Budget Car Rental

Aurlien Soitel _{on Google}

Feb 9th, 2023

After returning the car perfectly I have been automatically charged $18 for fuel that I had refilled. I called the office FIVE TIMES to resolve this issue, have been put on hold for hours, I talked to at least three persons who told me were going to refund me, which I never was. There is just nothing to do to get my money back. This is pure robbery.

steve russo _{on Google}

Jan 23rd, 2023

Not worth renting from Budget to save a dollar. Extremely slow process. Rented from 2 different Budget locations within last month and had to wait an hour both times to get my vehicle even with a reservation.

Charlie Nguyen _{on Google}

Dec 27th, 2022

I got a confirmation for my Toyota 4Runner reservation but staff at Torrance office said there no SUV available, only pickup truck and mini van. There was a white Toyota 4Runner on the parking space but he said that SUV is not available. He offered a mini van instead, what can you say since I have to take my family home. I think something was not right.

Anubhav Gupta _{on Google}

Dec 27th, 2022

Staff at the office is good and helpful.
The customer service guys are retarded, and dont understand simple English. I rented a car for a day and had to extend it by 1 day. I had to talk to 5 people over 3 calls, requesting for the extension.
Over the call, first person confirmed my extension. But I didnt receive any confirmation email. I called them second time and representative asked me for additional charge for modification and confirmed that there was no extension that I requested. When I was returning the vehicle, the representative in the office confirmed that I was already charged for the extension so I can keep the vehicle for another day. When I was about to drop off the vehicle, I inquired if they take the time zone into account since the billing cycle is 24 hours; I picked the vehicle from California and returned in Colorado, so I simply inquired that if the time is adjusted accordingly. This representative confirmed that there was no extension on my account so I would be penalized once I return the vehicle. I tried to extend it again over the call, and he couldnt do that because the drop off location is closed when I was supposed to return the vehicle. I went to the drop off location myself before this call and confirmed that the drop off location accepts after hours return and has key drop-box. But this representative argued that it didnt because the system says. Great work! So you think I was smoking and hallucinated of the instructions for keys drop off! So the representative accepted his limited authority on helping me. Subsequently, I requested him to connect me to the customer care and voila, great news, this representative is customer care representative. My call was transferred to the billing department. I explained the whole situation to this representative after which he said, Hold and behold, Im sorry, but I cant help you with this. Upon my insistence to talk to someone who either has authority or could take an action, he asserts that nothing can be done and I will be charged for two days extra. In less than 24 hours, I had to request the same extension 4 times which the agents/representatives confirmed to exist and not exist as per their convenience.
A great response I received from one of the representatives was you are late in returning the vehicle, so extend for two days more so that you can return to the same location. Yeah sure, it was my fault that the weather conditions were bad. I should have cleared the skies and snow before driving on the road. No agent/representative can do anything, they interpret one information in their own way, and make up the return time. Everyone gave me a different return time for a simple 24 hour billing cycle. Great mathematics! I spent an hour over the call to confirm where shall I return the vehicle and how much would I be charged. Why should I pay for miscommunication and my time wastage because of your untrained staff or unclear guidelines. I didnt request an airlift of a car for which the guidelines didnt exist. It was a simple extension by 24 hours in normal timeline, nota time scale defined in physics or astrophysics for some celestial/cosmic event. When one representative confirmed extension, I saw a debit on my credit card. After few hours, there was no debit and no extension. They just kept playing with debit and credit. I had to deal with all of this on Jan 1, 2023. A great way to start another year by standing the ground to resist unethical professional behavior and the fraudulent charges.
Finally, when I suggested that Ill take this dispute to the authorities, the last representative created a case for me and confirmed no mischievous additional
charges. I rented the car with budget the first time and I MUST say that it was a terrible, frustrating, abusive, and disappointing experience. So far, they have confirmed they wont charge me extra, lets see if that is actually confirmed or another temporary confirmation and the things change if I had to speak to another representative.