Budget

After the rental I had broke down (brand new SUV) Budget refused to do anything but tow it - 90 plus miles to nearest location. They told me and text me I had a replacement available immediately. After getting a ride back to Salt Lake International Airport the employees refused to provide me with the replacement until the broken vehicle was in their possession. They had no concern for the fact that I, their customer, had been inconvenienced all day due to their broken vehicle, and now wanted me to wait unknown hours until it was towed back. The employees were all rude and had no concern for the fact I was paying for a working vehicle that whole day and did not have one.

We rented a 12 passenger van for a family trip from NC to Quebec, CN. Upon pick up, we noticed the gas tank was only 1/4 full when the contract stated "Full". It was a nightmare trying to get that corrected. When we got as far as NJ, the oil light came on. We called Budget, and they informed us to take the vehicle to EWR, but they didn't have any comparable vehicles, and advised us to pay out-of-pocket, to have oil changed ourselves. We lost 1/2 day of our vacation getting the oil changed before we could continue on with the trip. The process to try to get reimbursed for the $111.48 paid to get the oil changed was complex, and we still haven't received any reimbursement yet. Would not recommend.

I want to warn everyone never to rent a car from Budget Rental Cars. They engage in very sneaky and deceptive billing practices.

I rented a car for two days from Budget Rental Cars in Portland, Oregon in early November 2023. As expected I filled up the car with gas at a gas station less than one mile from the Portland airport and then returned the car. Imagine my surprise a few days later when I was going over my final bill and I found two nasty surprises: (1) Budget charged me a $15.99 fee for not providing them with a copy of my gas refill receipt. At no point did ANYONE at Budget every tell me that I needed to show them a copy of my gas station receipt from when I filled the car's tank right before returning the car. Plus they could crank the car and see that the gas tank was full (which they obviously did based up the gas amount they printed on my receipt), so there was no need for them to require a copy of my receipt; and (2) Their actual receipt showed that the car had 15.8 gallons in the tank when I drove it off the airport lot and also had 15.8 gallons in the tank when I returned it to the airport lot. And the receipt showed that I only drove the car a total of 66 miles. I had to put 5.63 gallons of gas in the car to fill it up at the gas station near the airport. I rented a Toyota Camry. Driving 66 miles divided by 5.63 gallons implies an MGP of 11.7 miles per gallon. A Toyota Camry gets at least 25 miles per gallon. What this means is that the car didn't really have 15.8 gallons of gas in the tank when I drove it off the airport lot.

Budget tried to defraud me by erroneously putting on their paperwork that the gas tank was full when it obviously was not based upon the amount of gas I had to put in the car to fill it back up. I had to call Budget's customer service line multiple times to try to get both of these issues straightened out. I demanded a full refund of the bogus $15.99 charge for not showing them my gas purchase receipt, and I demanded a refund of the price of 3 gallons of gas that I should not have had to pay if the tank had really been full when I picked up the car. It took multiple phone calls but I did get these two credits out of Budget.

The purpose of this warning, even though I got the two credits I wanted, is to let all consumers know that Budget is obviously trying to defraud its customers and hoping they won't notice the bogus and extra charges on their receipts. If I hadn't paid careful attention to the number of miles I drove and calculated how much gas I should have had to purchase to refill the tank, they would have gotten away with this fraud attempt. I shudder to think how many Budget car rental customers have not noticed that they had to purchase too much gas to refill their tank upon return, or how many Budget car rental customers didn't notice a $15.99 charge tacked on to the bill for not showing their gas purchase receipt (when no one at any point in the rental process ever mentioned this requirement or asked to see the receipt, which was in my pocket).

Avoid renting cars from Budget unless you want to be defrauded. I wish I could give them zero stars.

So we reserve a Chevy Suburban during Christmas 2023 from Chicago as we are flying in. Reserved well over a month in advance. We get there and guess what. No Suburban. They only have a smaller vehicle. Being its late we get into that vehicle and put luggage on our laps. While Im making the 1.5 hour drive to our destination the drivers window will not go back up. So im now driving in the rain/snow with the window down. I go to adjust the mirrors and they wont move. Very, very unsafe vehicle. We had to borrow a family members vehicle once we got to our location to fit us all. What kind of vehicle was that? A Suburban! We take the vehicle back a week later. All the same issues and now it wont accept any gas. Paid over $1200.00 for this POS vehicle. Now I work in service for a very big dealership. This vehicle should have never been rented out. I send them a message and they want to reimburse me $90.00. Tell me "Thanks for messaging us. It helps us keep our high standard of service" Blows my mind. I would be fired giving this kind of service,

We decided to rent an SUV from the savanah airport budget rental car. I will never rent a car through them after the experience I had at this location. When we arrived at the Budget counter, there was no one at it, and a sign telling us to go down to the Avis window. When we arrived, we waited for 1 1/2 hours in line. It seems like maybe they should have had some more employees so they can actually have people manning their window. We finally get to the front of the line, and they don't have our SUV. All they have is a stupid van, and they consider it an upgrade. I do not consider it an upgrade. It is actually a massive downgrade for us and our intended use, but no, they can not give us a discount for our downgrade as I would expect. What is even the point of a reservation? Next, they did not have our now downgraded vehicle. While waiting for our vehicle, I observed someone cutting in line and asking if they have vehicles available, and the counter attendent that I spoke to tells them they have plenty of them. I also asked for a car instead and was told they had none available. Waited another 45 minutes before we had our vehicle. Worst car rental experience ever. It's pretty sad when it takes longer to get your rental vehicle than your 2 hour flight.

Update, so the morning after arriving at our destination we go out to our car to drive to breakfast at 9 am and discover that our rental van has a slow leak in a tire and is low. I tried calling the savanah budget rental location with there published phone number 3 times let it ring for a long time each and no one answers. Did the same for the nearest location at the Hilton Head airport with the same disappointing result. Next I called the roadside assistance number and after fighting the phone tree to talk to someone finally get a live agent. He tells me to go to the nearest location for assistance since I did feel comfortable driving it on the lower speed roads to the small airport on Hilton head because the tire was not totally flat. He said they would be able to get me a new vehicle or at least help me out. Boy was that a lie. I arrived parked the vehicle and went inside to talk to the agent. The agent said she would not give me a new vehicle because it was a contract from savanah and all hers are reserved. Funny how I had a reservation before and I did not have a vehicle reserved actually reserved for me. She refused to help me in any way and told me I would have to drive it to savanah an hour away on the freeway which I expressed to her that I did not feel safe doing because of the tire and 70+ mph speeds on the freeway. She refused adamantly to even call the savanah location or confirm I had the correct phone number, because the contract was not from Hilton Head. She refused to lift a finger to do anything to help us at all and did not have a single customer she was dealing with no one else was there. I guess I must have disturbed her surfing social media on her phone or something. The ironic thing is after I was done another older gentleman came up to the window while my family and I were trying to devise a plan since we had been left to figure it out, and he got the exact same treatment. We ended up leaving the airport and calling the roadside assistance again after we parked in a close by shopping center. I let my wife deal with this at this point and after hours we finally had a our vehicle towed and I took an Uber to the savanah airport and got a new vehicle. By the time I got back to my family on vacation it was 3 in the afternoon and we had wasted an entire day at this point between our arrival fiasco and this. This company has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Also the new vehicle that I have is now the SUV we originally requested. It either has a broken windshield washer pump or no fluid in it I have not investigated yet.

Thieves! Thieves! Why do u tell ppl u can rent a car with debit,n take the money! And at the time of pick up we need credit card! Thieves!

I signed a contract to pay 300 Euros at drop off (beacuse I hired the full insurance at the counter staff). When I dropped off the car they charged me 1200 Euros on my credit card without authorisation and now not answering emails or calls.
In addition, they only have 1 person at the counter staff so the queues for pick up and drop off are very long.
It's not the 1st time this company charges money on my credit card that has not been agreed previously. Never use them

I flew to DTW airport Tuesday, 7-11-22 around 6:30 pm. The Budget Car place was packed. Unfortunately, I need assistance walking with a cane. An agent walked over to me and asked if I had a reservation. I said yes, gave her the copy, and told me to take a seat, asked me for my license and credit card, and would be right back. The next thing I knew she came over and handed me the paperwork for the car I rented. I couldn't believe it. I can't remember her name, but she definitely deserves a shout-out!

Budget Avis at evansville airport is operated by the most uninterested children Ive encountered. I had a reservation and a conformation email and they said we dont have any cars. Call this number for a refund. I called. After 2 hours on hold i gave up. Basically they stole my 684.00. They could care less. Not even an option of when i can pick a car up. This is not a local rental. From indiana to florida. They dont care a bit about waving me stranded.

We rented a car at San Jose airport waited in line for two hours to get to the desk to find more issues, after the trip was said and done we returned the car, a few days later we get charged by the company for another car rental in West Virginia. We don't even live in the states mind you this. So the company used our credit card for someone else. WHAT A JOKE can't even keep your information secure and now we're struggling to get refunded for the charges they put on our card.

I hired a car from Budget Northern Ireland International Airport. It was all paid for, all I had to do was pick up the keys. A £100 Fuel deposit was briefly explained to me and I signed the 5 page document and left. A day after my return I realised the £100 deposit never went out. Instead a £201 protection cost that I never needed and which was never explained to me at the time. I'm now over £200 down and their explanation is "well you did sign it." Beware… total scam

First I want to say overall rating of 115 reviews is 1.18. My beef is 40 days after I returned the car, I get a bill for $477 to replace the windshield. There was road construction and a stone nicked the windshield. We advised them of the nick. They did not note any damage on our receipt...Why are we being charged for a windshield and not a fill to fix the nick. I put this in dispute with my credit card.

The worst experience ever! Budget ruined my Christmas. They left my 82 year old mother and I stranded on the side of the road for 6 plus hours with a rental van that had broken down. I finally got an agent who told me to call 911 and abandon the vehicle. I rented on 12/22 and 3 months later I am still receiving harassing calls from them because their "roadside assistance" can't locate their vehicle. Last night, I received a call at 2:46 am. When I call customer service I wait on the phone for 45 minutes to get hung up on by the first agent that gets my case. My father died last June and all we wanted was to take my mom on a vacation for Christmas to get her mind off of things but instead she sat on the side of a cold highway for hours with nothing but time to think about my father. Their sister company Avis closed the case, so I do not understand why Budget is still harassing me. Budget made this the worst Christmas ever!

I booked a car for 1 week and paid up front for it. I arrived at the Calgary airport and to my surprise they informed me they had no car for me because I was 36 hrs late. I told them I had reserved and paid for the car in for a week rental so they better find me a car. Then I asked for the manager, who was not available. After afew minutes of speaking with a budget rep and I started to walk away he told me to F@#& OFF. I turned around and said what did you say to me. To my disbelief he repeated his words. I walked over to another rental car company and could see afew of the employees laughing. Eventually booked another car and had to pay double the price.Extremely disrespectful,I guess in this working environment even an idiot like that gets to keep his job after treating customers that way. Extremely disgusted with the employee and service

We prepaid to avoid extra fees. Supposedly it was cheaper. We filled the tank and returned the "decent" car. Later we noticed there was a $56 fuel charge fee. In addition to us filling up the tank at $80. Later an email came from Ryan Brown asking us how was our Budget experience and explained that we were upset about the "extra" fuel charge and he NEVER wrote back to help! Horrible customer service!

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!

I had been renting cars for years with Budget. In my last 3 rentals I needed to make a pick up time change. In each instance to pick up or drop off the car 2 hrs early or late they wanted to charge me an extra $200. Even though I called and waited on hold for an hour to ask for the time extension. Budget you lost a loyal customer

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

In short. Charged for gas in a car that broke down. Used for one day $300 109 was gas. Give two $#*! about money. It's the principle. How could I gas up a car that broke down?
No customer service. Called and they reviewed my case. Denied refund.
PLEASE beware of this Company. Specifically Myrtle Beach Budget/Avis.

Side mirrors were so dirty, we had to have the gate attendant clean them as we were leaving. The gas tank was not full upon pickup (see picture). Warning light comes on that windshield washer fluid is empty (see picture). Windshield is so dirty I cannot see and I am going to die while driving this car (see picture). I requested that they provide some sort of refund of my rental fees or credit me for a free rental. Budget said I could drive an hour back to the airport, spend an hour line and exchange the car for another one then drive another hour back to my vacation location.

Rented a car from clarksville ind store on friday for a trip to florida, had to go in hospital on friday night,wife returned car on saturday, budget offered no compensation. The person in charge knows absolutely nothing about what he is doing, he filled the paper work out on one car when he found out he made a mistake he just gave us another car with the same paper work. I would never rent another car from budget and for sure never from clarksville indiana. I also will tell anyone i know not to deal with them.

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

This is the worst company I have ever rented from! The staff in the airport in South Carolina was clueless and did not care to assist when asked! I missed a whole wedding because I was delayed waiting in the parking lot for a car! Horrible! Horrible! My first and last time with this company! STAY away from this company! Horrible! Horrible!