Terrible experience, I reserved a Van and when I went to pick it up I was told that none were available.
Ultimately, I was able to get a vehicle, but they initially said there was none available despite my reservation. They said most cars had been marked for sale and couldn't be rented. After a 30 minute delay, they finally found a minivan (even though I had rented a Corolla or equivalent) that I was able to use. The minivan also had damage (mostly just minor scratches and a small dent), but none were marked or disclosed initially. I took images and videos and they did note these before I left. Upon my drop off, no one was working at the counter despite arriving during their posted working hours. I used the key drop, and I hope it all works out without any further hassles.
Vehicle was not ready when we arrived and staff seemed surprised that we needed the vehicle we reserved- as if there was no way to look ahead and see what was needed on the incoming reservations. We were asked to wait for one to be cleaned. A full 30-45 minutes later (really think it was closer to 45 minutes) we were told our vehicle was ready. The suburban had very clearly been smoked in, but since we didn’t have another 45 minutes to wait, we took it and bought air fresheners/ left the windows down. In clearing the car to load it, it was clear that in cleaning the vehicle, they didn’t move any seats. There was candy, tissues, random playing cards, dryer sheets, other air fresheners, and other trash under all of the seats. I had to get a bag for trash- it wasn’t a few missed items but many. It had also not been vacuumed at any time recently. I wouldn’t care as much about all of this if we didn’t wait for so long for it to be allegedly cleaned. When returning the vehicle, we were told to just leave the keys in it and they would email a receipt. Pretty normal procedure so we did. Yesterday, three full days after it was due, I got a text from budget asking if I wanted to extend my rental since I hadn’t turned it in yet. Three days?! It took three days before they noticed it was “missing”? Also- it has OnStar. They couldn’t just see it was in the rental lot? I called the number and was rerouted to the budget help line. I had to repeat the problem several times before it was understood. Then I had to recite where we picked it up, when we picked it up, where we returned it, when we returned it, where we parked it, what kind of make/model/ color. Wouldn’t have bothered me if I hadn’t already given the rental agreement number. That had more than half of this info linked and had I not already given the return info twice. Then, after all of that, I was told it would be escalated and take 5-7 days to resolve and to wait for an email. I understand that the person at the call center had no way to resolve it, but 5-7 days to find a car that was returned- someone just didn’t log it back in? Seems crazy to me. The good news is I received an email within an hour confirming my return with my final receipt. This was our second budget experience in 6 months and I remain unimpressed.
Staff were helpful when my first vehicle had a problem, but my first vehicle had a problem. And the wait time to get my vehicle was over 45 minutes.
Just absolutely ridiculous. Would not accept credit card because it says Josh and not Joshua. Are you freaking serious with that BS?
Reservation was easy and everything went smooth. Price was fair as well
