Budget Service Is Like Their Cars - Trash (Same location)…read more
So I do want to say first that I did for a long time enjoy using Budget in the past for moving trucks to dollies to cars and such. Everything was fine until it wasn't, as in if every rental is ok, they are ok. If you have an issue, they don't care at all...
I have met/talked to several polite and professional people that work for Budget and I'm glad to have spoken with them. However the few good employees do not outweigh the unhelpful, forced robotic polite drones that Budget has in their customer service. (And no I'm not going to give you a review for being unhelpful at the end of the call)
So as for my issue. It wouldn't have been an issue in the first place if Budget set the expectation from the get go. In other words, don't promise something you cannot or will not deliver on. My girlfriend and I rented a midsize SUV over the weekend of the 23rd. It was KIA Sorrento, and we scheduled to pick it up at 11am. A friend of ours was coming in from CA at 12 and landing in Charlotte's airport at 12, so we didn't have any time to spare, plus I had work to get to.
I also want to say here that one of the first false promises was the guy that helped us out over the phone for booking said he would "take care of the late arrival as long as it was delivered before 6pm." I know that typically most rental companies charge for extra time, however in my experience if you ask and are reasonable, they can waive that as long as you deliver it a little later, but with everything else checking out like a full tank, etc. So I was under the impression that there was no upcharge, because that was our verbal agreement.
Now the KIA was trashed, I'm talking about McDonald's trash stuffed in the driver's side door, tucked under the passenger seat, and sticky stuff (probably soda) spilled on the center consol. Not to mention that the seats had streaks of dirt, it reeked of cigarettes, and the car itself was on a quarter tank. Huge let down.
The problem was that we couldn't run back in and talk about it right then because of the time constraint and that was the only SUV they had at the time. So we had to roll with the punches, so I did the next best thing. On my way to work I called customer service. The guy that helped me was super helpful, he was going to make sure we didn't get charged for the extra gas and was going to compensate us either $50 or a 2 day rental voucher. I asked for his personal advice because $50 would have just covered someone else's gas, so not really beneficial to us. He suggested that should call back after we return the vehicle and explain the situation and we should get a few more dollars or a slightly better deal. I was ok with that because it was what it was. A few days to make another phone call wouldn't have been a problem.
So fast forward a few days, I call customer service again to explain the situation like I was told to do. The wanted to charge me for a late fee! And that was after I was promised that it was waived. Customer service couldn't do anything because the local office didn't note it and the local office couldn't do anything because the account was closed. So out of my frustration I had to call back the next day and all Budget was willing to do was only compensate me for the $33 for the late charge. Both times that I was promised that I was going to be "taken care of" as a customer, I was let down and lied to. So the next time you want Budget, understand that it isn't economical for you, it is a low budget for the company. I'm going to spend the extra money for Hertz from now on because at least with more money I'll get better service.