Budget Car Rental Reviews

Nothing was said when she turned the car in. Six weeks later, I noticed a charge on my credit card for $1500. There was no explanation and no invoice. I notified Visa to stop payment on this invoice since we could not be held responsible for repairing a defective car and were, in fact, no longer in Italy. Visa told me that they could not stop payment on international charges. Visa tried for 6 months to recover information from Budget in Milan but with no results.

I have contacted Budget Rent-A-Car in Rome, Milan, London, and the Budget Avis World Headquarters in Parsippany, NJ but they have not refunded the repair bill. Budget contends that since my wife drove through Switzerland, she must have burned out the clutch in the mountains. My wife is an experienced driver who has been driving a manual transmission for 30+ years. We even lived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps for 7 years without incident. It is preposterous to claim that she damaged a clutch while driving straight down the Autobahn. The clutch was obviously either defective from the factory or was burned out by a previous renter. We have now been charged for repairing Budget's rental vehicle which is unfair and unwarranted.

Further, the agent told me that there are no cameras in lanes where you can pay cash and that HTA would send me a photo of my vehicle rental to determine if in fact I incurred those charges. I explained that I did go through the toll plazas and they obtained my account information somehow, despite having paid cash. I remember a small paper envelope taped to the top of the windshield. I believe this is a scam and was caught unaware. I have no way of verifying that I paid cash through those tolls, and did not realize that each car had a transponder. No one discussed with me what we were supposed to do if we wanted to opt in or out of the program.

I was shocked, therefore, when on picking up the car in Vancouver, I was informed I would have to pay a $252 surcharge for taking the car into Alberta. Unfortunately, I didn't have a copy of the detailed car rules with me to prove what I had read. So, it was my word against theirs. The Budget representative said that there was no clause in the small print allowing up to 200km a day, so I was forced to pay the surcharge.

When customer service finally answered, the rep told him that because the truck hadn't left the lot yet, it was the responsibility of the dealership to fix the tire. The attendant called his boss/the franchise owner at home and asked what he should do. The owner told the attendant to instruct me to drive the truck across the street and then I should call for road-side assistance.

In utter disbelief, I commented that he had just spent 45 minutes on hold, so I probably would be subjected to the same. I asked, if I drove the truck across the street, how long it would take to get someone out to replace the tire? He responded, "Some time this afternoon." As I was planning to start my trip that morning, I had no intention of wasting the day in the hot sun waiting for that truck to be repaired. He offered an older truck which already had 80,000 miles on it, and was not an optimal truck for the trip. I felt I had no choice but to take the truck.

Before hitting the above 100 degree temperatures in Oklahoma, the air conditioning stopped performing. A little later, the truck started to overheat. The truck wasn't capable of speeds over 55 MPH, so I slowed to around 35 MPH to bring down the temperature. I drove in these conditions for the next two days. I called customer service and spoke with a very indifferent chap named Robert. Robert didn't seem appalled that the customer was asked to drive a truck in disrepair out of the lot then spend his days taking care of repairs that should have been addressed prior to the customer arriving to pick up the truck. Robert also felt that because I took the other truck, I was responsible for the overheating on that truck and I should have called for road-side assistance in the middle of my move.

This is an example of the customer being held responsible for the lack of maintenance and other issues that should have been addressed by the originating rental center before renting trucks.

I called the number on the contract and got a person. We told him the tags were expired. We asked if we could go to another Budget place in Twin Falls, Idaho and have them fix it or give us a replacement. He said they didn't have another rental place there. There were several different addresses on the back of the contract and one of them was in Twin Falls, but he said there was nothing he could do about it. I asked him what if we got a ticket for the expired tags, and he said to just bring it to them and they would take care of it.

I don't know about the law in Idaho, but I think that any ticket you get like that would go against your license. Anyway, we were traveling around Idaho, Utah, and Nevada on bald tires and always worried about a blow out or being stopped. When we brought the car back, the lady that came out to check it said, "Oh well, sorry about that. The person that was supposed to check those things must have brought it out and said it was okay, so we just let it go out." My husband and I will never rent from Budget again. They also tried to get us to buy their insurance but we declined it, as our insurance does cover us in a rental car.

My friend and I were returning from an international leg of a family vacation carrying more than the normal amount of luggage. Therefore, my brother drove us to the Federal Circle location in order to ease the transfer of our belongings from his vehicle to the rental. While we understand that there are security concerns that prohibit the casual driving on-or-off the yard by other than company-owned vehicles, we felt sure that we could get a manager's approval to ease that luggage transfer. It's hard to imagine that this would be an unusual request, particularly with a reservation and proper identification. Wrong.

There was no security guard at the gate but there was an unfriendly, surly young man named Dion who shrugged to indicate that we would have to get a manager's approval to drive on the lot. Fair enough. There was no manager available and upon walking the length of the yard more than once, no manager was visible. There were two female employees in the reception area serving other customers, neither of whom would even glance up and make eye contact to indicate that they would serve us shortly. Disappointing. In fact, it took about thirty minutes to be acknowledged despite the fact that I counted three customers in addition to myself.

On the way out, Dion stood with another man near the service area and took the time to curse at me in the car. Maybe someone had already chastised him. As far as I'm aware, nothing was said to evoke this antisocial behavior from him. Maybe he's unhappy with his work or with life in general. In any case, it should not be the problem of Budget nor my customer experience. I'm sure you'll find it valuable to be aware of it. When I politely indicated my dissatisfaction with the experience, your Janet ** coolly changed to a more professional demeanor. It was obvious that a client is an inconvenience.

In this or any economic climate, it's hard to believe that employees fail to value clients more highly than ever and to treat them as they themselves would like to be treated. I believe that people are more than willing to wait but do deserve to be treated kindly and to be acknowledged as important to their business success. Needless to say, I'll spend a few more dollars if necessary and go back to the reliable service of Hertz, or any other firm rather than to take a chance on another negative encounter with your firm.

Upon returning the car, the lady that came by to check the car in said that I would have to go to the counter to turn it in because there was an issue on the mileage. I was bringing it back with less miles than when it had left them. The line again was outrageous. I waited another hour with my 80-year-old grandmother. Finally, I walked up to the counter and just dropped off the paperwork (7 Aug. '09) and told the guy I had to go or I'm going to miss my flight. When I checked my bank account today (11 Aug. '09), there is a charge for $172. I called numerous numbers, finally calling the desk at Budget's Seattle office. The manager there said that she would have to talk to the guy that rented me the car. So now I'm waiting. The guy ought to be fired for taking advantage of customers in a hurry. Obviously, if I didn't upgrade for $10-$12 a day, I wouldn't have opted to pay an extra $26 a day for some kind of insurance that I didn't need. I am a law enforcement officer; I should not be treated this way.

After sitting on hold for 20 minutes, I wrote them on budget.com to get my complaint looked at. After 5 days, I did not get a response and decided to talk to a person. After sitting on hold for another 27 minutes, I talked to someone. The woman looked at my account, found the error, and put me on hold for another 10 minutes to fix it. She came back and told me my account was credited $30.

Renting from your company has probably put me through my worst vacation ever. I know I am only one person and losing me as a customer will not even affect your company but be sure after this email, I will try my best to take any action possible that this doesn't happen to anyone else I come across. I will be asking for a full monetary reimbursement but what you can't give me back is my time spent stuck in the desert in 112 degree weather on the phone with a budget customer service rep telling us to turn away a AAA tow truck in order for your company's tow truck to come out and help us or if not, we are held accountable for paying the $450 tow truck fee. Amazing customer service reps you train, also whom don't understand the difference between a city and an exit. I won't go into all the details although I have all the time in the world here waiting for a new rental car from Las Vegas, two hours away. Oh and let's not forget there's a major accident holding the driver up. So here we sit in Baker, California going on five hours waiting and waiting and waiting! Thanks for a horrible car rental experience. Oh wait, it's not over just yet. I am sure there's more to come.

Whenever I call, I have been transferred to message section. I left tons of messages, sent emails, followed all procedures and suggestions, to no avail. I am going to work and to school by my own, taking a bus, and wasting time. I cannot drive my vehicle as the rear of my car is totally gone, but the employees at the insurance department of Budget do not care at all and no one is assisting me at all. Please help me solve this problem as soon as possible. They are not serious at all. I am very sad about this. Thanks for understanding.

Well, need I say more? A lot more, apparently. During an hour wait and a lot of angry customers, not once were we told that it could be a longer wait and not once did anybody from Budget provide an update or an apology. At this point, after hearing from some customers that they had already waited 2 hours for a car, my three children ages 4, 6 and 8 had had enough of the waiting. I went to the counter to speak with the person in-charge and requested my reservation be cancelled and credit card charge reversed. She replied, "Gladly." Wow, what customer service that is! This is totally unacceptable behavior and not the way to treat customers. I then had to go to Alamo Car Rental who did have a vehicle available and was happy to assist me, although it did cost more.

Unfortunately, this process resulted in me losing my preferred room assignment at the resort we stayed at and resulted in me paying more than twice as much for the car rental. Budget's price was $290 and I ended up paying $647 at Alamo for the last minute reservation. This economic damage resulted in, you guessed it, one less day at the Magic Kingdom.

On the shuttle bus, I told the guy across from me about this and he told me they tried to do this to him too. I then asked the two ladies that were at the back of the bus (only four of us on the bus) if they filled up when they returned their cars and if they were charged for gas as well. They said they did, but didn't know if they were charged. Then, they looked at their bills and found that they had been. Budget is scamming people for gas even though they filled it up!

When I got home, I checked my credit card, and it had been charged for $744.11! After numerous attempts to get through to Budget via email and telephone, I finally talked to a rep, who said that $30 a day had been added because there was an upgrade. He offered to transfer my call to the Seattle management. When he did that, I was connected to an answering machine! This was at 3 p.m. Seattle time, so someone should have been there.

Budget's customer service appears to be so bad that it is non-existent. Their nationwide customer service phone number is closed on weekends. They do not answer their emails. When you call their number, you are on hold forever (my one successful call was after 15 minutes on hold). It's like they are counting on you finally giving up in disgust. I have filed complaints with the FTC and the Washington State Attorney General.

I have rented many cars, and never have I been charged this much. And then, they added $13.99 for gas that they assumed I would be using, after I told them that I would fill the tank before I returned it. She said, “Just bring the receipt and we will take the $13.99 off.” When I returned the car, the attendant at the door told me I was done, and was not going to let me take my receipt in to the reception desk. He was very rude, and almost insisted that I leave. I did get the $13.99 removed from my bill, but not to his liking. I will never use Budget again, Enterprise will always be my choice when it comes to renting a vehicle. They have always been fair. These people were obnoxious and hateful from the get go. Now I feel better.

That evening, we arrived in San Antonio from Harlingen, TX and checked in at the hotel. We went to our room and something told me to check our bank account because we were on a tight allowance for our family trip. When I checked my balance, I almost fainted. Budget Rent-a-Car had charged us $601.95! I thought, "Oh my God, they made a mistake." So, I called the number on the contract and spoke to a guy named Ivan. He told me that the other $300.00 was for a deposit and that everyone gets charged that. I told him that Sonia never told me that there was a deposit. He said that it was standard practice and there was nothing he could do about it. I told him that we had our family in San Antonio and now, did not have enough money for gas or food. He put me on hold to talk to his manager.

After about four minutes, he came back on the phone and said there was nothing that they could do about refunding the $300 - and only when we return the van will we get it back. I also told him that nowhere on the contract we signed was there a clause that said we would be charged a $300 deposit. Again, he said there was nothing he could do for us. I had to call and borrow some money (which was really embarrassing) from my mom. We returned the van on July 9th about 5:30 pm, a day early due to lack of funds. The lady behind the counter said the deposit of $300.00 will be automatically returned to our account. I checked my bank account on the 10th of July and still no money. I called Budget again and asked when the deposit money would be returned. She said that it would take 3-5 business days to credit my account.

I am furious, they are sure quick to take the money from my account and then 3-5 days to give it back. Someone please help and make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. I know that $300 doesn't go far these days, but it makes a big difference of what souvenirs you can buy at Sea World. I am sure they are making interest off of our money.

She then asked me if I wanted to purchase their insurance. I asked if I had to. She then asked me if I had full coverage. I said no. I have liability because my car is paid for. She then told me that I had to purchase their insurance, because mine would not cover their car. I went ahead and did so, as I was told "I had to." The day before I was to bring the car in, I looked at the Budget website and discovered that I did not have to purchase their insurance.

I filed a complaint with Budget. When I went in to drop it off, I told her that I had an issue. I explained exactly what I said above. I had someone on the phone to witness the conversation. She also had her cleaner boy in there. She then said, "I told you that if you didn't buy the insurance and something happened that you would own it." I told her nothing of that sort came out of her mouth. I said again that she told me I had to buy it and that I wanted a refund.

She then said, "I don't have to take this from any customer." She asked me if I saw someone else outside and that she just walked into this. She said, "Would you like to walk back outside and start this over?" I told her that it was a dishonest business she was conducting. I am furious that Budget Auto is allowed to conduct business in this manner.

But fortunately, I had another reservation with Enterprise, which I forget to cancel. The reservation with Enterprise was for Full Size Car and I wanted SUV so I went with budget (it was more money to go with budget) so that I can get an SUV. I told the guy at the counter that I don't want their car and I went with Enterprise and got my car. And guess what, they told me I can get either full size or an SUV since they had it at that time without any charge. So I picked up an SUV for the price of car at Enterprise. They did not bug with me about all the upgrade, etc. Also, they did not force me to get their insurance (which is btw waste of your money).

I drove that SUV for 12 days in Florida and loved it. When I returned the car, it took about 30 seconds to complete the whole process. The person was very helpful. They directed to the way I can get to the terminal and gave me his business card in case I need anything after I leave the counter. We traveled with kids, so after a long flight, they had to wait in the airport for 2+ hours for nothing. If I didn't have another reservation, I would have had to spend another $200+ to get the bigger car (which I was supposed to get it anyway).

The lady on the phone didn't know how to tell me to go to the other location, so I told her "thanks for nothing!" and hung up on her. By this time, I was furious. I took a chance and started driving down the same road I was already on where I could see other car rental companies and eventually found an AVIS car rental with a sign that showed "/Budget". Apparently, Budget merged with AVIS during the 6 days I had my rental car. Nobody said a word when I took the car that any of this was happening and to return the car to a totally different location. Even my paperwork says to return the car to the same location from where I got it!

I pulled into the lot and asked other customers if I was in the right place, they said "yes". They also had had trouble finding where to go. There were about 10 cars waiting to be checked in and given their receipts. The guy out in the lot could not figure out how to work his machine. He said that he was just given it and told to go outside, he'd never used the handheld machine/computer before and was sorry for the huge delay that people were experiencing. Several people were complaining about possibly missing their flights. It was a zoo and extremely stressful!

Watch for this scam and don't be conned into believing their bs, just so the agent can make a few extra bucks. They don't care about you, just themselves. I have called Budget customer service to no avail. They don't have anyone answering their customer service phones and I never did receive a return call to all the messages I left on voice mails and their website. When I did get through to a manager, she said she would review the audio and video tapes of the rental and get back to me in two days at most. A week later and many more calls to her, still no reply.

As I told him, I can prove through gas station and airport parking receipts that I dropped the car at 10 pm. He said he would call me back within the next five days but didn't. I called him but he didn't answer and didn't call back that night. In the meantime, I had e-mailed the online customer service. I received an automated confirmation e-mail stating that I would be contacted within five business days. After almost two weeks, I still hadn't heard anything so I e-mailed again. No response as of yet. Today, I called the 800 customer service number again and spoke to a rude and irritating rep who first tried to claim that when customers leave the car when Budget is closed that they get charged for the following day.

I insisted that this was never mentioned when I rented the car and that I had been told I had 24 hours to return the car. He then back-pedaled and said he was opening a case file and that I would hear about the status of my case in 15 days. After the ridiculously poor treatment I have received thus far and after reading everyone else's posts, I find this claim difficult to believe. I have filed a dispute with my credit card company and am hoping to recoup the $170 Budget stole from my visa.

I am certain that the GPS was left in the car as it would have obviously been noticed in the airport during the security check. Budget did not make the minimum reasonable effort to provide a solution to find and return the GPS and as a result somebody who found it managed to keep and hold of a nice portable GPS with Budget's acquiescence The next time, I will definitely choose a company different from Budget even if it costs a little more but hopefully will provide the service with more responsible and honest staff.

I filed a complaint with Budget on their website when we got home. Received a phone call from a lady in their customer relations. She did nothing, so I told her that I will never rent from Budget again. She didn't care. Don't know why she even called in the first place.

Avis is a little more expensive but I guess you get what you pay for.

When we returned the car at the airport, the inspection team went straight to the wheel with the scuff and pointed it out to us before anything else, which I thought was really strange. We said it had been marked on the form and they said it was not. They did not have the top copy but said they would forward a copy on to us. Now I wonder if the guy actually marked it down on the paperwork? Should have check properly as my instincts told me.

Basically we had a letter from them deducting $397.72 from our credit card. The trouble is when you live in England who can you contact regarding this type of behaviour from a company, especially when the company will not speak to you about it. How can a company like this get away with it??

Upon return of the vehicle we were charged with two days rental. Our dissatisfaction about the ignorance and arrogance displayed by the branch manager Grant : quote if somebody does not let me finish I give the agreement and say goodbye, goes far beyond the involved dolar amount. The only option [he] accepted is that we (regular renters and travellers) have misunderstood. According to [him], his employees would not make such a mistake.

When I disagreed, he would no longer discuss with me since my wife had signed the agreement. He even put in doubt that she was my wife and commanded me to leave. I have done so, and hope that I have understood his 'orders'correctly: Budget no longer wants me as a customer and therefore will not return as such, nor in Canada, not in the US, nor in the Netherlands where I have rented cars from budget in the last year.

CAD 60 and humiliation

When I arrived in Philly, the attendant outside scanned the car, acknowledged my by name, took the keys, rolled down the windows, and then the car was moved. She told me to go inside to the counter. So I did, but time was running short for my emergency flight. After waiting in line a while, one of the desk jockies told me to go see the guy at the end of the line. So I did. I explained to the gentlemen my situation. He sent me back to te line. I waited a few minutes, told them they could report the car stolen for all I car, but I had to catch my plane. None of the four desk joclies could have cared less.

As of today, 6 days later after the car had been dropped off, I assume the rental has still not been closed, becaused I have yet to have my checking account debited. This is absolutely ridiculous. Where is the compassion for victums in a crisis? Thanks for ruining a great trip as the result of Bugets lack of consideration to their customers. I liked the car so much, I'll probably buy one, but not sure whether I'll ever rent from Budget again. It's a real shame, because Budget's staff in Baltimore at BWI were excellent.

I located a pet store where I bought flea spray for the car and myself, and a drug store where I got delousing shampoo to rid myself of fleas & their eggs once I reached my hotel that evening.

I spent my only evening in GA washing clothes and cleaning luggage to rid them of fleas ($8 washer/dryer/detergent), flea spray ($6) RID shampoo ($10) and the loss of a night on the town, not to mention the discomfort of having driven for hours being bitten.

What I didn't realize was he went to the Avis counter to get this car (Chevy Impala) so why couldn't he ask for a downgraded car so that we could maintain our quoted price ($89 for 4 days?) instead we were charged ($145) we needed the car as we were due to leave 1st thing in the morning. My husband was upset by the principle of the matter and because we had a similar situation with Enterprise on a prior rental and they upgraded for free.

Couple this with the fact that we were pretty much forced into an upgrade and we had an Entertainment coupon for a free upgrade at home (which they refused to honor because we didn't present it at the time of rental) Explaining to them that we had no idea that it would be necessary was to no avail. I really didn't get upset until I found out when I got back from my trip that my sister had the exact same thing happen to her on a one day rental that I booked for her on budget.com only a week prior to my trip. She ended up paying an additional $25 at the last minute due to her car not being available.

While the dollar amounts are minimal in our case, the feeling of being taken advantage of does not sit well with me and it doesn't surprise me seeing the comments/complaints in this forum. I had alot of nice things to say about Budget until his past weekend. I will definately not be using their services again

The manager has the nerve to say "No it was not possible" because he said he waived off 3 potential buyers to hold the car for us and that is why he can't give us our $2,500 dollars back leaving my wife shaking, crying, and panicking. Till this day, the manager hasn't even attempted to give her back the refund. In closing we are a simple average low middle class family barely making it. There are times we sacrifice to feed our child and leave ourselves hungry the whole day. To some people $2,500 is not much to them but to us that's all we have and if you can assist us and any way we will be truly grateful.

I had only moved a bedroom set to my new appartment and I had no Air Conditioner inside the track whatsoever. But the guy at the Budget rental place said that he had caught me on the Surveillance camera. I tried to dispute the charges and denied the accusation. However, the guy at enterprise was very rude and claimed again that he was so certain that it was me and no one else. I tried calling Budget customer service to find a resolution.

However, after consulting with the truck rental place, the Budget customer service rep told me on the phone that he was also sure that I had left an air condition unit behind the truck and said that they wont be able to do anything at all. Instead of a bill of around $75, I am faced with a bill of $254.99 that has been charged on my credit card. I am disputing the false accusations and would like to settle the case legally.

Edited Complaint:

then when I bring it back when I am done. I am charged over $650 for the rental. I go in to question it and the girl says, so? I paid over $1200 for my last car rental. and she isn't willing to budge even though I am being charged over 3 times the promised rate for a weeks use.

I was charged over $450 more than the original agreement was for.

Well, when I received my bank statement it showed that they were still holding by debit card in the amount of $240. I contacted the rental agency three weeks ago and they said that Priceline takes about 4-5 days to release the card - I checked my account on yesterday, which is almost a month and the amount is still outstanding on my account. I would appreciate it very much if Priceline would release the amount and return it back to my bank account.

A couple weeks later I sent an email to Budget via their web site and explained my situation. It took them a couple weeks to reply. They said they haven't found my coat and if they do they will contact me. My complaint is that a Budget employee had to find my coat when they cleaned out the car and they should have turned it in and then I could have gotten my coat back. Also, if the man I talked to at the desk was trained with any customer service savy he could have made contact with the people who checked in my rental car and found out where my coat was. I wonder if Budget really has a lost and found department or they only have a lost and never found department.

I lost a $80 jacket that I will have to replace at my own expense because of a dishonest Budget employee and a non-caring Budget employee who didn't track down my jacket when I called.

Never once did anyone apologize for the inconvenience or show any concern for our situation. It was simply a completely uncaring blase whatever attitude. The worst customer experience I have ever had. I will never again book with budget - I have been a loyal customer for many many years, and will never use them again either for business or pleasure. I have also used them for client bookings many times in the past - never again.

In the end we rented a car from Avis for an additional $100 dollars above our quoted cost from Budget.

We contacted Budget to explain our position, had our insurance company contact them, had a lawyer write a letter, had the Hawaii State Consumer Protection Office in Hilo write a letter, all to no avail. We refuse to pay for something that we didn't do. Budget has since turned this matter over to their collection agency, United Collection Corporation, Hayward, CA. They have threatened to damage our credit rating if we do not pay. We can only surmise that one of their employees probably drove the car after we returned it (if, in fact, it is the car we returned) and damaged it by running into a curb or something. We hope the threat of exposure by ConsumerAffairs.com will convince them to drop this claim against us and stop committing this kind of fraud on others. We have heard of a couple others who have been similarly victimized by Budget's fraudulent business practices.

We have been fighting this thing since last September, and we have spent a lot of time and energy for something that is just plain wrong. And now their collection agency is threatening to report us to the three credit reporting agencies. They are about to destroy our excellent credit record because of something we didn't do. Can they legally do this? HELP!

I paid a higher cost; I had a special discount rate through insurance company for Budget. The initial wait time turned in to a 1 hour marathon. I am amazed that Hertz provided us a car within 5 minutes, and we were out of the airport in less than 10 minutes after that.

I was traumatized! Considering all malfunctions of rental car, one would think company would have been eager to make accommodations. No such luck!

I was worried that the car was stolen or that they'd hold me responsible.

Additional costs: $150 upgrade from a superior vehicle to an inferior vehicle, $80 cables, $180 hotel, 1 day's delay in travel arrangements. Total additional cost = $310.

I ended up stopping every 1 1/2 hours to put in gas (filling the tank up) on a 20 hour plus trip. Because the ride was so rough, we drove slowly and I had to stay at a hotel twice (and I was planning to drive straight through). I flew in someone to help me drive from one location to the next and also to help me move my things in my new place, but because we got into town at a much later date than we planned, he had to take his flight home immediately and I had to pay for movers.

I asked if I took it to Budget would they trade the car and was told yes, but I would be charged the cost of the car being picked up from an alternative location.

The agent checked and said she could not find the reservation but she would look somewhere else, then she did not insist no reservation was find. Then I would assume she found it by other means (may be she could not find it by last name but able to find it through the list for that particular day). We were asked to initialed all over the contract, and the agent did not said a word about the terms of the contract or anything else. We checked out on Sunday evening and headed to California for an international flight on Monday.

Before our international departure, then I read the receipt and had a heart attack at the rate-- a $95.00 per day for a weekend day. The total came up to be $239 for less than 2 day for a little Toyota. If the counter agent insisted that no reservation was found then it would raised the flag and I would check with all the other in-terminal car rentals to find my reservation instead of being trapped by Budget.

I called Budget's customer service, the representative was not helpful either and her attitude was like 'haha we got you. great we have a fulsome profit'; and that was not a ridiculous pricing for careless people. With this type of attitude from the Customer service department, I conclude that the company has a policy or mission to hunt people or not in the goal of conducting honest business.

If it were half of the $95 a day, I won't feel so rip-off. A few months ago I picked up a car without reservation at the Houston Hobby airport. The rate was only around $30 per day. I promised that I would not rent a car from Budget again even it means higher price.

We immediately called information and was connected to Budget Rent A Car. We explained that we just rented the car not more than 10 minutes ago but noticed a crack in the windshield. We were assured that at the Norfolk Airport location that any pre-existing damage would have been noted prior to renting out the vehicle.

We then received a claim from a Claims Management company on behalf of Budget wanting us to pay them $694.86 for a new windshield. We responded with a letter explaining the same information above. With it we also provided copied of our cell phone bill showing the call that was placed within minutes of renting the car. They called back indicating that Budget had rejected our response. Again I reitterated that we would not pay for pre-existing damage when we wnt to the extent to report it and were assured that the damage would have been noted prior to us renting the vehicle.

We have not been sent an escalated amount of $940.35 and threats of ridiculous interest rates and collection agency harrassment as well as credit report implications.

for $10 extra/day to the existing rate. After approximately discussing for 1 hour.

I requested to give me the same car on a original reservation I made. On reaching LGA while
returning a car,they refused as the return location mentioned was niagara falls.

To begin, I had made an online reservation for a compact car for August 4 through 5. When I arrived at the Budget location on West 49th street in New York, we were told that we were given an SUV instead of the requested compact. When I told the agent that I didnt want an SUV due to increased gas usage, she told me that there were 6 other people waiting for compacts, and that I should just take it, insinuating that I would not get a car at all if I did not accept the SUV.

We were then asked to hurry out of the tight garage to make room for the other waiting guests. We were not given an opportunity to do a physical review of the SUV, check for damages, etc. After being rushed out of the garage, we were finally able to stop, and noticed that in interior of the car had not been cleaned there were crushed cookies, popcorn and pistachio nuts littered throughout the seats and floor. Additionally, the left headlight was not working luckily we were not planning to do any night driving, but as we were rushed through our review of the vehicle and did not have a chance to go over it with a Budget representative, we were not aware of this flaw until we drove through a tunnel.

Aesthetically, the interior of the vehicle was a mess, but that was not the worst part: while searching for more leftover garbage and trash to throw out, we found a 4 switchblade knife underneath the front passenger seat. I can only imagine what could have happened if we had a child in the car with us! Not cleaning a car in between rental guests is lazy, but leaving a dangerous weapon in the vehicle should be criminal. We spent the next 20 minutes searching the SUV for other weapons and nefarious items.

Upon returning the vehicle to the same NYC location, the return attendant seemed bemused that we had found a switchblade in our rental, barely hiding his grin. We then took the blade to the front desk agent who also seemed to find humor in the situation. At that point we were do thoroughly disgusted by the lack of basic customer service that we signed our bill and told the agent she could keep the knife.?

Ive rented from Budget before for other personal trips, but I highly doubt I ever will again. My employer has an existing relationship with Hertz, and I am now fully aware of why. From the very beginning, it was an awful experience, topped off with the discovery of a lethal weapon, origins unknown.

My concern is that the car rentals are claiming that these seats are available when that is not true. I regard this as a major safety issue and feel that the rental companies should be held accountable for their advertising. It was necessary for us to go out the next day and purchase an infant safety seat, so that we could continue our trip knowing that the baby was safe. Hopefully consumers will get the word not to trust car rental companies when they advertise car seat options.

I was charged $30 for the unusable toddler seat and then spent over $70 on an infant safety seat. If we had known that the car rental companies are unreliable we would have carried our own safety seat.

I recently received a credit card statement with charges for two days instead of one day. They claimed that I returned the car on Monday morning (May 28th) instead of Sunday May 27th at 1:05 or 1:10 PM. They have refused to refund me for the additional day's charges and are playing game with me with the closing time and return time. I initially explained to them that I was 5 or 10 minutes late at maximum and they are confusing me with their Sunday hours by saying they close at 12 noon (the local branch staffer) and at 1 PM (claimed by 1-800 customer service). In turn telling me I am lying.

I still have some future reservations with them but I am discouraged to cancel them and stop using their service.

It was 5:30 at night and dark, but there were parking lot lights on. This dent looked like part of the cars aerodynamic style, and it was not appareent to the visble to the eye. The only way to know it was there was to feel the car. Our arguement is that they did not offer us the same level of inspection when we took the car. If they had, that dent would have been detected before we even took the car off the lot. We are honest people and if we did anything to the car we would pay for it, but we truely believe they are trying to pin something on us so that our insurance will have to pay for it and not theirs. They were smiling the whole time we were frustrated with this whole situation. This was an individually asian owned car rental place.

we will probably get stuck paying for something that was not our fault. We believe the dent may have been noticed while they were cleaning the car and wiping it down prior to our taking it, but they could not go after the previous renters because they already passed the car when they returned it. So,rather than report it to their insurance, they would catch the next person who comes along. Dumb on our part for not feeling the car when we rented it, but like I said we are honest non-suspecting people, so we never assumed this would have taken place. Lesson: don't settle for a walk around if you are not familiar with the car point out everything as minor as it may be and have them mark it or let them tell you it is part of the cars design.

While I was in Poland, the car was hit on a parking lot of a local supermarket by its employee operating a forklift. The police report was filed but I did not actually receive any documentation from the police. I was told that Budget needed to contact them about it. I returned the car to Berlin and gave the rental agent information needed to retrieve the incident report from the police. I haven't heard anything from Budget afterward. This October, over a year after the incident, I received a letter from a law firm in Germany in which it was said that the police in Poland had refused cooperation and I was responsible for all the repair cost which amounted to nearly 2000 euro.