Budget Car Rental

I am a fast track customer and have been for years. Anytime I rent a vehicle it has always been through budget. This time was the worst experience I have ever had and really put stress on my vacation. We were to pick up the rental at 10pm. The flight got delayed by like 15-20min so I go to the budget and no one there. There were actually 2 other customers waiting as well We go to the enterprise location to ask them and they tell us they leave all the time so we thought maybe they went to restroom. After waiting and talking with other customers waiting we call the 1-800 number. They tell us they close at 10pm. Apparently no one knew they closed at 10. I'm talking with someone at call center and asking if I'm going to get reimbursed for the 1 day I can't get the car the guy on the other line was going to modify the rental. I told him several times I don't want you to revise it I just want credit for my day and he kept telling me about a car. Please listen to recorded line of our conversation cause I told him several times I needed the truck so do not modify my rental. Upon hanging up he told me I would be reimbursed like $88 or something and we would get the truck. Then we had to go over to Enterprise and rent a vehicle so we could get to our destination. We had to pay the prime rate because it was so last minute. We were going to come at 7am to pick up because obviously our truck should have been there if they close at 10pm and open at 7am . I wake up at 6am had plans to call the hub at Syracuse airport and I look at my email and they guy changed my truck to a car. I immediately get on phone to call the Syracuse airport hub and it keeps directing me to the call center. After spending 7-11am on the phone getting nowhere we drive to airport to talk to someone. The lady at the counter was very nice and helpful. At first she said they had no trucks then all a sudden some appeared. They weren't a 7 passenger that we originally rented but at this point we just wanted a truck. She worked on the rate for us to get it down. I just have never been so disappointed in the way my situation was handled at the beginning. From arriving at the airport to realize I have no vehicle to get to my 30min destination and then waking up and dealing with it until 11am I was so stressed I couldn't even get into my vacation with my family that I haven't seen in over 2 years. Thank god my wife was there to keep me calm. To you it may seem it all worked out but to me it was unnecessary stress that I shouldn't have had to deal with. The guy that took my call that night was the start really of my whole issue. If the call centers can't deal with real time information then customers should be bale to talk to the individual hubs.

BE AWARE: check to make sure your windshield wiper fluid works! The system on my rental was frozen - I had to get it repaired at a car repair shop & pay for it (approx. $150) which Budget said they’ll reimburse. But it did also set my trip back by about 2 hours.nnThe repair shop says rental places don’t use windshield wiper fluid that can withstand less than 20 degrees which is bound to happen in the winter months in upstate NY.nnNot only is this a huge hassle but also a massive hazard while driving. I could barely see for about 10 miles and was lucky enough to be find a repair shop right off an exit.

Budget charged us an extra day and 4 times the toll after dropping the car off ontime. Never ever again will we rent from you. Ever.

The rental process was easy, car was awesome, service was top of the line even when I had to extend a day.

When I rented the suv It was covered all over the drivers door, dash and rear driver side door in pink paint the carpet on the driver side to the back floor area covered in pink paint as well. The dash had white paint and vehicle was not clean. There was nobody to talk to you to discuss the issues however I did call about six times and then finally on Monday I was able to get a hold of somebody that understood what I was saying and they told me to call emergency roadside assistance. Roadside Assistance wanted a police report and then they wanted my personal insurance information. I explained to them I had pictures of the vehicle including the cleaners information that supposedly had clean the vehicle and they could not tell me if the pink paint that was all through the vehicle was even documented. After I made this phone call and they did finally document it there was no offer of getting me a clean vehicle a reduced price or any sort of fix to the issue other than we will document it. When I spoke to the parking lot attendant where you normally would check the car I showed him the vehicular and the pictures his response was oh my God I can’t believe they let this go through. At least that informs me that this is not the regular practice at this location as it was my first time there. I did used to rent a lot from the drivers Village location. I took the keys inside to make sure I was not charged and to show them the pictures basically the same thing was said. There was no sorry offered or given I just do not think that’s the way that you would honestly normally operate, something is going on in that location and I do not feel I will be visiting there again.