Budget Rent A Car Reviews

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

We were charged $414.53 for a 1 day rental because we had to pick our dogs up from boarding on our way home from the airport. We didn't have time to sweep it out before returning the car because we had to work the next day. I was quoted $77.68 to rent the car for 1 day. I could understand a $50 charge for cleaning but $336.91 to sweep a car out is beyond outrageous. I will never rent from Budget again!

I WISH I would have read the reviews first. Just a horrible company with no integrity. Save your self the hassle of filing a dispute and do not rent from them.

I kept getting different prices on the same rental from different locations, I spoke to a supervisor about this and they abruptly hung up on me. The next call was the same rude tone unwilling to answer questions, this went on through 4 of their representatives with the end result being a rental from enterprise at a much lower price and happy employees to talk to.

Location: 495 south Rand road, lake Zurich
We Reserved a van with this car rental Ann we showed up to pick it up they had nothing available no vans, no one buttered to call to let us know... terrible service, waist of time

Worst ever, rent a bicycle or hitchhike. Probably safer that way. They are $#*!ing pathetic and will burn in hell for there rental practices and policies. Don't accept a blowjob from them cuz they will ask to make it better. $#*! off pricks.

This is the worst experience ever with this company. They charged an extra $100.00 for an upgrade. We had a Ford edge which we thought was a full size car. I guess not but we were charged for an upgrade. I called to ask questions and was told that they can't do anything about it.

This company didn't even clean our car, let alone sanitize it per COVID standards. We found papers &receipts in the vehicle from 3 weeks prior to our rental!! Upon calling customer service, i was informed to go to the hospital to be tested....by the customer service agent!!! I was then transferred to claims, which was conveniently closed for the day. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!

Budget/Avis has been an absolute nightmare and they shouldn't be in business. My boyfriend and I rented a vehicle for one day and regret is not word. He called made a reservation early that morning. We arrived at the Berlin turnpike location because it was convenient from where we live and the woman had no knowledge of the reservation. It's ok we're pretty laid back people and understanding.. but as we're waiting I noticed how filthy their location is. (I will be back just to take pictures) It looks like the health of the employees are at risk from the mold from the ceiling to the huge staining on the floor. Should have been a warning right then and there but I didn't want to judge and make a big deal and ruin our day. We rented a SUV for one day. We told the woman at the desk we were both going to be driving the vehicle she said I DID NOT NEED to be on the contract. We both advised her that we didn't want an issue returing the vehicle the next day and we wanted it to be on there. She said there was NO NEED to be on the contract. Regardless I should have made her do it but she works there.. you can't force someone to do their job. I should fight with her to do it? She gave us permission it was ok i was returning the vehicle because he was going to be at work. I returned the car in better shape than we got it... and the woman was completely unprofessional and defiant.. called me names and slammed the door in my face because I asked for a receipt. She said our contract was null and void and we never got a receipt or anything. No proof we ever returned the car on time or the condition of the car. Never a walk around the vehicle before hand or after. They pray on people to make a mistake and trust their "professionalism" for their personal gain and profit. Regardless of the corona virus time or not I'm sure many people have fallen victim in f this company.. maybe damage that wasn't their fault.. charging for uncleanliness that wasn't their fault. They are hurting for business and will ruin your day and take complete advantage of You. Looking forward to pursuing this matter because it's morally wrong in my eyes and no one should have to go through it.

Watch out for this company. It has no integrity! They do not take care of their cars. They are filthy on the inside and with only 7,000 miles on them they have computer problems. Meanwhile, their customer service smiles sweetly at you, engages you in conversation while tacking on extra charges that you are specifically refusing. Not worth the couple of dollar of savings. Run!

Renter beware! Rented car at Denver airport 3/6-3/8/20. Was told they had just checked in an all wheel drive vehicle I could upgrade to. Car had not been cleaned inside or washed-no problem-its snowing anyways. On April 30 (8 weeks later) I received a letter stating I would be charged $150 inside cleaning for excess sand. Nope. Called the number listed and he says well
I'm not sure that letter is from this company? I guess they need revenue due to Covid 19? I will fight them to the end but they will not get that money or another penny from me!

Horrible experience. I called a few days prior to moving my brother home from college and reserved a truck. Arrived to the pick up location and they said that had no reservation in the system. The location also said that they didn't have the truck that I reserved. They told me to call support. Support said that they could see the reservation in the system and transferred me seven times. I talked to seven different people, all who couldn't help and refused to transfer my reservation to another location. In the end, I never got my truck. I had to call ten different rentals in the area before picking a better priced, better customer serviced Uhaul. Never use this place. So unprofessional. Use Uhaul or Enterprise instead.

i have rented a car here over 10 times and my experience was great until recently- when covid 19 was just starting, when i turned my rental in. I paid for the 1st 2/wks, then on my 3rd/wk. i called CSR to renew it thru the automated system, they took about 200 dollars for a deposit which was fine. The 4th week, I renewed it again- this time they took over 600 dollars extra after i already paid for the 4th week. Unbelievable! I called and ask why they over charge me, the agent said they would refund me. The money had not shown on my acct. so we called again, the agent said they are so busy and was sorry it had not happen yet. So that was that. Again, the money still was not there. We called again, this time a different story, they're story is that the last agent we talked to did not put all this information down but yet they saw that we had called. We were told now to email a copy of our rental agreement. So we did. We get an email back saying that the 3rd time we renewed the car, it was not done properly etc. so unfortunately we would not get that money back. Horrible! When this pandemic dies down, we will be taking this company to court for small claims. We will fight thru this. We believe that the reason for this is that because they are not making business, they will take anyone's money. We will never rent here ever again! So good luck people- i would not even bother. f.y.i., we rented our car at portland oregon- canyon road location.

Filled the vehicle just prior to returning to Denver, CO and discovered later that my card was charged $104.03 for not returning full of fuel. Disputed with them (I have the gas receipt and charge on my credit card) and they said they couldn't prove it was for their vehicle despite the matching time and date. Ridiculous. Will never rent from this dishonest company again.

ZERO STARS!!!

If you want a smooth encounter without any issues DO NOT rent from budget. This has to be the worst company I have ever done business with. I went with the online route to save money and time and was so upset with how the process turned out. First they gladly took my payment online once I ordered my desired vehicle. The next day when I went to said location to pick up the car, the employees said they did not have that car available that I reserved and failed to try to help me. They're only response was they could give me a smaller car than what I needed. Mind you I had me and my family's bags packed in the car and was needing to leave immediately. After I refused they failed to help and send me to another location. Long story short I went to 2 more locations which did not have the vehicles ready or didn't have them at all. The last place I went to offered to give me one after it was cleaned but told me I had to cancel my reservation and reserve the vehicle through their location. Not only so they charge you to cancel the reservation but will not refund you your money.

I was furious. I spoke to four different employees through the costumer service line on 4 different occasions and they all told me I could get my refund in different days. One said 1-3 days. Then I called and they said 3-5 then they said 10 days. The last tome I called the employee said I had to call MY bank because sometimes they hold refunds!

So unprofessional it's been a month and I still have seen no refund. Save yourself the headache and go with someone else.

On March 28, 2020, I went to the grocery store for me and my 2 kids. The total came out to $201.01, when I swiped my card, my biggest nightmare occurred. The screen read "declined". I immediately went to my banking app, to see a negative balance in my account. Under recent purchases was a charge from Budget Rent-A-Car for $686.70. I didn't understand where it came from, I had no time to call and get it reconciled, I couldn't stand there and cry because my kids and everyone else is watching me. The couple behind us said, "we don't mean to pry but we noticed that you didn't have enough to pay for your groceries, we want to help. There is a lot happening in the world right now and we need to take care of each other". The tears just instantly started falling, I didn't know what to do. I felt so helpless. I agreed to let them pay for my groceries and I asked for their information so that I could pay them back. They told me not to worry about it, and just pay it forward. I thanked them over and over. They gave my kids a hug, even with the "social distancing". We went our separate ways, and I instantly got on the phone and called Budget Customer Care. I could remember the first representative, instantly telling me "sorry this is the wrong number to report this" and he gave me a number to a telemarketing for getting car insurance reduced for people 65+. I hung up and called back the customer service number, I remember the gentleman telling me repeatedly "ma'am you need to lower your voice because I'm not going to help you". I just kept saying "I want to talk to a manager.....I want to talk to a manager" He would respond "No....and you're not going to talk to me like that." He finally put a floor supervisor on the phone, his attitude was not much better than the representative that transferred me. When explaining to him this unknown charge, he made comments like "now I see what previous representative was talking about....please send a copy of this "imaginary charge"..." It just felt like nobody cared, I was a joke, and all my money was gone. I emailed a screenshot of my online bank statement, to the budgetdocuments email provided. I received a response to my email 2 days later apologizing for the inconvenience that this unexpected charge may have caused, but it was from tolls from a rental I had in February. I called Budget Customer Service, and explained to them that I purchased the toll package when I made the reservation at the Budget in Elmhust, I know this for a fact because the representative and I kept laughing and making fun of the fact that I drive 2 hours one way, coming from New Jersey to New York. I always purchase the toll package because I encounter over 10 tolls a day. They said they would look into, but I know my money is gone. There wasn't a bit of care on behalf of Budget in this entire situation, but when I am spending $1,000+ for monthly rentals all of the customer care in the world appears. Because of this situation, my bills that were on auto-pay, bounced back giving me insufficient funds charges and the whole nine. This has caused my family so many issues in what already has been one of the scariest moments in our history.

We rented a car from Budget in Las Vegas for 16 days. One week into the trip, the Corona virus started. Travelers were recommended to return home. We did not want to fly for obvious reasons, so we decided to drive. We called Budget and asked if we could return the car to an airport near our home. They told us a definite "NO". They did not allow this. Ok, understandable. We asked for a credit for the early return. Once again, we were told "NO". We had prepaid our car, so it was their policy not to do return fees. We went to Enterprise, rent a car, return the Budget Car and drove home. Enterprise not only lets you do a one way, but we reserved it for three days and made it home in two. We received credit for the one day! Needless to say, we will never use Budget again, Enterprise is the only way to go! By the way, yes, we did try contacting Budget every way we possible could. We emailed, sent texts and called. No response...

Never again will I book with Budget When I got to the counter they did not have a car in the class that I had booked My options where to pay an extra $138. for an upgrade I could book online for $10. or wait till a car came in and they hade no idea when that would be. after using there dispute resolution they would only give me $48 dollars back.

Never go with you again

I rented a car in Laredo, Tx. for what they said was 112.00 but when I turned the car in at Love Field, Dallas, TX. it was 223.00.
No recourse at Budget, they would not even discuss it.

I rented from Budget Rental Feb 26th 2020 and never again. I was falsely accused of a smoke odor and charged $250 after I returned the car only a day later. I'm not a smoker and I have records to prove it.
There was an odor of dirty sock/milk smell when I first rented the car and sat in the drivers seat. I wasn't sure if this was the natural scent of the interior, but definitely not a smoke odor. Again, I don't smoke and I'm never around anyone who does. They need to make this right and give me a refund. They have no evidence or documentation for these false accusations and have no right to convict me.

So disappointed in this company!!!! Our whole trip was cancelled due to things being shut down over the Coronavirus and they will NOT give us a refund on the vehicle. Not even a partial refund! I thin
k that is bad business and bull$#*!! I will NOT use this company again!

I wish a could give negative stars. And they were all rude when I called

We tried to cancel our reservation amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to government-imposed closures of everything we had tickets to visit while on vacation, like many others, we are rebooking our trip for later in the year. I was met with rudeness and a 'who cares' attitude from Brandon when reaching out about waiving the $50 fee to reschedule. We will be taking our business elsewhere for now on and encourage others to do so.

I will never use Budget again. We flew in from a 18 hour flight, when we got to the desk for the vehicle the rep was extremely rude, was very uncompassionate and downright just mean. On the website they didnt mention that the deposit needed to be made with a credit card and we had already prepaid for our rental. they wouldn't accept a cash deposit, so here we are in a different part of the country stranded at the airport. I called my aunt and she drove 4.5 hours to the airport to help put-on the deposit as they wouldn't allow her to do it by phone. They mentioned insurance and she stated she had insurance through her credit card, Charles - the rep told her her credit cards insurance probably isn't good for my husband to drive. She was about to try to contact her Card company to find out and he got really snippy about it and told her we needed to make up our minds soon as we are not allowed to leave until we have it sorted. Now I would have cancelled the entire rental then and there but then we would have lost our prepayment for the vehicle for the week. so my aunt was placed in a spot of pressure that she must sign for insurance for our rental or she shouldn't help us get the vehicle.

A couple days later I call in to discuss the unhappiness of the situation and the man said - I will waive the insurance and if you have any issues to quote my confirmation number.

when we brought back the vehicle I explained to them that I had spoken on the phone to budget and their reply to me was "I dont give a sh* t who you talked to its not going to work that way" So I called up budget again and quoted the confirmation number given to me and the man who we had talked to wrote different notes on the account and basically made us look like liars. a supervisor took over the call and said they would look over the call and we would hear back in 3 business days and we have yet to hear back. very dissapionted and want my money back. will never recommend budget to anyone ever again.

Do you want to be taken advantage of? This is the rental car company for you. First, we rented a car online. When we went to pick the car up the next morning they told us that they would not rent is the car because they only accept major credit cards and we charged with PayPal that had one of our debit cards. So needless to say we went elsewhere. They wound up processing our money 2 days later and refused to give us a refund, so we now need to get our bank involved....obviously this company is hard up and not interested in doing the right thing for their customers. We normally rent a car from them once every 3 months...no longer will they get our business. So if you want to pay for services that haven't been rendered than you should choose this company. I dont know how companies like this stay in business. STAY AWAY!