Budget Car & Truck Rental Brisbane City

Rental car charges have skyrocketed during the pandemic and the Dept of Fair trading should step in to prevent price gorging.

Arrived on Christmas Eve and dealt with Karen. Maybe she was having a rubbish day but it was 10am and she couldn't have been more abrupt or impersonal.nnSpoke to us like we should know the companies terms and conditions line by line and that she was doing us a favour by letting us have the car for more than the price we arranged.

Needed a car to get home, cheapest car $381 for 5 hours, ok but then $49 insurance then $200 security deposit, ok all good, upon getting home my card is less the 381 + 49 no problem, then a 2nd charge of 381 + 49 + 200 on top of the first deductions, wow, when I call to say I have been charged twice they explain I have not and it is just the system they use, well I can tell you when I've been charged and paid nearly $1000 for a small manual for 5 hours, I have been charged twice as the money is no longer in my account. Some system! 2 days later the 2nd double charge was reversed. Still what sort of system is that they are using? So I will never again be hiring another car from BUDGET, especially since they tell me the system they use is perfectly normal, Well I beg to differ, but I think not.

Experience with the staff at the Albert St location was great - they were lovely. Car was nice and the process all very easy - all very streamlined. No issues there. I did find the fact that I had to place a $400 deposit (other companies around the corner have ditched this in their policy a long time ago) a tad off-putting but I went along with it. Not the end of the world, it just meant that I would be more inclined to give my business to those other companies in future. Car was wonderful while I had it, returned it 2 days later - again, all fine. About 5 days later I was looking at my banking and realised 2 payments had come out, one much larger than the $400 hold, the other was the actual payment for the car. Called my bank to verify with them that in was in fact Budget holding that amount. Sent an email to the relevant team at Budget - no response. Decided to call and was placed on hold for 3 lots of 20 minutes when trying to select the team responsible for past rentals. This was when I started to get really upset. Prior to that I was fine - mistakes happen. I decided to hang up after getting no where and call the reservations team as if I were to make a brand new booking. They picked up immediately. No hold. OF COURSE THEY DID. The staff were not helpful, lacked understanding and common skills of problem solving. I explained numerous times that there was a mistake and that much more than the $400 had been frozen on my account and due to this, I would like it cancelled immediately. They said they would send an email to their team, I advised that I had already done it and considering I'd spent so much time on hold during 2 days of trying to contact them that I wanted it finalised today. They promised a call back from Management - nothing. Mistakes happen, but your staffs inability to rectify the issue at the call centre was the tipping point.

Super fast and efficient in their service. If you are referred to by an insurer, you will most likely get your allocated car within the ten minutes of speaking to a customer service representative. Their vehicles are always clean and comfortable. Super satisfied with my experience.