Budget Car Rental Reviews

$ 75 dollars in hidden fees BS
Returned my car with a full tank of gas and was charged $20 for fuel service i called and complained was told just a simple mistake YA RIGHT RIP OFF

This is the worst rental company I have ever seen. My brother rented a truck in Arizona to take his car to Missouri. The truck broke down a few miles from the Oklahoma border. He called budget, and was put on hold for over 30 minutes. He called me and I called budget, I explained his situation and requested help. The person kept asking me for information, I didn't have. I told them 4 times that I was not at the location. So they gave me an event number and they would contact him in 90 min. After they reviewed.? After 2 hours someone showed up and tried to start the truck. They couldn't fix anything and did not offer to exchange the truck. 6 hours later he is still sitting in 97° temp. Trying to get budget to speak to him. He gets put on hold for the next available. I called budget and also got the run around, I finally called and asked to speak to a supervisor, and was told there was a waiting list. All I got was BS. When I again asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told this was my second warning. I just hung up on them as wasting my time. I suggested that my brother leave the truck and contact a different company.

4 cars in one day that I kept going back to get because every car had a problem! Worst customer service. First car had mechanical problems second one was so filthy 3 had a nail in a tire! They refused to come fix the car or bring me a different rental. I would not recommend this company at all!

Highly disappointed with Budget Car Rental. I made my reservation not even 24 hours ago and because I paid for my reservation in advanced and had to cancel my reservation that was not going to be utilized until August 31 and September 3, I am being charged $50 for each cancellation. However, those who do choose to pay later and in person are not assessed any fees. The prepaid policy needs to be revised because it’s misleading. It doesn’t mention that even if your reservation is months in advanced you’ll still be charged $50 to cancel. It mentions “You will incur a $50 processing fee if you choose to cancel a prepaid reservation 24 hours prior to the rental pickup time.” (Budget prepay policy-) My reservation was cancelled 90 days prior. None of representatives were helpful they all quoted the policy and hung up or ended the online chat. They lost out on nothing. Never have I experienced this with any rental company being a Military member who’s traveled quite a bit. I will not be doing business with Budget/Avis ever again.

Slow checkin but an upgraded vehicle was the result. Staff at Heathrow were friendly.
Only quibble was upgraded SUV was a Peugeot with R and 1 nearly identical with harrowing results.

1. The car showed an alarm in the panel
2. i had to take the car to the airport
3. they charged me the full fuel ( I only used it 10 miles - in and out the airport )
4. the second car they gave me had the toll service and it was somewhere in the 2nd paper they gave after they had to change the car
5. In theo this is my fault and I had to pay 180 usd
6. Took me 1.5 months to get ahold of someone that understood the situation and helped

Excellent experience! Imelda was very helpful and went out of her way to make the whole process easier. We were concerned because we had heard nightmare stories of people not being able to get cars in Honolulu because of lack of inventory. Also the return was simple and efficient. We would not hesitate recommending Wisecars and Budget.

DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET RENT-A-CAR. We rented from them in Miami Florida, and returned the car full of gas and trash free, however it had some sand in it from the beach. They charged me a $250 cleaning fee, ive rented from other companies before but never been charged that much if at all. After all its a rental! DO NOT RENT FROM THEM

HORRIBLE! I arrived to LVS with a prepaid rental agreement. I don't see how this was useful or expedited my experience in any way. Budget was the ONLY car company at the airport pick up area with a line that extended to the entrance of the building (and no, this was not because people were social distancing). It took me over an hour to get to the front of the line where I was then told that the car I had paid for and reserved was not available. I was moved to a sedan, without plates. I ended up missing my obligation because the time it took to retrieve the rental was excessive. I was prepared to shake it off and make the best of it but then I was met with the same experience on the day I returned. Only this time, the crowd and back up ultimately led me to missing my flight home. There were so many cars in the return garage that it was physically impossible to drive the car into the return drop off spot. The cars were lined up and down the ramp into the garage. I tried to call and let customer service know but I was only rerouted, put on hold, told to wait. When I can up with what I thought was a reasonable alternative (drop the car where there was visible room at the neighboring Avis company) the rep told me I'd be charged with a drop fee if I did that. And so, I no option but to wait and once things did seem to be moving, I had to wait more - for an agent to print a receipt and have me move on. That also took an unreasonable amount of time. And so, my daughter and I ended up missing our flight and had to spend six hours stuck in the airport where amenities are limited due to pandemic and the only option we could do to get us home was to take two flights, change planes, travel long hours, etc. Simple tip: If Budget anticipates that it will be busy, at the very least give a courtesy warning to your customers. I would have gladly allowed more time had I known it was needed. I held up my end of the contract by filling my rental car with gas, keeping it respectfully clean and returned on time. Budget, however did not hold up its end of the contract. Wrong car, no one to receive the car, overworked and mismanaged staff. Overall such a horrible experience that I will avoid using the company in the future. I requested a refund after reporting this experience and they DECLINED. And so, I will now share this honest review everywhere that I can.

Everything went pretty well, from picking up it went smoothly we received a nice clean comfortable van, drop off was a bit tricky as the directions on the paper work where not correct, I had to ask someone for directions in my airport parking garage as to where to leave it, but over all we where very satisfied!

I reserved a rental through a 3rd party. The total rental plus insurance was $308.10, which I pre-paid. I get to Budget on the day of pick-up and they tell me that I have to leave a $250 deposit, which they will hold. My Mom was with me and said she will use her card for the hold. Well they wouldn't allow it and told me that I had to contact the 3rd party site and ask them to add her on to the policy. I contacted the 3rd party and was told it was too late to add her on. Anyways, I ended up using my debit card. We finally get the car after an hour of going back and forth with Budget and the 3rd party people. The car was dirty and the tire presuure light was on for one of the tires. My Mom was saying they need to wash this car. However, we didn't have tine to wait for them to wash it, due to how long it took to even get the car. We complain to the manager abt the tire and ask if their is a slow leak. He says, he doesn't think so & thinks it's just because the car has been sitting up and that he'll put some air in it. We leave, pick up our 3 other other family members who were for us to get back, so we can leave(my Sister, 5yr. old Niece & 13yr. old Daughter). A few hours later after we're on the road, the tire pressure light comes back on. We ended up having to put air in the tire abt 4 times over the course of 2 1/2 days. The rental was only from Fri.-Sunday. When I go to drop the car off, I didn't fill the gas back up due to the issues we had with the car. And I complained about the tire to the guy who checked the car back in, whom appears to be a mangaer because he said they will comp me on the gas and he'll give me a discount on the car rental price & he uses his walkie talkie to call front desk agents to tell them to comp the gas on this car and give a discount. I thank him and asks if there's anything else that I need to do and he says, no it's done, you can leave. So, I leave! Almost 2 weeks later, I get a text alert from my bank of unusual activity and it was a $450 debit charge from Budget. I call Budget and they tell me to call back customer service in the morning. I call back the next morning & waited over an hour to speak to a Supervisor, which went into my working start time. I asked the Sup. abt the charges and was told that it was for a cleaning fee for a smoke smell. What? No one smoked in that car, near it, outside of it. We don't smoke! Plus, we had a 5yr. old & 13yr. old traveling with us the entire weekend. They are scammers! She offered a 25% discount. I declined! Then a 50% discount was offered. I declined! I'm not paying for something that didn't happen/we didn't do it. I asked for my complaint to be escalated. She gave me a case # & said a higher-up will contact me within 24-48hrs. Someone contacted me, again they only offered me a 50% discount and didn't care about me stating that no one was smoking in that car during our rental period. I declined the 50% discount because, Again, I'm not paying $450 for something that didn't happen. They just kept saying, well the car was inspected and there was a smoke smell and we checked & it was during your time of rental. BS! I don't know, if it's because I complained abt the tire and asked not to be charged for the gas due to the tire issues. So, they tacked on some other BS fee or what. But, I DO KNOW, that we DID NOT SMOKE in that car, near it or outside of it, because we don't smoke. I've now filed a complaint with the BBB & am awaiting to hear from them & will file with the FTC and whoever else I have to go through to get this BS fee overturned and my money refunded. Remember, I pre-paid $308.10 for the car through the 3rd party. And now Budget has debited $450 from my account for something that didn't occur. That's $758.10 for a 3day rental. Almost a $1000. Smh!

I reserved a car through a 3rd party~ wisecars back in January. Paid the money with my visa debit in full. When I took my trip last week March 18th, I get to budget car rental in Memphis, TN. I was turned away and was told by the customer service, who was quite rude~that they wouldn’t be able to let me rent the car that I reserved and paid for in January because I did not have a major credit card.
The woman was very unprofessional seemed to care less that I was stranded and crumbled up the paper with my information on it before I walked away as if to say next in line.
I will never rent from budget again. I also shared this concern with Wisecars the 3rd Party in this matter. They were equally of no help either so it looks like I’ve lost 330.00 and no one seems to care. I wouldn’t give budget or Wisecars a star.