Budget

We made a reservation for a full size SUV by budget for 4:00 pm pickup time the price was good and everything looked that's going smoothly. L called up budget the day before if l need to be there on the button and they told me that I have a grace period of 30 minutes what i could arrive late and still get the car. On the day we're supposed to pick up the vehicle we're driving to the location and we're running a few minutes late we got a phone call at 3:50 pm from the Location that we're supposed to get the vehicle that if we are not there within 10 minutes they are going to be closed so we told them that we're going be there at 4:05 just 5 minutes late so please wait we arrived at 4:05 and we knocked on the door and a employee opend the door and told us they can't give us the car anymore because their system doesn't let but after begging them he told us that for $100 cash tip he could give us the car. WHAT A SCAM NEVER EVER AGAIN BUDGET

Very worst response with Budget car rental service. I gave very clear details about my missing car seat but their response is very worst. They not even responding properly. I never ever received this kind of worst response from any customer service in my life. It's very simple that they can check camera and find my car seat.
While returing the car at Dougleous international airport forgot to remove the car seat. Rental agreement number is *******. Kindly check and help as its required for my kid.
Category: Carseat / Booster
Description: Toddler / Graco / black with grey fabric / Black /
Add'l Information: Vechicle number is *******.Return date June 2nd 2023Return location Duologues international Airport charlotteReturn Time Around 1230 PM.

I would never rent from Avis/Budget again and would give them zero stars if able. My daughter and I rented a car in Naples, Italy January 17-21,2023. Two months afterwards I noticed there was a charge to my VISA from Avis for $59.56

I did not receive any notification before seeing this charge and called Avis on 3/29. After calling I didn't hear anything back until I received a letter on 4/4 (dated 3/10). I called customer service a second time on 4/4 and was sent an email form to complete. Hearing nothing further, I contacted VISA directly to dispute the charge on 4/20 and ironically I received an email from Avis on 4/21.

I was told that I received some type of motor vehicle fine but never saw a bill. While I'm unsure how I received such a fine, as I paid all the tolls with either cash or credit, I find it unusual that it took over 2 months for AVIS to receive this fine. Furthermore, I do not understand why I was not given an opportunity to either pay or contest the fine directly--instead of being charged an administration fee of $48.80 EUR. They attached a letter in Italian that provided absolutely no information in English on who to contact to contest the fine or when they contacted AVIS.

I had not rented from Budget/AVIS in many years and am sorely disappointed in the way this matter was treated. Beware..."WE TRY HARDER" is just a slogan without any meaning.

Extra charges on return of car, no reason given, took 2 months of complaining even to get a response.

I rented from Budget Rent A Car twice in the past year, September in Atlanta and October in Los Angeles. In both cases the car was great, customer service was OK, and pricing was good. So based on those initial experiences I would have given them 4 or 5 stars.

If you are going to rent from Budget, I recommend enrolling in their FastBreak program. It makes it a lot faster to pick up your car.

However, in February I received a letter from Viking Billing Services, acting as an agent of Budget Rent A Car informing me that I owed them $1077. 21 for damage to the rental car.

When I contacted Viking Billing Services, I asked when the damage to the rental car was identified. They said that Budget "damage appraisal people" had identified the damage on December 2nd - over a month and a half AFTER my rental. At that point, the Viking agent said she was closing the claim.

However, this kind of hassle is not something I should have had to deal with, and if you look at http://forums.elliott.org there are many other people who have been hit with letters alleging false damage to a rental car.

Budget Rent A Car and Viking Billing Services are not doing adequate quality control before they send out letters to innocent consumers, alleging that they have damaged the rental vehicle and are liable for the damages.

I have also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau for this issue.

The first car was dead. The battery light was on, and we were still in the garage when the battery gave out entirely. We walked all the way back to the office, to wait in a long line. We were given a second car, but they didn't write the number on the form. So we walked and walked beeping the fob. When we got to the second car, it smelled like urine. We rolled the windows down and left them down all the driving and while in parking lots. The pizz smell was less by Monday when we returned the car. Then I got my bill, and was charged an additional $94.48. I did the "pay in advance". And while I did not return the car with the full tank, I did return it with half a tank. At $4.50/gallon, even in California, there is no way that half a tank of gas is costing $94.48. No where on the bill does it explain why on earth I am being charged SO MUCH in addition to the original rental expenses I paid in advance. I was so upset to be given two poor quality cars to start off with. To be charged additional unexplained cost is really too much for me to give anything but a low rating one would think. But then I tried to call the number to speak to you about this. I was given the automated runaround before being hung up on. I would only recommend Budget to a frined if they wanted to risk being stranded because the car's battery is about to die or they love the smell of pee, and they want to later be charged more than the agreed price.

They charged me 80 dollars for not taking it back full tank when I just used half a tank … piece of crap

$ 75 dollars in hidden fees BS
Returned my car with a full tank of gas and was charged $20 for fuel service i called and complained was told just a simple mistake YA RIGHT RIP OFF

I though that I got good deal for Nissan SUV car for 2050TL

When I went to the airport to get my car in Istanbul they told me that the car is not available and I have to pay more for another modal including insurance fees that I will get back once I return the car

I paid 4,016.72TL when I returned the car they told me that they will return the money to my credit card within 10 days

It has been a month and I got nothing till now

Therefor I contacted the support and they told me that you have many fees like insurance... etc even though the insurance was included for free in the website

And there are things like SMI & SLI which are hidden fees

Anyway they told me that I will get back 767 TRY

But I got nothing till now.

So they took 4,016.72TL instead of 2050TL

I don't recommended this scummy company and I will never rent from them again

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.

When we arrived in Milan, Italy the airport Budget refused to honor the agreed upon amount and claimed it was because we reserved online while we were in America and that the new amount would be an extra 200 Euros which was more than the max on my credit card. They refused to even let us rent the car for a shorter length of time and claimed it would cost the same amount no matter how long we had the car. We were stranded in a foreign country and had to take a bus to the train station and take a train from Milan to Florence where our villa was. Only all of the rental car places in Florence were closed on Sunday so we had to stay at a hotel near the train station until the rental car places opened back up and pay a lot of extra $ for a rental car for 2 days just to get our stuff up to the villa in Falgano. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! We rented other cars from Budget the rest of our stay and each time they charged whatever they felt like rather than the stated price. We were afraid to use other rental places because they were European and Sixt charged us 3 times the amount in Ireland...

This service is so devious and doesn't keep it real with you. By the time you get the full picture, they've either wasted your time or $#*!ed you over. In this case I got my time wasted. Me and my brothers decided we wanted to plan a trip to 6 flags great adventures. But we didn't have a vehicle. We looked and a lot of car rental services were expensive, because I was under 25.
Until I found budget. They did boost the fee because I was under 25, but it wasn't that bad. I added insurance on it and everything. So later that day I went to go to pick the car up. I had to wait on a short line, however there were only two slow employees, so that took an hour for me to be seen. After the long wait, I talked to the lady. She asks for my Driver's license and Credit card. I was assuming she meant Debit card, because didn't pay using a credit card. Than she says if you're not flying in or out I can't take a debit card I need credit, besides you need to be 25 or older to do debit. I said Why do I need a credit card, because I'm under 25 and I'm not flying in. That's a pretty stupid policy and I was never told this. She avoids my question says the best thing you can to do is call this number and refund the reservation. I told her about the trip and was trying to figure out if there was anything she could do. She said in a nonchalant attitude, Sorry it goes against our terms. I called them up and I spoke to two customer service unrepresentative who could barely speak English, they were given me the run around, until they cancelled the reservation. Now I have to wait up to 7 business to get my money back. Thanks to them for not keeping it 100 percent with me, I have to not only break the bad news to all three of my brothers, but hope I could rescheduled the trip I reserved at 6 flags. Budget needs to communicate with their employees and customers, change their terms and services for drivers 21-24, stop hiring idiots and stuck up people and stop the under handed tatics. For this I will never attempt to use this service, anymore.

DO NOT RENT A CAR FROM BUDGET/AVIS THEY ARE SAME BUSINESS, I pre paid 3 days in advance because I has a business meeting pop up and I received a email to check and make sure the day of pickup and I did. So I called the number and guy said all good with my reservation. I drove almost a hour to get there and when I did get to the budget that I reserved with the address and the last tells me, you didn't call here, there's no number for here. 4491 Williams penn highway in monroeville pa 15*******348 I asked well what's the sense of a reservation if you can't get a car!? She shrugged her shoulders and said nothing... I MEAN YOU EITHER HAVE A CAR TO RENT OR NOT! ITS NOT HARD. I RENT HOTELS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES AND THEY EITHER HAVE A RIOM FOR MY DATES OR THEY DONT! THEY WERE HAPPY TO TAKE MY MONEY FOR 3 DAYS BECAUSE I PREPAID CAUSE I THOUGHT I WAS GUARANTEED A CAR BUT NO YOU ARE NOT AND WILL EVER BE BECAUSE THE LADY SAID READ THE FINE PRINT SOMEWHERE LOL THEY DONT GUARANTEE ANYTHING LMAO WOW SO I WASTED DAYS WITH THIS COMPANY, THEY TOOK MY MONEY AND NOW IM GOING TO MISS A MEETING WITH MY COMPANY IF I DONT BUY A PLANE TICKET FOR 1200! ONE WAY, INSTEAD OF COUPLE HUNDRED. DO NOT RENT A CAR FROM THESE UN PROFESSIONAL, UN ORGANIZED COMPANY I EVER DEALT WITH! UPDATE UPDATE, UPDATE THEY GOT BUSTED FOR SELLING HEROIN and other drugs and couple of their cars were in high speed chases! No wonder I didn't get a car lol

I am writing to help others avoid the overcharge scam that I encounter through Budget rental at St. Thomas. I rented a vehicle through Costco travel membership and it was through Budget. Being a "bigger" chain rental vs a small island rental, I assumed all would be good. I was wrong. I got my vehicle at the Cyril King Airport and when picking up my vehicle she asked if I wanted the Loss Damage Waiver, to which I replied "no" she then indicated since my 23 year old son was underage I would need to sign and pay $20 a day(which I did even though he is a pilot and they rent to them without age restrictions), to which I signed the small signature device. Once we arrived at our place, I was looking at our contract and noticed we were also being charged an additional $ 34.99 per day. ($244.93). I also noticed they charged us $7.50 per day ($52.50) for the "additional driver" that Costco offers for free. I called Budge and was instructed they could not fix my issue prior to returning my vehicle and to continue my rental to term and dispute it AFTER we completed the rental. HOW CONVENIENT, because now they are indicating that the charges stand because my initials are in a box "that I signed" stating I wanted the Loss Damage Waiver. I explained that they verbally tell you what you are signing before you sign the box and that all 3 of us heard her specifically indicate that was for the underage driver. I explained that on my original rental agreement, it specifically shows I declined the Loss Damage Waiver. At this time, Budget indicated that the car rental at Cyril King Airport is independently owned and they can do as they desire. I indicated I would not have rented from Budget if they couldn't stand behind all their agreements, as I have heard of independent franchises "scamming" tourists for their own gain. I am disheartened that Budget would offer their name to a franchise that operates business this way. I am no longer going to use Budget for any future travel but want to warn others to avoid this scam. Look at your contract PRIOR to leaving the desk and learn not to trust businesses to operate ethically. Lesson learned.

If I could give zero stars I would.
My husband prepaid for my car rental from Friday - Sunday. The desk agent at the Evansville airport told me he needed a card for a "returnable deposit". I only had my debit card (stupid, I know), so he ran that. I returned the car to the same agent on Sunday. He looked to be about 19 years old and was about as friendly as a honey badger wearing Prada and Gucci. On Sunday, I filled the gas tank, handed him the keys, signed a form and boarded my flight home to Texas. Not so bad, right? WRONG!
Three days later I get a text from budget/Avis asking me to return the car because it was overdue. I guess I accidentally put the car in my carry-on bag and took it home. Silly me!
When I called customer service, they claimed to not have a record of me renting the car. When I called them again, they were finally able to locate the rental agreement but still claimed I didn't return the car. When I asked to speak to someone else, I spoke to a woman whom I could barely understand and who told me that the issue was resolved. Ok, not so bad right? WRONG.
Lo and behold, we check our bank and card statements the next day and see that we now have an over $300 charge on our debit card and over $500 charged on our credit card. All for a car I had for three days that was supposed to be less than $300. I called customer service again and they told me no one was available, so I sent a strongly worded email. They responded by telling me they have "escalated the situation" to their resolution team. Suuuuure, I have an TON of faith in that. They informed me that their investigation would take 7-10 business days. Over a week of no explanation of their incompetence and exorbitant charges? No way. I'll call and email everyday until this is resolved. I can't even begin to describe how stressful and frustrating this situation has been. Budget/Avis customer service is its own layer of hell and I wouldn't wish this BS on my worst enemy. I will NEVER rent from them again and strongly suggest you don't either!

My husband and I rented a car for the weekend from the Charlotte airport location. A man named Robert helped us out. We added supplemental liability insurance as our personal car insurance does not cover rentals. This was an additional $15 per day, an extra $45 which we had no issue with and agree was better safe than sorry. Our car rental total was just under $100. We expected all together to pay around $150 (understanding taxes and what not could add just a little bit more). We discussed no other additional coverage options and Robert went on to the contract. He rapidly went through it, scrolling through and just pointing out where I needed to initial and sign stating everything in here is just what we had already gone over. We signed and went on our merry way. However, upon receiving my final bill they charged me OVER DOUBLE the expected price as Robert unknowingly added three additional optional coverage charges for the entirety of our rental! I was livid. So I called customer service to discuss the issue and have them explain all these extra charges. For example - PAE for personal bodily injury and loss of personal property if in an accident. We have our own medical insurance should I get in an accident, I would never in a million years add this onto my rental car coverage. Customer service was LARGELY unhelpful and rude. He just stated "well you signed the contract" after I had explained that I felt Robert acted in a very shady and dishonest manner adding these optional fees without my knowledge and hustling me through the contract signing. Customer service put all blame on me and did nothing. Needless to say, huge lesson learned on my part - ask point blank what you're signing and STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS SHADY AND CORRUPT BUSINESS!

My daughter had rented & paid for a car in advance for the weekend, rented a motel room, and had planned on surprising her son when he proposed to his girlfriend until Budget ruined it all. She got to the counter to pickup her car and to much her surprise they DENIED her car rental! She was prepared to put a deposit down with her debit card and told her credit score wasn't high enough she had to have a major cc in order to rent a car which she doesn't have. It states on Google you can rent a car without a credit card by placing a HOLD on your debit card however this is a LIE! She was absolutely devastated to find out not only was she now not getting to surprise her son, she was out the money for the car rental until the decide to refund it & the money she had spent to reserve a place for the weekend because it was the last day & couldn't be canceled at that time. This is TOTAL discrimination to allow someone with a good credit score to rent with a debit card & not someone who has had a problem with credit. What has running your credit got to do with renting a car? Look at their driving record not credit score. You are renting a freaking car NOT buying it! Run the credit check when she paid for the rental not the day she goes to pick it up thinking everything is OK and be DEVASTED at the counter & refused to get your rental you paid for in advance. Make it a policy at all Budget rentals not certain locations! I DO NOT ABSOLUTELY DO NOT recommend Budget! They absolutely ruined a momental moment & memory for my daughter!

I dropped off a car at the DFW airport Budget 2 hours before it was due on August 13,2023. Since nobody from Budget was working there, I locked the rental car and dropped off the keys that said "AVIS/BUDGET CAR RENTAL RETURN KEY DROP OFF." As I am writing this on August 15,2023 (TWO days later), Budget sent me an email on August 15 in the afternoon which stated that my car rental has "not been checked in" (returned), and they "Can't find the keys" and asked to email them back as to where I dropped them off and what date. I have been stressed out as they had also charged me for an "upgrade" that the Budget employee said I could have for free. I asked the employee working on the first floor when I first picked up the car rental twice if this upgrade was free since HE offered it to me, and he said "Yes, no charge for the upgrade." Guess what? They CHARGED ME. Also, they billed me for pre-paid gas which I did not want. I filled up the gas tank full using my own credit card before I returned in. Basically, I paid to fill up gas twice. These people are either sadistic, bored or plain incompetent to mess with customer's heads and LIE about free upgrades. It's like they get off knowing how stressed out customers will be after they add all these extra unauthorized charges. Worst of all, the customer service on the phone is from a 3rd world country and I have been hung up on several times because the phone rep was too lazy or tired to deal with the problem. This was at the DFW Budget Airport. BEWARE! Always take pictures of your full gas tank in the garage as proof. Now I know to take photos of the car rental key return drop off box too in the future!

We rented a full size SUV on line. When we got to the airport they gave us a Tahoe. We told them is was not going to be big enough. They responded with, you can tell the supervisor on duty outside. Victoria I think. My husband went out and the vehicle was not big enough for 6 people and 2 golf club sets and luggage for 6. He called me to tell me there was not room. So, I and one other traveler had to have our daughter come to the airport and pick us up. She was driving from Orlando to meet us at Captiva. When me husband and the other travelers went to leave the lot they told the lady that the Tahoe was unacceptable. It smelled so bad inside I only rode in it once. It smelled liked someone had rented that care and smoked bad marijuana in it continuously. The woman responded with, "yes we know and we charged the person before you for the smell." WHAT? What company does that? I spent one whole morning on the phone with 7 (yes 7) different people from your company to try to get the car exchanged for the one we paid for in the first place. They all had excuses, no one was authorized to make sure there was a car that size at the airport if we were to bring in to exchange it, no one would bring one to us to exchange it. I just gave up. My husband took in all the back to the airport and all they had was a 12 passenger van that was big enough for us. 1st don't advertise that you have a extended SUV if you don't. We really would like our money back. For the first few days the Tahoe set outside our beach house with all the doors and windows open. Finally my husband returned it. It should have never left the lot like that. The one woman I called said Budget did not even have extended SUVs. So, she lied? Look us up, there should be notes that I tried calling for a half a day of my vacation to fix this problem and no one was willing to do anything above and beyond. So, to say the least... we will never use Budget again and we will share this with family and friends. Lori Bucklen

I am absolutely disgusted with the way I was treated today by Budget. I phoned to make a reservation to rent a car that same day. The person I talked to took my credit card information all he told me was the price of the car and that I would have insurance on the car
And told me a total that went through on my credit card right away. Everything was good he told me the car would be waiting for me. I went down to pick up the car and evrything he told me (or didn't tell me) was not at all how it went. B
He did not tell me I didn't have to pay for the car at time of booking but he took my payment for the car anyways. He also did not once mention that there is a $350 deposit as well so at that point I didn't have enough money on my credit card to pay for both and the insurance was not for the car it was for personal injury which is a total scam because we have free Alberta Health so there's no reason to be paying for a personal insurance so there was no insurance on the car either. So I called them back to get this rectified and all they did was tell me they will refund my money on my credit card but not for 5 to 7 days so I still couldn't get the deposit put on my credit card right away in order to get the car right away so I was left with no rental car and completely screwed in the middle of downtown in winter with no car and they wouldn't even try to rectify it they wouldn't try to resolve it they didn't care at all they just said goodbye with no help at all and did not take responsibility for the wrongdoing and their ignorance and their lack of knowledge about company rules and policies not once did they apologize even. I can't believe this is the worst customer service I have ever experienced so save yourself and don't rent from these people!