgh @ 7pm.
And that’s when the fun began….
By far and away, the worst vehicle I have ever rented.
1-The wiper blades appeared to be original, and I could not see out the windshield due to the streaking when I encountered some rain.
2-The Air Conditioning System did not work at all. It was 80 + outside and 90+ in the cab. If the system was switched to Vent, it blew Hot Air. This made for a horrible driving experience.
3-So I reverted back to the old 2/60 ventilation system. 2 windows opened at 60mph. Not pleasant at all. I needed ear plugs due to the wind noise.
4-It was difficult to maintain 60 mph due to the bad drive line shimmy that wanted to toss you out of the seats. I’m not sure what was causing that.
5-This item was the worst. There was a 2″ gap between the floor of the Van Cab and the base of the Box mounted to the chassis approx. 3′ long.
I could see daylight behind the seats at the floor level. It appeared that a piece or cover was missing along the floor.
Now you would think this would have helped air flow thru the cab in light of the A/C system not working?
NOPE!
I HAD TO SHUT THE VEHICLE OFF WHILE STUCK IN CONSTRUCTION ZONES BECAUSE OF THE CARBON MONOXIDE COMING THRU THE GAP. This resulted in me getting about maybe 8 mpg as it took almost 29 gallons to go 230 miles!!!!!!!!. Refilling the truck when turning it in cost $75.00!
6-The inside of the vehicle box looked like someone hauled broken bags of cement mix. I did not discover that part until I started loading the vehicle.
Swept it out and loaded it up.
So you might be asking why I did not report all of this to the renting dealer?
Other than the dirty box compartment, I didn’t discover all the defects until I left after 7pm to go back to Pittsburgh, and my rental dealer was closed.
During the first 30 mile drive from Elyria to Sandusky in the afternoon, I was trying to get acclimated to driving a much bigger vehicle than normal, and did not notice all the issues.
Why didn’t I try to get another vehicle? I only had 2 days’ vacation scheduled to get my son moved back to Pittsburgh.
I did report all of these defects to the drop off dealer.
He stated that he would have the vehicle immediately sent to the Budget Servicing Dept.
I have photos of the gap in the floor.
The funniest thing of this terrible experience?
The sticker on the back of the interior Cab states that the vehicle was serviced only 3000 miles ago.
I just have to wonder what they serviced….
My name is Grace James. I have had the worst experience with the Budget people and it seems that the corporate office does not look into these issues or that the agents really do not care.
I called the Budget office and the two people I talked to were very nice and helpful. They told me that the end payment would be $196. By the time I got thru with this whole affair my bill turned out to be $261.83.
I had to pick the car up at the Reagan Airport in Washington DC. I live at Woodbridge in Virginia about 30 miles each way, which means I drove 60 miles to pick the car up. I wanted a 6 passenger car and was given a Ford Explorer SUV online. By the time I went there to pick the car they gave me another GMC SUV since the person before me drove off with the car that was assigned to me.
The agents on the phone were not helpful at all. Each agent would transfer me and each agent would ask me the same question over and over again instead of just looking up the confirmation number. I had massive problem when it came to returning the SUV. Instead of driving the 30 miles and I just wanted to return it to the comfort inn at springfield Virginia and for that it would cost be upto $930 some which is ridiculous. They were not helpful and couple of times the agents would hang up on me which meant I had to call back or would be kep on the line as they were looking up for information for long periods of time.
Nobody is ready to listen and would just hang up the phone. I would like to speak to someone from the Corporate office urgently. Please call me at 202-459-XXXXX as soon as you can. Please don’t treat your customers in this manner!
Grace James
I wrote Budget several times! Finally I had to write the CEO and other execs. They charged my credit card 5 times the amount and rented me a filthy car with God only knows what th the stains in the seat and trash in trunk.
Good Day Mr Nelson
I am writing you in reference to a situation that I can not seem to get resolved with your Company Budget. On May 5, 2016 I picked up a rental at the Hobby Airport In Houston Texas around 1AM once my flight landed. It was very dark in the garage and I was tired and looking forward to driving the 48 mins to Sugar Land to check into my hotel for a early morning meeting. I have rented cars from Budget multiple times before. I have never had a problem of this magnitude until now.
The next morning, my meeting was pushed back till around 12 noon. I left the hotel and got in the car Only to find a very FILTHY STAIN seat and trash throughout the vehicle. There was a cup in the holder, and trash in the trunk. I called immediately, and was told to bring the car back to the carport. Of course I informed the CSR of my distance from the airport and that the car was being returned within hours. However, I did want this on file. He promised it would be handled upon its return. I was forced to sit in this disgusting filth driving around and to the meeting and airport. Not to mention the evening prior. As my coworker drove all I could do is feel sick that I had NOTHING to sit on and not touch this mess. I was also angered that the car was rented this way, and because I was exhausted we didn’t notice the trash until that late morning when we got in the vehicle.
In addition to the FILTH, I called multiple times on this very issue and could not get a Supervisor on the phone. Weeks later I receive a call and I was told you OVER CHARGED my credit card by over $370.00.
Needless to say, I was angered beyond help, because this would explain why my card was not accessible for weeks after my return. The Supervisor stated the car was also not returned until 4 or so days later well after my coworker and I returned to California. Meaning, it appeared I kept the car for an additional 4 days when I got on a flight home at 5:30 pm on May 5th. I explained to her that when we arrived at the airport May 5, 2016 at 5:30 PM we were told by a tall African American Man working there that the system was down and his he could not give me a receipt at the time. He stated one would be emailed and mailed to me. I thought nothing of this gave him the keys and proceeded to the terminal.
To find out weeks later of this MAJOR error on BUDGET part, as well as the BOGUS charge on my account was disheartening. I also felt incredible angered that no one called to inform me of the error and resolve the filthy car issue. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve called and written several letters to your Customer Service Department. In return, All I get is general generic “So glad we’ve resolved your complaint and theres nothing more we can do” letters. This even makes me more angered because you don’t even take the time to call, or email me a personalized letter stating the FACTS. To date you’ve refunded my the bogus amount charged and never followed through with your promise to compensate me for the nasty disgusting car you rented me. Let alone all the time and money wasted writing calling and the inability to use my card due to your RIDICULOUS ERROR.
I am asking your office to PLEASE CONTACT me immediately to resolve this issue and at least follow through with the promises made by your Customer Service Staff.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation, I look forward to hearing from you.
Melonie Bell
Reserved a 26′ ft. moving truck to drive from Corpus Christi, TX to MD on April 27, 2016.
Ordered a hand truck and 24 moving blankets. Picked up truck, no hand truck (had to go back to location to get the hand truck) and was told “no moving blankets”!
Leave in AM, get to the middle of nowhere in MS and turn on headlights; work for 30 seconds, hear a popping noise, smell smoke and lights go out. Called Roadside Assistance, two hours later guy shows up. Said it was fuse, he doesn’t have any and he’s going to have to wait until auto store opens to repair. Had to get a hotel room. Morning comes, puts in fuse, headlights work and we’re on our way.
Travel to VA, where same situation occurs; turn on headlights, work for 30 seconds, popping noise, smell smoke!! Didn’t call Roadside Assistance as we knew it would be two hour wait with same result.
Make it to MD Saturday afternoon! Called Roadside Assistance to have someone come out on Monday to fix headlights. Guy came, said truck had been in an accident, harness needed repair, and he would do his best to fix headlights.
Tuesday we moved and, once again, same problem with headlights!! Called Roadside Assistance, 10:00 pm, told them we were not driving this SAFETY HAZARD of a truck and they could come get it, along with the car trailer that we rented!!
And trying to deal with “customer service”, and I use the term lightly, WAS HORRENDOUS!!!
NEVER, NEVER rent from your company again!!
Want FULL REFUND for the SAFETY HAZARD you call a truck!!
I picked up a rental car and was never given a walk around to inspect the car. I noticed a few scratches but nothing major. As time progressed I noticed my bumper was falling off, since I had no prior knowledge I assumed the valet at the hotel I was staying at had damaged my rental so I filed a claim which took extra time to investigate since it was Memorial weekend and everyone was gone for the holiday. Upon inspecting the vehicle after the bumper completely fell and was dragging, we noticed tape was keeping it together!! After complaining the company said it was my fault because I should’ve switched out the vehicle the first day I noticed, however the hotel wanted it there for their investigation until they realized it would take longer than I was in town. The manager Todd Neil at Budget in MKE airport brushed me off saying I had to call the reservation line to be transferred to corporate in order to be compensated for the inconvenience, who told me they couldn’t do anything but file a complaint and will ensure the car is off the inventory. The man I spoke with begin getting nasty because I questioned why was I told to call him and what was he going to do for ME. That man along with the manager Todd tried to give me some lame excuse about special rates when the rates were normal Priceline deals nothing extra was given. An agent overseas assured me I wouldn’t be paying for the rental (he first offered $25 off) because he saw my frustration with the safety hazard (the rental also had some sort of electrical problem) however I was still charged the full amount. When I called the MKE airport location again and requested Todd follow up with me I ended up getting a call from a woman rep stating Todd wanted me to know he’s not going to call me and he’s not dealing with me because it is what it is, I told her I’d still like for him to call, she repeated herself and stood firm that “he’s not going to do anything about this you already got a great rate on the car” I then told her to STILL have Todd call me because I wanted to talk to the manager I was working with not the messenger, she hung up on me and I never got a call from Todd.
We made reservations on line to rent a car in Kauai, we wanted a Ford Fusion and they are one of the companies that offer them, we called to confirm that was we where going to get and the customer service person told us that was not what we rented we rented a buick which was not even an option. When we made ther reservation it clearly said Ford Fusion and even showed a picture of one, he got very rude and us that we did not have any idea what we where doing and if we really wanted the Ford we should have reserved it, he then went on to say that he could change th reservation to the Ford and it would cost 5.00 more and per day and said no just 5.00 for the total week we rented for.
So for over 5.00 he made us feel stupid and was very rude about the hole transaction
We tried to call the corporate office to file a complaint but through the corporate number you can reach anyone. Every time try one of numbers it says call back later or just hangs up, makes you understand the people in the field offices are rude and don’t care when corporate doesn’t care either about talking to there customers
Last time renting from Budget but I am sure they don’t care
Worst customer service, I was renting a car in Kauai and the women that was helping us started out very nice when we did not want to sign up for any of here offers to jack up the bill she became very nasty and was rude, I guess you want someone there to be nice you have to pay for it
Defective truck rental requiring road side assistance, bodily injury. I reserved on May 12th and used your budget truck on May 16th and was treated poorly, by 7 different customer service reps; within a 2-day span. I traveled from Raleigh, NC to Dallas, TX and it was an unsafe ride. I had to call for roadside assistance and wait 2 hours. I have been given the run around by all and staff and have been passed around from one rep to another with now corporation or professionalism in place. I was traveling in a unsafe truck that needed head lights replaced, jerking motions, reduced speed; without my doing, no good lighting for night driving, and steering wheel that had to held with tightness in order not to crash. I had to hold the wheel so tight; that now my shoulder and wrist are very sore. I may have to go to the doctor and was told by the tech Claude that wheels needed a new belt, that’s why the wheel was shaking so bad, but I could make it for the next 4 hours. I had to wait 2 hours, for tech to look under the hood, wipe the lens, look under hook, check tires, and diagnose issue. I spoke to several people and the last was the supervisor named Israel. I was insulted when I brought this to the attention of the supervisor.
The treatment that have received from customer service reps. and management for the reps. I have physically been scared; my hands, wrist, arms, and back are still hurting from struggling with the malfunction of the steering wheel and gears. Had to hold the steering wheel with much pressure, because it had to held towards the left; just drive ahead ; without varying off the road. I had to pay for a hotel room due to my physical discomfort, lights not working and having to use high beam lighting. I had to wait 2 hours for roadside assistance the next day. Roadside tech “Claude” stated the belt around the wheel should have been replaced and truck had poor maintenance. He had to wipe down the lights, but by that time it was daytime. He ran a diagnostic and put each side of the truck on a pulley to look under the truck and looked under the hood. He wasn’t sure if I could switch out the truck because mines was full; so I had to call customer service again and got no help there, but was transferred a lot. On flat land truck would also slow down from 65 to 45/50 on its’ own and than come back up to 65 and this is while my foot is completely touching the floor. Truck had no reaction. Truck from time to time would jerk me back and forth for no reason and happened a lot. I took the journey by myself and it was very scary; I felt so alone and BUDGET was not there for me. I would like a complete refund and an apology for the inconvenience, physical pain, and mistreatment I encountered.
I did a prepaid rental with Budget for 5/9/2016 pickup. I had a 20 dollar coupon but was told I could upgrade to a premium car which would be a better deal and I could only use one coupon. I needed the premium car to start with so I took that deal. . When I looked at my reservation there was a different car (full size) listed or something similar so I called budget (lical) to inquire. I was told they had no premium cars at that location and never had. I asked to then change my coupon to the 20 off. I had to call customer service for that. I called. The agent kept telling me why I called and I finally asked her to just listen to me. She couldn’t help so I asked for a supervisor. She sent me to another agent instead. She was in Jamaica after several calls and playing the waiting game I got an agent who offered to take off the 20, but it only took off 10. I told her it should have taken the entire 20 off but was given the whole rates change garbage. I asked for a supervisor Albert wh was extremely rude and said that they work fast so they make mistakes besides he argued I never had an upgrade then said they were sold out at that location and he couldn’t help that. I informed him that they never had premium cars at the location where the car had been booked.if that had been revealed in the first place I would not be having this problem because I could’ve gone to a different company to begin with. Too late to start over at that point and too costly. I’m being told I have to take a smaller car than what I asked for to begin with. I said I should get the entire 20 dollar discount and all I was being told is that their policy is quantity over quality and speed over accuracy. I asked for his I’d number. He yelled you can go higher if you want to and I said that is exactly what I would like may I have your I’d number please…he hung up. I called back got an agent who i askedfor the number to corporate. She asked if there was a problem I told her yes and she snarled I just asked you a question. I said and I answered it…yes there is a problem may I have the number. She connected me to the corporate leasing program office. I called local and they gave me other customer service numbers. I called one of them got a supervisor explained to him I was past irritation and he found that funny. He ended up giving me a number to claim the other 10 dollars I was supposed to have gotten in the first place. I had to return the car then call and give the agent the number and my money would be.refunded. I called only to be talked down to again. I was told the coupon had already been taken off and when I explained that this was different he was nasty and said I would have to call back tomorrow. I have yet to get my discount and I cannot get through on the corporate number to complain. I spent more than 2 hours on the phone the first day and about 25 just trying to get that last 10 dollars that never came. Budget customer service is terrible to work with. I can’t believe they have stayed on business this long. I feel I deserve another one week rental at no charge. Restitution must take place or Budget will not get anymore money from me and I will be sure to spread the word. I am so disappointed in this experience.
On July 28th I made a reservation on line. I tried to prepay online and there was a problem so I called Budget to ask if I could pay over the phone. I asked if it would be a charge for that and was told no. He originally told me he could not find my reservation so he made another one. When I got off the phone I noticed the other reservation (the Original one I booked on line myself). I was quoted by the agent a charge of $98.37 for the weekend. He said there was a special. I told him I wanted LDW on the car and he said he had added it. I asked for the new price. He told me it was the same. He kept asking me to spell my first name. He then charged the card for 98.37. He then told me I had to pay at the counter. I called back to confirm the reservation. Another agent quoted me $166.66. I was tired so I gave him my card number. Later about 1:00 am I noticed the card had charged 98.37 and 166.66. I called back to ask that one of the charges be removed. He told me to call billing in the morning and that they opened at 7. I took the number and called at 7:05 am. The recording said they were getting a high call volume and have to wait for 10 minutes to speak with someone. By this time I had called 6 times only to be hung up on by another agent. I called back and of course each time you have to go through a phone tree. I explained to the agent what happened again. He was the 7th time I called. He then told me to call billing and gave me the customer service phone number. I called that number and got another agent. She gave me the number to customer service which was the same number I was given for billing. I told her I had already called that number. She said one of the charges would be refunded in 24 hours and to call the customer service number again.She said do not select any options and I will get an agent. I also told her I did not want to wait 24 hours. We were disconnected. I finally got an agent on the phone told her what happened again. I was told to fill out an email and send a copy of the 2 charges on my card. I asked for a discount for the poor service and was told they would not give me one. I got a response that said it would take 3-7 business days for a response. I want the rate I was originally quoted. I asked for a discount because of the calling and being transferred only to end up calling again. By this time I had been on the phone for an hour. I felt this would never happen so I called corporate only to get another phone tree which repeated itself. If I didn’t select an option it hangs up. I am angry and want the $166.66 removed from my card right now. Still waiting….
I had to move some furniture from Florence, Al. to Atlanta and reserved a truck in Florence for 5/19 at 9am. When I got there at 9 am, I was told the truck wasn’t there, it was being brought in from Nashville and would be there in about two hours. I got on the phone with customer service and was first offered a $30 discount. When I told the customer service rep I didn’t think that was enough, he told me he could give me two sixteen ft. trucks instead of the 26 ft. truck I reserved, but I would have to have a second driver. I told him I had no second driver and that would mean that I would have to fill up two trucks instead of one at the end of the rental.
He then told me a inventory manager would call me within two hours. I called one and a half hours later and was told I had to wait another 30 minutes. I decided just to go back to the rental place and wait. When I got there, the truck had just pulled in from Nashville and it took them til almost 12:30 to actually drive off in the truck.
I called customer service again and was told that they talked to a inventory manager (who never called me as promised) and they were going to give me an extra 40% discount off my already 10% for a total of 50% off …… the full rate. When I asked what the full rate was, I was told $308 dollars. I told them they didn’t charge me $308, they charged me $188 and that’s what they should give me the discount on. He told me that rate was no longer available and so I said again that they should give me the 50% off the rate I paid, at which point I was told I was just talking in circles now. So I figured it up and the 50% discount off the full rate was $154.00, about the same discount as I was offered to begin with.
I told them just to charge me what they were gonna charge me and I would call corporate when I finished the move, they had already put me three hours behind. I made the move, unloaded and returned the truck early because the drop off location asked me to because they had a customer wanting to rent the truck early the next morning, although I could have kept it til 12:24 the following afternoon.
I called corporate customer service this morning, 5/24/16 and explained the entire story to them. I was told they gave me a 50% discount already but could go another 15% but that was it. I told him they should have given me the 50% off the amount I paid, and was told that rate was no longer available. Same story, same ending.
I told him to keep his extra 15% off and I will make sure on their web site and through social media that I let everyone I know what a disreputable company Budget is. I understand things happen sometimes but as a business owner, I would have made it right with my customer. Budget doesn’t seem to care one way or the other, so I will let them know my dissatisfaction with their company through the internet.
DON’T USE THIS COMPANY IF YOU WANT TO BE TREATED FAIRLY!
I am flabbergasted at your story as it is almost a mirror of mine. I was just about to call corporate when I read your post. I am so upset at the way I was handled through Budget. Jessica Simpson should be ashamed to represent them.
Before leaving Milwaukee WI I made reservations with the car company that I was using there that I rented the car from and gave them my pick up time and date. When I called to be picked up they told me it was after there pick up time as well as out of the 5 mile area that they pick up in
Sooo I got a ride there and got there at 5:35 they closed at 5:30 – on top of the fact that I had called to tell them I was coming after they denied me a pick up – the person that gave me a ride clock the miles to find out that it was NOT out of the 5 mile area – So 5 mins. late after coming across the country and not having a ride using your company in Wisconsin and then trying to use them here you would think that customer service would be better and allow me the 5 mins.. AND the person was still there so they could have given me the car.
I will be contacting the Media – Facebook and Every place I can find the Budget and their associates on the internet to see how many others have had problems with them and then re–enter this info. over and over again for a 12 month time frame to see how that will affect the bottom line
– I would like to hear from you to see what kind of resolve can be worked out before our research to find the others that might want to join us – I am trying to reach 60 mins. to see if this is a good story for them once I can get a number of people to tell their stories of using Budget and the others like or with you – Please advise as to what you are willing to do to resolve this issue ANYONE READING THIS FEEL FREE TO JOIN OUR FIGHT ON THIS COMPANY WITH SUCH BAD SERVICE
I am VERY disappointed in the Service given to me by Budget. There are some processes that need to be reviewed! I made my reservation on-line and prepaid. Total cost $133.14 for 2 days. Travel on the day was double the time it normally takes so I called ahead to ask if anyone would stay at the office until I got there which would have been around 15 minutes beyond closing. Answer was no! I guess the DMV will not allow transactions beyond 7PM. There needs to be a way to check in and do this automatically. No one on the phone while driving (hands free) would help me, except for 1 young lady, Opal, who really tried to figure out some options. Then I was also told that if I didn’t make it, I could request a full refund. Never made it, so went to my destination and the next morning worked my way to the Budget Office in Fairfield, CT. Was given a Hyundai to drive (not the Ford Fiesta that was on my reservation). So now I only had the car for a day. I guess the return was over the 29 minute late window so now I was charged an extra day ($48). So a 2 day prepaid rental turned in to a $129. 1 day rental. Absolutely ridiculous and no one would help and/or downgrade it at any amount. I feel totally ripped off and not treated properly by ANY of the customer support folks and no one would try to do anything, it was not their problem/fault or whatever else came up in the conversations. I will NOT use Budget any longer. I would have been better off with Uber, Hertz or Enterprise/Dollar, etc. I believe it is time for management to really take a look at the structure and get back to the reason the company was started in the first place.
rental from Sacramento air port at Avis. wish I would have read some of these before renting from Avis. I would have went somewhere else. I did not want insurance, mine will cover me and that was explaned to them, but was put in under loss damage waiver. we all have come from flights and some long ones, we have all ben to the air port made are flights and just want to get a car and get to where we are going after standing in another line. So many mistakes were made. And Avis knows we just want to get our cars and go. so I was charged $51.00 for something I said I don’t want. Come to find out the people behind the counter make commission on this. Here lies the problem commission. They also know when returning a car we are in such a hurry to get the car back get over to the plane and just get home we wont noices these thing and they make more money off of us.
Next is trying to get someone on the phone to fix it, then you are told it can take 7 – 10 to get an answer, I hope you people don’t belive that
I have rented from Budget.com several time and have always used the pay now feature to secure a cheaper rate. I attempted to do it this week and was told my credit card CVC number was incorrect. I made a second attempt and told the same thing. I waited until the next morning and tried again and was again told my information was incorrect. I called my credit card company and was told that my card was charged 5 times for the same amount from budget. I called budget 20 times, between yesterday and today, and was hung up on, given the run around, and talked to very rude and disrespectful by the customer service agents and supervisors. My son is playing in a National tournament tomorrow and my credit card has been tied up by budget and none of their employees can help me. I will never rent from budget again.
I would consider myself a loyal customer to budget. I rent vehicles every other week from different locations. I ran into an issue behind the gas. I paid $31.00 for a day rental, wasn’t properly set up to bring the car in on empty. I returned the car on a half of tank. I was charged $101.00 for a 1 day rental. I called Customer care to see if they could help. I was willing to pay for gas but 100.00 in gas for a Kia Soul… I was told by a Supervisor by the name of Lewis he isn’t willing to help, also was’t able to give me the first name of any other supervisors. If the Customer Service Supervisors treat their loyal customers like that. Please choose wisely what rental place you rent from. I’m definitely changing mine.
Returned a car on 5/7/16 at Detroit airport, the clerk was unable to do paperwork to give me a receipt for rental, also did not get what I rented at airport although their were car their but they gave me a van and I had to exchange the next day for a car what a way to start vacation. As of 5/9/16 they have not closed out the car to sent me a receipt. I’m considering contacting my credit card company.
We just returned our car rental today to the San Diego Airport Budget at 3355 Admiral. We were happy with the car and the cost was fair, no problems with our pick-up. However when returning the vehicle I was blown away by the lack of customer service from the manager on duty, Michael. He was extremely abrasive and harsh in speaking with us from the moment he opened his mouth. There were two marks on the car which were 100% on the car before driving off the lot but we did not make note of them unfortunately. This wasn’t a problem for us as we purchased the car insurance, but Michael treated us like criminals. His voice was raised the entire time we had to deal with him( felt like he was yelling), he walked quickly ahead of us expecting us to follow and talk to the back of his head, he threw paperwork in front of us without explaining what anything meant. I’ve worked in customer service, hospitality, for 10 years and these are all signs that the man is bitter and hates his job. His attitude does not seem to reflect on his employees yet, however it needs to be addressed ASAP so it is understood you do not treat your paying customer this way. I am sure this is not typical of budget service as no company would stand by management of this kind, however his attitude reflects terrible on the Budget Brand. He needs a wake up call from higher up management before his attitude trickles down to his team. I hope this message reaches him before he ruins more Budget experiences. Thank you and please feel free to reach out with further questions by my email provided.
We have rented from Budget on several occasions but two are worthy of note. At Christmas time 2015 we rented at Tampa Airport & on the way later to Saint Pete noticed pick on the drivers side of windshield. Later the pick spread into a crack on the windshield. We went into Budget office in Saint Pete and the man told us no other car available to keep driving said car. Later returning to Orlando Airport it was a nerving drive with the windshield the way it was, as it is a serious safety hazard. In April 2016 we rented a Budget car at Tampa Airport it was to be returned April 26th but cirXXXXstances made it necessary to return it April 22nd. Contacting Budget was an experience as the girl was anything but helpful and advised the four additional days would have to be paid for. When inquiring where Corporate office was I told in Oklahoma where she was ( I guess they left New Jersey). It would appear something could have be accomplished by this girl such as ” don’t worry we will not charge you due to the cirXXXXstances” but no she had quite the attitude problem. Maybe just maybe another occupation may better her personality. There are several car companies in the State of Florida as we make trips there approximately 7 to 8 times a year. My businesses an family will not be renting from your company again. Get your staff an act together.
I rented a premium SUV from fort Myers airport my bill amount was briefly over $100.00 I return vehicle as contract stated. Towards the end of the month I received a $700 charge on my credit card statement says that vehicle was returned 5 days late. Ridiculous and I bring car back with no gas absolutely terrible I will call Coperate immediately and file charges
Like many others, I rented a car in LAS to be dropped off in LAX. Poor customer service plus they overcharged me. The end result, never again…not only for me but my companies…not big but about 150 days per year.
I rented a car one way from Virginia to Pennsylvania I picked up the car on Saturday at 9AM drove the car to Pennsylvania and drop off the car at 2PM, at there location expecting that since the car has been used just for few hours I will be charged one day, to my surprise I was charged two days since they don’t open the next day until 10AM but rather that to charge just one hour they charge me for the hole day, just to reduce it to once hour when I called there customer service, this is a shady business I have never seen anything like it, I will never rent a car from this company ever.
Budget rental car is a shady lying company.. i stood in line for an hour watching the employees try to sell extras to customers, which is fine, i believe in making money (honestly) however, the lady told him no 15 times and then he tells her that she has to take insurance because her insurance will not cover it. that was a flat out lie! i get to the counter finally and was charged $20 extra for pre paid gas that i asked 6 times if i had to have it and was lied to and told yes. i believed the lady and took it to get out of there. as i get to drop it off at the nice location, the ladies tell me that i didn’t have to take it and they are actually tired of them putting it on there because they have to go in and keep taking it out for customers and cost them a lot of time and headache. again, i don’t mind making a profit, but don’t do it dishonestly. now i was also told i could go through the tolls and it would just be added to my card, well a $.50 toll cost me $4.45, when i call budget to talk to them about it, they say they don’t even see the charge on my card, well, i am looking at it, why can’t you see it!!! the place is a joke and should not be in business if they are lying to customers. the guy told me he was transferring me to someone who could help at the corporate level and another lie!! i was transferred to some recording that said to call back later!! listen to this budget, i won’t ever rent from you or any of your other companies, EVER AGAIN!!!
I to had a horrible experience with budget rented a car dolly started our journey across country to be flagged down by a by standard telling us our trailer was smoking come to find out it was previously in an accident when we pulled over one of the two tire on each side was leaning towards trailer and bottom of tire was kicked out was on phone for 45 minutes to be told someone would be out in 59 minutes from roadside service after they arrived they then told us there was nothing they could do till morning now stranded almost 2000 miles from home did not have extra money for hotel after spending almost $1700.00 for a truck and trailer budget could not even put us up for a night at hotel. Never again budget
I rented a car from Budget at the Denver Airport. When I returned the card on Monday, March 28th I left my E-ZPASS MD transponder taped to the center of the front windshield. I have been trying to talk to a human at that location since Tuesday and have been unsuccessful. Along the way I have dealt with one of your customer service billing people who filed a lost and found report for me. He did the job you would have expected him to do. Either the Denver operation has my transponder or one of your employees tossed it away as too much trouble. Please contact me and let us try to resolve this problem.
I was charged a whole month later for a flat that can happen to my own car the insurance is stupid they charged all kinds of fees which I was told I was on responsible for that tire wasn’t notified took my rent money and would not return it because of a mistake on their behalf I will never rent again from them and I will tell everyone I know on Facebook everybody don’t rent from them because they were will rip you off
Don’t use budget rent a car. Rude service, hidden fees, and no satisfaction from corporate complaints. Go elsewhere.
Worst customer service ever! Never again will I use this company or recommend then to anyone else!!! You would think being a well known business, you would want to keep your customers happy, right? WRONG! On March 6th, I rented a truck from michigan. My reservation quoted me at $760.. The woman who checked me out had charged me $944. When I asked why it was more than my reservation quote, she was unsure but stated it depends on the available trucks on that day. and that I would have to call customer service once returning the truck and my trip was complete. Once turning in my truck, it was brought to my attention that I was charged a daily $25 youthful driver fee.. Which at the time of picking up my truck, I was told it was a ONE TIME fee of $25. After multiple times of speaking with customer service representatives, and getting absolutely no help I called my pick up location to speak with the woman, Corliss, who was the one that checked me out. She in fact stated herself that she had no idea it was a daily fee and sincerely apologized for that mistake & therefore was not able to properly provide me with the correct information during the time of my check out. Apparently that doesn’t matter to the company because I signed the contract. So because the woman was misinformed of her own company rules (and will admit to it) I, the customer am the one who gets screwed. That is great business Budget.
I rented a vehicle from Budget in Atlanta GA airport. Before leaving with the vehicle, I noticed red paint splatters all over the hood of the car. I made note of the red paint and upon leaving, I told the exit attendant (Kevin) about the paint. When I got out to show him, I noticed a scuff mark on the right rear panel. I told Kevin that I found “something else”. He asked what it was, I told him. His reply was, “we’re not looking for things like that; we’re looking for big chips, dents, etc.”. I told him that I was noting the paint anyway to be on the safe side. Kevin’s response was” I agree, we have a lot of foreign students driving these cars. If they damage them, they will have to take a drug test. Therefore, they don’t report it”. We laughed and I left. When I returned, the “manager” checked me in and said that I damaged the vehicle. I told him that I did not and explained what happened. He practically called me a liar. When I asked to speak with a manager, he stated “I am the manager”. I asked to speak with someone other than him. He left, returned with Josh. As I’m talking to Josh, “the manager” returns and says “there’s chips in the windshield as well”. Now I’m distraught. What kind of customer service is this! Both Josh and “the manager” is calling me a liar and looking for additional damage in front of other customers as if I were a criminal. I explained that I am a professional that rents cars frequently from Budget/Avis through my employer. I plan to file a complaint with the corporate CEO and NEVER use Budget again. By the way, on my last visit, I left my garage door opener and cellphone charger. I walked to the terminal, came back (less than 10 min. later). My items were taken from the car and no one saw them???
I rented a truck from February 28th to march 1st 2016. They told me it would be 89.99 for the 3 day rental and then .69 per mile. Total was suppose to be $259.73 plus insurance. No big deal right? Wrong!!!! My husband was driving from Orlando to ft pierce then back to Orlando. Everything was going fine until mile marker 185 when the truck started losing exceleration. I had to pull over because it wouldn’t move. I called into budget to let them know I was stranded a little before 10am. The tow truck didn’t show up till after 3:30pm. I was with my kids. One of whom is a special needs child who has to take medication. I was supposed to be back in Orlando at 3:30 to pick up my wife and my 2 youngest children to take them to our new house in fort pierce. But I didn’t get back to Orlando till 7pm and the office for drop off was closed. I dropped the truck off and called in to let them know and they only offered me a $40.00 credit for my inconvenience. Today I checked my account and they took out $542.00. So I called them back up and asked why they charged me so much. They had charged me for an extra day and for gas. But I didn’t even have the same truck as I originally had. Moving is already a very stressful situation but budget made it even worse. They offered to credit me 190.43 of the 500 that they took but it’s still way over what it was supposed to be. How do I get my money back? I have to move a lot because of my job but I guarantee that if they don’t fix this, I will never use them again. They messed up the last time I rented from them too but they fixed their mistake and so I trusted that they would right their wrong. But they are trying to say that we are wrong and we were only stuck for 2 hrs when I have the messages and phone call times saved on my phone. Budget put my 12 year olds life in danger because he didn’t have his medication for over 10 hours. And he’s suppose to take but he didn’t have it on him because he was only suppose to be without it for a total of 6 hours. I am very upset with the way this was handled. My son could’ve had a major seizure and could’ve died and there would’ve been nothing I could do about it. Obviously budget does not care. I can’t even fathom why they will not compensate me what’s at least owed back to me. Plus some extra for the inconvenience and putting my sons life at risk. I’m seriously considering getting a lawyer and not only will they get me my money back but a hell of a lot more than that. So I really seriously hope someone from corporate calls me back. My number is 407401XXXXX
I rented a truck from Budget to move from California to Washington for $1700.00. We got to Washington and started to unload and noticed everything was wet. After unloading everything we noticed a HOLE in the side of the truck where they cut out for a pipe of some kind but never filled it. So since it rained the whole way to Washington the water was pushed up through the hole by the wheel well. I called customer service and they told me to return the truck call and make a claim and then call back customer service for a refund. So I did that and when I called back and they offered me $100 dollars that’s it. So I told them I wanted to speak to a supervisor, they hung up on me 5 times before I gave up and looked online for corporate. It said I needed my case id number from the complaint so I call customer service back and they wouldn’t give me the number at all. So I called claims back just to find out the girl I spoke with never filed my claim. They had no record of me , so again I file my claim for water damage to my 60in smart tv, my daughters twin mattress and box spring and a box of Michael Kors purses. Everything else we salvaged. So now I have sent in a request for refund for at least half of the cost of a faulty truck and withholding information. I receive an email back stating they will offer me $180 dollars and that is their final offer and I have 7 days to accept or decline. I am applaud that this is how my situation was handled. I am so mad if I do not receive a call from Corporate I will be moving forward with suing and contacting the news about how Budget trucks handle their customers. I will make sure to tell everyone I come in contact with to NEVER RENT FROM BUDGET OR AVIS.
In the future if you have to do a move like that go to U-Haul. I did a one way rental from seattle to Tracy, Ca the cost was $687 for a 10 foot truck and there were no hidden fees. I was very pleased. I went to budget to rent a truck this morning and I couldn’t get past the rudeness of customer service then I read the reviews thank God I didn’t rent from them will never rent from them!
My dad rented a vehicle from budget at Atlanta airport and they. Took money for insurance and we had our own. And the workers their are very ride and used bad language. Its terrible. I’ve got the news involed now. I’m writing the CEO Ronald l Nelson. I’m tired of them treating ppl wrong. Thanks Josh Mcmullen
Anyone else who’s having a problem lets stick together and get action taken on this. Email countryboyfresh77 at gmail.com.
Budget Rental is “THE WORST TRUCK RENTAL CO. A 2 day trip turned into a 5 day nightmare. Called spoke to customer service about a truck and car carrier rented on 2/21/16 to haul a car from Texas to Virginia along with moving my son, daughter in law, and 2 month old granddaughter. First complaint was headlights on truck no good, 2nd complaint no car carrier lights had to get a hotel, 3rd complaint we are half way into our move driving in pour down rain a tire rolls off of the car carrier and other 3 tires start smoking. Pulled off on Rt 40 east at exit 338 into a truck parking for 18 wheelers. Called again to complain about the car carrier they finally send out roadside assistance 4 hours later to tell us we needed to remove our car off the carrier for the carrier could not be repaired. It was hauled away on a flat bed truck. Had to call a relative at 9:30 pm who had to come from Virginia to an hour west of Knoxville, TN to help with driving. Called the following day and all they could tell us was, There is NOTHING that they could do. Budget rental will never have our business or others to whom we have passed this info on too.
My daughter just rented car online…she goes to pick up car…they tell her they can’t rent it to her because she used debit card…they charged her card…and then tells her for cancellation fee they have to keep $25…she didn’t cancel…and they can’t put her money back on card for 7 to 10 days…I am angry…somebody will pay for this…and no one will pick up phone…
I rented a vehicle for 2016 Valentines weekend and was told my deposit was going to be $100 when I returned the vehicle I was told the deposit should’ve been $200 so they charged my credit card $200 for a deposit and charged me an extra $60 for car insurance which I declined the car insurance before getting the vehicle because I was using my own insurance. Then upon disputing the $60 she tells me it’s non refundable so they can’t give me that back!
We have been a client of yours many times throughout the years. Between us we have 108 years of experience driving a car. Every car we have ever driven, you turn the lights on, and the lights both headlights and tail lights are illuminated.
We recently had a very bad experience with one of your rental cars. We picked up the car at the Charlotte Airport after a long day of traveling from Europe. We were heading for Asheville, our home. The headlights came on automatically, we left the rental car parking lot and during our journey home on U.S. 40, through the mountains in the dark; on three different occasions during the two hour drive, when we passed a car, they would flash their lights at us. We assumed they wanted, in turn, for us to move over so they could pass us.
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home, my husband ran into the store while I stayed close to the door in the parking lot, car running. When he returned to the car, he said, “We have no tail lights.”
We drove two hours, in the dark through the mountains of Northwestern Carolina with no tail lights. Your associate never told us the tail lights had to be turned on separately. We feel most fortunate we didn’t have an accident. We believe it was negligence on your part not to warn us the tail lights had to be turned on separately, something never necessary during the past five decades of driving.
During drop off, we told the Budget rental car associate in Asheville of this serious problem, and she showed us the tail lights have to be turned on separately.
We are warning you, so in the future, you instruct your associates to inform your clients that the tail lights on the Ford Focus, and any other car necessary, must be turned on separately.
Worst customer service at Sacramento Airport on Friday Feb 12,2016
Thank you for your attention to this matter. My family ended up STRANDED IN CINCINATTI because the wipers wouldnt work after driving thru a snow storm at midnight on valentines day 2016! Customer service rep said he could take $16 off my bill. WE ALMOST DIED!!!!!!!!!! CUSTOMER SERVICE? Was told by the guy who rented the truck to us that we WERE NOT COVERED BY OUR INSURANCE SO WE HAD TO BUY HIS! Found out that wasnt the case when we contacted our insurance company. THIS HAS SCAM WRITEN ALL OVER. somebody please call me back! please????
I have been trying to call long distance for quite some time now. Your phone system goes round and round and then says, sorry you are having problems, try again. What the heck? How do you get to talk to a live person? After reading all these comments, and with the problems I have been having with customer service in my town, I will not use Budget again. What a waste of time and money.
Disaster at its finest….1st I get online to reserve a luxury vehicle. I drive 35min. to the location and the rep hands me a key to a Kia. That’s like getting a room at the Marriott and they accidentally booked you a motel6… So I cancel and have to make another reservation pick up at the airport 30 more minutes away. Today was my anniversary my husband planned and it would have been amazing! We get on the highway and kept smelling burnt farts lol! It got worse so we had to roll down the windows. I call Budget rep and he tells me you can drop it off and pick up a new one at our other location in a different cities airport. As all this is happening one reservation after another is being canceled. So I finally got to the airport and they put me into a vehicle that hasn’t been cleaned. My white pants is now ruined! So I make my way to our hotel and sure enough our last planed reservation got canceled do to not making it there till after 12am… So we turn back around and it takes us about 3 1/2 hours. I’m glad I got to spend my anniversary with my husband! So after all this I call to speak to a manager and all I got was a sorry for the inconvenience! No refund? NO! Why not?! Just shows what type of company this is… I’m not sure if it’s just the manager but I guess I’ll just find out after I speak to corporate!
Beware when renting a car from Budget rental. December 2 , 2015, I rented a compact car for a week with a total rental,of $344.00. I questioned the rep about that amount of money. It’s airport taxes she said. I told her I did not understand the contract as it was so convoluted to which she replied yes, we have talked to the company about that. On that contract she signed me up for a GPS, saying it was free through a company special, and also Sirius XM radio which the car did NOT have. I called the company on December 12 and was told by Frank that a refund would be in the mail. On December 13 a fraudulent purchase was on my credit card in the amount of $104.00 from Budget, my credit card company is disputing the $119.00 for fraudulent service charges and $104.00 for a fraudulent charge to my credit card. This car rental was at LAX, and this was clearly not that rep’s first rodeo! As a consumer, I asked the right questions. She was hateful telling me I could go to Dollar if I thought I could get it cheaper but dollar wouldn’t pick me up. Once bitten twice shy. I will never rent a car there again. Evidently, there is no way to trace back to the rep OR Frank! STAY AWAY FROM BUDGET!
The customer service for this company is very poor and not helpful in anyway. I WOULD NEVER RENT HERE AGAIN!!! And will not refer anyone to this company!
I’d have to agree about the horrible customer service. We rented a 16′ moving truck which ended up having the front tires badly out of balance. This made a long difficult trip even longer. When I contacted the drop off location about this they told me to call the 800#. Which I did. They the 800# lady told me to call them back in a half hour after the drop off location had a chance to do a test drive. When I called back they said their mechanic did not see or feel any problem with it. They are either big fat liners or never took it on the highway as I had said the problem occurs after reach 50mph. They basically said that we were lying about the issue and there was nothing further they could do. I don’t care that they are cheaper than other moving trucks if they are not maintained well I will not rent from them again. They are plain dangerous and could care less about their customers safety.
I have been waiting for the release of my hold since 12/26/2015. And every time I call I get a different reason as to why I have not received my hold or they say it will be another 3 to 5 business days. I will never use them again! !
Budget has the worst customer service mindset I have ever encountered. I rented a care for two days, returned it and was promised a refund within two to five business days. It has been many days beyond that and every time I call I get a different answer as to how and when my refund is coming. The latest is it will come by check sometime within the next thirty days. Calling Corporate Headquarters is totally a waste of time because you can’t get anyone to answer. They indicate you should enter the name and then when you do they tell you they don’t recognize it. I have never encountered so much lying, obfuscation and deceit in dealing with any entity. I think they try to hold on to refunds in order to make money and then hope people won’t stay on them and will forget about the money. What a terrible inefficient business.
Beware when renting a car from Budget rental. December 2 , 2015, I rented a compact car for a week with a total rental,of $344.00. I questioned the rep about that amount of money. It’s airport taxes she said. I told her I did not understand the contract as it was so convoluted to which she replied yes, we have talked to the company about that. On that contract she signed me up for a GPS, saying it was free through a company special, and also Sirius XM radio which the car did NOT have. I called the company on December 12 and was told by Frank that a refund would be in the mail. On December 13 a fraudulent purchase was on my credit card in the amount of $104.00 from Budget, my credit card company is disputing the $119.00 for fraudulent service charges and $104.00 for a fraudulent charge to my credit card. This car rental was at LAX, and this was clearly not that rep’s first rodeo! As a consumer, I asked the right questions. She was hateful telling me I could go to Dollar if I thought I could get it cheaper but dollar wouldn’t pick me up. Once bitten twice shy. I will never rent a car there again. Evidently, there is no way to trace back to the rep OR Frank! STAY AWAY FROM BUDGET!
I rented a car for my wife at Dulles Airport in November. On December 30th I found that Budget had charged me 30 dollars for my wife in using the quick pass toll line, which my wife was told when she picked the vehicle up was an option she paid for with the vehicle, the toll was $1.25 and Budget charged me 30 dollars, the individual at Budget Corporate HQ who placed this unauthorized charge on my debt card was Jessica Geib, I called her number and only get voice msil, WTF Budget!
I rented a car from budget in November for 220 one way they changed my face 600 I called and sent in my paper work they reimbursed me and charged my account again in December my account has been overdrawn for a month because of them and they keep giving me the run around they said they sent my case to headquarters I haven’t heard anything from them my account is negative with the charge and the supervisors will not give me the number or name of whom ever is supposedly handling the case…is this a legal matter or what
hay Ronald nelson read your comments and do something about your worthless company
I wonder if this companys ceo even reads there reviews cause in my opinion he/ don’t because this is the worse rental company I have ever used. nothing but problems with there customer service and reservations. beyond a joke of a place. I bet he don’t care as long as he makes his millions like the rest of them. as the best part is I had to hang up on them multiples time because you cant understand there customer service reps because they cant speak f..ken English
looks like you can’t speak english either
Waited 40 min at the charleston airport, no signs pointing location for
Budget waiting at curb it was in real !
Went inside sorry no fast brake
Sent me to a tent out in parking lot, 25 min
They sente a Toyota that was nasty
And nothing worked inside, went back around airport turned in car, went to National in 3 min had a new car
Never again and we are
A corporate account ? I don’t get it !
They have the worst service I had ever experienced in 5 years
Sad
Torrance California location was not acceptable , even though we had a confirmed reservation ,confirmed Torrance was not aware and told us we should have called to confirm the truck was ready , which we already had done , after we had informed them that we had called only then did they begin to call around to find us a truck & car carrier to make a long story short it took 18 hours before they found what they promised us and then they pounded us with sales options some being mandatory which was not true knowing we were pressed for time we did not have time to read every little thing and we were lied to demanding we pay for certain added things such as added insurance ,roadside assistance ,among other things which were not necessary other wise we are very unhappy with the service …. as well as the sales man ship , we feel we were taken advantage of in our time of need and pressured into a contract other than first agreed upon they changed the contract three times as to why we do not yet know.
I love Budget! They are soooo screwed up that they make every other company on the planet appear to be outstanding! It doesn’t matter how bad or messed up any other companies employees are….just compare them to Budget and wham!!! Everything looks better right away! It is actually good for America to have such a crappy company with useless, non caring employees and a service system for problems that belongs in a toilet!
Thank you Budget…you guys are so low that there is only one direction for you to take, so when you pull your collective heads out of your as***, you will move up!!!! God bless Budget…they need all the help that they can get!
I rented a 12′ truck to move my son to Orlando. When I went to pick up the truck they neglected to tell me that FEDEX had rented all their 12′ trucks and I would have to take a 16′ truck. I had already arranged to pick up the furniture on that day so I had to accept the larger truck. I subsequently found out that the complex I am moving my son into will not allow a 16′ truck to park overnight so I found a Budget location in Orlando that is open late that I could return the truck to the same day. When I called Budget to make the change they told me I would have to pay an extra fee to change the location, even though it is a day early and in the same city and state. Worse customer service ever and I will never use Budget again. I will also make sure to post my experience on every website possible so others are aware of their unprofessionalism.
I have a reservation for a rental from Budget and I was told 2 days after booking my reservation that the location that I have my res at doesn’t have the truck that I reserved there but they had it at another location but it wasn’t a one way I had to return it back to the same location plus pay mileage and fill the truck back up. After speaking to 8 + different people at the location of the res, customer service and the res center no one helped me. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND that anyone use Budget rental for anything. They have very poor customer service, they are unprofessional and rude. To cover their back they canceled my reservation without my knowledge I was told that from the 7th person that I spoke with but he didn’t have a date that it was canceled. First he said I canceled it then he said the inventory manager canceled it after I told him I didn’t cancel my reservation. He had a confirmation number that I didn’t receive but he couldn’t tell me a date wow how convinent for Budget. They need a course in customer service and fire ALL of the workers there to hire more qualified individuals.
a week ago my son and i went to budget in orland park, il to pick up a car because our car was damaged and state farm provides free rentals. we were in there 30 min. and the women there could not understand ! i finally said to just forget it and we left. they charged my chase credit 556.00 plus 300.00 pending charges. the next morning we went to enterprise and after 10 min. walked out with a car. nobody in customer service seems to care. why in the world would you have 2 women who don’t know what they are doing in the store. i changed my credit card number so they cannot commit anymore fraud against me.
This is the worst company to ever rent from … I was in an accident and got a car from there had the car for a month …. My car wasnt ready so of course i made another res for a full size car for 3 weeks … I was placed in a mini van because they had no full size didnt mind because the lady assure me it would be for one night… It’s been a week now and i have been calling customer service and explaining it over n over that i am alone driving this big ridiculous van that doesn’t even have an lock or unlock button on keys. Everyday i call customer service they tell me come that they have the car amd when i get there they pretend that they havent spoken to me and they don’t have a car…. This is the worst company and the staff acts like oh well we giving you the van free when im paying for this.
I was the victim of an in-house theft at the budget rental cars Baltimore airport on sep12th.had just returned my car not realizing that my wallet was in the car.Dashed back to reclaim the item..was told by front desk that nothing had been turned in.A week and a half later..a lady found my wallet laying on a road close to the rental car facility.It had in fact been taken all of my money and gift cards gone`..my ID to come home and numerous personal items totally irreplaceable.I know the person{s} who took the wallet and ruined my life forever.Never again will I ever do budgetrentacar and will pass on this information to family and friends.Budgetrenta car has a terrible theif in their midst and I had to pay for it…leo withers
What ever happened to appreciating customer loyalty?
I have been renting cars from Budget for over 3 yrs and lately your service has been horrible.
Latest incident occurred on my rental in August 2015 when I was moving my daughter back to College. I had issues with the app so I called customer service to rent a car, customer service agent said that if I pre-paid the rate would be lower. I jumped at that and gave my credit card number and was given a confirmation number. I called back they could not find my reservation. I asked to speak to the supervisor (Jasmine #89347) She was no help and was very condescending. When I check the hold was placed on my account. I called back they said not to worry just use the confirmation number at pick up. When I went to pick up the car, they could not find the proof that was pre-paid. I check my credit card and the hold was still there. I had to rent the car at the counter price. So I have a hold on my credit card for the original rental and another for the more expensive rental. (NOT GOOD WHEN YOU ARE MOVING YOUR CHILD BACK TO SCHOOL)
The attendant at the counter was very nice and said to call the reservation number and explain the situation so they can take care of it. I called and was told that nothing could be done because the rental agreement was still opened. I was issued a case number. So when I got back, I waited and contact customer service the agent and she stated it would take 48 hours to process.
Last week I was getting ready to make reservations for another car when I noticed that the credit was not issued. So I called Logan said it would take 48 hours (9/25). I checked my account today (9/30) and there still no credit. I called back and got Logan again.(very unprofessional) he said he would process it and it would take 7 to 10 business days. (Incredible). He said I should of followed up. (So I should not take Budgets word when say they are going to do something for them to do it?) I explained that this has been real issue and that I would need to make a reservation for two weeks. Did not seem to faze him, just apologized but there was nothing he could do. I explained that I would have to go to another rental agency (again not faze).
What does it take to provide good customer service, especially to your loyal customers…I now have to find another rental agency, near my house for the two rental that I will need in October and November, one in December.. Yes, I will have to rent approximately 5 separate times from now to December.
All you need to do is contact your state attorney and if all or most of you do that, Budget will get their act staight. I did have a problem with Budget and will never go back to them nor AVIS which owns Budget.
AWFUL EXPERIENCE! I WILL NEVER USE BUDGET AGAIN. I BELIEVE THEY HAVE FOUND A WAY TO LEGALLY PUT SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO TACK FEES ON THAT THEY WILL NOT REIMBURSE!!! BEWARE! NO MATTER HOW LONG THE LINE OF CUSTOMERS WAITING IS, READ YOUR CONTRACT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE EMOLYEE’S WINDOW AND BEFORE YOU PULL OUT YOUR CREDIT CARD UPON RETURN! IF YOU DON’T, SINCE THEY DON”T CHARGE YOU TILL THE END OF YOUR RENTAL, YOU WILL THINK EVERYTHING IS AS PLANNED: TRUST ME; IT”S NOT! WE GOT CHARGED AN ADDITIONAL $34.00, FOR ONE DAY’S RENTAL, MAKING OUR TOTAL COST $64.00 FOR A RENTAL TIME OF ONLY 6 HOURS! THAT”S FOR AN ECONOMY CAR; THEIR LOWEST PRICED ONE!
We made our reservation online. The total cost was $29 for one day. When my husband came home I looked at his receipts and contract and found a list of extra charges that he supposedly incurred. They were as follows; Additional Insurance, Road Side Assistance, Gas Fill, Tax, Energy Recovery and Customer Fac Charge (which I have no idea what that is.)
When I called I was told that my husband signed the contract and he was liable for those charges (which is true – now comes the part where they find out how to legally charge people this scandelous amount of money). When my hisband went to the rental desk he was asked if he wanted any additional insurance. He told the employee he did not. He said he did not want anything additional to what we signed up for. The employee said ok and then gave him a contract to sign. This contract is a one page doXXXXent with very light ink, very small text and absolutely no dollar signs attached to any nuber. There are 30 lines of numbers on the contract and no dollar signs! Since the line of customers was quite long, and my husband didn’t want to keep other people waiting, he signed the contract, with the assumption that the employee was following his request for nothing extra. At the return of the car he was asked if he filled the car and he said yes. He then paid $33 on his credit card, assuming this was for the price of the car.
When he showed me the charges I told him that I had already paid for the rental, online, a month ago. I called Budget and got the standard, ”there’s nothing I can do” answer. I asked for a supervisor but was told none were available. I told the employee that we specifically used our Discover card because they cover any additional insurance needed. I also told her that we’ve had Triple A for 33 years and would never agree to the charge of road side assistance. Again, nothing she could do. Her supervisor never called me. Instead she emailed me and said that since he signed the contract he was liabel. I returned the supervisor’s email stating that, yes, my husbands signiture is legal and binding, however, that I believed that Budget intentionally counts on the fact that a contract that’s printed in very light, very small ink, amongst 30 lines of numbers with no diliniation / dollar signs will most likely not be read, especially if there’s a long line of customers. Instead, Budget counts on the fact that with all of the above, the customer will most likely sign the contract. (The supervisor never returned my email.) TO ME THAT’S LEGALLY STEALING.
So before you sign your contract, both at the beginning and at the end, be sure to read your contract, no matter how many customers are in line, because I’m guessing it’s a safe bet that extra charges, adding up in the millions when you take into account all of the people who rent from Budget, could be added to your rental agreement as well. Or, do what we do now, DON’T RENT FROM BUDGET EVER AGAIN!
Budget rent a truck: I call a number that should have been for U haul however they behave as tho the two companies have merged together in an attempt to provide the best price for the company I complied. I was told that if I use my debit card that I would not be charged until I got there to pick up the truck and I would receive a !150.00 deposit back on pick up. When I got there the lady told me no ypu don’t get a refund unless use your debit card. Lol! I replied mam I did use my debit card and if you look at you computer u would have found that to be true without going back and forth with me. Her reply was that oh! I’m sorry you need to have used your credit card. I replied lady that’s not what I was told by the operator or you for that matter, I explained that I have a long way to travel across the states with my three children one of 2 the other 9 and 16. We’re homeless and have one shot of making it. I have not money but what I was told to be given back to me once I picked up the truck. The woman refused to accommodate me but offered that theirs a full tank of gas and adventually she handed over the keys to a dusty, dirty truck inside and out and we were on our way. Never the less we sure enough ran out of gas prior to arriving to our destonation and had been sitting on the side of the rode in the hot deaeung heat trying to find sime one who could wire me some gas money. It has made me late for a very important appointment I made months prior for housing for my family and i. Once I arrived in my destonational state I contacted my friend in an effort to take all of my things off the truck and placed into storage. We had been conversing back and forth with budgets drop off location to insure they understood what we going on and that we,we’re on our way. However, once we arrived the locations lights were off and their was not one to be found to assist us. So I decided to leave the keys on the counter. A few days later I called my financial institution and called budget to insure that their were no extra feed encured. Budgets agencie I sure me that their were none. However I discovered quite tge adverse has accurred. Not only did they take my deposit due to me of $150.00 but they charged my debit card $357.00 plus for bogus charges of gas due in excess of no more than a 1/4 tank and 4 extra days charge for this truck that had not been in my possession.budget charged me $557.00 and about $557.00 for bogus charges after returning their truck.when I attempt to contact them over the course of 4 days they basically come up with the same conclusion of telling me to hove one of their facilities to call the other and usually the very one they need to speek to in an effort to settle your long awaited delimma is away from the office for another week. In short ypu will never settle this case with out an attorney. U budget needs to shut their facilties down and allow a professional such as U Haul to take over who has better customer service. Better care. And better all around standards of treating their customers. ; ( boo to Budget.
My name is Rickey Odom and I am complainin about the way a rental problem is being handled. I received a letter today about a windshield and that I owe a 188 dollars. There was also a repair order for a tire. When I turned the rental in there was no damage. No one came out and did a walk around when I turned the vehicle in. They didn’t do a walk around when I picked up the vehicle. If they had checked the vehicle when I checked it in there would be no issue. They did not check the vehicle at all. Now they want to try and charge me for something that I did not do. I would like have some to please call me about this problem.
Rickey Odom
334517****
Order #1808213406919
Pickup – Gwinnett Rental Truck, Duluth, GA 9/03/15
Return – Sears,Davis Hwy, Pensacola, FL 9/06/15
Returned the truck 9/5/15, but location closed at 2pm on a Saturday. Fueled the truck and noticed a leak at the gas station. Husband looked under the truck and noticed the “DUCT TAPE” on the fuel line and the leak from there. We filled the truck and wrote a note along with the paperwork in the drop box and started back to GA.
Noticed we were charged $59.91 for fuel, $30 fee plus $29.91 of leaked out gas.
9/11/15 Called MEXICO “Customer Service” who asked if we made a roadside assistance claim or he could not help. Told me he could not call the location of drop off because he couldn’t make outgoing calls. “Customer NO Service” is a waste of time.
Called the drop off location and they just simply filled the truck and re-rented it. Nice Safety Practice. My husband is a race car mechanic and pretty familiar with duct tape and gas line leaks.
Called Corporate and they finally gave me the $30 refund and talked over me the entire time when I explained the hazard of re-renting this truck #228097 License Plate. Do NOT place this truck back on the line. I work for the insurance company and we have taken note of this.
In placing this complaint, I see this was not the best decision I made. Need to rent again, but it will not be a Wash, Rinse and Repeat……and Report.
Dissatisfied at the practices of the company. Used to be a whole lot better. What happened?
Rented a moving truck and auto-transport from Budget (Customer Reference # 0891029489502) for pick up 29Jul2015 Slidell, LA. Upon arrival at pick up location no agent was available at appointment time. I had to call customer service to track down the budget agent who was suppose to be working. Once she arrived 90 minutes late she did not seem to know what she was doing. The agent claimed the system was down and she would have to call a supervisor. Neither the truck or trailer was ready to go. The agent was unable to hook the trailer up to the truck. The agent did not check tire pressures or anything on the truck. I had to hook the trailer up myself. Because of the Budget agent we missed our appointment time for the loaders we had hired and paid to load the truck. We have to reschedule for the next day and pay extra because of the delay on Budgets behalf. Once loaded and on the road we had a blow out on one of the tires on the auto-transport. I called customer service and it took over 3 hours for them to get roadside assistance to us who was only 25 minutes away. Poor communication on Budgets part caused my family to wait in 103 degree weather to get tire repaired, which lead us to waist the day of driving by the time it was all wrapped up. The a/c did not work properly on the truck, but when we contacted Budget they informed us we would have to take it to a repair shop a few hours out of our way and wait overnight to get it fixed. We just decided to drive at night to not waste anymore time. While my wife was driving in the middle of the night with our 10 year old daughter in the truck it began to rain. I noticed her swerving on the road before pulling over. We had no cell service to contact each other or roadside assistance. Once I was able to make it to the truck to check on her she informed me the windshield wipers did not work. Once the rain started she could no longer see and almost wreck which could have possible killed my wife and our daughter. We had to sleep in the trucks until the rain stopped because we were in the middle of nowhere. Delaying our trip even further. Once the rain stopped we were able to make it to a gas station to get new wipers and clean the window to make it safe to go down the road again. The following night as we were driving through mountains I noticed I could no longer see the truck my wife and daughter was in, but heard semi trucks honking their horns. I tried to call my wive, but yet again the cell service prevented phone calls. Once I made it back to the Budget Truck she was in she informed me the lights stopped working. After turning the switch on and off I was able to get them to come on intermittently. This was not safe to drive. Again Budgets poorly maintained truck could have killed my family. We had to sleep in our trucks again until daylight before it was safe for us to drive again. Towards the last leg of our trip as we were climbing up and down the mountains heading into San Diego the speedometer stopped working on the Budget truck. Again we were in a no cell service location, so my wife had to find a place to pull over to let me know what was going on and to allow me to get in front of her so she could maintain proper speed in the Budget truck that did not function properly. The issues with this truck caused so much unneeded stress and anxiety for our family. We were lucky my wife was able to handle the improperly functioning Budget rental truck to spare our daughter’s life and her own. Once we arrived late to our destination and drop off location due to the inconveniences of the Budget truck the San Diego drop off agent would not let us drop off the auto-transport first. Our rental agreement stated drop off was at 4:30 pm and when we got there at 4:15 pm they were closed. The next day the agent at the San Diego location said they had shorter hours than were listed. So we got charged for yet another day because Budget did not honor their available contracted drop off hours. I noticed the truck needed gas and when I told the agent I would be right back after getting gas, he said not to worry about it cause he was ready to get out of there. He also told us we would have to call the customer service hotline with complaints because he could not help us with it. Budget ended up charging me $95 for fuel even after the San Diego agent told me I wouldn’t be charged. I was also charged an additional $534.09 for extra rental days due to the unsafe truck they rented me and the incorrect drop off times they printed on my contract. I also do not believe I should pay for the truck rental since in the contract they state they will provide me with a safe vehicle suitable for the contracted move and they did not do so, breaching the contract. I contacted the customer service several times. My first attempt after speaking with an agent over the phone I waited on hold for 25 minutes before they disconnected the phone call. The second attempt I got ahold of a very rude agent who claimed to be transferring me to a manager where I waited 10 minutes before the line disconnected. On my third attempt I got an agent named Trudy who was actually nice sounding but also attempted to transfer me to a manager where I was placed on hold for 7 minutes before the line disconnected. On my fourth attempt after waiting for 40 minutes on hold I finally spoke with a manager who told me the best they could do was refund me $90 or $160 and it really wasn’t their problem my family almost died in their death trap of a moving truck. I told them that was unacceptable and she just said there was nothing else they could do. Budget put my family in a vehicle that was unsafe to go down the road. They could have been killed and they caused us to have constant delays and miss appointments that costed us more money throughout the move.
DON’T EVER RENT FROM HERE!!!
They have poor customer service! I reserved a vehicle at a certain time and picked it up early only because I had a ride at that time. The employee did not advised me that I will be charged the rate of the day which was fifty something dollars prior to me signing my agreement for picking up early. I was also charged another fifty something dollars for bringing it back at a later time but on the same day of the agreement. I can understand the charge for bringing it back later; however I cannot agree with being charged for picking up the vehicle early. My bill was over $100.00 dollars with out any explanation on the bill until I called the corporate office. I felt like I was deceived with the hidden fees that they applied to my bill. I will never rent from this agency again and will advised my friends and family to never rent from this agency as well.
DON’T GO HERE!!! Customer service is HORRIBLE. My husband reserved what was supposed to be a 9 passenger vehicle about a month ago for our family vacation. He was told several times by the customer service rep that he would be getting a truck that would accommodate. Wednesday 8/26, when we went to pick up the truck, the cashier told us that the 7 passenger truck was the only thing they had available, We let him know that the vehicle was reserved for at least 9 passengers, the worker said that they did not have anything else available. The budget rep refused to try find a vehicle that would accommodate, He simply said he already knew everything was booked because of the Labor Day holiday coming up. We had no choice but to take the vehicle because we had already paid our money. Some of our other family members had to trail us to our destination in another car and they had paid their half to ride in the rental. I would strongly advise anyone that is wanting to rent a car to GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. DO NOT USE BUDGET. THE WORKERS ARE LAZY AND DO NOT CARE IF THE CUSTOMER IS 100% SATISFIED. ALL THEY ARE WORRIED ABOUT IS GETTING YOUR MONEY. Not only that but when we returned the vehicle, that was tooo small, the lady told us that our deposit would be back on our card in 48 hours, well today make 72 hours and the deposit is still not on the card. I called budget and the lady lied and said she never told me my deposit would be back on my card in 48 hrs, she said she told me 5-10 business days. LIES! LIES! LIES!! MY HUSBAND AND I HAVE CONTACTED THE CORPORATE OFFICE AND THEY ARE NOT WILLING TO MAKE IT RIGHT AT ALL! BAD BUSINESS! AGAIN DON’T GO HERE!!!
I have not received my refund on my deposit . I have called for three months .. and after being told last month they were sending out a new check and it would take up to 21 business days. I called today and they told me my check was cashed two months ago. I asked them to give me the information on when and where the check was cashed. I was also asking what bank did budget use so that I could verify . They would not release any of that information to me. Why was I told that. I would be receiving a check and now they are saying I already did. I have tried and tried to contact a supervisor and they have an Idk attitude. I need answers. This is very unprofessional!
We left Corpus Christi, TX on August 8th at 12:00pm. I was to start my new job on Monday, August 10th at 10:00am in Colorado Springs. We were traveling with 2 single females (I and my sister), a 5 year old child and a dog and cat. We were barely outside of San Antonio, TX when the transmission light, engine light, brake and ABS light all came on. We immediately lost power in the truck and were able to coast into a gas station. We immediately called roadside assistance, explained the problem and were told that someone would be out to look at the truck. A gentleman arrived about 3 hours later, took about 3 hours to look at truck and said that we would not be able to continue traveling with this vehicle. We called back roadside assistance who explained that we would have to wait until the morning for a determination on if we would be receiving a new truck or not. This was at 10:00pm at night. We had been sitting at the gas station for almost 7 hours, we were hot, dirty and frustrated. I asked what my next step would be. I was told I could get a hotel room, but that they would not be able to help up front with that cost. We checked into the Motel 6 in Boerne, TX with a rate of $130. The next morning we got up early, called roadside assistance and waited. Roadside assistance called us back stated that they would be switching our truck out but wouldn’t have a new truck there until almost 2:00pm. Check-out at the hotel was 11:00am. I was able to get the motel manager to let us stay in the room until 12:30pm. At that point, we went and sat in 97 degree weather until the new truck arrived at almost 3:00pm. The movers arrived before the truck did. The movers that showed up to switch my belongings from one truck to another were absolutely amazing and made a bad situation survivable for the day. The tow truck driver was a complete ass. We had our car loaded on the dolly, and we asked if he was going to help with car. He stated “no, I’m not paid to do that” and that “Budget should have thought of that”. We were able to get the car off of the dolly and re-hooked back up to the new truck. We were back on the road about 5:00pm ready to get to Colorado. About 8:00pm we were about 40 miles outside of Sweetwater, Texas when the trucks engine started revving at a very high rate and would not go above 40 miles an hour. The check engine light, brake and ABS light came on. We immediately pulled over in a little town that had no lights and barely got a cell phone signal. We immediately called roadside assistance and was repeatedly put on hold, disconnected or lost service. We let the truck cool down for about 30 minutes when we decided we would try and make it to the next big town as we felt our safety was at risk. We went 20 miles an hour for 40 miles until we reached Sweetwater. The truck was making horrible revving noises, the floor of the cab was extremely hot, and if you went above 40 mph it would sound like a foghorn. Once again, we called roadside assistance who told us that the nearest mechanic would not be able to reach us until the morning. By this time, we were familiar with the protocol and got a room at the Best Western for $96.72. First thing in the morning, we called roadside assistance. The mechanic arrived about 9:00, took the truck for a test drive and said that yes, that the trucks tended to overheat in Texas heat, and that the oil was too thin and that is why the engine got hot. He suggested that as long as we did 60-65 mph (we were towing a car) we would be okay. We left Sweetwater about 11:00am, excited to be on our way. About 30 minutes into the drive, the engine started revving again and the truck would not go past 40 mph. We attempted to call the mechanic who proceeded to tell us that we would have to call roadside assistance again. We called roadside assistance that proceeded to tell us that we needed to pull over on the side of the road and wait for a mechanic. Please keep in mind that it was already 100 degrees outside, we have a 5 year old child and a dog and cat. We can’t run the AC because the truck overheats, and roadside assistance tells us to pull over? At this point, we have had enough. Your “roadside assistance” is insensitive to the situation, has frustrated us to the point of where I just want to leave my personal belongings and rent a car home. We finally made it home to Colorado on Monday, August 11th at 1:00am by going 50 mph. I have now missed my first day of my new job. When we call Budget to get the truck extended, we were given the run a round. “you need to call where you rented from”, “you need to call Customer Service” or you need to “call the drop off place”. I finally just took the truck in, explained the situation to the guy at the desk and turned the truck in. The manager at the return place did listen to the truck and agreed that we had mechanical issues.
I feel that Budget/Avis has handled our situation in the worst way possible. The customer service and attention is/was severely lacking. You put our lives in danger by our numerous breakdowns. Suggesting that we “sit” on the side of a highway with no shelter/water in 100 degree plus weather is absolutely dangerous.
I would like to be reimbursed for our hotel stays, and for a fair portion of the rental of the truck. I missed 2 days of work and have attached a doXXXXent stating that. I spent extra money that I had not budgeted on food and necessities. The hotel stays cut deeply into my budget and I had to use my emergency credit card for the remaining gas home. The truck not running properly did use extra gas and time lost. We should have arrived in Colorado on Sunday, whereas we did not arrive until early Tuesday morning. The emotional aspect of our trip has impacted me, and I will never rent a Budget truck again. I hope that we can come to a reasonable reimbursement amount. One last question, what happens to the individuals that do not have the money for hotel rooms or extra meals?
Reply from Budget:
Budget Truck strives to provide a mechanically sound, well-maintained truck fleet, and your experience is not typical. We are sincerely sorry that you were inconvenienced, and extremely disappointed that we fell
short of your expectations. We would like to reimburse your out of
pocket expenses for hotel and food in the amount of $359.81. Because we value your business, we also would like to offer you a goodwill gesture in the amount $200.00. Once we have received your reply, we will apply the refund to your credit card which takes 5 to 10 business days to
appear on your statement depending on your billing cycle.
Reply from me:
At this time, I would like to make a counter offer of $950. I feel that
is
fair and reasonable with regards to my situation. I’m not asking for a
full
refund, but in light of the cirXXXXstances feel that the above amount is
reasonable. I missed 2 days of work, which I don’t know about you, but
definitely hurt my bank account. I am a single mother of 2 boys and I
budget so that I can make my money last. When we were sitting on the
side
of the road at 10:00pm at night, we had almost no cell phone service.
Can
you imagine what that feels like when there are no lights and depilated
buildings around you, with 2 single females and a 5 year old? The first
truck breaking down was bad enough, but to have a second truck break
down
not even 24 hours later? From the reviews that I have read online(BBB,
Consumer Affairs, Marketwatch) it seems that Budget has a history of
renting
defective vehicles? I have used Budget before versus using UHaul and
have
never had this problem. I moved from Colorado to Kansas City and back,
moved from Colorado to Texas without any problems using Budget truck. I
want to continue to rent from Budget, but need faith in your company
that
you will stand behind your product……
$433-50% of truck refund)
$227-Hotel refund
$264-Lost wages
$26-Food
Thank you for your time and patience.
After further review we cannot grant what you are requesting.
Unfortunately we do not compensate for lost wages. However in an effort to resolve this we are increasing our offer to $300 which is %50 of the truck fee, which is the equipment that failed, plus the out of pocket expenses of $359.81 for a total refund of $659.81. This will be our final offer and this offer is valid until 09-01-15 by 5:00 PM CST otherwise the offer will be lost. Once we have received your reply, we will apply the refund to your credit card which takes 5 to 10 business days to appear on your statement depending on your billing cycle.
At this point I have contacted an attorney and am looking into filing a small claims suit.
Reply from Budget
DO NOT EVER RENT A TRUCK FROM BUDGET! RED FLAG! Their truck broke down on me on the 3rd day of a five-day rental. The truck was not towed until TWO DAYS after calling roadside assistance. Calling Customer Service is a waste of time. They continue to pass you around to get assistance, and you have to provide the next customer service representative with the SAME information as the previous one. To make matters worse, their wait times are absurd, ridiculous at best. You have to keep calling back to follow-up with them, instead of them providing you with a courtesy call. Clearly, after reading the other posts, there is a high occurrence of breakdowns, mechanical issues and deplorable customer service. They have unethical business practices. Mario, an employee, said all he could offer was 20%. I told him that was unacceptable, and to let me speak to a supervisor. So, the Supervisor, Robert (ID# 78665) said all he could offer was 25%. I told him that was unacceptable given that 40% of the contract was unfulfilled. He reiterated that 25% was all he could offer, so I;ll be disputing the charges through my bank for the balance of the unfulfilled contract.
STAY AWAY FROM BUDGET TRUCK RENTAL! Save yourself the HEADACHE. It has almost taken almost a month to even get to this point.
Reserved my truck weeks in advance went to pick it up & it wasn’t there. Finally get it a day & a half later. Husband lost 2 days work & we had to pay someone to help us move since our help had taken the day we were supposed to get the truck off. Barely made it the last 200 miles of our destination & they had to tow it. Called them at least 10 times now & they keep telling me I can’t get my deposit or a refund for it being late (they won’t even compensate us for the 2 days of missed work & tge $100.00 we had to pay someone to help us due to their mess up) until they close it out. It has been 3 fricking weeks!!!! I am posting this on FB I would never recommend this shotty company to anyone. I have called & called & keep getting a run around…so pissed!!!
Re: HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!!
I reserved my truck for pick up on 8/15/15 at 10:30am called customer service at 10 am to change pickup time from 10:30 am to 1:30 or 2 pm. Shannon said 2pm. I go to pick up location and was told they didn’t have a truck for me and someone should have called me to tell me when I first made reservation. I told him why didn’t the customer service rep tell me anything when I changed the time, he didn’t have an answer all he said there was a big convention and 4 trucks gone. Now I tell him so what am I suppose to do I have to move. He said he would help by getting me a truck in another location, which he did only that it was about 40-45 minute ride to get there and they closed at 4pm. It was a little after 3pm and I had to run back to my parents house to get some to come with me to drive the car back since I couldn’t leave my car there because I was use truck for one way. I get to location where they have at truck 5 minutes before closing and I said to myself “thank God” first they seem to be in a rush to close I sign paper work without even getting a chance to look at truck and was told truck in front. So I go to truck they close the doors and when I headed out I felt there was something wrong with truck, I called location and they had already left, so I kept going back to my parents home, feeling very unease. When I get to back to get moving the arrangement with movers expired and unable to get help with them now I stuck!! Trying to keep a positive attitude I said well I wait for tomorrow when I have someone to help me. So Sunday come around head to storage to pull out my stuff but during the ride my dad said you should call customer service there is something very wrong with this truck and told him I just go and keep moving because I needed to get to work on Tuesday, he was mad and left. My dad call’s me again and tells me “please call and have truck checked” so I give in and I call customer service and spoke to rep who tell me to stop loading truck and wait for mechanic, feeling frustrated and timing issue making it worst. Well few hours later get mechanic who tells me after about 30mins that there is a brake issue and when he stated that I say wow I am glad pop insisted I call. It took another few hours for him to tell me truck is ok after he tested it and then wanted me to test with him on the ride (again more time lost) truck was riding ok. He then tells me truck is good to go to Miami which is in state however, if I was going out of state he would have told budget to change truck, which again made me feel unease. With all of this happening I have been delayed in everything planned. I finish with loading at storage to then go home which is 7pm and I am exhausted because had no hire help to complete loading truck. It took me and my son 1 1/2 days to load everything from the house to the truck again because I had not help available. I then start my 300 mile journey and feeling very unease with truck so I would not ride truck over 60 miles in case I had to brake suddenly. It took me 7+ hours for 300 miles when usually take 5 hours. I get to my destination and couldn’t wait for next day to get a few hired hands at Home Depot. Thursday bright an early I get two for hire help and 6 hours later truck unloaded and moved into new storage and I am feeling relief!! Today Friday I got to my bank and find that Budget had charged another $295 to my account. No I am furious with them and this is war!!!! My move was to cost no more than $850 which includes truck rental, gas, storage, food, hire help and time off from work now with this additional charges plus its costing $1,357 ($500+ more than I expected to pay because of a defective truck with BRAKE ISSUES!!!) . When I called customer service they tell me all they can do for me is refund me 50% of the truck rental about $60 as compensation for having trouble with truck. What is $60 going to do for me when I actually over paid for move because of BUDGET TRUCK MECHANICAL ISSUE! I will be contacting the media and everybody I can to vent and protest with this practice that budget has with customer!!!! PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM LONG DISTANCE RENTAL WITH THEM!!!!!!!
I rented an SUV online 2 weeks ahead of my arrival at the Salt Lake City airport location nearly a month ago. When we arrived there were three clerks at the counter being yelled at by three different customers. Bad sign! Our turn came and I told the clerk that the reservation was in my name but that my husband would be the only one driving and asked if we needed to change anything. “No, no it’s fine since you’re married.” Then we were told to have a seat and they would call us once the car was cleaned. We waited for 40 minutes and I approached the counter to make sure they had a car for us, since others had been turned away with reservations. He says, “oh I was just about to call you.” I get the keys and the crumpled scrap of paper to mark any damage on the car. The receipt showed that our time had begun while we were waiting for the keys, so that cut into the time we needed to return it. We go find the car and my husband asked if the attendant was going to look over the car with us. He said, “no, do it yourself.” I don’t know where my husband mustered his patience that day but mine was wearing thin. As we left we noticed the engine light was on and the car needed an oil change. We had a great trip, the car ran well and was better on gas mileage that I anticipated. When we returned the car (90 minutes early just to be safe) we were given a bill for $50.00 more than the reservation. We had to wait for a manager to come and fix the bill because we were charged for an extra driver. He fixed it without a word to us or a glance in our direction. We told her about the check engine light and she said that the car had been sold and wasn’t going to be rented again so they were not responsible for maintenance. About an hour later we were waiting at the gate for our flight and I realized I had left an iPod in the back of the vehicle. I called and was given a few different numbers to call and was disconnected a couple of times before reaching a lost and found voicemail. “Your lost item is important to us and your call will be returned within 24 hours”
The next day I called and left another message, no reply
The next day I left another message and found an email address from Google so I sent an email too. I got an email back from a woman named Angie who said that the car was currently out on a rental and she would check it when it was returned. A few hours later I got another email from her saying, sorry, I checked, it wasn’t there. It has been rented out twice since you returned it. I was livid. If they had only answered the phone they could have just plucked it from the exact spot I left it before it was rented. I left a furious Yelp review and that night I received an email from another employee named Philip who said I checked the car, found your iPod right where you said it would be, it will go out with the mail tomorrow afternoon. So I sent him an email thanking him most sincerely and waited. Two weeks later and my iPod still had not traveled the 470 miles to my home. So I call Angie and she says oh yes it’s right here in my hand, we need a credit card to charge for the shipping. I had stated in my email that I would be happy to pay for the shipping or have it sent COD. But apparently I was supposed to telepathically know they needed this information because no one had asked for it. So I gave her my credit card number and by some blessed twist of fate I received my iPod today, 3 weeks after I left it. I will never, ever use Budget again and I feel bad for anyone who does. After reading dozens of reviews from other people who have had terrible experiences I realize that the management thinks there will always be uninformed customers in the future to pay for their services once and get burned so they don’t need to improve. Well, thanks to online reviews that can be seen by everyone, that will not always be the case.
Call Geico sometime and get schooled on customer service. They are a large corporation with a huge workforce but they have been outstanding for the last 12 years and even if they aren’t the cheapest I am happy to be a loyal customer. Not the case with Budget.
I have been trying to rent a truck from you for SEVERAL HOURS now. I went online, filled out the info.
On your home page Budgettrucks.com It has a white box on the left side that asks:
Where do you want to pick up your truck?
When do you want to pick up your truck?
Will you return the truck to the same location (Yes or No)
Flexible dates?
Discount Code box to put in the code. (The 20% code is right on your home page – 20% off and is entered automatically as 20DIS)
When I click FIND YOUR TRUCK it takes me to a new webpage \
On that page it shows me three pictures of trucks, a 12′ Moving Truck a 16′ Moving Truck and a 24′ Moving Truck.
ALL THREE STATE: “UNLIMITED MILES.” I HAVE A SCREENSHOT.
The next page says 1. Pick your truck asks if I am towing a car (NO). Continue to Location —–>
The next page is
Pick Up Location. and Select a Pick Up Time. I selected it SELECT PICK UP LOCATION
The next page offers the DROP OFF LOCATIONS.
CONTINUE TO ADD ONS——>
It offers Accessories
CONTINUE—->
Which takes me to the Payment Page
On THIS page it says
“Your almost done! Fill out the information below to reserve your truck.”
THEN IT STATES-
TRUCK- 24′ Moving Truck 2 Day(s) Rental +129 included miles. I have a Screenshot.
SO WHICH IS IT? UNLIMITED miles or 129 miles? Because that is a bait and switch.
I expect an answer immediately.
I tried calling the number on your website and talked to FOUR people who ALL had no clue of what I was talking about!!! ( including Maria, Yolanda and two others)
I talked to a Supervisor who was clueless. I then did a LIVE CHAT and talked with Rodney who told me to call 10800-527-0700 because HE could not help me.
I called and talked to ANITA who had no clue of what to do.
NONE of your customer service reps have a clue as to what they are doing. Then they all stated that it was a promotion. REALLY BUDGET? That is not a promotion. It is a bait and switch. If you are going to OFFER unlimited miles then you need to deliver UNLIMITED miles, not cap it at 129 miles! That is totally illegal and false advertising.
The closest Drop Off location is over 17 miles away and I don’t want to be charged a dime when you stated UNLIMITED MILES on your site.
I WALKED your REPS through the steps and they “didn’t see it.” I had two people here at my physical location do it on their own computers and THEY did see it.
So you are being fraudulent and you hire idiots.
I got your corporate number 973-4960-4700 and wanted to talk to Ronald Nelson or Thomas Gartland about this but of course there was no number for them in your auto directory.
The best your auto phone did was offer me a 1800-776-2562 number to call for Truck Rentals.
Is this REALLY how you want your almost customers to be treated?>???
I have spent TWO HOURS on this!!
The reason I had to be so specific in this email is because I am sure whoever is reading this wouldn’t be able to FIGURE IT OUT without the SPECIFIC web pages.
I don’t even know if I want to give you my business as you have caused me such a hassle.
You have wasted so much of my time!!!
I will never ever again rent from Budget! Reading these comments assures me that it’s not me-Budget systematically overcharges people with bait and switch and other tactics. I was recently told that a June 9 rental (long ago returned) was showing as never returned and never charged. Surprise-out of over $400 immediately. Regarding today, I wanted to extend a rental and was told that a staff error woudl cause me to need to spend an additional $300.00. Right; that makes no sense! Although there is a name on the site for Corporate CEO, try to actually reach that person to log a complaing. My next letter is going to the Better Business Bureau, Dept of Consumer Protection and an attorney!
If I had read the comments on this site prior to reserving a truck, I would have looked elsewhere and not rented with Budget. I wish I had done just that. First, the 16′ truck I reserved was not available when I went to pick it up. They did have a 12′ they could give me. But as they were trying to work up the paperwork, I saw that they were going to charge an amount (well over $400) which was way over what I was quoted for the larger truck ($264 base rate / $322 total cost). Remember, I was only getting a 12′ truck now. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice at that point…I had to get the truck, load it, and drive 250 miles THAT day. We thought we’d be okay though because the people at the pick-up point assured me that I could contact customer service and get it all straightened out after I closed out the trip. Turns out 1) the truck WAS NOT big enough for my move (I had to leave stuff behind), 2) customer service really was NO help (wanted to offer me 10% off the new base rental for compensation, which, again, was way more than what we were quoted for the larger truck we actually wanted), and 3) the customer service supervisor helped clear up a couple of things, but then basically ripped me off by telling me I was going to pay about what I saw on-line for the smaller truck (base truck rate, a dozen moving pads, fees/taxes…around $295), when in fact the adjustment amount only related to the base truck rental rate (“dropped” to $299…which was $35 more than the base rate on my 16′ reservation). To top it off, since I was already offered and allegedly accepted compensation, I cannot be offered any other monetary compensation.
So, in the end, I’m out at least $70 because the supervisor was deceitful. I should have gotten the truck for under $300, and I actually ended up paying $373. As a retired military member, I used plenty of rental vehicles over the years. I have to say I am so utterly disappointed in Budget right now I can’t even see straight. If I had to do a survey right now about my experience, every response would be at the lowest end of the scale. And NO, I would NOT recommend Budget to my family, or all my military friends and co-workers (and I work in an office with 25 Army officers and a building with over 100 military and civilian employees, so using rental vehicles while traveling for training and during moves does come up in casual conversations).
I’m considering further action. Can anyone fix this before it has to get to that?
If you find out anything please share. I have had the most horrible experience with them over the weekend and now Im fighting to get reimbursed for my inconveniences and they are saying all we can give you is 100.00. I am very displeased with there service.
Rented a mustang on Aug 8th returned on the morning of the 10th. Dropped off at the Phoenix sky harbor car rental building at 6:15 am. After dropping off the car I realized in the shuttle bus I left the phone on the dash of the car. I returned 15 mins later to find the phone was not where I left it nor does anyone have the phone. The lady Amelda was very helpful however the phone was already turned off which I never turn off. I called lost and found the next day Aug 11 and talked with Cheryl who also looked for the phone but had no luck. I asked to talk with a manager and Cheryl said she would transfer me. This is where I’m disappointed in the service. I was hung up on not once but three time and then I was unable to get a hold of her again as I tried 5 more time which went to voicemail.
Obviously I’m fault for leaving the phone but 15 mins and its gone and I used all the apps to locate the phone and it still is off line. Only two people touched the car the checking person Gary and the driver unknown. Someone in your organization has my phone and you should be responsible in compensating me for a new one.
Sad very sad no one in your company can step up and make this right. Rental agreement # 635078065 vehicle # 68634753
Bryan Harley
Alaska Alirlines
I had a nearly identical situation with an iPod. I called and left messages for days without anyone returning my calls. When I started sending emails to any management email address I could find I finally got a reply. Today (3 weeks later) I finally got it back. Don’t give up. Most of the employees are useless but you may get lucky and find one who will do something. Just make them sick of hearing your voice.
Good luck!
I have spent six days trying to get help with the online account and I get very little knowledgeable help. One line I was transferred to by several operators rang and rang then picked up and hung up as soon as they picked up. WHY SHOULD I BOTHER ANYMORE WITH THIS AMATEUR CARE NOTING COMPANY???????? THE WEB SITE SENDS ME ROUND AND ROUND. I call and its like OH WELL. Go back and do this and it will work but IT DOESN’T
BUDGET WILL NOT GET ANY OF MY BUSINESS AND I WISH I DIDNT DO ANY IN THE PAST.
Keith Affhauser
I have spent several hours on the phone as well as countless emails to no avail. Confirmation 14956640US6. I hope your company can get its act together.
I have an issue with Budget. Bait and switch should be the name of this company. I made a reservation for my wife through your call center for a Kia Rio or similar out of your Ogden Utah/Airport branch. The charge was supposed to be for $157. I asked twice, about debit card holds and was told that the amount held was only for the amount of the rental.
When my wife arrived at your location, she was told the only two cars left were a Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang. Neither of which is good on gas, which is the reason I booked for a small car. We wanted good gas mileage. She also was told she had to pay the difference for the larger car. This is not our fault that you did not have the car we RESERVED!!!!!! They also put a hold on my wifes debit card for $241. That is $89 more than we were told.
When I called to argue this I was told “this location is a franchise and they have their own rules”. That is ludicrous. The woman I spoke to said that she will forward my complaint to the franchise and it will take 7-10 days to get back to me. My wife is only there for the weekend, that is not acceptable. I asked for the locations phone number and the woman refused to give it to me.
I will tell everyone I know to NEVER USE BUDGET if this is the kind of bait and switch operation you are operating. I am also filing a complaint with BBB.
To whom it may concern
What was supposed to be a new adventure and an exciting time in my life to move and I looked toward a reputable company to transition to my new home. However, my experience with budget has lead me to believe that I made the wrong choice in a company that I selected to move me.
My first impression was sub standard, when selecting your company that had been in the business for 17+ years I was hopeful that I would be helped by a budget ambassador that would have the skill set to get me in an out. However, with a pickup time at 12pm on July 27th, 2015 my experience took 2.5 hours. The first impression continued to be one that I would hope you would not want to represent your brand. When I received my truck it was dirty and it seemed that the staff was u prepRes for my 12pm appt. time is money and the system that is in place is not effective for efficient.
After the transaction of picking up the vehicle I was off to a smooth trip to my final destination. On Saturday August 1st, 2015 at 10:59am as I hit Interstate 335 in Kansas I was alarmed by the jerking of the vehicle and pulled to the side of the interstate. I was shocked when I got out of the car to see the intense blowout on the wheel of the tow dolly. Immediately I called budget road side assistance and spoke to a woman who gave me cofidence that my situation would be resolved In a professionally and timely manor. She was honest saying it would be a little over and hour, but that she would communicate along the way and keep us updated. After an hour of hearing no updates I called back road side assistance and was connected to another dispatcher who apologized that we hadn’t received that we hadn’t received any communication on the status of the repair and as she was reading her notes she notices that there was missing information that was causing a delay In getting the situation resolved. We provided her with the dolly number information and she assured us that someone would be dispatched to is soon. We were told that someone would arrive within 45 minutes(refer to
DoXXXXentation). In intense 104 degree weather with 2 adult and 2
Dogs sitting on the side of the interstate In budget truck, had we had not been prepared with water to hydrate and gas to provide ac we would have been In serious trouble. We waited the 45 minutes and no one showed up. I then called the budget roadside assistance completely shocked that after 3 hours of being
Stranded that I the consumer had to follow up with the status of having. Assistance rescue us. After being on hold for 30 minutes I was hung up on. It was almost as if your company was screening my phone calls(reference doXXXXent of call log). Extreme Long sorry short after 6 hours of waiting in intense heAt a gentleman from wingfoot commercial arrived. He assessed the situation and looked at the dolly and told us “we were lucky we didn’t loose the car” he then changed the tired, but said he couldn’t fix the dolly because it was crooked from the blowout. Based on the condition of he dolly he suggests that we do not put the car back on he dolly because it would be unsafe. We then had to travel separately for 600 miles due to the fact that the roadside assistance screened phone calls my number and kept me on hold for over an hour. Once I was able to speak with someone all the budgets were closed. I even had a friend reach out to roadside assistance for me and after an hour of being on hold she spoke to a woman who told her we were basically XXXXX out of luck and we would be traveling seperately because there was no store open to help us get the dolly fixed.
The next morning I called roadside assistance again to Try and resolve the dolly issue. I was on hold for over 45 minutes and when I spoke to a women she was not helpful, lacked customer service, approached the sitwuiipn negatively and lacked effective communication skills and was not coming up with a solution to my problem. We even went as far as her telling me on an interstate to pull over and repeat the dolly number that should already have been in the file. Just to highlight how awful her customer service skills were she stated, “ma’m your situation is not an emergency and there are plenty of other people who have emergencies so your going to need to pull over to give me the dolly number.” Concerned about my safety by dedicated to getting g the sutuatio taken card of I pulled over and gave her the information. I then a reviewed a phone call from a man named Rob who was extremely rude and and was taking down to me and acting like my problem was an Inconvienve when this is their job. After an hour we had another third party arrive dispatched to us and he was set to arrive on 45 minutes. When he arrived3 minute prior to what was quoted this was the first time I felt like I was supported and taken care of and that my safety was first priority, as customer seri e should be and always be.
This situation had controllable and uncontrollable a. The controllables were to offer customer service with. Dispatcher that was composed, that can Effectively communicate, is solution minded, provide follow up and put the customer first. If my long winded email didn’t provide you clarity, budget did not rise to the occasion. Your company will never first come to mind and I will be sure to let my network know about the lack of experience that I had.
Unsatified customer,
Casey vowels
Hi Budget team,
After reading all these comments I can centrally tell this company runs on Fraud and your customer service is very unprofessional.
I have rented a Moving truck for 4 hours on 7/29/2015 ( b/w 5 to 9 PM ) and returned in same day to one of employee was in store around ( 08:30 PM ) I have asked for return receipt, he said as it’s off hours and he is not having access to computer he will not able to issue receipt, the only mistake I did is i have trusted these guys.
After calling to customer care they said they trust on there dealer but not customer.
I have rented moving truck with U-Hual many times but never had such bad experience.
Did you ever get a resolution? I am so beyond furious with this company.
I reserved a vehicle approximately a month ago, only to get to the location today and be told they have no cars & call the 1-800. Although the reps I spoke with were very helpful, no one could offer me an acceptable resolution to the problem I am having. I am scheduled to leave tomorrow morning approximately 5:30 am and now it’s 5:55pm the evening before and have no vehicle to drive. The agent at the location was very nonchalant about turning away myself as well as other customers with no compensation or apology. I have contact customer service 2-3 times & requested to speak with a supervisor only to be told they are all busy & can call me back within 24 hours.Then my reservation was cancelled at no fault of my own & Budget charged me $50 which I am expecting to get that refunded. I showed up on time to fulfill my part of the obligation in picking the car up with no cars available.
What is the purpose of prepaying & reserving if no cars are available? Not even contacting the customer with alternative options or a resolution to not having vehicles available?
Hi Budget team,
I have found most unprofessional and disrespectful customer service experience in Budget car rental in NY. I and my husband have rented a suv Ford Escape (vehicle # 46565750; rental agreement # 626981865) for four days for 7/28/15-7/31/15. When I returned the car on 7/31/15 night at Laguardia airport branch, I left my IPad in the back pocket of Driver’s seat. I called the branch on 7/1/15 and talk to the receptionist . She was very reluctant to help me and claimed there is no IPad in her office. When I requested her to check the car she said that the car is not in the parking lot and she does not know where is the car. She said I should call next morning and talk to the manager in that branch as she doesnot know . I called next morning couple of times to get connection as they don’t pick up the phone; finally a woman (manager ?) picked up the phone and after I explained , she was too rude and tried to give me a lecture that it is hard for her to find etc. In some point she said that the car is in NJ Newark airport for cleaning and she gave me NJ phone # 973-961-2990 that I tried to call at least 15 times and nobody never picked up the phone. I called the customer service # 1-800-218-7992, 1800-621-2380, 1800-214-6094 . None of those # showed any courtesy to help me , and repetitively advise me to call laguardia branch. I talked to Lisa at 1-800-218-7992 who made me to wait more than an hour in this afternoon and finally hang up on me. I made my last call to Laguardia airport branch at 718-478-4628 this evening (08/02/15) and talk to the same lady that I talked in the afternoon and she was extremely rude and told me that if the # she gave me for NJ 973-961-2990 is not picked up by anyone , I can go to NJ and check if the IPad is there and she HANG UP on me. As a customer I am asking budget which is an international company , how come this company hires and trains these kinds of irresponsible , uncivilized and nasty employees ??? They stole my IPad and ruined my weekend for hours of waiting in phone calls and musical pillow game with their worthless irresponsible work practice .
I am not happy Budget has made my vacation miserable they put a hold 2 of my cards and will not release one .its a long story I mistakingly used thr wrong card to start so we cancelled the transaction and used our visa to do the hold on instead well 8 days later my bank card still has a hold of 1500 .so every day i have to look at my bank to make sure i dont over draft .i know its only a hold but they have a hold on 2 card that is stupid .NEVER USE BUDGET THEY SUCK and that is saying it nicely I AM PISSED.
Dear CEO Ronald L. Nelson, in last June I made a rent at Miami Airport (7/18/15 to 7/27/15). I handled a gentle bald man who wore on his chest that read an ID CEO. Pay with my VISA card and I take my car JEEP brand. I returned on time and without problems. 7/13/15 appear in my account under the title VISA CHECK CARD BUDGET RENTACARTOL a debit for $ 22.90 and thought it would be a traffic ticket, the 07/27/15 appear in my account under the same title other expenses by $ 4.70. Talk to my bank and they told me that it is a FRAUD. The only people that had my card in his hand was the employee mentioned that leads me to believe that fraud or actor is someone or company that accesses the management system of your company. This is intended to alert you of the vulnerability to which we are exposed as your customers and ask for the immediate reinstatement of the amount not to enter the courts. I wait your answer. Regards, S. Pappalepore
Estimado CEO Ronald L. Nelson, en el mes de Junio pasado realice un alquiler en el Aeropauert de MIAMI (7/18/15 to 7/27/15). Me atendio un gentil senor calvo que llevaba en su pecho una identificacion que decia CEO. Pague con mi tarjeta VISA y me lleve mi auto marca JEEP. Lo devolví en tiempo y forma, sin inconvenientes. El dia 13/7/15 aparece un gasto en mi cuenta bajo el titulo VISA CHECK CARD BUDGET RENTACARTOL por $ 22,90 y pense que se trataria de una multa de transito, el 27/7/15 aparece en mi cuenta bajo el mismo titulo otro gasto por $ 4,70. Hable con mi banco y me han dicho que se trata de un FRAUDE. El unico que tuvo mi tarjeta en la mano fue el empleado mencionado lo que me lleva a pensar que o el actor del fraude es el o bien alguien de la empresa que accede al sistema de administracion de vuestra empresa. El presente tiene por objeto alertarlos de la vulnerabilidad a la que estamos expuestos como vuestros clientes y solicitarles el inmediato reintegro del importe para no entrar en la via judicial. Espero respuesta. Saludos, S. Pappalepore
I had an awful customer service experience with budget this weekend. After I was treated unfairly at the rental office I called customer service spoke with Richard. Spoken to like an idiot and he hung up on me. Didn’t allow this to ruin my birthday plans. I will continue to take my business to Enterprise. Just as the others have complained customer service is awful! I mean awful. You really need to improve your service. CEOs need to take a look .
Budget –
What has transpired this evening with Budget Rentals is completely unacceptable.
I hope you read this with the fervor intended and that this appalling situation deserves.
On January 22nd, 2015 NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon announced his retirement from the sport. He is my 11 year olds favorite driver. So I wanted to take my son to a destination track to watch Gordon race one last time. Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I bought race tickets, then booked a hotel, and on April 18th 2015 booked a reservation with Budget for an 11 Passenger van (which I will forward to you) because we have nine people in our party traveling from Olathe, KS to Indianapolis, IN this weekend. We even received a reservation confirmation email last night (that I will forward to you as well).
On July 23rd, 2015 at 5:20p we received a call from Jeremiah at the local Budget office. He stated that he was sorry but the van we reserved as overbooked and that there were none available. My wife told him that we had a reservation for months and he said he was only “doing what he had been told to do.” She was upset by this because she had been by the Budget store today and saw a van that’s the model we reserved on the lot and asked what he was going to do to find us another vehicle and he said that there are no vans anywhere in the Kansas City area. He then
told us, “you’re not the only ones I’ve had to call and tell this to.”
We are scheduled to leave at 7:30a on July 24th. We were given 14 hours notice that we had no vehicle and the call was made 40 minutes before the Budget store was scheduled to close for the evening.
We have called all of the local car rental companies in our area and we’ve learned that there is some event taking place at Sprint this evening and all of the vans have been taken up for that. So I surmise that my family and our plans have been de-prioritized for the sake of a corporate account where a premium can be charged and that revenue supersedes the stress, anxiety, and worry placed on my family caused by this atrocious business practice.
After several hours of effort we have managed to track down another van provided by AVIS that I had to drive to KCI to get so that we didn’t have to change any of our plans. It’s now 10:30p the night before we leave and I am still dealing with the situation provided me by your company.
I expect an expedient reply and resolution to what Budget has caused or the first thing Monday morning I will provide all of these same materials to the Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, and the entire professorial staff at the University of Kansas, where I earned my Business Administration degree, so they can use this as an example of how not to conduct business. They offer business ethics courses that might behoove some of those, like Jeremiah, in your organization.
Folks who make reservations for your vehicles 3+ months in advance are not the folks you should be overlooking and taking advantage of. We are real people with real lives and you need to appreciate that. We are who keep you in business.
Jeffrey L. Trowbridge
Dear CEO Ronald L. Nelson,
I feel I have been treated unfairly by your customer service department.The person I spoke to over the phone read me the email like I was a two year old and couldn’t read and said that is that .
From: Budget Customer Service
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 9:00 PM
To: ernie klingbeil
Dear Jann Hill,
At the time of check-in the was no attendant in the lot and the guy behind the counter told me to leave the car and get on the shuttle bus.
I put 11 gallons of gas in a car that has a 16 gallon tank and filled it up. I drove 27.2 miles in a car that gets 34 mpg on the highway which we took at 55 miles per hour. I read the rental agreement and it states nothing about a five mile radius for buying the gas for the fill up. The most that I would have used is 1 gallon of gas which would not even showed up in the fuel gauge as being anything less than full. if budget is that hard up for $90 dollars it is a shame.
If you do not reduce the charge to 1 gallon of gas or less I will never do business with Budget again. To top it off when I picked up the car it was not a full tank.
Thank you,
Ernest Klingbeil
7/20/15
Case #8110746
RA #628595516
Dear Ernest Klingbeil,
Thank you for contacting the E-mail Customer Service team.
To clarify, a refueling receipt is required at the time of return to
uphold that the car was indeed returned with a full tank of gas. The
receipt should show a fuel purchase on date of vehicle return within
five miles of the return location.
As noted in the terms provided on yourRental Agreement on file, “The
charges shown on the return record are not final and subject to
recalculation. You’ll pay any undercharges and you’ll receive a refund
for an overcharges we discover on review.”
Our records indicate an after check-in fuel audit was performed and the
vehicle was showing returned with 8.25 gallons under a full tank. A
fuel service fee of 9.780 per gallon was applied in accordance with the
notification on your rental agreement.
We do appreciate the fuel receipt showing you refilled in Thornton, CO,
which is 27.2 miles away from the return location. Due to the location
not being within a five mile radius of the DEN AIRPORT, we find your
fuel charge to be correct. Your case file has been closed.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to clarify the matter for you.
Budget sincerely appreciates the business you have given us and we look
forward to serving you again soon.
Sincerely,
Jann Hill
Customer Service Representative
————————
To whom it may concern:
We are being charged an extra $ 90.84 because supposedly they had to add
8 gallons of gas to the car. We were not happy when we retuned the car
at 5:00 a.m. as there was not one to direct us or to even check out the
car. I went into the office and they said if you don’t want a paper
receipt you can leave.
Please see attached receipt that we filled the gas tank the night before
going to our hotel and only drove to the airport from the hotel wich was
right by the airport. There was no way we used 8 gallons of gas.
CEO Ronald L. Nelson,
I am retired Command Sergeant Major Gary Davis of Fort Knox, KY and am extremely disappointed with the policy in place by Budget for adding one day to my Budget rental. I had originally scheduled a rental from 22 July – 28 Jul 2015 from Sea Tac Airport thru my USAA membership and was given a price of $315.00. I made a change requesting that I pick the vehicle up on 21 July at 11:00am on July 15th and was given the additional charge of $86.43. Upon arriving in Chicago this morning, July 21st, I received a notice that my change was not processed and that to change to today’s date, 21 July, was going to cost an additional $264. The one day rate was only $114 dollars but I would have to drive back to Seattle to check the car in and check it back out to keep the original USAA pricing. This does not pass the common sense test and I am extremely disappointed with this policy. Your agents were very polite and courteous but their hands were tied with this unrealistic and price gouging policy. I would sincerely hope that Budget, and you Mr. Nelson, would relook this policy as believe it is unfair to your customers.
I would expect an answer from Budget in response to this complaint as I would not hesitate to post the unfair practice through the social media.
Sincerely;
Alvin G. Davis CSM(Ret.) USA
Budget has the worst customer service. They’re rude and disrespectful. The car I rented was filthy, the customer service rep, disrespected me and hung the phone up on. You can’t get a manager when you ask to speak with one. It seems as though budget is a company that’s all about stealing the customers money and could care less about the treatment you recieve. Everyone that writes a complaint on here should also complain by writing the bbb, corporate office, trip advisor and also write to other rental car companies. Maybe if enough customers come together and stop renting and do more complaining and boycotting there business then they’ll start valuing their customers more. Gwen agent id 34077 has put a awful taste in my mouth for budget and I’m writing to everyone I could possibly think about.
made a reservation day in advance weekly rate 10` truck 9:00 pickup for a convention in modesto ca got to budget 8:50 no reservation would not let me use phone to call customer service went back home called c s got it straighten out. received truck at 12:17 not 10` but 16` told price would be the same 19.99 got to convention was told due to being late inside storage was no longer available. so called and told them of my problem and that I would keep truck till convention was over so I could store my stuff in truck overnite. they assured me I would be charged the same rate per day 19.99 plus mileage no they charged 23.99 a day 25.00 late charge when I got the truck it had just been returned French fries half eaten hamburger behind the seat and all the wrapping on the floor. I put less than 50 miles on the truck and it cost me 40.00 dollars to refill it the lady at at the counter was rude customer service assured me that I would be helped . NO HELP THEY ARE VERY GOOD AT SAYING WERE SORRY BUT NO GOOD AT FIXING PROBLEMS THEY GAVE ME 25.00 FOR DOING THERE JOB CLEANING THERE TRUCK. THEY ALSO REFUNDED 25.00 LATE FEE. NOTHING ON THE OVER CHARGE 4.00 A DAY AND CERTAINLY NO HELP FOR THE EXTRA THREE DAYS RENTAL BECAUSE OF LOST RESERVATION SO MY ADVICE IS STEER CLEAR US UHAUL
I have to say that I am completely disgusted in how I was recently treated by your company. I had placed a reservation for a 24 foot truck a few weeks prior to needing it and 24 hours prior to pick up I get a call from the local place I was supposed to pick it up from stating budget never gave them a truck for me. Leaving me without a truck 24 hours before pick up. My first thought is how rude of Budget making the local business make this phone call when it’s not their fault. I called the customer service number to get this resolved. The first person I talked to sent an email to their inventory manager and I was supposed to hear back within 2 hours. Well 2.5 hours went by and no call…. I call again, go through the whole story of what has happened again. I told them I can’t wait another two hours I need to know if I have a truck or not. I am supposed to move the next morning! They send another message to the inventory manager and said I should hear within 30 minutes and if not call back again. I wait 45 minutes and no phone call. I call back again, go through the whole story yet again. This gentleman I was on the phone with was rude. At this point I am very angry and they want me to keep waiting. I then get off the phone because the guy I was talking to was not getting me anywhere. I call back shortly after go to make a new reservation out of curiosity and suddenly there is a 24 foot truck about 27 miles from me (previous pick up was only 5-8miles). I stated to the lady how is it I’ve spend 4 hours waiting for them to find me a truck and in 5 minutes she finds one. She had no answer, I had informed her of everything that has happened to me before this point. She then goes on with the reservation and wants to charge me twice what I was going to pay for the original truck rental. I told her no way, you guys didn’t come through with my first truck, I am not paying any more than what I made my reservation for. She told me she would have to transfer me to billing in which she did. I talk to this gentlemen who tells me in order to honor that cost he can’t comp me any miles. So I said let me get this straight, your company does bring me a truck like they were supposed to or gave it away I have no idea and you want me to drive 3 times the distance and you are going to charge me for all those miles. He said he can give me 30 miles but I have to call back after I return it to get refunded. So I would have to make yet another call to get my money back. I ended up having to drive a grand total of almost 60 miles on top of the 16 or so for my move and pay for them all. The very nice gentleman at the place I picked it up gave me 20 miles thankfully. I just have to say the fact that Budget screwed up and charged me more is the worst customer service ever. I paid for your mistake. When I had asked to talk to a manager when I was on one of my many calls I conveniently got transferred to a number that just kept ringing. I will never use your company again and I will never recommend anyone do such.
I haven’t’ picked up my rental yet, but I have had the most awful experience I have ever encountered! I reserved a Ford Taurus or similar, but I am being offered a Ford Fusion or similar. Called customer service, where I expected to be spoken to as a customer who was asking a reasonable question, and could be given a reasonable answer. Instead, I spoke with a very nasty, rude, incompetent person named Leticia. She had a very nasty attitude and has ruined my vacation!!!
We called the budget number to make reservations for a truck. The customer service rep we spoke to told us that our truck would be ready at 8am the next day. We asked if she needed our credit card number and she stated “no, you only pay when you get to the office” . We then went to the location and the rep Erin ( if that was even her name) told us there was no trucks available without even taking our reference number or name or phone number. I explained to her I traveld far to get this truck and she said there are no trucks and there was nothing that could be done. I explained to her that she was very rude and she should not be working for the public. I then called the budget number again and spoke to Brenda who was very helpful and made a reservation for us and took our credit card information and said we can pick up the truck at 9:30am. We than waited, and went back into the budget to get our truck. The rep Erin than told us “I have nothing for you because you were rude earlier ” and walked away from us. Without again checking our reservation, she completely disregarded us and went about her business. I AGAIN called the budget number and they said it would be another 2 to 3 hour wait. They told us that if you cancel it there would be a fee. Well we never got the truck due to discrimination and if we get charged I will make sure to speak to the people i need to speak with to rectify the issue. I never in my life delt with such a horrible and unorganized company than Budget. They implement people into these positions who don’t want to help. We went to uhaul and received much better service and a much better deal. I will let everyone I know to.NEVER utilize Budget for anything and I will be contacting the Better business Bureau. I will also be writing a yelp review to warn people to not utilize this company , as well as escalating this as far as I have to. This woman Erin should not be working for this company because she makes it look bad. I will also be writing a letter to t he corporate and hopefully they inform chairman Mr. R. Nelson that the employees he has working for this company are beyond rude, and unprofessional.
Today is July 16th, i had an July 21st pickup date with budget, i have been trying to cancel this reservation since July 9th and everyone at Budget has been giving me the runaround because they don’t want to issue a refund. I asked to speak to a supervisor at the corporate office and was told the supervisor only take callback calls. I have spoke to 3 different people at Budget…Jasmine Ursula and Steve. Steve did try to have with this reservation after putting me on hold for several minutes. He came back to the line with a case# and told me to expect a refund on July 22nd minus $10.00….I Shelia Owens will never never never ever ever ever do business with Budget low class rental car AGAIN!!!!!!
I rented a car overslept and had to keep it another day. Upon return the lady at the counter was being extremely rude to me. She inspected the car with no issues. Continued arguing with me over the car being late. Threw the receipt at me which can all be verified by reviewing the tapes. Now a week later I recieve a letter for the car being dirty. I returned the car spotless with no issues. And now I’m being robbed for $150. I was a new customer at Budget. If they steal my $150. I will never rent here again and I will make sure to post my review of the company in every single place I can. I will not rest until everybody knows how I got robbed for $150 because my car was late and the lady at the counter was having a bad day.
I rented a car in Boston, left my expensive sunglasses in the door compartment called the airport location after I realized I had left them. The car was still in the lot which meant only Budget employees had access to the car, and Budget told me there were not in the car, meaning an employee clearly took/stole them and management will do nothing about it (at the least reimburse me). Sad to see they tolerate this behavior. I will not use them again and will make a point to ensure that companies that I am affiliated with never use them. An expensive lesson for me, and a far more expensive lesson for Budget.
Budget customer service inadequate to say the least! I cancelled a car rental weeks before my trip. I was told June 6th my refund would be returned to my acct in 5-7 days. It is July 3rd today, I still dont have my money! I was told no less than 8+ times it is being handled. At least 3 said it will take 5-7 days again. Many emails which they take no less than 2 days to reply. 3 Supervisors who said its being addressed. I just called 10 minutes ago. I was told it will be 5-7 days from the day they process it. I was also told it doesnt show it was processed…!
Even the dept that said they would investigate said 7-14 days. its been 14 days!
The rudest customer service ever!!! Specifically Megan who works in reservations..ID # 31357…the minute she answered you could here attitude on the phone…she even said she’s not customer service she’s reservations…ANYONE dealing with customers has to have customer service skills which she lacked greatly! I asked to speak to manager so she put me on hold for 45 mins without transferring just on hold… People like her are making you LOSE customers – never have I experienced such RUDE, UnProfessional, uneducated about where they work type of service before. All the upper management needs to look in to this because reading the other reviews it seems like you’ll be losing a lot more customers. I have never been more disappointed in my life.
DO NOT EVER RENT FROM BUDGET. My husband and I went to Dallas for a business conference and rented a car from Dallas Fort Worth Airport location. We were given our paperwork and told to find the car in the lot. It was raining and started to freeze rain at the time. We got in the car and got on the highway. The car immediately began to fishtail and we knew there was something wrong. When we got to a safe location we noticed a tire was flat. IT WAS GIVEN TO US IN THIS CONDITION. We went to a gas station and put air in the tire until we could get to our hotel. Once at the hotel we called Budget to let them know they put us in a car on a flat in freezing rain conditions. They sent out a technician who could not change the tire and we were told we needed to exchange it. The nearest location was then closed. We were stranded at our hotel for the night due to freezing rain, snow and a flat tire. The next morning we exchanged the car and were then late for our conference. 3 months later we were sent a bill and charged a fee for $81.16 stating it was a fee for sending the technician out. How crazy is this??? YOUR COMPANY PUT US IN AN UNSAFE CAR in hazardous conditions and then billed us for it. I began calling the company to dispute the charges and was told a supervisor would call me within 48 hours, on 3 different occasions. Still no call back. NEVER RENT FROM BUDGET.
BUDGET SUCKS!
Unless you want money to be stolen from your account I suggest you to NEVER use budget truck. My husband and I rented a truck and before we returned it we went to the gas station and filled the tank as directed to but was still charged over $60 for an until led tank. Budget is nothing but a bunch if thieves , they have access to your account and will charge you for any and everything to get a buck and then not return your money. I will never use budget ever in my life again. I have also filed a complaint with the better business bureau on them.
1) This letter was written in two parts, regarding my experience with Budget Rental Company:
I’m currently in day two of a chaotic mess with this company. I picked up a truck which had a bad tire, and they employee said it was fine, but I insisted that it be replaced. Now I’m on day two of a truck without a working transmission, and they knew I was traveling across multiple states for this move. I’m 8 hours from home or any family, and 10 from my destination. I’m pregnant, with a toddler, and three animals confined to a car. I also have a hired move and my husband, and we are all stranded in Vegas. After hours of being on hold, “disconnected”, etc I finally have a new truck which my husband had to go pick up. Now I wait for two movers to “assist” with moving my life from one truck to the next. I’ve been paying for meals and hotels out of pocket, and we are two days behind schedule. Not only has my husband been on the phone with this company non stop, but he had to find the shop, show them how to use their own computer, pick up the new truck, and guide the customer service of this company step by step of what we needed to happen. I want a full refund and expenses paid, but they are not giving us any information. This is one of the biggest events in our life, carefully planned out, and now I’m just upset and frustrated. I’m not using this company ever again. They are not even remorseful, polite, or attempting to do right by us.
Here I sit, a few days later. We’ve unpacked the truck, and are shocked at the damages, and the amount of items missing from the truck. A lawn mower completely taken apart, furniture ruined from fluids leaking everywhere, wedding gift furniture from my grandma scratched beyond repair, and the first painting/gift I ever gave to my husband has scratches all over it. I can’t sit on my couch without the horrendous smell, I cry seeing the furniture my ailing grandmother bought me as a wedding gift in shambles. I’ve yet to check my computer with all of my photos from my sons baby years, which I would truly never forgive them for should they be ruined. My sons crib, doubt it will be usable for the baby I’m currently pregnant with. I’m disheartened by the lack of empathy from this company. I’ve paid for three nights in hotels (needing 2 rooms) and have yet to be guaranteed any form of reimbursement. And better yet, they still wanted the truck back on the original turn in date at full price, even with leaving me stranded in Nevada for two days. One of those days, I was stranded in a tow yard with my son, and animals all confined to my sedan as well as myself, which I’m pregnant so I would have appreciated an air conditioned place to at least wait.
What if this was their mom, wife, or daughter? Is this how they would want the situation to be handled? I doubt it.
This should serve as a warning to others, and a prompt for change within Budget Rental company.
Regards,
Hope Larios
We rented a Ford Fusion from the Akron Canton Airport and when we got to our destination we noticed we had a bubble the size of a golf ball. I called Roadside Assistances and asked if we could just have the tire changed out and they said no. We waited for over 8 hours to get the care changed out. It was not as nice of a car but we got home. After receiving that care we went to the store and my 11 year old granddaughter found a box of condoms in the backseat and white stains all over the back seat. This only shows one…The budget dealer NEVER cleaned the car and two: roadside assistance sucks. When I’ve called your corporate customer service all I’ve gotten the first time was too bad for you the second call was to let you know about the condoms and the person that time was very nice but still could not do a damn thing for us. Coupons don’t do anything for us. I was suppose to get a discount but NEVER did. The paper work looks that way but when I add the bill up there was not discount. You charged us $363.08 and that’s what the bill adds up to. I really feel we could be compensated for our 8 hours of having to just sit and wait on Budget to get a car to the tow company. I keep getting told the only one that can help me is at the Counter where we rented from well that is who gave me the so called discount but did not.
Customer service refusing to refund $83.49 to me. It was charged to me because I drove it from one budget center that closed on me after I told them the truck was too small, so I had to find a budget rental that was open to return it to. They tell me it was my responsibility to know what size truck I needed! Silly me; when I called and told Budget what I was moving I assumed they were the professionals. They recommended what I found out to be a truck used to move dorm room contents. I was moving an apartment and I told them the big items were a large sectional couch and a king size bed. No way we could use the truck they reserved for us. I work at USAA. When I called they answer “partner with USAA” making me feel well taken care of. When I called with a problem I was rudely treated and when I asked to speak to a supervisor they sent me to a phone that just rings. I spent 15 minutes listening to the phone ring the first time, and 30 the second time. Horrible experience all the way around. I really don’t think USAA wants to partner with this.
On May 25th we rented a 24ft truck loaded it and left our home yesterday the 27th 1 1/2 hours later the transmission blew. At 1:30 pm we contacted customer service and 6 hrs later they came and towed the truck to a hotel . We were told that in the morning a new vehicle and a crew would be here to reload . Well it’s now 2:29 and a truck should be here with a crew in another hour. We are sitting outside again waiting. Our rental was for a one-way to Jacksonville NC from Clermont Florida and we have lost a full day not to mention we can not leave the truck because our belongings are there. The hotel is being gracious right now but we have no facilities to use and again we’re outside waiting. This is not how a company should be run.
My family has never used Budget before and never will again. What should have been a 10 hour trip has now become don’t know when they will arrive.Truck broke down just outside of Valdosta Ga. took over 4 hours to come to them.The truck couldn’t be fixed asked if they could get 2 smaller trucks were told no. Might not be able to get a truck till Tuesday! Really??? In the mean time all their belongings are in this truck getting towed to somewhere. Having to stay in a hotel till than if they find one that will take cats. Also traveling with them. Not good customer service!!!! My son just started a new job now he’s going to have to miss work lose pay and possibly his job.Don’t understand why it would have been so difficult to let them have 2 smaller trucks had enough licensed drivers. Maybe a little inconvenient for the company but atleast an easy solution to the problem. They paid out alot of money for the truck and it seems like no one cares and they are causing the problem. Never again and will try to talk anybody that thinks about using this company to think again.
The Orlando airport site is the worst to deal with. You always wait an hour. The employees try to push everything on you. There is a gal there named Cathy and she needs to go! Her attitude and sarcasm to customers is beyond belief. All we were doing was charging drivers after several days. We called first to make sure it was okay. She wouldn’t allow it and she wouldn’t let us talk to a manager. We went to the office inside Doubletree and the guy there had it done in 5 minutes. This is my third bad experience with budget, you’re out!,,,
i implore you to never use budget again. i got screwed twice in montana. to handle the dispute you just get turned over to an agent called PurCo in Utah as their claims agency. What a joke. No reasoning, nothing. A company that treats a customer this way should have no customers. Use Enterprise.
DO NOT rent a car from budget!!! My dealings with budget Rent-A-Car in St. George,Utah ruined my family vacation. SHELLY CLARK The manager was very unprofessional and super rude and did not care one way that she ruined my vacation by not having my reservation available to me. I’m never renting from budget and I’m telling everyone not to use budget in St. George Utah. SHELLY CLARK SHOULD BE FIRED
Mike, I have had the same experience with SHELLY CLARK, the so called City Manager for St George. I first contacted Budget about an overcharge on 3/13/15 and since then have contacted Shelly on the phone and in emails again on 3/27/15, 4/11/15 and 5/4/15 and either get a response that the refund is being processed and should take 7-10 days or no response at all. If she is a representative of what Budget considers management material then it is no wonder that they are one of the lower rated rental car companies. At this point I am contacting the corporate offices.
Do not USE BUDGET, I rented a car in Fort Lauderdale FL returned the car with a full tank of gas. They charged me for a full tank costing $78.00 now the won’t reverse the charge. I have proved I paid and still refuse. DO NOT USE BUDGET
I rented a car by phone and paid for it with a MasterCard( PayPal ) It was paid in full.
When I got to the airport to pick up the car they said that their machine does not allow them the use a paypal (Master-card) at the counter. I had to go next door to Dollar rent a car and they were happy to use my card. I called PayPal to tell them the story. They said that they would look into it. I got a notice that they are refunding the full amount in 5- 7 days but that does not take care of all the pain and suffering I had to go through at 3:00 in the morning to rent another car. I will not use them again.
Please do not use budget in Los Angeles. It took over 1 hour for shuttle to come pick up you. Hold on for the ride because the wait time for the car is 3 hours. The line wraps around the building
I am a teacher and on spring break……I arrived in Pheonix Az at 11pm and took the shuttle to the rental center, where upon arrival I was givin a number to wait. 20 min. Later my number is called. The young lady told me they didn’t have a mini van that I needed to pick a different vehicle. I picked a chevy traverse. We needed to fit 6 woman and luggage. They asked me about fuel and said it was $2.55 I’d you pre pay, I asked how much if I don’t prepay, just in case, the answer was ” not much more than that it’s not a big deal. I also wanted to add a driver, they said I couldn’t do thAt with just a picture of her license that she needed to be there in person. I said I have to come back and pick up the other ladies tomarrow so then what? He said park in visitor parking down stIrs and just come back up to the counter and they can add her. So the next day I drive back to the airport to pick up the other ladies and park in visitor parking and walk 1/4 mile to the rental center. Upon entering I stood in line and the lady told me to take a number, I said no I have my papers I just need something fixed. She said I needed to take a number, I said no I will take the next available counter person, so she talked to one of them and they took me next. The lady at the counter was terrible. Her pants were so tight she could not button the button and her white shirt wasnt very white Nd it was very tight so the buttons were gaping apart. She took my papers types in the computer then said it kicked her out she needed all my papers and stuff again and that it would be 13.99 a day. I said they didn’t tell me that yesterday at pickup. She said we that’s what it is and proceeded to get kicked out of her computer twice more. I was very frustrated by this point, so she asked the young man next to her to take us and handed him our papers. So we move down and he takes all my stuff and starts typing in our info. Finally he says ok your all done id you sign by your name. He said I waved the 13.99 fee for all the inconveniouns. I said thank you very much, we took our papers and left. On the 2nd of April on our way to the airport we got stuck in traffic, so we decided to pay for budget to fill the car back up so we wouldn’t be late. (Since I was told it wasn’t much higher then the pre purchase price). So I drop the ladies off turn in the vehicle and while on the shuttle bus started reading the ticket. Tank 5/8 full but $80.76 for fuel service, and another 11.11 tax charge. The difference in my bill was 106.38. I was not very happy, so after I checked in and got through security I called customer service and the young man told me that the fuel price was 9.79 per gallon and it needed 8 gallons to refill it. I told him that it was stated to me that it would not be much more than the 2.55 pre purchase. He said well you signed a contract maybe you should read stuff before you sign it. I said I didn’t read all the small stuff because I was told it wasn’t much more than pre purchase price. The young man said well maybe you should read stuff before you sign things. He would take 25.00 off, I said that that was unexceptable, and he said technically I don’t have to take any off. I to.d him I was going to write corporate and he said that’s your choice, this is all I will do for you…next time read stuff before you sign it. Have a nice day and hung up. I have never been treated so poorly by so many people as your employees treated me. Highly disappointed.
ladies and then weI took my papers down to the parking faucial its, put my luggage in checked the car over and proceeded to leave. I had to wait at a gate for another
Picking up a rental today – scheduled the rental back in November 2014 & have always “requested” a vehicle – gotten it everytime even though they “cannot guarantee” it – hence why I schedule rentals when I do – it’s spring break/Easter/etc – never had a problem before today – cld to ck on it as I have cld several times since Nov & have been told we have put your “request” in your file w/your reservation and should be no problem – we get vehichles from all over and all the time – today they tell me they have the other vehichle – NOT the one I asked for for the the last 4 months!!! They insisted they called Corporate and were told that because they have a vehichle in that class they couldn’t send them another one…. This is HORRIBLE customer service. The people that I had spoken with throughout the last 4 months I was told work for the lady I spoke with today, so I’m guessing she was a Manager/Supervisor – should not be in that position – when I explained by reasoning for the specific vehichle – regardless of how petty it is – she just asked “do you want to cancel your reservation then???” Not, I’ll call to the offices around here and see if they have one, which I had done for me in the past, and when I said no I’d hold the reservation for now – she said ok and hung up. Great customer service, right??? WRONG. This is just unacceptable – wake up people – what happened to customer satisfaction??? Not happening at Budget. If needing a rental I would seriously suggest going elsewhere…..
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Left my GPS in car when i return it they said they did’t find it called before i got on the plane
WOW what a joke. This company have very dishonest employee, talked to the manager she told me to giver her my serial number of mine and she would check to see if it was put with there told her i nolonger had the box. and ask her to ask the employee who clean out the car if he or she saw it . sent a letter to corporate office got a computer generated letter back. Now i see why the employee and manager did not care it roll down hill……. DON”T RENT FROM THIS COMPANY……. NO CUSTOMER. If they need $99 GPS system that bad what els is they taking from customers….
Shame on you Budget
Just found out that I got charged an extra $300 for my car rental because they gave me an up grade due to the car I prepaid for was not available. Even though received an email the day before that the car I “PRE PAID” for was waiting for me. Wound up costing me almost $900 dollars to rent a car that on line goes for less than $500. Spoke with customer services and got the transfered from one person to another until I got an answering machine. I will never use Budget again and will also tell as many people as I can not to use it.
did a reservation, paid with a different credit card and the freaking company charged me a $50 no show, and now I cant talk to anyone to get my $50 bucks back
Will not be renting a car or truck anytime soon
DO NOT USE BUDGET!!!
Friendly staff until the point of me leaving a box of jewelry in my rental.
Not ONE person from Budget has responded in any way other than, “let me transfer you” or, I am honest in saying, a cold hard hang up in my face. The representative put me on hold to “help” me, but I could hear her helping a customer at the counter; once I said, “Hello,” I heard her grab the handset and disconnect the call.
I have completed an online lost report, with no contact from Budget.
I am now working with the airport police, but I feel that whatever Budget employee “found” my $1,000 ring is not looking to be honest, and every other employee on and off location, assumes hiding / disrespect / nonsense is the norm for this company.
To whom it may concern at Budget Corporate office. I am a father of an 8 month old son that works nearly every day of the week and has no free time at all. I booked an online reservation for a rental truck for 0830. I called the day before rental and changed it to 1000 am. They said there were no problems with that and it would be fine. So today came…the woman from VA Beach Newtown road called and I explained to her that 1000 was the pickup time as agreed last night with the personnel from your company. She called me back at 0930 and said they really Ted out the truck I needed to move. Quickly added she would get another one and have it there in 30 min and she would call me as soon as she made sure of it. Well….4 hours went by and I called a total of 18 times multiple numbers and the ones used to contact me with no answer. I drove to the place on Newtown road to see if maybe she brought the truck there and forgot to call.. what did I find!! I found a locked door that said open and not one truck near the area. I called budget again on fire at this point because it was 1349 and most places closed at 1400. I went to the next nearest place to get a truck. This time it was the VA Beach Blvd place. There were 3 16 ft trucks as I saw them. There was one male employee there who was fighting with an older woman about costs and road hazard that she opted not to have and was still charged for it. I explained the predicament that YOUR company caused me and he said he would be with me shortly. It was 75 minutes later that I was told no because there were 4 bookings for tomorrow morning. I assured I would have the truck back and how your company already completely screwed my day as it was pouring down rain and it was overcast earlier and I would have been done. He called his manager and was told no they need it for tomorrow morning. Now I was irate. The woman now called me back from earlier and let me know she couldn’t get a truck. I surprised her by telling her I was at her place and saw the open sign with her no where near and the place locked. She basically froze and said good luck at this point and said go to Norfolk as there is one there. So now I go to Norfolk and finally pick up a truck and told this woman the situation and the proceeded to say I heard it from and I quote the name Margee who was the one that didn’t call me for over 4 hours and gave away my rental and obviously did not care a bit. This woman could care less. Your business caused me to lose 500 dollars as I had people scheduled to move me at 11 to 1300 and they get paid regardless because I wasted their time. I drove an unseen distance to all of the rental locations back and forth wasting my fuel…you costed me 500 for people supposed to move me. You caused me to have to move in the worst weather conditions and you took a ton of time away from my baby. This behavior and what happened cannot be justified. I warn others of what you have done to me the hardship you have caused truly ruining my once excited move and costing me time and money and time with my family i will never get back….your employees are a joke who obviously have no care in the world for the customer or their time. I don’t wish my worst enemy to have to go through what you did to me. I expect you to contact me ASAP or I will leave these comments along with more on the better business bureau website and I will never recommend your business. EVER…
NEVER again will I even think about renting or telling people for that matter to rent from Budget they are a bunch of crooks! We rented a car and returned it. they said we will bill you and you will get a receipt through your email… a week later we get a phone call… they lost the car and are blaming US for it!!! are you kidding me… to top that off they gave me two different names as to whom the manager in charge is and then they said they do not have a phone number for us to contact them back .. (but if we give them our number they will call us… So this is a one way phone eh??) Because we were hung up on 2 times over the 1800 number we found online we drove to BWI airport during our work shift just for the so called manager to tell us this is your fault we don’t have to help you good day. Great customer service skills no one seems to know what their doing in that place I would rather buy myself a cheap car to put around in then EVER rent from these jerkoffs again.
Dear Budget Rental Car and Corporation, CEO and Board of Directors, 3/7/15 8:07 PM
It is with regret that I make a complaint that I am forced to do, because I am forced to be disabled, and therefore with limited writing abilities as I will now prove.
Budget Rental Car, Ft Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport, Florida, earlier by a few minutes, 3/7/15 3:51 PM, employees in spite of my repeated begging, refused to give me a receipt for my voucher rental car services, that I had increased to a larger car, that I had just paid in fulI, with my credit card name on it. I had just paid $291.88 for six days of car rental.
They failed to explain the bill to me.
When I said to both Mr. William Lee and Ms. Jenifer last name refused, give me a receipt in my name or cancel my payment; she and he refused. He escalated getting further un-business like and more out of control because I was persistent in normal business procedures asking for receipt giving in the name of the payee, myself.
He earlier said the voucher was in my name, and could not be put in anybody else’s name, when it fact it was. He refused to correct the mistake by putting the bill in my name and the payment I had just made in my name. Any common sensible business person knows you cannot take money and not give a receipt in the payees name.
Then he continued to escalate the situation getting more out of control. A disabled person does not deserve such abuse, when I asked that he and she, cross out the previous name on the bill I had paid, and put in my name, in hand writing, and initial it, to substantiate I paid in my name and give me a receipt for it in my name. The additional reason for the discrimination was that I had admitted to being disabled, because I had told them the rental car, was to get to my medical therapy, prescribed by a doctor, that I was disabled and needed treatment.
Then he escalated the situation further, because I persisted to ask for his and her help, as he was blatantly interfering with my right to medical care, that had been prescribed by my doctor, which travel expenses in the Budget car I had incurred, to get to medical therapy.
I need that receipt to get medical expenses counted, for relief.
He and she are interfering with my medical care by refusing me my receipt in my name, and voucher, and voucher receipt in my name, blocking my ability to file for medical expenses reduction. This is direct interference with my medical care.
It would be a like refusing the rental car lessee help with a receipt in their name, a bleeder (hemophiliac) for accidently bleeding on Budget’s counter, because they do not help bleeders with car rentals rental receipts in their name. Here are not Budget employees blatantly prejudice against the disabled, for the disabled to get to medical treatment transportation in their own name. Is this not discrimination against the disabled keeping the disabled from showing self sufficiency, from being treated as a person?
When I said to both Mr. William Lee and Ms. Jenifer last name refused (who refused to identify herself, though moments before she refused my credit card payment without my ID, not only did she not give her last name but no ID nor did Mr. Lee); I wanted my medical expenditures car rental, getting to and from medial therapy, for which I had rented the car with upgrade, the car rental in my name as ordered under the voucher; that improper receipt was given, namely not in my name, that is discrimination and even more illegal against my disabled state, and I would sue; he immediately threatened me, for stating my rights, and I was threatened with the police by Mr. Lee, to keep me from pursuing my civil rights under the law, and ADA, and for stating my claims and revealing in good faith information. Most over confident prejudice, people say go right ahead, not threatening arrest. Is it clear that the squeaky wheel does not get the grease at Budget, when they are disabled, are asking for help and are refused, and say to the employee: me the disabled, I will pursue my civil rights, instead I am told I will be arrested, what a great service you do, no?
Is this friendly service? Do you advertise good features? Is this a case of false advertisement?
Mr. Lee said he would not give any receipt to me at all, to further intimidate me, when all along I had it in my hand, so vicious was he, he I feel worse than his employ in abusing the disabled me, he getting ever more out of control escalating his anger while a disabled person is asking for help. How out of control he was, not caring to check as to what had been done; I, when he, she and you already had apparently, already forged my voucher putting it in someone else’s name; all the while I held the new receipt in my hand.
You as individuals and corporation subverted the voucher in my name, and put it in someone else’s name. Then refused to give me a receipt in my name, after I had paid for the subverted voucher now and with the upgrade to a larger vehicle, days before thinking I was paying on a real voucher, not knowing you would refuse payment by me in my name, and refuse a receipt in my names. I clearly gave you allot of slack, here!
I have signed nothing, nothing for the payment with my charge card, American Express, payment.
I want my money back because of the blatant discrimination, which money that is to immediately be, taken of their employment income, Mr. William Lee and Jenifer, last name she with held (who refused to identify herself as she asked me with the simple courtesy, though moments before she refused my credit card payment without ID), who willfully and personally refused to help the disable out of common curtsey.
I request you verify by accounting outside your corporation, in an email at: lo***@juno.com.
When I am rarely overbilled at a store, I ask for the item for free and get it, because of their wanton disservice.
You are asked to credit back my payment please, and send me a promissory email for the $291.88 this week, with the cashiers check issued by next week, and I will temporarily halt pursuing litigation for five months, while you have proven you have diligently finished disability access training, by about face excellence; proven by disabled persons getting service from you without discriminations and I will settle; no promissory email this week, then I will litigate asking for $5,000,000 from you for me and a billion for the rest of the disabled people you have discriminated against.
I can no longer take the discrimination and abuse by prejudice people lacking the most elementary curtsy, I am hereby resisting. If the language in this my email is not enough substantiation for you that I am disabled, then I will no longer persist for my rights with you, but turn it over to a legal team, who are pro bona, and or working for disabled rights organizations. I am not strong enough to do more than ask and state my claim with you. If you continue to persist against my three requests, I will get help from sympathetic persons and organizations, who are more powerful than you, Budget Rental Car.
I suspect a team of attorneys will find routine discrimination as an in bread culture at Budget Rental Car, and perhaps even in written policy, and may well warrant a class action suit and most certainly a suit. How well do you comply with the ADA?
Please refer me to the news media that you feel care for the disabled or better yet your competition or better those who know your history?
I request a copy of the counter video and of Mr. Lee in the back room.
Reservation Number 01309710-US-3 Space No. 620
Rental Agreement Number: 457387700
Sincerely,
James Lawrence Smith
PO Box ***
Portland, OR 97208-2024
Budget Rental is the WORST company I have every had to do business with and I recommend to everyone looking for a truck rental to go anywhere but Budget!! This review is for 2 locations – Budget Colima Rd., Rowland Heights and Budget S. Citrus, Covina.
I should have known this rental was going to be bad from the first phone call I made! I went online to review prices and locations. The website says a 10″ truck rental is $19.99 plus mileage. So, I called to make a reservation rather than online. The rep argued with me that the 10″ truck was $29.99, not $19.99. I told her I was looking at it on the website. She told me I was wrong, put me on hold, and came back with an offer for the 10″ truck discounted to $25.99! I told her never mind…I decided to do the rental online for the advertised $19.99.
I went online and made the reservation. All went smooth. I decided to upgrade the truck to a 15″, which was priced at the $29.99 the rep was trying to pass off for the 10″ truck. My reservation was made appx. 5 days in advance of my pickup date, which was a Saturday. I had a crew hired to move furniture at 8:00am the morning of my reservation and since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, I requested an 8:00am pickup time at the 18750 Colima Road, Rowland Heights location, which was 1/2 mile from my home and 2 miles from the location the furniture was moving. This was to be a very short distance move…appx. 5-7 miles total round trip travel.
On the day before my reservation, Friday, at 2:00pm, I received a phone call from Budget Rowland Heights that my truck was not available for Saturday. It had been involved in an accident. They had no other trucks available. I was frantic and told the agent to please find me another truck at another Budget location. She actually did not offer to find another truck at first and I had to get stern with her and explain the urgency of this move on Saturday before she agreed to help find another. She located one at the Budget Covina location, but it was going to be a 24′ truck! This was huge and would not fit in the parking areas I was needing to go but I knew that on a Friday afternoon, at the end of the month, finding anything else would be difficult. Also, the Covina location is over 10 miles one way from my location which meant more time and mileage driving just to get and return the truck. She agreed to honor my original price for the 15′ truck and would discount the mileage.
She called me 3 times that afternoon to confirm the truck was available and my pickup time was still 8:00am. BUT…at 6:00pm Friday evening, I received a phone call from the Budget Covina location informing me the truck would not be available for pickup until afternoon! This was UNACCEPTABLE!! I had a crew hired and it was going to rain in the afternoon, which it did! I explained this to the agent but he would hear nothing…just ended the conversation with “that’s when the truck is available, are you taking the truck or not?” I was so upset and stressed. This was a necessary move that MUST be done that day, as my mother had just passed away the weekend before and I was required to move her belongings out of her nursing home apartment by the last day of the month to avoid another month’s rent. Now everyone else was closed and I had no alternate options. I called back the Budget Rowland Heights agent and told her the situation. She was shocked, said she just received a call from the Covina location that the truck was available at 8:00am and did not understand. She put me on hold, tried to call Covina, but they did not answer. She then said I would have to wait until the morning to find out more. I could not do that!!!
I decided to call UHaul truck rental, appx. 2 miles from my home. Although it was after hours, someone still answered! I told the agent how frantic I was and he calmly said he could give me a 10′ truck for the next morning at 8:00am, “NO PROBLEM!” He was a blessing!!! Later Friday evening, I received an email from Budget informing me of a $50 cancellation fee if I cancelled the truck or was a no show. I then had to call their 24 hour service line and argue the point…claiming they breached their contract with me and it was not my fault I was cancelling. The agent finally agreed to waive the cancellation fee…but we will see on my next credit card statement whether that is true.
On Saturday morning we went to UHaul, City of Industry, received EXCELLENT customer service, were treated like their favorite customer, which they did to all that were there, and got our move completed by noon, before the rains. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH BUDGET AGAIN and recommend anyone else to go to UHaul to conduct their future business. I hope Budget Corporate Office sees this posting and does an investigation to the incompetency and laziness of their personnel.
I rented a car at the Tri-City airport July 24, 2014. On July 27, 2014 there was a significant storm with hail at the hotel. The car I rented as well as others was damaged during that storm. The damage to my vehicle was minor, no paint damage and the dimples could have been pulled out. I heard nothing of the claim and called to find out about it. They said no claim had been filed so it looked like it went away. Fast forward to today, Feb 24, 2015 and I received a letter stating that a damage claim had been filed and that I owed them over $2K. Let me ask you, does this sound right to you? 7 months later and now I have to scrabble around to file a claim with my insurance company. If you are that short handed and can’t get business done in a timely manner then it is not my fault and I should not be punished for this time delay.
This is the last time I rent from Budget. They were my go to but not anymore if they are going to treat their customers so bad! I lost my credit card paying for my deductible because they only gave me a certain time period, that has passed.
Brenda R
I booked a mid-size car in late November for pick up at Tampa on January 12. When I got to the airport – the fellow at the downstairs desk told me there were no mid-sized vehicles available and they only had a Ford Fiesta – get real, my husband is handicapped, and there were 3 of us. They tried to UPSELL us into an SUV – get real. Well we had no choice after an hour of haggling – went upstairs to pick up the vehicle and was VERY HAPPY to find out from the girl upstairs (I think her name was Semayna) that there were mid-sized vehicles available and she changed our paperwork and put us in one – either train your people properly or stop trying to upsell – the girl upstairs deserves much credit for helping us – I’m sure you can locate her name by the date and it was around 2:00 PM on January 12 at Tampa –
That does not bode well for travelers –
I was told by customer service that the dealer said I dropped the truck off on Monday at 11:30 a.m. instead of Saturday. Someone is lying. We were at work. My phone record showed that we made several contacts on the day we were returning the truck!!!
I rented a truck in Florida with an agreement that the truck would be returned to a location in Richmond Hill on the third day. The HOA is very strict about parking a 16′ truck in front of the house, so we returned the vehicle a day earlier. We did not know the location so we called the dealer to get the direction and we were told to put the keys in a drop box because they would be closed after 12:00 p.m. on the Saturday. I was billed almost $300.00 for returning the truck about mid-day on Monday. I was not informed about it and it was automatically taken from my account. I have been trying to talk with customer service about the mistake and each time I was given the impression that I was lying.
I called the dealer who refused to speak with me and kept redirecting me to customer service. He was very rude and hung up the phone.
I am very disappointed because I have been renting with Budget for many years. Why do they have a drop box? I have rented with U-Haul and had to leave the truck and put the keys in a drop box on the weekend and was NEVER charged or told I returned the truck late!!!
Please check your statements often. I did not see the extra charge on my statement until four months later.
I rented a car on Feb 6th and paid with my visa debit/credit and had no problems at all with this method of payment. The manager was so friendly and helpful and said next time you guys come back, I’ll help you out with a car for your upcoming wedding. So this weekend (2/13/15) my fiancé and I planned a vacation to Reno and we reserved a car online. We get to the airport, and the representative tells me that I cannot rent a car because of a ridiculous message by Equifax saying I cannot rent a car. I am so furious and upset that they would not help me with this situation. They gave me no explanation and had me call a number where I could not reach anyone. Not only did I have to cancel my trip to Reno, I am now out $130 and cannot be reimbursed by the hotel. I would not be complaining if this was the first time renting from budget, but considering I rented a car just last weekend with no problems, it infuriates me. Not only do I want an apology, I want an explanation as to why the manager had no problems renting a car to me, but today they would not allow me to. This is unacceptable and if I were planning a trip elsewhere I would have been stranded.
I was charged 5 seperate “temporary holds totaling over $1200 for a rental that should have been only $247. They applied most of the holds during my rental period because I had to extend for a few days. When I went to drop it off they did additional holds and THEN did the actual charge. This makes no sense because I was dropping it off. Why did they do all the holds on the same day that they also did the actual full charge?? The manager and the counter person at the Oxnard Airport are rude and unhelpful. They charged me for the extra hour that I had to wait in line to return the car. I was late returning it because They were helping another customer.
DO NOT RENT FROM THEM…….YOU WILL GET SCREWED OVER ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!!!!!
RENT FROM ANY OTHER CAR COMPANY EVEN IF IT SEEMS MORE EXPENSIVE…..!!!
Greetings,
On this past Super Bowl Sunday during the biggest snowstorm in many years, it was just before dark and my wife and I were leaving Detroit Metro Airport when suddenly I got a BLOWOUT on my rear tire. Very loud and scared my wife half to death.
Snowing like mad, visibility very bad I had no where to get off Merriman Rd. The only turnoff was at the “car rental return” area. So I pulled into Budget rental and went inside and was directed to the manager. Her name was Rebecca. I explained my problem to her. She was very very busy at the time, all bundled up in her winter foul weather gear, running in and out of the building doing what seemed like several different jobs. She said to me that she would be right back. When she returned she directed me to the garage where the cars vacuumed and cleaned and said I could pull in there and change my tire, I did and was on my way in no time. She was truly a lifesaver that night……. Super Bowl Sunday in a big snowstorm.
Please see that she gets the cusps that she deserves. Of course it was the Romulus, I’m. Store at DTW
Thanks again,
Mike and Tonia Szabo
on December 11,2014 I rented a car from budget rent a car in Decatur Ga. they told me the cost of the rental was 329.00. They would put a hold on my card for 523.00. When I returned the car they charged my bank card the 523.00. they later refunded me back the balance. I have rented cars from budget since 1985, and have never had them charge my card for the full amount of the hold. I called them to see what happened and they said that was their policy. Also when I reserved the car on line the insurance was 10.00 a day. when I went to pick up the car the sales person said that was not their insurance company and I had to pay 26.00 a day for the rental or I could not rent the car, and that I had to contact the other insurance company to get my money back. I contacted the other company and they told me that budget did not tell the truth they could no write a policy under budget name if they were not authorized. needless to say I did not get any money back. I ended up paying 148.00 to rent a car for 4 days in insurance. To top it off I received a letter from a company called VMS saying I owed 3.80 for a toll plus 40.00 in service charge. there is no way I could have driven through a toll booth in Florida without being stopped. 2months later. and budget gave them my credit card number to pay the fine. How dare they give out that information without contacting me. That information should have been destroyed the minute I returned that car. I will never rent from budget again. All those years I rented from them has gone down the drain. Beware who you give your credit card information to.
My husband and I are extremely disappointed in budget,,we have rented autos from them from many states, several times and always had good service. This last time (and it will be the last time) they got us pretty good, but not as good as they would have liked to.We rented a mid size car in San Jose, Costa Rica for 8 days – we were quoted $205.00 plus taxes and any additional fees – for GPS and Liability tax. We did expect the bill to be about $550.00 – but, you guessed it our total was $738.17 and at that we were lucky, they even wanted to charge us for missing floor mats from the back seat (of course these were non- existant) – they didn’t push the matter when they saw the anger in both my husbands & my sons faces, what a cheap underhanded trick. Beware! I’m really sorry to hear budget has become such a cheap, unreliable company…they had a good name for many years, but, looks like its all down hill now.
I will never go through budget, nor will I ever recommend budget to anyone based off of the treatment I have received as a new customer. I spoke with a man yesterday by the name of Victor who took my reservation and gave me a quote. I actually called around to Peneske and Uhaul and went through budget. I was given a reservation number and was told the info would be mailed to me. I even asked to speak with his supervisor so I could give him kudos for giving me a great experience. However, today when I went to print my info from my email about the reservation info, no such email exist. I called today and got a female names Jesse that told me my res # given was not valid. Frightened because I gave my Credit Card number, I said it was not possible. She told me there was nothing she could do and I had to call in the morning to the customer care number. Keep in mind I am scheduled to be on the road tomorrow morning by 9:00a.m. I asked to speak with her supervisor and a female name Unique identifying herself as a supervisor told me the same and hung up on me. I called back, Jesse answered again and when I asked for the corporate number, she hung up on me. I called back again and received the same treatment. If I have to stay up all night and post this message to every budget site of Facebook that is what I will do because it is unprofessional that I was treated in such an awful manner in an already stressful moving situation. I will NEVER recommend budget to anyone and to show my full gratitude I will share this story with whomever will listen. And even though going with UHaul is a couple hundred dollars more expensive, I would rather have the piece of mind to know a company has my back when budget did not.
Sincerely,
TeLitha LiLi Peterson
Rented car in Oklahoma City Airport….the car was a piece of SH*%. The plug adapters to charge phone and GPS were not working…..on top of that to my surprise in the evening the back lights of the vehicle were not working causing me and my children to drive around town with the emergency lights in hopes i didnt’ get hit from the backside by an eighteen wheeler. Did they give me a refund for all my stress ….NO!!! Never ever will rent any vehicle nor will i recommend Budget to anyone.
Used priceline reserved budget rent car with agreed
Price. The budget agent, at the Cleveland
Airport rental site, a heavier mild blackish
Spanish woman, I’ve seen her before,
When in Cleveland. She fooled me
Ignored the priceline fee I already paid, double
Charged me, it was the first time I used
Priceline so I was ripe to be ripped off.
I complained to the assholes a Budget.
The corporation didn’t help me, they said
Call priceline who I already paid. That
Budget scammed me for a hundred dollars,
Budget and their chairman Robert L Nelson
Can die of horrible painful cancer, I hope
Mr Nelson’s children and wife get painful
bleeding Ebola and die horribly too.
Booked on PRICELINE and than Budget in PHX, AZ also BILLED for the car. BEWARE!!!!!
Today on Highway 99, going through Gridley, CA 95948, at approximately 12:30pm, a Budget truck (a company one) ran through a red light going way over speed limit. Not only were they speeding, they went around the stopped cars, and passed them using the left hand turning lane. I was attempting to get their liscense but shockingly, they speed of recklessly after having to stop at a red light they couldn’t fly through. I was going to call the police but I did not have enough time to get any information from their car.
From looking at the previous complaints it doesn’t look like this is going to get any action. However, I must still post this complaint. If I could rate this company any lower that 1 star it would be a -0. And it is such a shame because I have had good luck renting from Budget, but then again it was from Vegas to CA. The location I tried to rent a moving truck from is located at 8393 E Foothill Blvd, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 Phone:(909) 989-1905 (Rhonda). I made a reservation for a 16′ foot truck on a Thursday, my confirmation said pack your bags you are confirmed. I was moving my daughter to Vegas on a Saturday morning and was to pick up the truck on Friday afternoon at 4pm. My daughter and I arrived Friday afternoon about a 1.5 hours before our appointment time only to find a note on the door that said “be back in a moment, went to pick up truck”. We waited for about 15 minutes and then phoned to make sure we were at the right location. This is not your typical Budget Store but a stand alone office on a RV lot. Rhonda answered the phone which was her cell and while talking to my daughter on the phone she was completely unprofessional, rude and sarcastic. When she answered the phone she said hello and my daughter’s response was is this Budget? Rhonda sings; you got it. My daughter then proceeds to say we have a reservation to pick up a truck and I want to make sure we are in the right location because this doesn’t look like a normal pick up location. She says, well don’t you see the note on the door?. My daughter says, yes. Rhonda says then you must be in the right place, don’t you think? Now my daughter is fuming. As we sat in the parking lot waiting for someone to come and open the office we noticed that a lady drove up not in a truck but her own personal car. She got out of her car and sashayed her way to the office. We gave her a few minutes to get settled in and then proceeded to conduct our transaction. Here is where it ALL went down hill and fast. I gave her the confirmation number and she typed it into her computer only to tell me she couldn’t find the reservation. She looked again, same result. She asked me if I called the 800 number to confirm the confirmation and I asked her why would I do that when I have a reservation/confirmation number. She then says, OH! The online system and the office systems don’t really talk to each other. I said to her how is a customer supposed to know that? She shrugged her shoulders and says I don’t know. Then we went back and forth and she said while driving back to the office I called my inventory guy and he has advised me that we do not have any trucks available at all, no where in the area. Are you kidding me? I said, so if I had come at my appointment time of 4:00pm, then I would be out of luck of trying to find and reserve a truck through another company because everyone would most likely be closed or out of trucks also. She said, probably so. I asked her where is the customer service she said I have no control over what is being presented to you online, you should have called the 800. I said, I can go online and reserve a flight, I do not have to call the 800 number to confirm my plane reservation why would I think that this be would any different? She just looks at me, like I was the idiot. While she and I are talking she says my inventory guy will be calling her and points to my daughter. I said for what reason. She says oh, to let her know that we don’t have any trucks today. I said, but that’s what you are for. Why would he be calling and where did he get the number from to call her. She said it’s on the reservation and I said no it’s not because my number is on the reservation. So you must have given it to him. She says well she’s going to get a call and we don’t expect any until probably Monday or Tuesday next week. I said, if I wanted it on Monday or Tuesday I would have reserved it for one of those days. What good was that going to us on a Friday evening for a move on Saturday? Sure enough my daughter got the call….The inventory guy Eddie tells my daughter that Rhonda has probably relayed this info to you but we don’t have any trucks to rent to you today. I got tired of fooling around with Rhonda because one; she was not worth my time and two; it was getting later in the day and we needed to find a truck. I asked her to cancel my reservation and advised her that I better not be charged since I was canceling less than 24 hours. She looked over at her computer and says ” Ooo! IT’S ALREADY CANCELLED.” I said, how is that possible and I just asked you to do it? She says, it’s beyond me. My daughter and I were at a loss. We sat in the parking lot and made phone calls to at least 3 other locations nearby. Wanna take a stab at who answered the phone? You got it, Rhonda. She starts laughing and says I am in control of the offices in the surrounding area. We left the parking lot a little down but not defeated. We continued to call all of the truck rental companies in the area. We drove West on Foothill and ran into U-Haul. They were more expensive online that’s why I chose Budget. Once we explained to them what we just experienced they kind of laughed and said it happens all of the time. They called their district manager and he was willing to do a price match. This U-Haul location did not have the size we needed and advised us to go the location in Upland. So back up Foothill we go. Wanna take a guess at what was pulling up to the Budget office? You got it again! The 16′ truck we had reserved. We sat and watched to make sure that this truck wasn’t being picked up by someone else. After about 15 minutes the driver got back into the truck and went back the same direction he came from. I took pictures of the truck on the lot just in case someone says there was no truck delivered. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET!
I had the same experience, just from a different state…we drove 10 hrs from one state to the next, where our furniture was at. plus drove an addl 2 hrs away, where we reserved the budget truck…To find out there were no trucks available and wasted our time n money to end up driving back home wit no furniture.. All they did was give us another reservation for 3 weeks later and basically did NOTHING about it..Tried calling corporate and same thing…
I rented a vechile from your company on 10/8/14 to 10/11/14 and was told that the deposit would be returned to my account and waited for tens day and still no deposit back. I call the location and anchorage airport to ask for the deposit and talked to Will and he said that it was returned, he recommended that I contact the bank to see if they are holding the funds, I call thebankand no deposit was returned, call Will back and he transferred me to account and got a answering machine. I like renting a vehicle but don’t like the hassle of getting the money back from the rental company, would appreciate if I cal get a call back to when the funds will be returned. Thanks
I rented a car for the weekend of Oct. 20th. I returned the vehicle on Monday, but I left my phone in the vehicle. I returned to retrieve the phone within 15 minutes, yet the gentleman who checked-in the vehicle the vehicle emphatically stated, “I parked the vehicle, but I didn’t see the phone”. The service supervisor stated, None of my guys have been in the vehicle”.
Currently, I am looking at the iPhone’s “Find My Phone” feature. Not only is it indicating the phone is still on Budget’s property, but also it has been accessed within the past thirty minutes.
I called the manager. He has yet to respond. Budget and its employees have guaranteed that I will NEVER rent from nor recommend them ever again, even if it means paying a higher fee to rent elsewhere.
After reserving my truck a week and a half in advance for a military PCS move across the United States. I arrived to Budget in Virginia Beach, VA on military orders reservation only to have to wait 5 hours and miss out on our movers to move our storage into our truck at the scheduled time that day and we had to delay our trip. Budget done nothing to accommodate us! MILITARY BEWARE………DO NOT RENT WITH BUDGET!!!! I informed the Fullerton, CA location in person that I needed our truck s little longer and I wanted to pay in advance the extra days and was told to just wait until I bring the truck back to return it and pay the full balance at once instead of closing out my account. I said I just don’t want Budget to think trying to take the truck and the gentleman and lady assured me that I would be fine if I just bring it back and pay the full balance. Not the case at all!!!’ I have filed a report with the police because Budget had my rental truck towed from a parking lot because they were given a courtesy call that my truck was going to be impounded from a empty parking lot. Budget didn’t give me the same courtesy instead they had it towed away with all of my belongings inside. Instead they chose to say nothing at all so that each day they had it they were able to charge me more. I had to drive 35 miles to get my truck back and paid for the days that they had it as well even though I had no access to my truck or whole household! I was given a new key to my truck but upon putting my items in storage and returning the truck my husbands firearms were missing. Budget maintenance manager says no one had access but they had the truck 3 days and never called and obviously gave me a key to the truck so there was access to the truck by everyone involved during that time. The maintenance manager also refused to give me info on who towed my vehicle and all involved so that I could file a proper police report and said that he wouldn’t give me the number to contact corporate or the district manager. Budget has not even attempted to contact me regarding this issue! AGAIN MILITARY PERSONNEL BEWARE! They need to be blacklisted ASAP!
I am trying to locate the person I need to speak to in regards to a vehicle I purchased at Budget Car Sales. I purchased the car in May 2014. When I drove the car before making the purchase, I heard the car making a “scrubbing” noise and informed the salesman and manager. I was told there was nothing wrong with it and if I bought the car and it was a problem it would be fixed. I did buy the car and the noise started getting worse along with steering the car when I turned at times. I contacted the dealer on several occasions and took it back to them to get the problem fixed. Several lights started coming on (Service Brake Assist, Service Stabilitrak, Service Traction Control, a car symbol with what appears to be skidding lines, and ABS light) occasionally and now they are on most of the time. My car has gotten worse to the point that when I try to turn to the left especially, it doesn’t want to turn but will as I press the gas harder. The times I took it back, they did think it was the traction control and supposedly fixed it but did not and it’s just gotten worse. One of the times I took it I spoke with the Head Manager in Tifton, GA and he assured me it would be fixed but it was not. I have called the Manager at the location in Douglas, GA where I purchased it and was given the runaround and also called the Head Manager and left a message and have never received a call back. I am now seeking corporate assistance in how to resolve this matter before I proceed to court with the matter. I would appreciate someone contacting me with how this can be addressed and corrected. Thank you
I rented a car at Dulles airport on Oct 14, 2014. I was bringing my wife to the hospital for cancer treatment. While I was tending to her, the front desk person ( Deka H) told me to sign the pad. I did so, Upon my return, I realized that she had added the loss damage waiver to my contract without my knowledge. I find this to be a truly despicable act. I hope you enjoy the $53.98 you stole from me. I will never do business with your company again and will make sure everyone I know hears about the way you do business.
I rentied a car in Grand Islnad Nebraska. I ordered the car on line which they said would be a Dodge Dart. Arriving at Grand Island the only thing that they had was a New Dodge Pickup.. Gas Gusler. I was informed that there was a chip in the window and I would have to pay for a new window. Here is the problem . I contacted my Insurance company and I have a $250.00 deductable. I contacted my credit card company and they would have taken care of it if it would have been the car that I ordered. I know it’s my responsiblity but beware of some up grades it could it up costing you money. Needless to say if they upgrade you , you should take care to ask guestions.
this company is the worst they will not to stand behind our customer service and they will overcharge you or someone in your family if they can get access to their credit information they lie constantly lieand truly do not care and will say they validate every charge everything for whatever reason when the witnesses whatever they will still say what they want to say to make themselves appear rightand then to top it off and say that I did not experience a difficult moving experience how the hell do they know the worst company exit burn in hell
Wow, despite more than 50 complaints on your website all saying the same thing over and over, Budget does NOTHING but treat people poorly. Count how many people have said they have been hung up on by customer service reps, spoken to rudely and have not gotten any satisfaction.
Rental agreement#418842620. I had a billing discrepency of $13.99 for a charge that appeared after my signing the estimate of charges. I called the local branch and they were quite rude. I then called the national customer service and had an agent hang up on me! Very disappointed with how I was treated and the lack of desire to help me get a simple refund. I will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in NJ for deceptive business practices and urge you to train customer service reps to have RESPECT and treat people decently, You have lost my business, which you apparently didn’t value very highly to begin with.
Seth Kerker
When we rented a car and encountered a problem we were treated very discourteously and rudley. We were not even able to finish explaining our situation before we were cut off and dismissed. Finally one lady in Dallas (who at first was very XXXXy and rude) actually transfered us to the last person. If not for him we would have been just another dissatified customer.
October 1, 2014
We recently rented a car on the Island of Maui. We live on the Island of Hawaii. Everything went well until we received a ticket for a parking violation. We realized it was not us that incurred this ticket and we called the customer service number that was on the notice.
Long Story Short:
We talked to 12 different people within three hours and each gave us a different number to call. Not one listened to us . Finally I got someone in Texas. By then I was frustrated and tried to explain that we live on seperate Islands and have to fly by plane so there was no way we had gotten the ticket as we were on a different Island when the ticket was issued. She really tried to help us and transferred me to a customer service representive in Kahalui Maui. I explained the situation (I was very frustrated at this point) and he was very professional and understanding. Finally someone who listened!
The very next morning at 8:00 A.M he called and said that Budget had made the mistake and apologized and said it would be taken care of.He was compassionate and kept his cool while trying to deal with me and my frustration.
Budget is vey lucky to have such a wonderful employee working for them. His name is Mike Beesing
yty . .
good day
my son rent a car from budget car rental in oshawa for the weekend and he was cleaning the inside of the car and he found old chicken wings bones and a fork down the driver side seat and under the passagner seat was a blue metal cup and a receipt from michigan dated sept when he called customer service he got hung up on and when he told the rental place they didnt care my son took videos of what he found and I think he should put it online and warn people when I called customer service today they were nasty ask for headoffice phone number and got hung up on
I am a wounded warrior with a service dog. I rented a car from PHX airport I received it in a dirty condition. I let everyone know that I had a service dog and I would have no issues. Just before returning the car back I had the car detailed. The company got the car back cleaned inside and out. I had to put my service dog back in the car to get to the airport to return the car. Due to a little dog hair on way from the carwash to the airport I am being charged just shy of $300. I was told it is my fault for having a dog in the car for 15 minutes and was also told they would send me pictures of the car so I could see the dog hair but have yet to receive any such email or a call back since the car was dropped. When I returned the car an associate at the store said that there would be no charge when he looked at the car and even gave me a discount. I never received any calls, emails, or letters in the mail stating that my card would be charged for a cleaning service. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.
210-885-XXXXX
Good afternoon,
My rental was not safe to drive when I received it on 9/13/2014, I did get to the hotel with in minutes of getting the car so I did not notice the issue until I was leaving the hotel for meeting that evening of the 13th to find most of my lights did not work.
Since I was not broke down on the road I called customer service and got my call dropped twice. I finally called road side assistance and was helped by a person by the name of Gerald, 30 min. later we figured out together where the fuse box was and fund the disengaged fuse and pushed it in, all my accessories started worked. I did ask for a record for the call and Gerald said there is no ticket but my call was logged.
I found out later most of the electronics like Anti-Lock brakes are not active when the car is in Shipping mode for transit and possibly the air-bags may have not worked as well.
When I returned the car on the 17th at Denver Int. airport, I reported I had to call road side assistance because the car electronics were not working (turn signal, inside lighting and other accessories because it was in a shipping mode for transit.), I requested for a manger to call me since my flight was 1 hour and 15 min. out from leaving, I gave my contact info to the gentlemen that received my car. I never got a call back.
I called customer service on the 22 (monday) about not getting a call back and was connected with Operator #31088 (Terrance), this is where it all falls apart.
I proceeded to tell Terrance my problem and since there WAS no record of me calling or to be called back, Terrance said he could not help me and said I waited to long to call in a complaint. I requested to talk to Terrance’s manager or A manager and was told he could not do that and would take my name and number so some one would call me in 3 to 4 days, I stated no one did from last wed. the 17th. in the 3 to 4 day period to be contacted from Avis.
I asked Terrance for his name he told me his FIRST name I asked is it possible to get his last name he said “I could but I will not” and gave me his ID number 31088. My last request was for a ticket number for this call he said they don’t use a ticket system for calls, I basically said that’s my point how can ANYONE track anything at Avis? It was my word against Terrance’s terminal if I had an issue or not on the evening of 13th.
I feel customer service rep. #31088 was disrespectful to me by implying i could not provide any info that i talked to road side assistance because he did not see anything in the system regarding my call on the 13th and by saying “I could give you my last name but i am not” when i asked for his name and wanted to speak with his manager.
I can provide my Cell records of my calls on the 13th to prove the number of calls I made that night to Avis.
I have had nothing but great experiences with Avis till now, check my history with Avis.
it’s really hard to believe these days with all the automation Avis does not have a tracking system for calls and or issues.
not A happy preferred customer # 2KM40H
I would like to take the time to share a not so fortunate experience I had with Budget car rental last week. My wife, 10 month old son and I were flying from Seattle to San Francisco to be with friends for three days. We were given a quote of $89.19 for the three day rental.
Upon our arrival my son became extremely sick and febrile. We spent our first evening all night in the emergency room trying everything we could to ease his symptoms and allow him to sleep. It soon became clear that our travel plans would need to be altered and that we would need to catch the first flight back home the following day.
To say that the 24 hours of travel with a sick 10 month old from Seattle to SFO and back to Seattle was stressful would be an understatement. The silver lining was Delta airlines allowed the change without any extra charges and without a fight. Budget rental however, took it upon themselves to charge $119 for less than a 24 hour rental even though our rental estimate was $89 for three days. No big deal I figured, I’m sure once I reach out to a customer representative and explain the cirXXXXstances the charges would be reversed.
After three phone calls and 2 emails I was told that because our reservation had been changed the charges would remain and the cirXXXXstances for our need to make alterations to our reservations was never mentioned. Here is the last email from Budget:
“Typically, at the time of every Budget reservation, we ask renters to provide us with important information that can affect your rate. These details include expected duration of your rental, dates, times and locations. This information is gathered through our reservation centers, rental counters, from a web site, or from a travel agent. Your rental fee was calculated based on this data, with the understanding that if any of your rental parameters changed at any point, it could affect your quoted rate. After reviewing our records carefully, we have determined that this is what happened in your case. When your rental cirXXXXstances changed, a different rate (that accurately met your new rental parameters) was applied to your contract. I am sorry for any miscommunication or inconvenience.”
Anyway, I will gladly pay the $119. The money isn’t the issue at hand. As a veteran and now a career firefighter I am a man whose foundation rests on principal. If I were to treat my critically sick patients the way I feel Budget has treated my family I would be looking for another line of work. Needless to say I will not be renting with Budget anytime soon. Thanks for bending an ear.
I rented a car on August 22nd to August 25, 2014. On our return home, we had a flat tire. We call Budget roadside assistance. The man told us to either wait for roadside to come or change it ourselves then continue on traveling to our destination. My husband told him we can not travel 400 miles on a dummy tire. So my husband went ahead and changed the tire and the man gave us the nearest Budget location which was in Bloomington, ILL. He called ahead to inform them that we was coming. As we arrived at Budget Airport in Bloomington, we went in an the gentleman issued us another car. He told us where to park the other one. He never came out to look at the return car or anything as well as telling me to file out an accident,incident report. The car we return in Bloomington was a Jetta. They issued us a Toyota Hybrid in which the check engine light came on stating need service as went at least 300 miles down the highway. They really need to check their cars before issuing renting them out. My issue is this withe Budget, the rental agreement was for a total of $143.42. When we returned the vehicle with gas as given, they charged us $304.39 ( we paid cash at this time). They told us in Jackson, Tn (our destination) that we had to pay for the tire that blew. We had a fit!!! I have never seen service like this before. After we complained about refusal of payment for the tire, then they tired to say we brought the car back in Bloomington, ILL on empty. This was a huge lie!! Both cars was returned with the appropriate gas when received. First of all, why would we not place gas back in the vehicles. They charge $9.95/per gallon for gas. This is ridiculous and should be against the law when gas prices are only $3.40 to $4.00. On Aug. 26, 2014, the lady claimed she processed the overage of $160.00. I am still waiting on this payment to be placed back on my card as of September 15th, 2014. We have called Budget on several occasions to get this issue resolved. Days later, I found out that they also charged my credit card another $143.40 for rental services They took a total of $448.00 from us when the rental total was $143.40. I was pissed. I called again to get this matter resolved. This was handled right away. I have never had a problem like this with other rental companies. It is sad how they take your money then do not want to give it back the way the received it in a timely manner. I am tempting to make a complaint with the BBB.
My name is Cotha Patterson and I am a disabled US Army Vietnam Veteran. I am writing this email to advise you of an error caused by Budge Rental which has inconvenienced me financially and also damaged my rapport with Budge Rental with a raised brow.
Here are the facts, On 9/3/2014 Budget Car Rental deducted $192.98 from my checking account. This amount was not authorized by me nor did I rent any vehicles from Budget which would warrant such a deduction. Upon my awaremess, my sister Varis-Peace Patterson telephone Budge Customer Service on 9/13/14 and spoke with case worker #7192219. I emailed him my account information and he was made aware that this deduction was indeed not valid and should be corrected. He stated that funds would be placed back in my account with 48 hours because of my valid complaint. As of this writing the funds are not back in my account, however, I still await the 48 hours. The oversight on behalf of Budge has crippled 1/5 of my total household income seeing that I am a Disabled Vet. My Sister and I have come to rely on Budge Rental to transport my grandsons’s belongings to and from college. Any courtesy that you can extend to our family will be appreciated. It was Budget’s oversight which has caused inis pejorative incident. Thank you. ***@yahoo.com
My wife suffered racist abuse behind my back at Budget Santorini. We are here to celebrate our honeymoon and my 50th birthday – both ruined with bad feelings and bad memories! Here’s what happened, in her words.
• My new husband Kenny and I arrived at Santorini airport at 23:30 on Saturday 24th of August for our honeymoon. I went to powder my nose while Kenny picked up the suitcase.
• I then decided to go to the Budget kiosk to get our car while Kenny was retrieving our luggage.
• As soon as I arrived I was greeted by Grandpa Andreas, who said something like “Are you alone? I hope not as it’s not nice to go on holidays on your own.” Andreas was in the middle of watching a video on his computer. I waited for him to close down the screen he was on and open up the rental doXXXXents screen. I took the doXXXXentation out of my bag. In the meantime Kenny arrived and was by my side.
• I gave a copy of the booking form to Andreas who then proceeded to fill in the form he had on his computer.
• Andreas then proceeded to say that the local fee of €50 was owed. I couldn’t recall this and I said so, explaining that I had paid a further fee before flying. He insisted that this money was owed and I couldn’t work out what for. He wasn’t forthcoming with information, in fact he was very insistent until Kenny asked for a breakdown. He then said that €25 was for late pick up fee on arrival and €25 for late return on departure. I said we were returning the car at 11:00 on our departure day so the late return fee wouldn’t apply. And as for the late pick up fee, I said I couldn’t remember and that I needed to check my emails. I started fumbling with my phone trying to work out a way of checking my emails as 3G was off and my head wasn’t working properly due to exhaustion following wedding preparations, three-day wedding celebrations, illness and lack of sleep.
• Andreas kept insisting I owed this money without giving me the time to think calmly and trying to remember what the agreement was. At this point my husband tried to stop Andrea’s bombardment saying to him “Are you calling my wife a liar?” This is when Andreas’ attitude visibly changed, he got angry and stared my husband angrily and confrontationally for what seemed like an eternity. I became very afraid as I feared a fight may have erupted. I feared for Kenny as he is not the type who gets into fights in fact in the 11 years I have known him, he was never been in a fight or confrontation. I also feared for us because we were exhausted, ill, in a foreign country and it was almost midnight by then. Andreas then showed us a piece of paper with €25 in red on it, as proof that it’s owed?
• After this confrontation, Kenny walked away. That’s when Andreas said to me “Did I call you a liar? At least I’m not a ni***r and I work for a living”. I was in shock firstly because of Andreas using the n-word referring to my husband, a situation I never had to deal with in my life and then because of the aggressive stare outs that had just taken place between them.
• I proceeded to pay the €25 late pick up fee without saying anything else about it and Andreas proceeded to fill the rest of the form. This was done in silence by now and with an awkward atmosphere lingering in the air.
• Andreas then showed me the diagram of the car and causally drew marks with his pen on the four corners of the car saying that the car was scratched here and there but I needn’t worry about it. This did not accurately reflect the state of the car but Andreas seemed not to mind and I was too scared to say anything else at that point.
• Andreas then took my credit card details and went to pick up the car for us. At that point my husband returned saying that what had just happened was very unpleasant at which point I said “It gets worse but I’ll tell you later”.
• We went outside and Andreas gave me the keys and showed me to the car. Andreas avoided eye contact with my husband and the atmosphere was tense and unsafe.
• Andreas had actually ‘stared my husband out’ a second time in the airport, though I don’t quite remember when or what was happening then.
• We put the suitcases into the car and buckled ourselves in, then I suggested we checked if there were scratches or things to be aware of that were not reflected on the car rental sheet, so we got out of the car and started having a look around the car. That’s when Andreas suddenly appeared again and insisted that it was fine, adding further pressure to an already uncomfortable situation where Kenny was unaware of his racist comment towards him. He said something like “The car is fine, there is nothing more to check.”
• Kenny found a small dent on the side of the driver’s door but I insisted that we let it go and just drive away. Once ready to drive we found that the light inside the car was not working, though I insisted that we drive on anyway, knowing that it was late, we had a map to read and our honeymoon apartment to find. Actually I was scared and didn’t know what might happen if we mentioned these things to him. I just wanted to get away from the situation by now and would rather drive without a light in the car while trying to find our way, than go back to deal with this man and whatever situation might erupt.
• Kenny was shocked and upset at Andreas’s racial abuse and at a loss at how to protect me from such racism, especially now we are married. Of course it’s not for Kenny to protect me, though this has ruined our honeymoon to date.
• The local Budget offices in Santorini initially denied this, saying Andreas initially said ‘beggar’ rather than ‘ni***r’, then they said he was referring to the way he’s been working ‘like a ‘ni***r’?! They only offered to tend to the broken inside light when we asked them to, in the latter part of our honeymoon and they have not responded to our requests of not having to see Andreas when we return the car.
• I have been dreading returning this car to Budget and we have nothing but negative feelings about our honeymoon, after this incident. It was also Kenny’s 50th birthday during our holiday here and he has entered his elderhood feeling powerless, helpless and abused.
• We have send numerous emails to the Santorini Budget office to try and deal with this situation locally, though through sheer frustration and numerous fob-offs we have decided to take it further as we don’t want to condone such behaviour and wish this to stop here and now.
• We don’t want Andreas sacked or punished, just held accountable and educated. What he thinks and says in his private life is his business, though his behaviour towards my husband and myself was frightening and unacceptable. Dealing with this has cost us our honeymoon in both time and emotions. Every time we will think back at our honeymoon, we will associate it with racism and this very unpleasant incident, a memory which cannot be erased for the rest of our lives.
• I would be happy to provide you with the email threads between the Santorini Budget office and ourselves, if that would help with this case. Please help us.
My wife suffered racist abuse behind my back at Budget Santorini. We are here to celebrate our honeymoon and my 50th birthday – both ruined with bad feelings and bad memories! Here’s what happened, in her words.
• My new husband Kenny and I arrived at Santorini airport at 23:30 on Saturday 24th of August for our honeymoon. I went to powder my nose while Kenny picked up the suitcase.
• I then decided to go to the Budget kiosk to get our car while Kenny was retrieving our luggage.
• As soon as I arrived I was greeted by Grandpa Andreas, who said something like “Are you alone? I hope not as it’s not nice to go on holidays on your own.” Andreas was in the middle of watching a video on his computer. I waited for him to close down the screen he was on and open up the rental doXXXXents screen. I took the doXXXXentation out of my bag. In the meantime Kenny arrived and was by my side.
• I gave a copy of the booking form to Andreas who then proceeded to fill in the form he had on his computer.
• Andreas then proceeded to say that the local fee of €50 was owed. I couldn’t recall this and I said so, explaining that I had paid a further fee before flying. He insisted that this money was owed and I couldn’t work out what for. He wasn’t forthcoming with information, in fact he was very insistent until Kenny asked for a breakdown. He then said that €25 was for late pick up fee on arrival and €25 for late return on departure. I said we were returning the car at 11:00 on our departure day so the late return fee wouldn’t apply. And as for the late pick up fee, I said I couldn’t remember and that I needed to check my emails. I started fumbling with my phone trying to work out a way of checking my emails as 3G was off and my head wasn’t working properly due to exhaustion following wedding preparations, three-day wedding celebrations, illness and lack of sleep.
• Andreas kept insisting I owed this money without giving me the time to think calmly and trying to remember what the agreement was. At this point my husband tried to stop Andrea’s bombardment saying to him “Are you calling my wife a liar?” This is when Andreas’ attitude visibly changed, he got angry and stared my husband angrily and confrontationally for what seemed like an eternity. I became very afraid as I feared a fight may have erupted. I feared for Kenny as he is not the type who gets into fights in fact in the 11 years I have known him, he was never been in a fight or confrontation. I also feared for us because we were exhausted, ill, in a foreign country and it was almost midnight by then. Andreas then showed us a piece of paper with €25 in red on it, as proof that it’s owed?
• After this confrontation, Kenny walked away. That’s when Andreas said to me “Did I call you a liar? At least I’m not a ni***r and I work for a living”. I was in shock firstly because of Andreas using the n-word referring to my husband, a situation I never had to deal with in my life and then because of the aggressive stare outs that had just taken place between them.
• I proceeded to pay the €25 late pick up fee without saying anything else about it and Andreas proceeded to fill the rest of the form. This was done in silence by now and with an awkward atmosphere lingering in the air.
• Andreas then showed me the diagram of the car and causally drew marks with his pen on the four corners of the car saying that the car was scratched here and there but I needn’t worry about it. This did not accurately reflect the state of the car but Andreas seemed not to mind and I was too scared to say anything else at that point.
• Andreas then took my credit card details and went to pick up the car for us. At that point my husband returned saying that what had just happened was very unpleasant at which point I said “It gets worse but I’ll tell you later”.
• We went outside and Andreas gave me the keys and showed me to the car. Andreas avoided eye contact with my husband and the atmosphere was tense and unsafe.
• Andreas had actually ‘stared my husband out’ a second time in the airport, though I don’t quite remember when or what was happening then.
• We put the suitcases into the car and buckled ourselves in, then I suggested we checked if there were scratches or things to be aware of that were not reflected on the car rental sheet, so we got out of the car and started having a look around the car. That’s when Andreas suddenly appeared again and insisted that it was fine, adding further pressure to an already uncomfortable situation where Kenny was unaware of his racist comment towards him. He said something like “The car is fine, there is nothing more to check.”
• Kenny found a small dent on the side of the driver’s door but I insisted that we let it go and just drive away. Once ready to drive we found that the light inside the car was not working, though I insisted that we drive on anyway, knowing that it was late, we had a map to read and our honeymoon apartment to find. Actually I was scared and didn’t know what might happen if we mentioned these things to him. I just wanted to get away from the situation by now and would rather drive without a light in the car while trying to find our way, than go back to deal with this man and whatever situation might erupt.
• Kenny was shocked and upset at Andreas’s racial abuse and at a loss at how to protect me from such racism, especially now we are married. Of course it’s not for Kenny to protect me, though this has ruined our honeymoon to date.
• The local Budget offices in Santorini initially denied this, saying Andreas initially said ‘beggar’ rather than ‘ni***r’, then they said he was referring to the way he’s been working ‘like a ‘ni***r’?! They only offered to tend to the broken inside light when we asked them to, in the latter part of our honeymoon and they have not responded to our requests of not having to see Andreas when we return the car.
• I have been dreading returning this car to Budget and we have nothing but negative feelings about our honeymoon, after this incident. It was also Kenny’s 50th birthday during our holiday here and he has entered his elderhood feeling powerless, helpless and abused.
• We have send numerous emails to the Santorini Budget office to try and deal with this situation locally, though through sheer frustration and numerous fob-offs we have decided to take it further as we don’t want to condone such behaviour and wish this to stop here and now.
• We don’t want Andreas sacked or punished, just held accountable and educated. What he thinks and says in his private life is his business, though his behaviour towards my husband and myself was frightening and unacceptable. Dealing with this has cost us our honeymoon in both time and emotions. Every time we will think back at our honeymoon, we will associate it with racism and this very unpleasant incident, a memory which cannot be erased for the rest of our lives.
• I would be happy to provide you with the email threads between the Santorini Budget office and ourselves, if that would help with this case. Please help us.
I just rented a car at the Boise, Idaho airport Budget Rental facility.
I am very disappointed in the charges I was charged on my rental car.
I had a change in a flight and only ended up needing the car 24 hours instead of three days.
When I returned the car early I was charged $40. I was also charged for excess mileage. I drove the vehicle less than 120 miles. I do not see how that is excess mileage.
I rent cars weekly for my work schedule and Unfortuantely will not be renting with Budget in the future. I have had positive experiences in the past but am very frustrated that these charges have occurred and will take my business elsewhere. I was also very disappointed in the lack of professionalism in the individual behind the counter tonight.
Hello Budget CEO,
My name is Bao Chau Tran and I had reserved budget truck at TRUCK RENTAL OF SEATTLE, 2724 4TH AVE SOUTH SEATTLE, WA 98134 on Saturday at 2 pm. I do not understand why the online system would let me pick the pick up time of 2 pm. When I came to the location on Saturday exactly at 2 pm, the location was closed and it was also closed on Sunday. I had to pick up my WEDDING FURNITURE by 5 pm on that day. The person from budget did not care to call us informing us that he is going to leave before 2 pm. So I ended up spending more money to rent with UHAUL and I had to rent two truck because the first truck we rented, we had to return on Sunday morning (but our wedding start at 2 and doesn’t end until 8 pm). So I had to drive down south to get another truck, this would not happen if Budget employee are more responsible to their customer.
I called the guy back on Tuesday 8/19/14, he totally denied his responsibilities. He says that he did not have to call his customer to let them know that his office is closed at 2pm. He says it was my fault that I could not pick up the truck. Not only that but he was very nasty to me and yell at me too. This is not the customer services that I expected from Budget truck. This was my first time using budget truck and it will be my last. I will never go back to you anymore. As I think Uhaul have better customer services, better responsive to emergency situation and more people friendly.
So now I found that you guys are charging me for the cancellation fee of $50. Saying that I did not show up! So not only you guys are making me late to my wedding day, costing me more money for rental UHAUL truck and undue stress. I would like to speak to Budget corporate immediately about this issue! Please call us at 813-735-XXXXX.
Bao Chau Tran
My daughter rented a truck and car hitch to retrieve her belongings from Ft. Bragg since she is in the military and she is now assigned to a duty station in PA. The store “person” named Kevin took the contract and her payment in full. In the meantime, she had to make an unplanned trip to SC, and she drove in her ow vehicle after parking the truck in Budget’s parking lot as per Kevin’s instructions. Upon her return few hours ago, she discovered the car hitch was missing. She immediately reported it to Kevin, who could not have been less interested. In fact, I am her mother, and I even tried to reason with him. He refused to give me the number for the manager, and he refused to contact the manager on our behalf. Instead, he flippantly told me to “call the cops,” and he hung up.
As of this writing, my daughter is standing out in front of the Budget store in the rain and the person Kevin just left her there. So far, I have made 11 phone calls to try and find some resolution, but so far, she is stuck and we are fearful for her safety. I will not repeat
our initial mistake of renting from this company. They are terrible…
I CALLED BUDGET RENTAL CAR @ A LOCATION OF 500 12TH ST. SACRAMENTO, CA 95814. 08/18/14 AROUND 1:30 P.M. FOR ANY CORPORATE OFFICE INDIVIDUAL THAT MAYBE READING THIS!!!! WHEN CALLING I WAS PUT ON HOLD FOR 15 MINS WHICH I WOULD HAVE BEEN OK WITH IF THE CALL HADN’T BEEN A WASTE OF MY TIME WITH INDIVIDUAL I SPOKE WITH WAS A LADY AND SHE WAS VERY, VER, VERY, RUDE….I WAS CALLING TO GET SOME GENERAL INFO ON THE CRITERIA OF RENTING A VEHICLE FOR A UPCOMING TRIP AND SHE WAS SO RUDE THAT I HAD TO ASK HER WHY ARE YOU BEING SO RUDE AND SHE REPLIED BECAUSE I HAVE SOMEONE STANDING IN FRONT OF ME…….SO INSTEAD OF ME ASKING HER WHY SOMEONE STANDING IN FRONT OF HER GIVES HER THE RIGHT TO BE RUDE IN SPEAKING TO ME REGARDING GENERAL QUESTION I HUNG UP ON HER AND AM LOOKING FOR A CORPORATE OFFICE PH # AND I GUARANTEE YOU IF A CORPORATE REPRESENTATIVE COULD HAVE HEARD HER TONE AND SHORTNESS WITH ME SHE MOST DEFINITELY WOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED ON THE SPOT NO QUESTION. SO OF COURSE I WOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT BE RENTING FROM THEM EVEN IF THEY WERE THE ONLY RENTAL PLACE OUT THERE IT WOULD NOT HAPPEN. WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE IF YOU CAN CALL IT THAT CONTINUES IN THAT FASHION I DON’T SEE HOW THEY COULD STAY IN BUSINESS SHE WAS REDICTUOUSLY RUDE AND SHORT MAKES NO SENSE BUT I HAVE NO PROBLEM TAKING MY “MONEY” AND BUSINESS ELESWHERE….
I rented a car this week at the LaGuardia location. I had a reservation, the car was prepaid (the monies were already removed from my account), I waited 20 mins for the rental bus and arrived at a long line at the rental facility. I waited 1 hour and 40 mins to get a car from two of the rudest people I have ever experienced. I took the car after this time and found that it was in rough mechanical shape. It “hopped” away from intersection (it was an automatic), the change the oil light was on. When I returned the car I told the counter person of the issues and they were less than interested. The comment was “when you rent economy cars what do you expect?”. I have never rented a budget car before and I will never do so again. They were not cheaper than anyone else and they certainly were not in the least bit interested that I was a customer. I intend to tell everyone that I meet about this miserable experience. I received a “customer survey” from Kristen Maloney VP, Strategic Customer Leadership – I am sure that I will never hear from her and more importantly she may not really exist – I couldn’t find anywhere on the net that I could write to her directly. So corporate is just as disinterested in customer service as their locations. GREAT JOB – you lost a potentially great customer.
I am very disappointed in the customer service I have received at Budget. I decided to try budget for the first time I usually rent cars from other services. I picked up my car at the downtown Dallas location and my car had some damage on it. I was very weary of taking the car but was reassured that it was OK from the employees as long as the damage was noted on the pre-inspection list. I turned my car in at the Forth Worth Dallas Airport in the same condition and the employee at this location did the post rental inspection. She said everything was good as long as it was marked on the pre-inspection checklist. She did say she would have to audit my gas since I did not have my receipt from filling the car up. This was in May. I received a call early August saying there is a claim being filed against me for damage to a Budget vehicle. I did not know what the agent was referring too. I then called the rental company to see what was going on and if they could send the pre-inspection rental list to the claims agent. She informed me that she was not allowed to do this and later ended up hanging the phone up on me. I’m at a lost of words. I have never seen an investigation or a claim handled so poorly.
I rented a budget vehicle in Columbus Mississippi
The vehicle to Merrillville Indiana upon returning the vehicle by me being a smoker not smoking in the vehicle with smoke on my clothes the smell of smoke is in the vehicle I return the vehicle and then was charged an additional 250 because of the smell of smoke no proof that I actually smoke in the vehicle this is a consumer issue also was charged 90 docking fee not only was I double charged by be renting the vehicle for a one way trip but I was alsotriple charged for the rental of this vehicle this needs to be taken care of before they start to try to charge your credit card please contact ASAP as a consumer I will stop payments for the service of the vehicle until this matter is dealt with properly
Do Not rent a car from them. If you have a prepaid card they won’t except it. And not only that they do credit checks and the customer service is one of the worse I’ve ever experienced.
DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!!!!
My employer rented vehicle for me. On third day of having vehicle noticed change(coins) in between drivers seat and door, went to grab change and noticed a yellow baggie with white substance. I’ m no square, threw bag out I am commercial driver, JUST SAY NO!called harrisburg airport PA, where vehicle was picked up. Agent gave me hard time told me to call cops, ha ha lmao. Poor service by Budget.
Clearly this company has a lot of problems. It’s a shame, because up until my latest experience I had not had any issues with Budget Rent-A-Car and have use them on multiple occasions in the past.
My latest experience with them was about two weeks ago. I had booked a car from the Portland airport location. I noticed that the address that was listed did not appear to be at the airport so I called Budget rental car customer service. They told me that there was a shuttle that would take me to the address where the car pick up would be.
Unfortunately, my plane was delayed several hours due to weather. When I arrived at the airport the shuttle driver informed me that this shuttle did not go to that location. They acknowledged that the location existed, but that the shuttle did not go there. I took a taxi service for $45 to get the location and the location was closed. Neither the rep on the phone nor the Budget van driver told me that the location would close at 5 PM.
When I arrived at the office location, the only sign there was for Avis. I was not aware that Budget and Avis were the same company. They should not assume that customers are aware if such things (especially since the advertise them as separate brands) and they should have both signs present the office. They did not. Additionally, there was a representative still in the store though the store doors were locked. There were two elderly women who were there as well and were confused about what to do next. When I knocked on the door the representative inside basically waved me away indicating that he was closed and therefore I guess did not feel any obligation to do anything. I informed him that was not acceptable and after banging on the door for a couple of minutes he decided it was best come outside and talk to us.
He told us what we needed to do was to return to the airport and that we could get a rental there. I have no idea why the Budget shuttle driver did not know anything about the area that she was serving from the airport. Apparently however, she did not.
On the way back to the airport (another $45 taxi drive) I talked to a customer service representative from Budget because obviously the car that I was going to pick up was from the office that was now closed was not going to be available. She quoted me a price of $1000 which I told her was unacceptable since I already had a reservation and the fact my plane was delayed and nobody told me about the office hours was not my problem. She eventually quoted a price that was very close to the $300 that I had been quoted previously and we agreed to that. However, when I got to the other Budget office, they refused to honor the $300 price and instead charged me over $900.
Needless to say, I will NEVER rent from Budget/Avis again under any cirXXXXstances for any reason. Apparently the company is being run by a bunch of crooks or incompetent people. I really do not have the time or the inclination to determine which it is.
In either case, I would advise anyone to stay away.
I am extremely frustrated with the sales ‘tactics’ used at this Budget location. When I reserved and prepaid for this rental vehicle I indicated I did NOT want the offered Budget road side service and insurance protection, I have my own.
When I arrived to the location to pick up the vehicle (assuming the details above are still in the system) the customer service rep at the counter asked me if I wanted the Budget insurance protection again. I said “No, I have my own insurance”. I then went ahead and signed the printed receipt where apparently I signed agreeing to these insurance charges. Having 3 little children with me and 5 suitcases, after waiting in line for over 30 minutes, and coming off a 6 hour flight, I was not in the condition to read all of this fine print (font size 3). I would have expected that simply declining the insurance service verbally would be enough, but apparently their sales tactics are to add the insurance anyway and hope you don’t catch the fine print at that time. It appears these sales tactics are working.
I noticed the additional insurance charges moments after returning the vehicle and looking and the final receipt with the additional charges. At this point I was already on my way to the airport. I called the desk about this and was told they would have a manager call me back. I said OK, thank you. Now it is 4 days and several voicemails later and have yet to hear back from a manager.
It’s funny how many of these stories sound alike. Budget has a very serious problem with customer service ad their management team. I have had a dispute in since last Fall. I rented a vehicle online and when i went to pick it up the representative behind the desk kept trying to up sell me. I was in a hurry and he continued trying to get me to add insurance etc to my bill even though I had already declined. When I returned vehicle I asked to speak to management to check in and discuss my complaint. The manager wasn’t available and the rep behind desk said manager was not available and would call me back. Manager never did call me back and I then got billed for an extra day, and was told my tank was not topped off .Tried to resolve with customer service over phone and fought extra charges through my credit card company. Thought it was resolved until 8 months later when I get a bill for extra charges. I try to speak to collection supervisor 5 times. Left messages on her voice mail, once spoke to customer service who said she was in meeting and would call me back. Never ever got a call back from Donna. Then get a form email saying case is closed and they decided that their decision was correct. Based on what? and How? I was clearly overcharged a day and for gas, let alone my initial complaint was never even discussed. I work in customer service and have never seen such incompetency.
Hi Joanne,
same thing happen with me too they billed me $140 more then they committed
when i went to pick up the car it was different car then what i had booked they said they called me and left message but that was total lie.
they stamped picked up time wrong because their computer was not working so they could not refreshed and more that their car has incorrect clock settings.
what a fraud company let have word with friends and family not to rent from budget or avis
I rented a car a couple months ago from Budget in Long Beach, CA and I got a toll fine while I was there. Once I received the notification from Budget, I immediately tried over 10 times to get ahold of someone at budget and every attempt failed both through phone calls and email. So, I got ahold of the toll roads and paid my ticket right away. I was charged the $30 fee from budget which was fine but now, 3 weeks after I thought this was completely settled, I have been charged another $30 fee as well as a $211 fee. I’ve continued trying to contact Budget at the Long Beach airport and the response I get is that the management is never in the office but that they will return my call and emails. As of now, I’ve still heard nothing from Long Beach Budget. It has been a terrible customer service experience and I will never recommend Budget. Unfortunately, the problem still isn’t taken care of because no one will contact me despite ongoing efforts on my end.
Sharron,
She has the RIGHT to use any card she wish.. Race card, wild card or otherwise. You can not speak for her experience nor can you comment on how her experience made HER feel. Yes, this could have happened to anyone but it didn’t. Please stay in your own lane. Thanks
My wife and I are making a long-distance move on our own, and needed a truck for our belongings and a trailer to tow my pickup truck (my wife is driving her car). I had to drive 3 hours to get the truck and trailer as they didn’t have anything closer. I got the truck and trailer home and loaded the truck.
The following day, I noticed that one of the trailer tires was going flat, so I called road service. It took them more than 5 hours to arrive.
The morning we were supposed to leave, I attempted to put my pickup truck on the trailer – it didn’t fit: the trailer was too short, and the straps to hold the front wheels were too short to go around the tires. I called the dealer that rented the equipment to me and explained the problem. They told me that they gave me the right trailer and that I must have put oversized tires on my truck (these are the stock tires from the factory). I told them that the wheels were stock, and the lady kept repeating that this was the right trailer. I told her that I wasn’t going to pay for the trailer and they needed to come and get it. She said that I was responsible for the trailer, I had to call road service to come and get it and wait there for them to show up. When I mentioned that they took over 5 hours to get there last time and that I was on a tight schedule, she kept repeating that I was responsible and had to wait there.
I called Customer Service and got bounced from department to department, with long hold times on each transfer. I finally got someone who said that they would call Road Service, but repeated the refrain that I was responsible for the trailer should something happen to it after we left. I told them that I refuse to accept responsibility for their mistake and told them where the trailer is. I then asked what they were going to do to make this right. The rep said, “So, what? Are you looking to get some money out of us now?” Very rude. I told them that since I have to now rent a car to make another 750 mile trip back to the house to get my pickup truck and another 750 mile trip with it back to the new house, the least they could do is give me a free rental car for the first leg of that trip. The rep laughed at me and told me that we should concentrate on getting the trailer taken care of first, then they would “see what they could do.” Nothing has been done. They wasted several hours of our time. We should have been at the hotel by dinner time – we ended up checking in at around 12:30 AM. So now we’re short on sleep and running late for the second leg of our trip.
I know that Budget couldn’t care less about this issue, but I will see how much they care about a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. I’ll also be telling everyone I know about this (my entire church and circle of friends is already aware). Everyone who posted here should make a complaint to the BBB.
My daughter set up a car rental in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for me by computer on a Saturday evening and got a confirmation. The rental fee was taken out of my debit card. I called the phone number they gave her on the computer and got a confermation message by name. I went to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana branch on Siegan Lane on Monday at noon to pick up the car as confirmed. The kid behind the counter ran my debit card and said I could not rent a car due to my credit score. I have not bought any thing on credit in over 20 yrs, I don’t have a credit score. I was told that the credit score clause was in fine print. I explained that my confirmation was by phone and he told me it was VERY FINE PRINT. The confirmation was by phone. I not only missed an appointment due to this, but it took 7 days to get my money back. They took it out in advance, but can’t put it back? I won’t be back.
Budget has been one of my top preferred rental car companies for many decades. As a result of a hidden fee of $2.95 per day for every day of a rental contract, even if a toll fee is accidentally incurred on one single day, Budget will now be at the bottom of my preferred list.
It turns out I incurred this per day total system fee in Orlando last July and also in Denver last August, a total of $41.65.
The customer service rep merely told me multiple times, “Well, it’s in your contract.” I absolutely despise hearing that. Nonetheless, I read through the rental confirmation email and there is no mention of anything regarding toll fees.
A very unapologetic supervisor then called me at 6:46 AM on Sunday morning, a very inappropriate time, and was willing to do nothing to assist.
I am done trying to get credit for all or most of this terrible and inappropriate per day fee. The purpose of this communication is to inform management that this fee policy could be costing your company far, far more than the little bit you trick your customers out of. I only spend about $1000 per year on rental cars, but I will do my best to move my business as well as the business of others elsewhere.
I am a single mother of 2 that was having car trouble, so I rent a car from Budget at the Indianapolis Airport. I had the car for a number of weeks because the person fixing my car kept finding things wrong with it. Anyway, I kept calling back reserving the car and paying them. I turn the car back in clean, with a full tank of gas, the attendant at the airport told me to leave the keys in the car and I could go, so I did. That was on a Monday, on Friday I check my account to see if the money was taken out and to my surprise and horror they took $936.18! I literally got sick to my stomach and immediatly went up there, cause someone was going to explain to me what I was being charged for. When I got there I knew it was going to be a mess. First, they tell me that the car was turned in 2 days late, which was a lie, then they tell me that my account was sent to loss prevention and gave me a phone number. I called and they stated that it is not in loss prevention and I needed to go back and speak with them again. So I went back and they send someone over to talk to me and he stated tat they would only be able to give me $250, so I sent him back and told him to find the rest of my money. Finally a manager came out and his name is Adam, Adam then tells me that all he can do is give me back $500. This is on a Friday at 8AM, and I call back on Monday and he has done nothing. I call back again on Tuesday and I’m mad because yet again he has done nothing. Wednesday rolls around and first they tell me that he is on vacation then he’s out to lunch. I’m beyond mad now because I know that they are playing with me. Finally I speak to him and he says that he processed it and the money should be on my account by Friday. It’s Friday! So now I speak to him and he gives me another number to call and I find out that he has done nothing until I spoke with him that day while I was on the phone! I now want all of my money back and all of the money that I had to borrow for gas, food and rent! Not to mention that it’s summer vacation for my children and I can’t do anything! I want to speak to someone in corporate NOW!
I guess with the times everything changes and not for the better. I reserved a truck supposibly for May 30th, 2014, before I get ready go I call the location to doulble check my reservation and to my surprise they tell me no-go they don’t have a truck. Who does that not the Budget Truck that I use to know because they usually take care of their customers. Just don’t know what the world is coming to people treat people any kind of way I guess there is no customer service no more and that’s so sad because without it your business will eventually fail. Budget is on its way down if they don’t go back to putting the people that pay their checks back in the forefront of things.
I did not have a bad experience with a rental truck, but rather a car rental through budget. My husband and I rented a car on May 8, 2014 and it was to be returned on May 15, 2014. The total charges for the vehicle with the LDW (Loss Damage waiver) was to be 214.97. On May 14, 2014 my husband and I were in a car accident in the 2013 Chevy Cruze that we had rented through Budget. We got hit by another driver going at least 50 in a 35 on the front passenger side of the vehicle. upon impact the vehicles air bags did not deploy and the seat belt did not lock. Luckily my 3 year old daughter and 8 year old nephew were okay in the back seat. My husband did not sustain any injuries as well. As for myself, 22 weeks pregnant, my head bashed against the window a few times from what my husband and nephew have said, knee bashed on the dash and I sustained a mild concussion and whip lash, which I found out later at the ER and our unborn child was okay just suffer cramping from the stress of impact is what I was told. The cops called Budget to see where they needed to tow the car and Budget did not respond so of course the cops had it towed out of the middle of the road to a tow yard of their convenience due to Budgets non-response. I reported the accident to Budget as well as my insurance. I also went down to Budget the next day and was told everything is good and there is nothing else I have to do. On May 20, 2014 Budget finally took out their money for the rental car in the amount of 554.87, which is not the 214.97 that we had authorized. Plus they are holding 339.90 in addition to the 554.87 that had already been withdrawn. I went down to Budget where I rented to the car and the man that owns it told me that he had no clue why those extra charges are there and he said, “the insurance that you purchased for the car itself should cover everything”. I have talked to numerous individuals from the Billing department as well as claims department and after the run around for 3 hours one finally told me (i.e., I do have all the names and what they have said), the extra money is for inner city fees for having the vehicle towed. I explained to her the cops called Budget to find out where they wanted it towed and never got a response plus I have free towing on my insurance up to 150miles. She said there was nothing she could do. I told her we purchased the extra LDW insurance on the car and its suppose to cover everything and “Be Hassle Free” and she responded with, “well mam I’m not sure how hassle free our hassle free insurance is”. It has just went down hill from here. I talked to over 10 representatives, including supervisors and their no help what so ever. Finally they are deciding they are going to release the 339.90 hold on my account after they overdrew my account. As for the additional unauthorized money that they have actually withdrew from my account, I guess it is going to be a long battle to get it returned to me. I will never went through Budget again. Obviously, there is not point in paying extra for their “Hassle Free” LDW insurance because it is false advertisement. I have had nothing but a hard time getting through to these people. It is a bit ridiculous that they rent us a car, that was obviously unsafe due the air bags not deploying and seat belts not locking, but now they are trying to gouge money from us.
I am currently experiencing problems with Budget in regards to charging me for a toll I supposedly missed. I have been given the run around and I am completely fed up. I did in fact miss one toll and another toll didn’t record as accepting my payment. I then went to the Pleasantville Toll Plaza in New Jersey which is indicated on the Atlantic City Expressway as a location to clear up these incidents within 48 hours. I did so because I was afraid something like this would happen. So what since does it make for me not to pay for a $3 Toll just to get charged in the end? NONE! I am displeased (to put it nicely) with the customer service at the actual Budget location in the Philadelphia Airport upon returning my car as the woman at the counter was RUDE. I am displeased with the fact that I have had to talk to over 5 people to try to clear up my issue and still not received any actual help. I am displeased at the fact that Budget couldn’t even provide me with information for requesting an image of me actually missing the toll in question. They have half a** customer service. Working in a field of customer service, I would never give people the run around. I can say that I probably wont be renting from them again. Id rather pay the extra few dollars that to deal with Budget again.
I recently had one of the worst experiences with Budget Truck Rental roadside assistance. I was on my way to Florida with a moving truck when a breakdown happened south of Washington D.C. After 12 hours of going back and forth with Budget roadside assistance ( ref. 8033) and being constantly lied to about service help and what action was being taken, I had to switch the entire contents from one truck to another by myself. Truck had a leak in a radiator hose?? A minor repair!! That rental cost me in excess of $2500+!!! Oh it gets better!!!!
On the way home from Florida the second Budget truck broke down about an hour from my house in New Jersey. Again called Budget roadside assistance (Ref # 7008C) and talked to the same people again. Both break downs happened on Saturday a week apart so same people were working. After 7 Hours of lies again they towed me to Little Ferry, N.J. and could not replace truck and left me stranded. At this point could have given me a car to get home. Truck EMPTY!! Field supervisor said nothing he could do. Ten minutes from Newark Airport. No 24 hr. Budget car rental there ???? Business in N.Y. probably spend $2,000 a week with Budget!! NEVER AGAIN!!!
In addition I finally found out that there is a $200.00 deposit after also being told by the same male representative that the only thing they will hold on my card is the actual price of the rental. This needs to be reported to the news to expose them of lying just to get a sale.
Wow I was not surprise to see all these very bad reviews about budget as I am online trying to get a solid customer compliant or corporate number that some one accually answers. At 10pm 05/07/2014 I was on a 40min call with a Budget rep getting signed up for the corp discount for a FULL size vehicle after 40mins I received an email confirmation which doesn’t state any place on the it full size or compact but only a picture of a car that may or may not be the size car I requested and was given a quote for so first thing the very next morning I called the branch to confirm my reservation only to learn that I was tricked into thinking I was getting a full size car for the discounted rate of $45.00 per day but really getting a compact car so after speaking with several reps and sups I realized by the wording they use that this is the scam they are trained to use to make a sell and hope the the customer just goes along with it and get to the counter and pay out the difference of the price paying more than they were first quoted. Very rude and unapologetic as it relates to a customer given one quote for one car but booked for a cheaper car. I am very displeased with Budget as I see now I’m not alone and am glad I see that it’s not only me but it’s others that recognize the rudeness and trickery don’t by this company which is most likely not doing so well in the market and has to lie to make money. MY ADVICE TO YOU IS BEWARE AND TAKE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY TO A BETTER AND HONEST RENTAL COMPANY!!!!!
I have read so many of these emails that have experiences like mine. My truck was damaged on the hood like someone had ran into something, the knob on the handle to roll down the window was missing the seat was ripped and passenger seatbelt wouldn’t give so it had to be taken off everytime I reached for anything and then put back on (dangerous on the freeway for sure) and to make the worst of situations…while going through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Souther Calif the airconditioning did not work!! We had to drive from Fla to north of Seattle in a weeks time with no time to stop for repairs. Why isn’t anyone reporting them to the Better Business Bureau? If we all get together and send in our complaints certainly with so many bad experiences something can be done. These people have no business in public service.
I absolutely concur we need to shut them down. My question is I know corporate sees these bad reviews but why aren’t they taking responsibility and rectifying the situation??
Richard, I’ve just had the same experience with toll charges showing up on my credit card. I did go over a toll bridge, and paid the $6 fee in cash. A week after returning my car $22.95 was added to my credit card. I politely followed Budget’s procedures, pointing out the mistake and questioning where $22.95 came from. I too was told my license plate was photographed and I was being charged — not only the $6.00 toll charge, but a $3.95 per day “convenience charge” that allowed me to bypass the toll booth. I told them I didn’t bypass the toll booth and paid the toll — as any normal person would. They told me they couldn’t do anything about it, that the state of Florida notifies Budget and they simply add it to your bill after the fact — and with no doXXXXentation or verification. I said I wanted Budget to resolve it by crediting ny account the $22.95. The “customer service rep” (that title was a joke) said she couldn’t do it. I started to get peeved and asked her to transfer me to her boss, manager, or someone with the authority to give me my money back. To make a long story short, I talked to 2 other people, neither of whom could refund my money. I was offered a “partial” refund of $13 (God only knows why). I spent more than an hour trying to find another person with some authority with no luck. THIS IS OBVIOUSLY NOT A COMPANY THAT CARES ABOUT ITS CUSTOMERS OR GOOD SERVICE. I’m not sure how accurate the story they gave me was, as it’s hard to believe the state of Florida can just send information to them and charge you, yet nobody takes responsibility. I mean, if I took a “transponder lane or express lane” trying to byass the toll, that’s one thing. But I went to the booth, handed the attendant the money, and then drove off. It seems to me that Budget needs to own this issue — or stop renting cars to unsuspecting customers and adding bogus charges to their credit card.
I called your business over 10 times to report that the truck would not go over 60 mph on the highway and that it kept kicking in and out of gear which caused the truck to excessively jerk. i was informed that my truck must of been to weighed down which was a lie cause it still drove like this unloaded. This caused all my property when i unloaded it to be damaged including a 65 inch tv $1100.00, full bedroom set $1500.00 and all glass broke, all other wood items fully scratched, pretty much everything broke. Also to go only 350 miles I spent over $300.00 in gas that’s a dollar a mile unheard of. I am really upset due to the fact that when i picked up the truck there was other trucks available but he gave me the worst one on the lot and said these trucks are due to go out today which was a lie because the very next day the same trucks where still there in the same spot I know this cause i left my car parked there over night. I have receipts for all items damaged and I feel your company is responsible for this due to the fact that my stuff got ruined due to your truck maintenance issues. I had 2 other adults ride with me who can attest to the way your truck drove. I have used other moving companies in the past (penske and u haul) and never had an issue. Personally I would have been better off leaving all my stuff behind and buying new being as I am left with all damaged items now. Very upset. I would like this resolved quickly so I can give you a good reference or I will personally post everyday on every social website about your shady business practices. I asked for your corporate # and was told u have none. I was promised xtra days with the truck (5) and am still being charged for them. i have been hung up on once and also told another time a supervisor will be contacting me. Today I spent 30 min on the phone to be transferred 5 different times back to the same places its like nobody fully knows there job. Very dissatisfied with your company at the moment. Also when I called to report the truck and the way it drove I was told to slow down and take it easy. How much slower could i have really went? My ref # 1808189949006. Also i was supposed to be mailed a claim form 2 weeks ago still have not received.. i would still like corporates phone #.
This is what was stated on my claim form and I am still waiting on a call from a supervisor. If this issue is resolved I will be posting an update about the resolution but honestly after reviewing all other negative comments I am not very hopeful. Maybe the BBB should take a closer look at your company.
Also I hope someone contacts me soon because I am ready to report fraudulent activity on my Missouri unemployment debit card being as I have a reciept that states I was only to be charged $371.00 not over $1400.00. It was your company who said they would give me the extra days with the truck and I expect your company to uphold that agreement. I’m sure the state of Missouri will actively pursue your less than ethical business practices unlike ordinary credit card companies.
I rented a rental truck last year and took out the insurance. The truck wasn’t running right when ave another truck so i could take that one r find another company. Time being an issue i took the truck. It broke down within 300 miles. They said it had gas in the diesel tank and the insurance i bought would not cover the damages and wanted me to pay it. I refused and even offered to pay half the bill just to be done with it . They refused so i told them to take me to court. Now almost a year later they turned it over to collections. I will fight it and i will never use budget rental again.
Hello I rented a car from budget rent a car 96 West Jericho turnpike Huntington Station New York on march 17th for a family vacation. We had the vehicle for 2 weeks. My wife and I are non smokers and we have to children 9 and 11. The car was kept in immaculate condition. The girl who rented the car to us had us go over the outside of the vehicle and we doXXXXented any imperfections. We never went over the inside of the vehicle. When our vacation was over I had my crew give it a detail as I am in the detailing business. The car was in exceptional condition inside and out no one even ate or drank in the vehicle. Fuel was fully topped off and ready to go. As I was waiting for my turn to check in I witnessed the manager Kyle tell the 2 other people ahead of me that they would incur cleaning charges on their vehicles they were quite upset as they stated the car needed no extra cleaning. I thought to myself I am glad my guys gave it a detail we will have no problems. My turn came up to return he asked for the keys to give it a check when he came back he said everything is great but someone smoked in the vehicle. I stated we don’t smoke and to show me any signs of it he was pointing to a few grains of sand in the door track and some sun block on the weather stripping of the door I wiped it and even tasted it and it was cream. He is a scam artist and tries to make extra money off charging fees for cleaning smoking and anything else he can fabricated. Do not rent a car from this location as they are unethical and I will be reporting him to the attorney general
Upon renting a car from budget I was offered an upgrade for an additional $2 per day, to which I agreed. Upon reaching my destination I realized the front tires were completely bald. Obviously there is no maintenance on these vehicles, and the part of the country I was in had constant wet roads and then got two inches of snow. I posted this comment but will be emailing headquarters.
Hello I rented a car from budget March 7 2014 to March 14 2014 I was told at the counter at Orlando International airport Budget Counter, that budget does not work with insurance companies. that I need to purchase there insurance. So I was forced to purchase your insurance. That was a lie I have spoken to several insurance brokers after I came back to Windsor Ontario and they all informed me that I would have been covered under my own insurance You owe a refund for the insurance My name is Larry O’Brien and I live in Windsor Ontario Canada I am sure I am in your files at your Budget location at Orlando International airport .no reply and I will not rent from Budget or Avis ever again We are seniors and we travel
Good day,
I rented a car through your organization from February 4 through the 18, 2014., contract number 453404707.
On March 7, 2014 I received notification form my credit card company that a charge of $21.00 was posted to my account from Budget Car Rental. I contacted Budget customer service to question this charge and I was informed this fee was for unpaid toll receipts. I was not aware of any unpaid tolls charges so I requested a copy of the receipts. I promptly received this information from your company and though my research learned that these unpaid toll charges were incurred at toll points in the Orlando Florida Area.
I again contacted Budget customer service and advised the representative (Susan) that this was obviously an error as my visit was only in the Tampa and Sarasota areas, on the west cost of Florida; I had not visited Orlando. Susan informed me she would request photos of the license plate from the toll camera and that it would take up to two weeks for her to receive these images.
As of March 25, 2014 I have not heard from Budget so I contacted your office. My call was transferred to the appropriate department and was promptly answered by Nakeem. I explained the satiation to Nakeem who after a brief hold informed me that Susan was working on this and the photographs, if any, would be sent to her email account which he could not access; Susan is currently out of the office. Nakeem informed me a note would be left for Susan to contact me once she returns. I provided Nakeem with my email address, as email is my preferred method of communication, and the call ended.
I understand mistakes can happen and I certainly am not immune to the occasional error or two. However, I must alert you company to several points that I believe should be addressed. Although your business is in car rentals as many other companies are as well, service to your customers should be stronger.
On my first call to alert you company of this error I was made to feel as if I was trying “get-over” on paying toll fees. Even more disconcerting was learning today that the resolution of my concern is contingent on one employee of your company. I could more easily understand this response if I were contacting Mom and Pops Car Rentals.
As I mentioned Nakeem, the value of the time I invested in this matter already outweighs the $21.00 in toll fees and as a customer of yours; I expect this matter will be resolved quickly. I would hate to think that this was not merely a mistake on the part of Budget Car Rentals but that instead the toll division is a profit center.
I am hopeful that this concern will be resolved in my next communication with Budget.
March 26, 2014 I once again contacted Budget Car Rentals and Susan’s is still out of the office, no one else is able to assist me!!!!
I HAVE BEEN TREATED HIDEOUSLY BY YOUR MANAGER MIKE dryer AT YOUR OAKLAND CA OFFICE. 510-636-7942. HE HUNG UP ON ME numerous TIMES AND TOLD ME TO SPEAK TO THE COMPANY LAWYERS when i told him i had audio recorded phone conversations with him and his agents regarding the improper way they handled my car rental and their inappropriate billing to my credit card.
I RENTED 2 CARS THIS WEEKEND at the oakland airport site. the first car was junk and it was returned the following morning. the agent closed out the first agreement telling me that i would receive a refund for the 2 unused days. we didnt realize she didnt return my husbands drivers license until we tried to leave the lot. they also botched up the paperwork so we couldnt initially even get the car. Upon driving the new rental, an expensive BMW, we got to the ocean area nad tried to use the sun roof only to find out it didnt work. of course there was no local number on the contract and we were not going to waste even more time at that lot so we ust sucked it up.
when i returned the car that night, the agent told me, and i quote, “Budget does not ensure that everything on the car you rent will work” ……..WHAT????? REALLY????????
i told her that i needed to speak to a manager. she offered me a measly $20 credit and gave me the name of Gary and the number 510-636-7942. i called the next morning and talked to jorge, the guy that rented me the first car. he told me that manager mike would be there and assured me he would call me at 11:30, before my flight left. he didnt. i called 6 times that morning and NO ONE EVER ANSWERED THE PHONE!
i called again after i landed and someone actually answered the phone and told me, and i quote, “we are understaffed today so no one is answering the phone. call back monday”
When i got home to check on charges on my credit card i found that budget had put 4 holds on my credit card and actually charged $84 and change for the first day rental. NO CREDITS WERE SUBMITTED. the charges were (2) $236.22 and (2) $265.80. i called budget yet again and the agent wanted me to sit on the phone while she called my credit card. i told her that if i was going to invest that amount of time for their constant screw ups i expected compensation which she finally agreed to once it could be verified that the sunroof was non functioning. and then she told me i was too upset and hung up on me. I have the call recorded. i called back and got mike dryer on the phone who told me i had used profanity to his agents and hung up. this was said RIGHT AFTER I SAID HELLO AND IDENTIFIED MYSELF. i called back again and he hung up again before i had said anything. i called back again and this time he allowed me to say that i had recorded the phone call with the agent and had not used any profanity and he told me, and i quote, “play it for out lawyers” and hung up on me again. i called back AGAIN and got someone else on the phone and told her i refused to talk to mike. i was on hold for about an hour. i then called my CC company, capitol 1 and told them i needed to file charges against this company for illegal use of my CC. she called and talked to mike dryer, who i guess DID NOT HANG UP ON HER and he told me he was charging my card $265.80. i told my CC agent that i will file a dispute if this charge is applied as i was GIVEN A LOUSY $20 CREDIT FOR THE NON WORKING SUNROOF.
I HAVE ON TAPE MY CALL WITH THE AGENT AND WITH MIKE D HANGING UP ON ME AND I WILL PUT THIS UP ON THE INTERNET TO WARN POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS ABOUT HOW THEY WILL BE TREATED BY YOUR EMPLOYEES IF THIS IS NOT HANDLED. MIKE DRYER IS A PIG. HE IS THE BIGGEST MONSTER I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED. THE 4 CHARGES OR HOLDS WAS LEAVING ME WITH LESS THAN $200 AVAILABLE ON MY CREDIT CARD AND I STILL HAD $300 IN CHARGES THAT WILL POST TODAY.
I HAVE CONTACTED BUDGET CORPORATE AND IF THIS COMPANY DOES NOTHING TO COMPENSATE ME FOR THE HORRID TREATMENT THAT THIS MONSTER INFLICTED ON ME I WILL GO VIRAL WITH THE PROOF THAT I HAVE. I WAS BEATEN DOWN TO CRYING BY THE END OF ALL THIS LAST NIGHT. HE HAS NO BUSINESS WORKING WITH PEOPLE. HE SHOULD BE WORKING WITH COBRAS WHO CAN FIGHT BACK AND DO DAMAGE!!!!!!!! HE IS TRULY A MONSTER.
PLEASE REPLY WITH WHAT YOU WILL OR WONT DO SO I CAN PROCEED.
KATHY MCCRAY
AND THE AGENTS BOTCHED UP THE RENTAL SO BADLY AND I WAS LIED TO NUMEROUS TIMES BY THE AGENTS. IT HAS TAKEN ME ALL DAY TO GET THIS MANAGER ON THE PHONE AND HE TOLD ME I WAS RUDE AND USING PROFANITY TO HIS AGENT AND HUNG UP ON ME numerTIMES AND I HAVE THE WHOLE CALL AUDIO RECORDED!
YOUR AGENTS COULD NOT FIND MY 2 CAR RENTAL PAPERWORK, HAVE SUBMITTED 4 CHARGES INCORRECTLY AND NEVER BOTHERED TO SUBMIT THE CREDIT FOR THE RETURNED CAR RENTAL. MIKE AS I SAID HUNG UP ON ME 3 TIMES AND TOLD ME IT IS BECAUSE OF HOW I TREATED HIS AGENT AND SHE REFUSED TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. IT IS ALL ON TAPE. I NEED SOMEONE AT THE CORPORATE OFFICE TO CONTACT ME AND I EXPECT TO RECEIVE SOME SORT OF COMPENSATION FOR WHAT I HAVE BEEN PUT THROUGH BY YOUR COMPANY! THIS IS HIDEOUS.
On 3-5-2014, I talked with a (800) 218-7992, who went by the name of Jim, and when I asked, said his pin number was 87161. I wanted to make sure that I understood the “pay now” rental cost I was looking at on your website. The first person I had talked to about 15 minutes before talking to Jim quoted me a $423. I had to get some more information before I could confirm the reservation. After getting that information, I called back and that is when I got Jim. I was somewhat shocked when Jim quoted me a little over $1000. He came down a $100 when I told him I was a Senior Citizen. I explained to him that the website “pay now” was in the $400 range, and that was what had been previously quoted to me some 15 minutes ago. He adamantly stuck to his $900 cost no matter what. So I asked for his pin number, hung up the phone, and called back to get another agent. The next agent quoted almost the same as the first agent. The first was $423 and this agent quoted $454, and I accepted it. My reservation number is 3861523XXXXX. Is there someway you could contact Mr. Jim to give him extra training or whatever is needed, so that he will not be giving out bad quotes that could unjustly cost the renter considerably more money. Please let me hear from you. My email is jleesmXXXXX@charter.net: My cell is 682-367-XXXXX, and my fax is: 817-536-XXXXX.
First completely offended by your cusotmer service representative. She tried to indicate that I was stupid and it was totlly uncalled for. Next I reserved my vehicle through cosco no added insurance of any kind and I made that clear to the representative but in the hussle and bussle at the airport somehow daily LDW for 29.99 was added along with RSN. which I hav no clue about or asked for. Recalling the sistuation the representive at Tampa first said I had a car then I didnt and then found one making it a very confusing process which I now see may have been a deliberate method to confuse me and make me feel rushed. My trust for your firm has been copmprimised and then to have the rep on the phone treat me so disrepsectfully only further makes me think that the store is no longer being watched. I have been renting cars for nearly 30 years and have never accepted or asked for insurance and if the front office wants my business ever again the will honor my original expeted contract and make an effort to fix the client relationship scam process that seems to be taking hold on all fronts. Thank you, Jeff Skidmore
I need someone from your corporate office to contact me at once. My number is 254-338-XXXXX. I have had the worst customer service EVER. I have a mother who has been in ICU. I have offered to send letters from doctors and the hospital explaining my need to remind with her. I have explained that making a two hour trip to fill out paperwork is not only inconvenient I NEED TO BE WITH HER AS HER MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY! I have offered to go to the local budget to let them look at the car and sign New paperwork…of course you are going to charge me $200.00 to do that….REALLY!!??Your staff has done nothing help me with my contracts. I have been quotes multiple prices, incorrect contact data, etc. The only thing I keep hearing is no! I’m so sick of hearing…well our policy is…Do you have no compassion or shame!!?? Pease contact me as soon as possible!
Hello my name is brenda, I made the mistake for the second time renting a car from budget which was a big mistake and such embarrassment…I rented the car for the weekend and cone to find out that I needed to exstend it longer, so I spoke with the location where I originally rented the car and the lady there said no problem, then I call the location after a few more days to notify them that I still have the car and I will need it longer at this time I was speaking with the manger cause the lady I had been speaking with was off, which he said no problem. Well come Monday morning a lady name Brittany called and said I needed to contact them. So I called and spoke with her and she said I needed to return the car, I explain to her that I exstended the car and I had been charged. So she said she will call me back I ask her to leave me a message cause I was at work…so I got off work pulled up in the driveway and 2 mens walked up to the car and said get out, I was terrified, I said what’s going on, they said this car belongs to budget, I called the location where I pick it up explain to her what was going on and she said I had already been charged…so I go to location and got that straight out so 2 days passed by the same thing, this time I was at work I came out and the car was gone I didn’t know what happened I called the location and told them the car is gone the ms pam said they picked up the car to call Brittany I was so embarrassed, she said to bring the keys I said they just charged my credit card again…she said I don’t know what is going on…..so I called ask if I can get a ride they said they dont do that and its goi to be 300 for a key, and my grandbaby princess of sophia bike . Was in the trunk which supoose to be a gift she been waiting on, which she didn’t get it cause no one knows where it is…..wow What do I tell a 3 year old…I will not recommend budget., at the time it was convenient, im still waiting on my grandbaby bike.
Will not use Budget Rent a car again. Rent cars frequently, usually from Enterprise, where service has been excellent.
Lost our car in a flood while on vacation in Florida and, because of the run on cars in the area, as a result of some 600 car losses in that same flood, Enterprise was out of cars, so rented a car from Budget. Would need the car for two months. Clerk at desk at Budget advised us to do it one month at a time, since two month rental price was no better than one month price, and plans and rates change. We could just renew for another month if we chose to.
We were to return the car on Feb 12, at the end of the one month contract. On Feb 12. ON Feb 12 we called the Boca Raton office, where we had rented the car and advised that we would like to keep the car for another month. They said, “fine, and thank you.”.
That office is a $30 taxi ride from our vacation address, and they offer no pick up service.
The next day we had a rude call from Budget scolding us unpleasantly for not returning the car as contracted, on Feb. 12. We reminded them of call to renew for one month. The same rude person scolded that “You have to come in, turn in the car and make out a new contract…and you have to pay the daily rate for the late days.” We asked to speak to a manager, and was told he was the manager. We said we would call again, and did, and got a woman who behaved just as rudely.
Enterprise is close to us and has a pick up service. Since we would need to change cars anyway, we called Enterprise and got a car from them for the next month, and returned the Budget car. This took another day. On returning the car, we were billed for over $200 more than the contract rate, for unexplained items, such as : tire battery, battery, etc, etc. Since we had had no repairs, and no driving problems, we questioned these items, and was told they were state taxes. We were also charged about $39 per day for three days, plus a $30 late fee, as opposed to our earlier rate of about $28 a day (approximate figures).
IN spite of the fact that the part-time agent working with us (George) was most pleasant, tried to help, but could not because the computer program gave him these prices, the whole experience was totally disappointing and unsatisfactory. We wasted a vacation day, traveled 20 miles each way twice, paid more than contracted for, and was treated rudely on the telephone.
Additionally, we were given incorrect information on several occasions. We called the central number to ask the cost of dropping off the car at a different location in Florida. We were thinking of traveling about 200 miles within the state to visit our daughter and flying home from there. We were told there would be no drop off fee, and were given a confirming number to which we could refer if there was a problem. To reaffirm we asked the same question of the agent in Boca Raton and was told there would be a $100 drop off fee for the same location (Orlando airport or Longwood Florida). When we gave him the confirmation number he advised that made no difference, the fee would be $100.
There is no way of getting reliable, dependable information. One cannot do business that way. We will not be using Budget again and will advise our friends of this experience.
But as a courtesy, we invite your comments and hope this detailed note will help you to improve service for the sake of your company.
Thank you for your attention.
Bernice Seiden, sphr
I called to rent a truck to pick up in Raleigh, North Carolina an d had e-mail confirmation that the truck would be ready Friday January31, after I leave the airport. I was told by the Budget agent it was 8 miles from the airport to his Budget. The agent lied to get my business, it was 17.4 miles which cost me$45.00 taxi fee and when arriving he tried to give me a 14 foot truck and I ordered a 10 foot which I had printed doXXXXentation on. I asked that he call around to find me a truck and he later found one in a town called Fuquay, Vanna, North Carolina, I asked if he could get the truck tome and he said no I would have to go get it myself, this was 16.5 miles away. After a while I get a way to pick this old truck up, missing paint in the front and it was dirty. The lady at this site was rude when I ask her to go over the truck and make sure is noted about any diings or damage. She state the budget man in Raleigh should have come pick the truck up and she should not have to do his job. The truck was sitting the mud. My daughther and I had to clean the inside driving area out. This was a case of bad customer service. I am a Black 65 year old woman who was treated like a southern slave after they got my money. They lied to get my business and I feel it is fraud to say you have something and don’t and lie about the distance to get me to come to this site.
Perhaps over the phone I sounded white and when I arived he realized I was Black. Budget this unexceptable!
Don’t use the ‘race card’ – it wasn’t because you are African American. Budget provided poor service – this can happen to anyone whatever their race or ethicity is.
I am very unhappy with the service I recieved from Budget rent a car in Jamaica over the Christmas holidays. My entire vacation was spoiled base on this stupid rent a car and its mediocre service. I chose budget Car Rental because of its reputation but instead I got robbed by them. Firstly, I misplaced my keys on boxing (thursday December 26th) and immediately called the montegobay airport office that I rented the car, only to be told that the only spear key is at the head office in kingston which was closed for the holidays and would not be re-opened until the following Monday December 30th. They also could not give me a replacement car because they were none available. So now I am stuck without a car for 4 days and still have to pay for each day that I cannot drive the car. However from consistently calling them I manage for someone to finally brought me a replacement key 2 days later. Upon my return of the Car on Tuesday December 31st, they were unable to release my deposit because the customer service representative did not know how much it cost for a replacment key and had to send the paper work to coporate in Kingston. I waited and waited to hear the charges that was incur but no one not even corporate could tell me the charges, they had to wait on the maintenance departement to get back to them. After several calls everyday which someone always take my number and said they will get back with me immediately but unfortunately no on never did. Finally today is January 6th and I called again only to hear that the cost to replace the key is $350 US .Yes you heard me right $350 freaking US dollars to replace a Toyota Yaris keys. Up until now i still havent recieved my remaining balance of my $1000 US deposit. This is a totall ripp off and should not be allowed to happen by these people. Budget is a reputable franchise and should not allow these people in Jamaica to damage the franchise name, because for sure this is the last time I will be renting any car from budget. I believe budget should be enhancing people’s vacation not to make it a nightmare.
Booked a 44 day car rental on August 12,2013 to begin January 15, 2014. For tax planning purposes I want to prepay my entire rental fee before December 31, 2013. Budget will not take my money. I have contacted the pickup location, my small business contact and called two 800 numbers. No one wants my money now. I am a retired banker and I always thought a dollar today was preferable over a dollar in the future. I am not seeking a discount just to pay early. To me that is a no brainer. I guess common sense loses out to the bureaucracy.
Good afternoon…I am very disappointed with Budget Truck Rental. I spoke with a reservation agent on the morning of August 13th, the pick up location was suppose to be for Woodbridge NJ..drop off location is Riverview Fl. I never received an email confirmation or a reservation number, so I called back and spoke with another agent and she sent me my confirmation via email. I checked my email and realized the pick up location was wrong and I called back right away and spoke to YET another agent and I was told that I could not received that initial rate of 788.50. I then asked to speak with a supervisor and Kathy Atwood spoke with me and then I asked to speak with Yet another supervisor and her name is Deborah all of whom is located at the Tulsa Oklahoma Branch. To my dismay Kathy and Deborah were very nasty to me.To make matters worse Deborah hung the phone on me. I would like to speak someone in Corporate immediately . Thank you..my phone number is 732 362 XXXXX