Budget Rent A Car
Reviews and Complaints

I was quoted $88.29 for a mid-size car rental; two days - basically looking to save myself cab fare and my son the trouble of coming to pick me up on Christmas Eve. Upon arriving at 11:30pm, the customer service rep advised me that I could 'have any car on the lot, since they were full'. I said no the mid-size is fine. He responded well we have a brand new ford explorer, you could take that if you want. So, I did. I drove 66 kms and filled up the tank to over the amount I had received in the vehicle. upon arriving back at the airport two days later, the female customer service rep refused to go out and check the fuel gauge (apparently too much trouble for her), and we were advised that we'd receive our invoice via email the next day. When we got the email, not only had we been charged a re-fueling fee, but also the $45/day upgrade fee! So, I went from paying $88.29 all in, to $264.46! Why would pay that much to save myself a $60 carfare? When I called to get it corrected, I was given the royal run-around. They would have to 'investigate'. A whole week later, and I am called to be advised that since the upgrade was 'circled' on the document I was given to sign (bearing in mind that buddy wanted to get the heck out of there on Christmas Eve since he was only there to greet me when my flight arrived), then I am on the hook for that. As for the re-fueling charge - well, I had to produce a receipt, because apparently someone forgot to inspect the vehicle when we arrived, and apparently the next day too! Luckily, I kept the receipt! So, do NOT rent a vehicle from this crooked location or any Budget location!

After making a reservation online to rent a truck, and receiving a confirmation for a truck, Budget failed to provide a truck. I had even attempted to cancel the reservation, but they wouldn't allow it unless they charged me a $50 penalty. When I arrived to pick up the truck, the attendant informed me that someone should have called me when they were unable to provide the truck. Afterwards I discovered a $50 charge to my credit card. Budget agreed to remove it, but claimed it took 5 business days for it to show up.

I rented a 24 feet commercial truck from Budget.
Upon inspection I found the truck rear bumper was hanging on by a thread. The 2 brackets that held the bumper from swaying back and forth were missing and broken weld. The extra support brackets along the frame were broken welds. The top of bumper channel iron supports were welded very poorly with the look of a amateur welder. The welds were painted over with black paint (trying to hide the bad repair job)
The rear spring brackets on the truck were broken.
I had to use the truck, there were none other to rent. In driving the head light were shining in the trees at the side of the road and the dim lights were shining 10 feet in the front of the truck. The big problem was the fuel gauge did not work, no low fuel light, and the wipers blades were dislodged somewhat from the metal and did not clean the windshield. The truck was inspected at the Sears store in Murray Ky and the man that inspected said He forgot to write down the rear bumper. What an O well attitude!
I should have taken pictures.
Why plate the Budget trucks in Oklahoma? Because they have no safety commercial truck requirements. The list of states that do not test trucks as follows: States without safety, emissions, or VIN inspections

Arkansas
Florida
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Wyoming
How is that? RCR

I had a trip to Colorado planed, so I called Budget car rental on Tuesday and reserved a compact car for Friday between 5:00 and 6:00 pm for 3 days, and they said it would be there waiting for me, and later they confermed it, I was leaving that night as soon as I picked it up and loaed it, but when I went to pick it up ( on time ) they told me they did not get it, but I could have a 4 wheel drive SUV insted, well I wasn’t going to pay out the money a gas hog from Kansas City to Colorado, I ask why they did not call me, I drove 60 miles out of my way to get it, He just laughed and shrugged his shoulders, so I checked around with other car rentals, but nothing was available without a reservation, so I had to take my small 98 Toyota pick up with 264000 on it and have 2 tires put on it and have the oil changed before I could leave, anyway, my trip had to be cut short and a very uncomfortable ride, thanks Budget, for your great customer service and dependability.

Well it started as a good deal on the truck and trailer rental, good prices.so we went with budget over the other companys. Bad mistake...
we moved across country 2500 miles, the truck they gave us broke down for the first time on the pa turnpike. It blew over 5 gallons of oil all over the car we were towing..we were stuck there for over 4 hours, the second time it broke down was in columbus oh.Thats were it took a tuen for the worst.we were stuck there for almost two full days while the company tried to get us a replacement tuck.The truck they gave us was worst then the first one.older, more miles and dirty, plus the fact that it didn't run any better...Well it gets even better because the manager from budget jim s. promised a good truck and they would awp the load for us . He was hiring a moving company crew to do it for us so we can get back on the road.Instead he hired the tow company (pro) and the workers and there family to do it.. we stop by to check on the progress and abserved the workes smoking while moving our stuff, matress laying on the ground..when we said somthing to them john said you can move it yourself then..well that stared a war with my wife and john. we ended up leaving because it was a mess. .Also the trailer strap was broken that the pin for the hitch was broken.we pick the truck up late that night and started driving. well we get to our new home 3 days late. we open the door to unload and forund that they just threw our stuff in the truck, they didn't use any of our moving blankets or tie downs, they were all in the back just laying there...over 50% of our furniture was broken, and or dirty. broke the axle on my sons quad..I have called the manager a dozen times with no responce, the claims department keeps making us jump through hoops, and giving us a hard time.NEVER, NEVER AGAIN will we use budget truck or car rentals.learned a hard lessons...

I had a trip to Colorado planed, so I called Budget car rental on Tuesday and reserved a compact car for Friday between 5:00 and 6:00 pm for 3 days, and they said it would be there waiting for me, and later they confermed it, I was leaving that night as soon as I picked it up and loaed it, but when I went to pick it up ( on time ) they told me they did not get it, but I could have a 4 wheel drive SUV insted, well I wasn't going to pay out the money a gas hog from Kansas City to Colorado, I ask why they did not call me, I drove 60 miles out of my way to get it, He just laughed and shruged his sholders, so I checked around with other car rentals, but nothing was available without a reservation, so I had to take my small 98 Toyota pick up with 264000 on it and have 2 tires put on it and have the oil changed before I could leave, anyway, my trip had to be cut short and a very uncomforitable ride, thanks Budget, for your great customer service and dependability

I was on holiday in Australia last Sept/October. Whilst there I searched on line for cheap car rental and was directed to Budget. I duly booked a car and was offered excess reduction insurance which I accepted. On arriving at Sydney Airport to pick up the car during the pick up process I was again offered the ecxess reduction and confirmed that I had already done this. I was asked to sign to confirm the booking details and left with the car.
When I returned to the uk I noticed that I had been charged £240 on my credit card by a firm called IMALL for excess reduction, I also noticed that the charge for the car by Budget was also £400 more that expected. When I queried this I was told that the extra charge was the excess reduction.
After about a dozen emails and phone calls I discovered that when I booked on line I had done it through an agent and they had sold me their version of an excess reduction. Then at the desk when I picked up the car, when I thought I was signing to confirm the details I was in fact signing to take out Budgets own excess reduction policy, which incidentally was nearly twice the cost of the one I had bought when reserving the car on line.
The upshot is that Budget say it was my own fault as I should have known that I had already signed up for a policy and refused the policy that they offered me at the counter.
They are probably right but I think that the booking process is confusing and I believe the counter staff knew what was happening and took advantage of the confusion to earn extra wages through selling me unnecassary insurance. I think they contravened the NSW selling regulations that stipulate that they have to act with honesty and integrity.
C Bone

Made an online reservation for a compact car on Budget's website, and the reservation was confirmed. Upon arriving in Phoenix, there was a 25 minute wait before getting to the counter, where I was informed by the agent that my reservation wasn't for the car size that was on the printed confirmation, it was for the next smaller size class. For $11.00 per day extra, I could have what I'd actually already reserved. The next 15 minutes were spent deflecting sales pitching and scare tactics for LDW, Roadside assistance, etc. The Nissan Versa that I got had no package shelf and no way to obscure valuables in the car, a fact pointed out by the agent as a reason to upgrade. This was blatant and illegal bait-and-switch, sprung on me in an airport in a strange city when they had me at a disadvantage. There are also about $30.00 in charges and fees on the bill I'm still trying to figure out. Budget's conduct was totally unethical, and they'll never get the opportunity to pull this garbage with me again.

I rented a car on Budget.com and prepaid for 5 days. Unfortunately, due to some unforsee circumstances, I had to return the car 2 days early. When I picked up the car at the rental count at the DFW airport I told them about the early return, they told me I had to call Budget.com to get a refund for the 2 extra days because they don't do refunds at that location. I called Budget.com and the customer service rep insisted that I need to talk to the people at the rental counter as they own my contract. I called the DFW rental counter again and repeated what I was told by Budget.com and I read their rental terms and conditions to them regarding prepy rentals, the rep on the other side of the phone ignored everything and refused to help. NEVER PREPAY FOR ANYTHING WITH THIS COMPANY BECAUSE WHEN THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY THEY CAN CARELESS ABOUT YOU. SOME CUSTOMER SERVICE. I'll be shredding my loyalty membership card with them and I will never rent from them again!

I recently traveled to Liberia Costa Rica and rented a car for the week at the Budget Rent a Car airport location. I booked and confirmed my reservation online at www.budget.com in the United States. When arriving at the rental counter in Liberia, the counter agent initially attempted to charge me hundreds of dollars more than my confirmed reservation. He reduced the amount but still did not match my confirmed reservation total claiming "additional tax was being charged".
Upon returning the car at the end of the week this same counter agent "converted" the total US dollars into Costa Rica Colons using an over-inflated conversion rate which later appeared on my charge bill as an additional overcharge. Budget has refused to make an adjustment of this overcharge. I have the amount in dispute with my credit card company.
Bottomline to all travelers ... BEWARE Budget Car Rental in Liberia Costa Rica. Unethical business practices!
This will be my first AND last time renting from Budget at ANY location in the world.

Car not as advertised, supposed to get a Pontiac G6, got a destroyed Chevy Coblat with 25K miles. Filthy, seats were busted, no recourse. To top it off, had a one hour wait to get the car, then, after returning, had to go through the desk again to finalize return. Big hassle, junk Cars, poor customer service. Please, do yourself a favor do not use budget.

I made reservations to pick up a truck from Belair MD on 11/14/2009 and return it to Woodlawn MD on 11/15/2009. The reservations included a 16ft truck and free 99miles. I received a phone call from budget informing me that they did not have any trucks at that location and informed me that I would have to pick up a truck from Parkville MD.

Which is out of the way? The lady gave me the difference in mileage added to the free 99 miles. My reservation informed me to call the drop off location in Woodlawn Md because they were closed on Sundays. I called them and they said it was fine to drop it off and asked that I drop the keys in the drop box and it would be processed the next day.

I dropped the truck off before the drop off time and dropped the keys in the box. I find out 2 weeks later that they charged me and additional day usage plus going over my mileage. I then called customer service which I was rudely greeted. The lady informed me that I did not have 99miles and she did not see where extra mileage was given to me for picking the truck up out of the way.

This is bogus. I did not drive anywhere close to 99miles. I would like a full refund of additional charges please. This is an unfair and wrong charge. I did not expect to be treated like this from Budget because I have been a previous customer who is why I chose to go with Budget and not Uhaul.

I reserved a car online and went with the pre pay option to save money. Online it states that if you need to cancel for any reason it’s not a problem. Budget will charge you $10-50 cancelation fee depending on the circumstances and refund your money as soon as possible. I canceled and was told that it would take 7 days to refund money. I asked why so long for an electronic transfer? Its just money they took out that they will resubmit to my account.

I’m still waiting on my refund. When I spoke with a rep today she told me it may take up to 10-15 days because the processing is behind because of the holidays. Do not pre reserve your vehicle online with a credit or debit card. They will charge you and you won’t know when you will get your money back. Place a reservation for the car without prepaying it.

My family rented a Hyundai Sante Fe to take our daughter from Illinois to California for medical treatment. from our
Budget facility.
The car was to be ready before noon but they did not have it ready until 4:30PM., which added to our pressure to
get to her appointment and make up for lost time.
When we returned about 10 days later, at 3AM, we had to wait for the car wash to open
at 8:30AM to wash and clean the inside, which took about an hour. If it wasn't clean, we
would have to pay a fine to Budget. We had driven all night.
The rental facility was open around 8AM. We took the car back by 9:30 and the company charged us for an entire extra day. We
talked to customer service and told them that they were hours late getting our rental to us that we thought
they should be fair with us on the return. They would not budge.

I sent a letter to Mr. Nelson CEO, at the company on December 16th 2010 but have not received a reply to date.
I tried calling their corporate office but kept getting caught up in a telephone maze, or if I got a person, they just sent me back to customer service who will not help. We are more than frustrated that a company's corporate office will not respond.

To top things off, our daughter was very ill and when we returned, we found that there wasn't even a
spare tire in the car! We had traveled over 1500 miles each way and over desolate areas and desert at night. The
facility we rented from knew we were traveling a great distance but didn't take the time to assure our safety.

We have tried numerous times to find a way to contact the CEO's office, and there appears to be no way through Budget to get a response from those who run the company.

I was in an auto accident in calgary, rented a vehical to return to edmonton, got told there would be no drop off fees for the nonreturn of the car to the exact location I rented from. I returned to Edmonton and tried to drop the rental off at an Edmonton location. I was told by staff that I could not pay for the rental becasue I rented it from a budget that was owned by a different person and edmonton could not foreward the payment to calgary. I was also told that I did not preauthorize a return for the vehical in another city, but they (management in "calgary") were willing to waive any drop fees but I would have to return to calgary if I wanted to pay for my rental: if not they were going to charge my credit card. I do not want my credit card charged, I had cash and a debit card to pay for the rental. Budget refused to allow me to pay for my bill.
I was going to rent a cobalt from them but the vehical had a crack in the windsheild that was not listed on the damage report PLUS one of the headlights was discolored and full of humidity and you could not see the headlight properly. The inside windsheild had foot prints on the passanger side (inside windows were not cleaned), all 4 car matts were flipped upside down so they looked clean, but when you turned them over they were full of mud, hair and other things.
Calgary is 3 hours away, I cannot drive a 6 hr return trip to pay for a bill and was told I may be able to make payment at another city but becasue the owner of the calgary vehical told the edmonton location to not accept payment the charge will occur on a credit card that is suppose to be only used for id purposes. Not impressed: I can pay off my credit card with the cash I offered to Budget but why should I have to pay for the rental with a credit card instead of using cash or debit? I cannot figure out how to log a complaint on-line through budget, found this site and will start my complaint by posting here...

I am livid and have never received such poor customer service in my
life. I have always had pleasant experiences w/ National, Avis and
Budget, but this time I chose Budget. I picked up a car from Budget out
of the Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic office on November 16th 2017.
It was rented through the Internet at a rate of apx 30.00 per day. When
I went to obtain my car there was a customer service person
there-female-that checked me in--she assured me the car would be full of
gasoline and would not be red.

As a single person traveling cross country to meet my fiance I did not
want a red car for safety reasons.The attendant-male- that gave me an
orientation of my car--which turned out to be RED and had only 1/2 a
tank of gas-wrote on the paper that the car had a little more than 1/2
tank of gas.

Bear in mind I had been on a "Red eye" from California and had been in
airports and on planes for about 11 hours. I was very jet lagged. I
questioned him as to why he had indicated on the paper that it was over
1/2 full. He said not to worry it was the same as half full. I told him
I was promised a full tank and a different colored car.(I would be
driving cross country and wanted to have as much gas as possible. He
acted frustrated, as he had already put my luggage in this one, and
said we could change cars. I was ready to pass out at this point. Just
wishing to be on my way before nightfall for safety reasons---I said
don't worry about it. He pointed to where I could get gas.

When I returned the car on Dec 1st there was a problem. Before
returning the car we filled it up to half full just before getting into
the airport.We arrived in more than enough time to catch my flight and
get my connecting flight.However the customer service person wanted more
money for the "deficit gas". I explained the previous scenario to her
and then to her supervisor-also female- who was eating french fries at
the desk in front of me. They did not care--They went round and round
with me for at least 25 minutes and then we decided to fill it up to
where they wanted it. I feel this was a tactic to just have us say
forget it and pay the high price that is tacked on for a the extra gas.
They knew what time my flight was and figured I would not put up a fuss-
My fiance went and put more gas in the car. I got in line for my flight.
As a result of this hassle these Budget customer service agents gave me,
I missed my flight.

I had to pay a change fee of 100.00 to jet blue and I had to spring for
an expensive hotel near the airport that evening- 185.00.(Quality Inn)
285.00 +15 for the gas and about 50.00 for food. 351.00--The of course
the rental of my car $302.01--Turned out to be a 753.01 car rental!
Such a deal!

To top it all off, my fiance and I were mugged as we walked to get food
near the hotel. Luckily I was able to make it to the hotel and my fiance
and the hotel manager handled the problem. needless to say this was a
really bad experience. The c.s. people at budget were horrible and
relentless over a sum that amounted to probably no more than $50.00 that
they would have been making. I think it cost us about 15.00 to fill it
up.I know that if you were traveling you would not have liked to be
treated like this.Times are hard, but it is my philosophy that every
customer counts and the way that you treat people really does matter. At
the very least, I would like to be compensated for my expenses.

Your prompt attention to this would be very much appreciated. It may
seem like a small thing to you, but when your vacation memories are
ruined it is a big thing. I'm sure you understand and will look forward
to your reply.Good communication and customer service, as I'm sure you
know, goes a long way. By the way I'm fluent in Spanish too--It was not
a misunderstanding. I feel like I was mugged twice. The bandits didn't
get anything, but Budget cost me a substantial amount.

It's also really about the principal and how horrible I felt after this
experience. Thank you.