Problems with Budget Rent A Car

[dog friendly]

Anyone ever have over charges or false damage claims with Budget rent a car?

[philnpat]

Have used Budget several times with no problems.

[jojo]

I had problems with Enterprise in a locally franchised office in Phoenix. They claimed that I had a stone hit the windshield and billed me for replacing the windshield 6 months later. I refused to pay and they turned it over to a collection agency. I communicated with the national corporate office and they took care of the matter. I wondered how many other people they had billed for the windshield in the 6-month period. I recommend calling the corporate.

[Cantwaittoarrive]

Anyone ever have over charges or false damage claims with Budget rent a car?

unless you buy their expensive insurance. I always have the rental agent go with me to the car and the agent and I note every single scratch ,dent, ding and chip. I had an issues about 5 years ago and called corporate but got nowhere. That's why I document eveything

[Shimpy]

I would never, ever use Budget again. I rented a new car in Salt Lake City and when I stopped for gas 200 miles later noticed that both front tires were not only bald, but cords were showing. In Yellowstone Park one tire blew and I had to use the donut tire in the trunk with the car parked in the road since I was in the mountains and no way to pull off the road. I tried to buy a repacement tire but had to drive over a pass to a station in the northern side of the park to get one in a snow storm with a donut tire and a bald tire. I needed to buy 2 front tires and it took me all day because the station keep having to go on a towing mission which was higher priority. I lost 2 days of vacation and when I returned the car with both bad tires in the trunk they offered to give me an upgrade the next time I rented a car. The least they could have done was not charge me for the rental. I sent pictures of the tires into the corp. office and never heard back from them.

[Bryan]

We rented a car from Budget in Minneapolis last August. When we walked to the car, my wife noticed damage to the right front corner and right rear side. Before leaving the Budget facility, I had them do an exterior inspection and give me a copy of the documentation of the existing damage (which was minor but unsightly). When we returned the car a week later, there were no issues so that was OK with me. No telling what would have happened if I had not documented the damage. I was about to toss some of that old paperwork (year end cleaning up of my desk) and saw the previous post about a bill for a windshield six months after the return. Think I'll hold onto it for awhile longer now - just in case.

[keithwand]

Always take pictures (time and date stamped) of the whole car including the roof when picking the car up and dropping it off.
I still have pics of cars I rented in April just in case.

[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.