[Mack184]

Never had trouble with false charges, but quality of vehicles and rudeness of staff are a different story.

Several years ago on a trip to LA we rented a Chrysler convertible from Budget. When we picked up the car it was in a poorly lit sub-garage. While I did do a pre-trip inspection, there were a lot of little details that became much more clear once the car was outside in the California sun. While the tires were not bald, they were VERY close to illegal, the car had been poorly cleaned and the interior had been badly abused. There were cigarrette burns in the upholstry and the general condition of the car was shoddy. I took pictures of the car, and then wheeled it right back into the Budget corral and requested a better car. The staff member made me wait 35 minutes for the manager. When I finally got to see the manager, the only thing he would promise is that he would bring us a new (better) car the next day at our hotel. It never came, despite repeated calls, there was always an excuse as to why they couldn't or didn't get there.

After I turned the car in, I made a formal complaint to the company showing the pictures I had taken of the car that was given to me. After about 4 months the company refunded my rental money and gave me a $200 certificate to use at another time.

The next year on a trip to Las Vegas we used the certificate. When we went to pick up our car at Budget, we didn't get the car we asked for and had made reservations for MONTHS in advance, and once again the staff was rude. So we used up our certificate, and when we dropped off our car we have not used Budget since.

However a note of warning...If you think you can just go to another counter at the airport with another company and think you are going to get better service, first check out who owns what. Virtually all of the major label car rental brands: Hertz, National, Avis & Budget and so on are franchise companies. So you can get to an airport and find out that the same franchisee owns/operates several of the major brands at that airport. So if for example you get bad service at Budget, you might find that the service at Avis is just as bad because the same franchisee owns that license as well.