BudgetReviews 155

Last weekend I traveled over 1,000 miles. The Bluetooth in the car would not sync up to my phone. I would not have rented this car had they told me. When I called, the customer service rep was sorry but refused to place a credit on my rental. Not sure if I would rent from them again. Nice car but Budget should inform people of the antique car they are renting. By not having Bluetooth I had to pull over numerous times for traffic advisories and direction updates. Frustrating!

Do NOT rent, and if you do, NEVER PRE-PAY. If you bring the car back early they tell you there is NO refund. Rented a car for 15 days, brought back on day 3, was told no refund on pre pay. They do NOT make that clear. AND most of the agents are inept. Avis is the parent company, stay away, just stay away. See the picture at the bottom, and total charges,, and the prepay of 600+. Above that it says non refundable prepay of $391.00. Nice huh? They make sure to NOT make a point of no refunds on a prepay no matter how early you bring your car back. Enterprise is the way to go.

Stay away from these scammers. They take money in front amd whem you return the car they tell you that if everything is okay they will send you back the money. Next day they take additional momey from the car because of "damage we made". We looked around the car carefully before giving it back and there was no damage for sure. When we tries to call the company they told to call another number, that another number told to call another number again and the last number just never answered.

Reservation#*******-US-6
Agreement#*******

Rented car from Cape Canaveral to Miami airport. A whole 4-hour trip seemed like a lifetime. Filthy car, gas tank not filled as rep directly stated. Some minutes into drive the 'check engine' light came on followed by the check 'tire' light. Was white knuckled the entire trip. Took I-95 a NON-toll-road all the way to within a block from the airport drop-off. This is where I filled the tank to the very top, and I knew for certain they'd cheated me on gas - when NOW the ACTUAL 'VEHICLE RANGE' - indicated 100 miles more than at the pick-up point. And now, 6 whole weeks later I'm being SURPRISE-CHARGED ostensibly for 'tolls' when I-95 hasn't any.

My credit card company has come to my rescue however. Bless CAPITAL ONE! NUKE > BUDGET CORPORATION!

I am a Fast Break member and I have been a Budget customer for 35 years. On April 25,2022, I went to pickup my reserved Budget rental car at Harry Reid International Airport. A snotty Budget service rep said that Budget or Costco had canceled my reservation. I told her that I didn't cancel it and asked her to please make a new reservation. She did so begrudgingly. When I asked her questions about the price hike of the new reservation she became openly hostile and yelled at me. The rest of the process went worse. She made me wait two hours for a car that Budget never provided; she unilaterally canceled my new reservation and she sent me to her manager. The manager refused to rent any car to me. I complained to Budget Customer Service which did nothing. After spending thousands of dollars on Budget rental cars over 35 years, I'm done. ABB. Anyone But Budget.

I planned two weeks on advance an out of state move. Budget trucks gave me a pick up location with a disconnected phone number! I had no idea... Too late for last minute changes and it's spring and high demand for move trucks. I called three times in a row and customer service hung up on me each time! I emailed them in desperation on corporate website asking for a different pick up location! No response! I took off work from my new job that took me forever to get because of pandemic! Please sue budget stomp their axxx,... tell everyone... shutt them down... sick loosers run them out of the country... this is against alll code of ethics and cost me thousands in damages and losses and now anxiety stress and depression as my belongings are still out of state... how can I cope... please DESTROY them!. I also bought a nonrefundable greyhound ticket one way then to drive move truck back with my belongings!

I have an upcoming car rental in May 2022. I got an email stating that my reservation was all set. It also had an option to do digital check in to save time. I stupidly bought into that option and when I selected it, Budget changed my reservation from what was agreed to on January 18,2022 to an increased rate today. There was nothing in the option that said my rate would be increased. I spent over 45 minutes on the phone trying to get this resolved. The first two customer service contacts told me there was nothing they could do about it. Since I had done the digital check in, the rate changes. I asked to reverse the digital check in and I was told that couldn't be done. The third customer service contact gave me an email address to send documentation so Budget can review and make a determination about my case? This is a scam. I can see how Budget has cheated many people out of lots of money with this scam. There is no one with any decision making authority that will talk to you. Never use Budget!

35 min. On hold after trying their website multiple times only to be told "There was a problem processing your request" again, multiple times. Finally got an answer, took my information, then put back on hold before I could object. Another 10 min. Then when I thought I was making progress, gave contract number, etc. disconnected. 2nd round same thing, this time 44 min. Tried website while on hold. Same result, except when I asked to elevate the case and speak to a supervisor what happened? Placed on hold. Spent nearly $2800 with them on a 5 week business trip. Never again.

I rented a car from Budget Rent a Car car in Sarasota Bradenton Airport (Florida). I agreed to bring the car back with a full tank. I drove the car less than 100 miles in a 4-day period and added fuel about 3 miles away from the Budget rental return at airport- also "topped off" the tank and it was 100% on gas gauge (same as it was when I rented the car). I then drove the car to the rental return with the fuel gauge registering 100% full (same as it was when I rented the car). The individual from Budget who checked out the car checked the car and fuel gauge said we were good to go. I asked for a receipt and he said he would email it.

Well I received the email receipt and was charged $5.99 for "fuel service." With a full tank there should not be a fuel service charge.

I stood in line for almost 2hrs to pick up my rental. It was already paid for and there was no express check in.
At first there were only 2 people working the counter, then a 3rd person showed up. One man was just supervising and not assisting customers. While we were in line a huge pizza was delivered to the backroom. Soon all the people working were in the backroom! Very frustrating!

Just had a great experience with Budget. Our family recently went to Orlando and had to rent a car at the airport. We researched prior and had a confirmation e-mail. As is typical upon exiting Orlando airport you are in a rush what with baggage claim, children, and just trying to get out of the area and on vacation. Everything was ready when we arrived and the gentleman at the booth says just initial and you are on your way, keys are in the car.
BIG MISTAKE. My wife and I travel extensively and normally I read everything on an agreement. Not this time. Upon getting home and reviewing my bank statement I see Budget hit us with an almost $1000 charge when it was supposed to be about $500. When we called Budget we are told it was for insurance. We never asked for insurance on any other trip and have declined on any inquiry to purchase. But this time it was just there. After an extensive phone call to their customer service line we are told they can credit 50% of the insurance charge. Because of this I have to question if we will ever use Budget again. Our mistake, but poor customer retention skills. And even poorer customer service.

"You can get reimburse only if you paid at the counter not if you paid online"

How can that be? Horrible experience

I reserved a jeep pre paid the entire rental for 9 days. On the day I was supposed to fly in my flight was canceled and rescheduled for the following day. I was going to Hawaii so I was understandably upset. I called to reschedule my pickup of my vehicle for the following day They told me that they had to reshop my vehicle since it was over 24 hours from when I was supposed to pick it up. But unfortunately they were sold out so all they could do is cancel my reservation and refund me. How can you say you are sold out when I have pre paid to rent the vehicle that entire time!

I rented a car from them a Toyota Camry 2022 when I went to pick it up it had not been washed I rented it for a week and had the lady walk around for damages before I left said it was good no damages then 2 and 1/2 hours later she said there was damage to front end that she couldn't see because if dirt and demanded me to come in at a certain time with my insurance I told her I was not and I called corporate the same day it took to and a half weeks later for them to provide pictures of what looked like someone smashing headlights in with a base ball bat I also have a witness that can verify the condition that the vehicle was in when I dropped it off do not rent from this company

My family and I planned to take a trip to the country of Panama to visit some family and have my one year old able to spend some time with his grandparents for Christmas and New Years. Upon arriving in the country, on Dec 25, and making our way through the maze of the airport immigration and customs check points, with 7 ppl and a baby, we arrived at the Budget car rental kiosk only to be told that the rental that we had booked with them through booking.com had been sold to another customer since we were past the 1 hour buffer on our pickup time... They also said that they had no other cars available for us at this time. At this point we had the 7 of us plus a baby, with no car seat (car seat was part of the rental agreement) in a country where we had limited phone service options and resources and unable to get a large enough car for the week that we would be staying there...
From when we landed to when we got to the budget kiosk it took 1.5 hours, due to the long holiday lines at immigration and customs. Evidently, it is their policy that if you are 1 hour late they have the right to rent your car to someone else and not refund your money. My problem with this is that apparently they use the arrival time of your flight as the pickup time, making it nearly impossible (especially during the holidays) to make it from the gate to the car rental kiosk in under an hour... my family was forced to find other travel accommodations at a far greater cost that wasn't even large enough to fit everyone so we were forced to drive around with family members and a baby that were improperly secured in the vehicle.
Both budget and booking.com said that they stood by this ludicrous policy and that they would not be refunding us the $500 for the rental that we never received. We will not be using either of these services again, and hope that this information helps others in their decision making while looking for companies to aid them in their travel plans.

I went out to help my mom after my dad recently died and rented 2 cars instead of 1 van (because they didn't have one). The car they gave me was dead the next day. I had to borrow a family member's car for a day and spend my last day with family on the phone at the hotel waiting for the tow to pick up Budget's rental lemon. They also charged me to tow their car and I didn't fill up the gas tank on their broken vehicle that was towed they charged me for that as well. I guess I was supposed to push it to a gas station then push it back to the parking lot? I spent another day at home working with people to attempt to get some type of restitution for not giving me a vehicle to drive. I was told I would be contacted and 1 week later was not.
People at this company do not care about taking away from what you invest in a trip and will hold you responsible for their broken vehicle. I will never use this company again and I will share my story as a warning to as many people as I can.

Here is a brief summary of our experience with Budget:
1. Line for car pickup was 3 hours (at LAX)
2. They did not have our car ready so we were moved to another worse vehicle without any apology
3. We asked for 2 child seats, one of which was soiled in pee and stank insanely (causing our 2 year old to throw up)
4. The car we received was overdue for maintenance (by a lot) and had a warning beep due to this.
5. The car was vandalized (not Budget's fault), but having Budget replace the vandalized car took several days (due to the rental having exceeded 30 days, which apparently causes some breakdown in the Budget system... it has to be renewed which they forgot to do).
6. Calling the Budget customer care at any point puts you on a 1-2 hour hold time. They do not offer online chat, email support or any such modern thing. You need to say that you're about to place a new rental to get a phone wait time < 30 minutes. They will completely ignore their existing rental customers.
7. They overcharged our card with 20% and they have still not returned the refund - it's been 4 weeks. Having trying to contact their useless phone support is painful (see 6) and they still are trying to fight the overcharge. We'll see how that is resolved.

Regardless of the overcharge, the entire Budget experience is enormously terrible and it's not cheaper than the alternatives (we rented the last stretch of our trip with Hertz which felt amazing in comparison at the same fee).

I have rented cars from Alamo, Avis and enterprise. This is my first time with Budget and it will be the LAST! Please do not rent a car from this company. We had nothing bad headache from our experience with them. Charges left and right and $125 cleaning fee?! For sand?! And we didn't even go to the beach?! Please save yourself a headache from this scammers! DO NOT rent from them, please do not! Worse customer service, too! Was on hold for 30+ mins, and line was disconnected. Called again, on hold for 30+ mins, someone answered and promised us 100% refund and then line dropped. And waited another 30+ mins for another stinking representative so yeah don't do it. Save your money and sanity. Never had this many issue with Alamo nor Avis.

I'd give zero stars if I could. Budget changed my pickup location because THEY temporarily closed my pickup site, then refused to refund my prepaid $$ when I canceled more than 48 hours before my scheduled pick up because I couldn't change my travel plans to fit their closure. Their online chat rarely works and their customer service reps just transfer you to a number in "Billing" that says your call can't be completed and hangs up or puts you on hold (I hung up after I was on hold for over an hour). It took well over a month, hours and hours on the phone talking to more than 15 customer service reps (I didn't write down all their names at first), and submitting a trouble ticket online before I got my refund. They promise you anything to get you off the phone but they do nothing and they keep any alternate/corporate contact info well-hidden so you are forced back to their worthless customer service number. DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AND IF YOU HAVE TO, DON'T PREPAY!

Picked up rental car from Detroit airport. First you are dropped off from the airport terminal shuttle, and a 2 1/2 hour wait which starts outside in the blazing sun with no shade awaits you. Then you make you way inside the building where if you didnt get COVID-19 on the flight well your getting it now in this crowded maze from hell as you wind your way to the service desk. Then you finally get your car, its a KIA, it smells of marijuana and has 4 different tires on it, and it vibrates and pulls left and right down the highway. No joke this is the worst car rental experience my wife and I have ever had. This car is unsafe and if we end up dead on the side of the highway its because budget rental car is the single worst car rental company allowed to exist. Never again.