Budget Rent A Car
reviews and complaints

Picked up my rental car and asked if I could add an additional driver when he arrived the next day. I was told there would be no additional charge. When we stopped by the next day they wanted $100+. I was told because I had no kind of discount (AAA or Costco which I would have qualified for had I known) that there would be an additional charge. They had already charged me $449 for 8 days. They advertise $17 or $24 weekend days but just try to get that. Impossible. I spoke with 4 people at customer service and they would not budge. From now on I call this company WILL NOT BUDGET.

Rented a car online through Car rentals.com for a trip to Phoenix.
Reserved for 13 days, beginning April 4, 2016. My wife was arriving there on Monday, April 4 and I was to join here on Thursday, April 7.
Estimated charge for a Ford Explorer, or similar, was $645.37.
When my wife arrived to pick up the car, there were no Explorers (of course) so she asked for the "similar". She was also asked if she wanted the insurance and she declined it. She did opt for the prepaid gas refill.
The vehicle she received was a GMC Acadia, a similar in size to an Explorer.
The next day, when looking online at my credit card acct. I noticed a charge from Budget for $2057.19, so I called Budget an asked for a supervisor. None was available and was told that one would call me within 24-48 hours. I did receive a call the next day, and was told we had been charged for the insurance and an upgraded vehicle, but got no help in resolving the problem.
I was told to talk to the people at the airport when I arrived on the 7th.
So when my wife picked me up upon my arrival on the 7th, we took time out of our vacation to return to the rental garage. There I spoke to a very nice lady who, when looking up our information, told me that it looked like the insurance charge had been removed. She also assured me that the Acadia "was not an upgrade".
It had been my intention, that if it was an upgrade, I would exchange it
then, and there.
I asked again if she was sure that it was not an upgraded vehicle, and she again assured me that it was not, and that if there was a problem someone would call me within 24 hours.
So off we go onto our vacation, with assurance that everything was ok.
No phone calls come.
Fast forward to our next credit card statement only to find the $2057.19 charge still there.
Contested the charges on my credit card bill with Chase (with no luck) and am waiting for a call from a Budget supervisor .
This is total BS. Hope you can help.
Thanks
Please help me
only to find the

Unbelievable, but the female counter service rep treated me like a bum or homeless person. My long hair and severely casual clothes prompted her to judge me inappropriately and embarrassed me in the so-called"fast-break" line (of which I am a member). The Ford Focus I paid for in advance was not available. She never apologized, but instead flippantly instructed me that no cars were available and I was to have a luxury car instead (which I abhor). I paid for a smoke-free auto. The Lincoln smelled like an ashtray. I was sick with a severe headache for the entire trip because of the awful stink. I attempted to call customer service more than six times to complain and never could get through either due to their computers being down or no one available to talk to me. The only response I could get was for me to take the car back to the airport and get a different one (after already being told by the rude, judgmental, and insensitive counter rep there were none available). The last thing I wanted to do was drive back out to the airport on the little time allotted for my very short trip and haggle about getting a different car. After returning the car on the scheduled date and time I again approached the counter and was instructed to write a review as nobody at the counter but a manager could solve my problem and no manager was working at that time. I will NEVER rent from Budget again. Budget Rent a Car service from top to bottom was horrible.

I booked and paid for car rental for a minivan for my family over Christmas in Florida. It cost £516.76 which included all statutory insurance required to drive in USA. I have been travelling to the states for over 10 years and I am familiar with the car rental, however, I usually use Dollar and not Budget. Everything went smooth in getting the car and we chatted about Christmas in Florida and the weather. I took my keys, signed where asked and left. When I returned the car it was processed at the desk and she nodded all was in order, nothing further to pay. A few weeks after we got home I received an invoice from the company. I assumed this was for the car rental and never really paid much attention as this has happened before as you don't get your recipe on return usually. It wasn't until I received my January credit card statement i seen I had been charged shy of £310. I went back to the invoice to discover that it was from this invoice it had been taken. $450 had been charged to my credit card for personal accident insurance and windscreen cover. I contacted Budget customer services in the UK and explained I had this invoice and I had no idea what it was for and why I had been charged and that I wanted a full refund due to not giving consent nor even a discussion had occurred regarding this extra insurance. They had 10-15 days to respond and said they would look into it. I had to call them today (they were well over their time limit to respond and I had sent several emails none of which have been responded to either!) and they informed me that they had a copy of our rental agreement and I had signed in consent. I said it was fraud as it had been obtained through deception as I never take insurance out in the states and I always ensure this is turned down. They say they have a signature and they would send me the rental agreement to prove this which has so far not gone to my inbox and I they have said that they have a legal binding contract with my signature and it was up to me to check the details before signing. Not once did an amount of money come up on screen to show me I was signing up to another $450. They have taken this money and I do not have the money to cover it and this has been completely done without my authority and a signature has been obtained through deceptive means. I have asked for it to be escalated but I do not believe I am going to get anywhere with them and I do not know what to do. When I googled about it and this company so many complaints about the same thing came up from people visiting the states.

I reserved a truck, but upon arrival my credit card had internal issues. Unfortunately I do not carry more than one at a time. I called Barclay credit and they said the issued could not be resolved for 7 days. I asked the agent if there were any repercussions in canceling the truck given the circumstances. If not, I could run home to get a different card. I was informed there was no financial concern in canceling so I left. A week later I found a $50 "no cancellation fee" charged to my credit card. Keep in mind my reservation charge was set for $46 dollars for the short term rental. Afterwards I called the local branch along with customer service (3x). They informed me the local agents cannot dismiss the charges and the $50 dollars were valid. I was take back that no one at budget wants to correct the situation given the agent said he could cancel with no issues. The remote NO customer service had zero compassion and has lead me to never trusting them or Avis for future business.

I rented a car at Honolulu International Airport on October 29 2015. The vehicle was just fine until the afternoon of November 1, 2015 when I had to have it towed because it would not start. I called the Budget 1800 number as directed and requested a tow. The (Proto-WCO) tow truck arrived approximately 4:30 PM and towed the car. I call the budget customer care number and got a very BIG surprise (I was referred to paragraph 8 of their receipt packet). Needless to say my car was towed on the November 1st but I was charged until 8:00 am on November 3rd, because (per budget) my invoice wasn't closed because they considered the car break down as their loss " As part of our loss, you'll also pay for loss of use of the car without regard to OUR fleet utilization", even though the break-down wasn't my fault. TOTAL RIP-OFF!

My husband and I rented a car from Budget at Orlando International Airport. When we came back to return it, not knowing the area, we wound up in the car rental return lanes before we could get off the highway to get gas. We got stuck inside and couldn't turn around so we had to tell them we didn't get to refill the tank. They charged us right over 9.00 a gallon and with taxes 5.5 gallons cost us 80.00! That is highway robbery! The man checking in our car was very un-sympathetic and almost rude about it. As a matter of fact, almost everyone I have come into contact with through Budget has been extremely unfriendly. I called the 1-800 number and got even less sympathy there. I asked to speak to someone else and was told by Mario that there was no one else. He said we drove more than 75 miles so that means they can charge us, basically, 13.00 per gallon. And that was pretty much how it was. I get that we screwed up, but jeez, that's a lot of cash. I am a fast break member (or at least I was) and I loved that perk, but I am done with Budget, forever!

Do not accept a charge for the 'fuel purchase' Budget is just stealing your money. If the take is full or 3/4 full you still get charged for a full tank of gas. No way to object unless you have a receipt. If you return with 3/4 of a tank you have no receipt. Your money is gone. All you get is a to be a victim. Budget counts on your extra money. But they just lost a customer.

The local Budget Truck rental stores I've done business with are nice and helpful, but it's the national roadside assistance and customer service that is awful. Halfway through our journey, the ABS light came on on the dash. We did our part by stopping in a decent sized city (where there was a budget truck location) and called their national roadside assistance helpline. After waiting 20 minutes for them to call back after our initial call, they advised us to keep driving because it's "probably just an issue with the sensor, not the brakes themselves." Well, about an hour later, the rotor came completely off the wheel and we were lucky to maintain control of the vehicle (and not hit any other vehicles) while swerving around the road.

Once stopped, it took a long time to process our issue, to send someone out simply to say state "yes, it is broken and can't be repaired, " and then another hour and a half for a tow truck to come. That added up to almost 4 hours on the side of a busy interstate. No one I spoke to really seemed to care at all about the situation I was in. They had no sense of urgency and never called back with new information to keep me updated. I was told by the last person that night that the claim was put in the system (it was now after 10PM), so it should be processed by the closest store and their inventory department starting at 7AM and we should be moving forward in the hours after that. Unfortunately, when I woke up at called them a little bit after 7 (because again, they are horrible at communicating with you), they said they were waiting on one person in New Jersey (we were stuck in Missouri) to get to the office and approve the claim. I asked every which way that I could if there was any other living soul on the planet that could approve this claim and they said no (even though all the boxes had been checked off to get a new truck and someone literally just had to say "yes"). So we waited for hours for that person to show up, and then it took many more hours for a tow truck to bring the functioning truck to us (we were a half hour from the closest store). All along, again, there was no communication from them unless I called and waited on the line for 10+ minutes each time. They also said they would hire a team of movers to help us load the items from the broken down truck to the new one, except that they didn't do that until much later so we were already done doing it ourselves by the time the movers showed up.

After I returned the truck and called the customer service to get a refund and reimbursement for the inconvenience and for the time spent in a hotel, they again showed that they really didn't care about my situation. They read their script that said "I'm sorry to hear that, sir, " but when I asked them to consider more than just the "inconvenience, " to think about the dangerous situation they put us in when telling us to keep driving on a faulty truck, they just kept reading their same script. "We can offer you a 20% refund on the truck fee, " which turned out to be $73, and then I have to email my hotel and food receipts to a specific email address. I'm now struggling to get their email address to work, as I've spent weeks just trying to get through to someone to get some reimbursement back, and simply get someone to care enough to set this straight. My saga with them is still not over, and it feels like it never will be. They are extremely slow and their lack of caring and urgency is infuriating. I've worked in customer service for years and I know that at the end of the day, all people want is to feel like someone cares about your trouble and wants to make it right. I'm not unreasonable in my demands and issues with this company, and yet they have consistently shown through the entire process that they fall very short of the mediocre bar of service I'm asking from them.

Used budget truck rental for a move from california to texas. When we dropped off the truck we left an open box of unopened food in the front: chips, coke, candy and also rayban sunglasses in the box. The box was lcut in half to carry our goods. It was all in open clear view. That night we realized we left the box in the front. We were mostly concerned about the sunglass. Es obviously. I called first thing in the morning. They told me they thought it was trash and threw it all away. Really? You see a box of food that has not been opened along with sunglasses and you thought it was trash? Lame.

I rented a car from Budget at the Ft. Myers, FL airport between May 26 and June 4, 2015. I returned the car as scheduled and with a full gas tank. The Budget attendant checked me in, said everything was fine and gave me a receipt. Nine days later when I received my new credit card bill I noticed a $42 charge from Budget. Research on their website showed it was for refueling. When I contacted Budget customer service to have the charge refunded, they said they would not do it because of the elapsed time. The rep offered me half as a "goodwill gesture" to go away. So, I have been cheated out of $21 with no avenue for appeal. Pretty nice way to pump up the profit margin! I will never rent another Budget vehicle!

I had reserved a midsize car with the Denver Airport location late May 2015. Upon arrival at the airport, one of our passengers fell down the escelator and was rushed to the hospital. We rushed to Budget to get the car since we couldn't ride with her in the ambulance. I told the representative we needed directions to Denver Health Hospital in downtown Denver. He told me he had no way to look up directions and refused to ask any of the other desk representatives as they were helping other customers. He offered to put us in another vehicle that had a navigation system and would only charge us for the use of the navigation system. With my Sister rushed to the emergency room, I was about ready to hitch hike there. After we arrived at the hospital, I noticed the "use of the navigation system" cost me an additional $ 128.00 ! Days later, hours before I returned the car. I phoned ahead to ask that someone drop us off at the airline terminal instead of taking the shuttle bus since my Sister's injuries were too great to make the big steps up into the shuttle bus. They acted like I was requesting a ride to the moon. They did send someone out. He spoke little English. We clearly told him the name of our airline and he repeated it back to us. We saw the directions for the terminals and watched him head for the wrong one. When we told him, he got rather short and said, "I be here 5 years, I know where to go." After he slowly rolled under the terminal canopie, reading the signs for the individual airlines he said, "I no see Southwest." We told him it was at the East terminal and he had taken us to the West terminal. He shrugged his shoulders and said, " I no know how to go there...good-bye." REALLY? He wanted us out right away. I told him I needed to get a wheel chair for my Sister. He gave me a sour face and told me "I go back work". A poliveman helped us get her into the wheelchair while the guy sped off. We had to go to the complete apposite side of the airport. What a LOUSY way to treat new customers. After I complained to Budget, they affered to send me a credit coupon. I don't have a Budget center in my town. I would have to drive over 30 miles from my town just to use the coupon. Wow. Won't ever use Budget again.

shall NEVER use Budget again. I recently picked up a rental at Charleston, SC airport. My flight came in very late and it was after midnight when I picked up my rental. The agent went through all the "extra's" and I answered "no" to them all. He tapped something on the keypad and said "sign here". He gave me my receipt and told me where my rental was. A day later I was on my checking account and noticed a pending charge for 3 times the amount I was supposed to. I called customer service and they said "that's a $100.00 security deposit and will drop off once you return the rental."
I was relieved. But then the next day the full charge went through. I called customer service again, and was told they had a "legal and binding document showing that I had accepted an extra" and "I was fully responsible for the charge". The customer service person started using all the legal language, and it was clear I was not going to be able to get any help at all.
I am elderly, and feel as though I have been treated unfairly. I only needed that rental for an overnight, and remember telling the agent at the counter as such.
Once again, I shall NEVER use this company again.

My wife and I recently went on a vacation with our 2 children and rented a car from Budget car rentals. We were greeted at the rental counter by a very friendly staff and were having multiple conversations between the staff members and our family regarding where we were from, and what we would be doing while visiting the state (New Mexico). They pointed at the monitor for us to check off what we thought were the appropriate boxes regarding extra insurance, mileage, gas… the standard stuff on the agreement forms while we were all engaged in pleasant conversation. How wrong we were.

When it was time for us to return the car we were searching for a gas station so that we could replace the 14 gallons we had used on our vacation. There were no gas stations visible from the freeway, and the few times we took an off-ramp there were no gas stations, or signs indicating a gas station around. Since we were unfamiliar with our surroundings, and we had to get to the airport, we decided to just bring the car back and pay the extra price per gallon to have Budget refill the tank. Apparently, since we did not check the box to have them fill up the tank when we returned the rental, the price changed from what would have been $2.45 per gallon to $9.29 PER GALLON! The fuel charge totaled $130.98 for $34 worth of gas! Almost a $100 extra charge just because the box was unchecked. This information was buried in the agreement, was not made clear to us initially, and as I mentioned earlier, we were distracted by pleasant conversation at the time of the rental.

When we asked to have the punitive amount taken off and replaced with what the price would have been had we known how ridiculous the charge would be, we were coldly told that "that's what you agreed to." When I asked WHY the cost PER GALLON was so high they mechanically responded, "that's policy." There was zero compassion and understanding from the staff as to why we would be irate at an almost $7 dollar PER GALLON service charge. Every response was like a recording, "that's policy", "that's what you agreed to"… When I asked them "who in their right mind would EVER agree to that type of charge" they keep up with their impersonal mantra. By-the-way, this was on Mother's Day.

We asked to speak with the manager (Laura Warfield) and as you can probably guess, she responded with the same inhuman responses - no compassion and zero customer service. I reminded the manager that this was Mother's Day and that my wife, and mother of my children, was devastated at the lack of caring and understanding we were being shown by Budget. The manager quipped, "Well, I'm not going to do anything to reduce the charges".  I then responded, "So you could do something, you just won't right? It is up to you." The manager replied, "I can give you the entire rental for free if I wanted. I'm not going to do anything."

When I returned home I called the customer service number and was given the exact same responses. No help at all and once again, no compassion. The phone representative went into repeat mode stating "it is a valid charge." I responded, "$9.29 per gallon is NEVER a valid charge when gas prices in that state are around $2.30 a gallon." You'd be surprised that his response was, "it is a valid charge."  They couldn't care less about me as a customer and they have made it clear that is the case. I am merely a case number to them. I'm not sure why the phone number listed was referred to as a customer service number. The outrage I felt was/is palatable. No willingness to compromise on behalf of the customer what-so-ever! Just animatronic responses and a pass-the buck mentality.
 
If Budget car rentals, a company we have rented with for years and spent thousands of dollars with, is incapable of the most basic customer service or general decency, I suggest everyone stay clear of them. I guess they are doing so well that one small customer doesn't matter to them. The treatment I have received has turned me into an advocate against Avis/Budget group. I have a case pending with their corporate offices but from what I've experience from multiple Budget representatives, I fear the only recourse I have is to shout it from the mountain top how horribly they treat their customers if there happens to be an issue of sorts. I teach college and will make it my mission to educate the thousands of students I have to avoid using Budget or Avis. My voice is small but much bigger than most.

Recently my good friends rented a truck to move from Indiana to Tuscon. Even though she had had a similar experience with Budget before, she gave them a second chance because they were cheaper than U-Haul. That's the only good thing that can be said. After picking up the truck and hiring movers, the nightmare began. First, the movers could not get the car trailer off to load the truck because the jack that Budget provided was stripped out. After calling Budget, we were rudely told that the movers must have broken it. ( this was not the case, the jack was defective ) Then after getting the truck half loaded, the movers discovered the roof was leaking so it had to be unloaded and my friends had to wait until the next morning for a new truck because Budget wanted to inspect it before delivery. Well after delivering it the next day, there was a headlight out which they came back to fix that afternoon. A new contract had to be signed because it was a different truck from before. While taking care of that my friend asked if she could be compensated for the extra wages she had to pay the movers to load, unload, then reload the truck. She was basically told " Not our problem, call customer service ". After getting on the road, they discovered the car in tow wasn't chained correctly. This was by no fault of theirs as there were no instructions provided for this either written or verbally. They then stopped at the next closest Budget for assistance with this and no one knew how to fix this so my younger female friend had to crawl under the trailer and fix it herself. Due to all of these delays, they missed an important family event and then after arriving, unloading, and returning the rental truck, they were basically told " tough luck ladies, that's how it goes". So, word to the wise, pay a bit more for the competition and stay far, far, away from this company.