Budget Rental Cars

0. 0 Stars. FRAUDULENT! We had to do a last minute reservation so we were okay with waiting. We explicitly denied insurance as I never opt for it. When we discovered they still put insurance on the car, they refused to remove the charge and did not provide documents stating we accepted the insurance. I would not rent car from them even if it was the only option. The cost was not an issue it was the simply fact we never requested the insurance.

Wow. what a terrible experience for a one day car rental. It started out with an almost two hour wait just to get the car. After getting the car, I noticed a small dent/​scratch and when I told the attendant, they told me to report it to the booth agent upon exit. When I returned the car it was examined and no problems were reported. A month later I receive a bill for over 1K for a replacement part that cost $ 35, with no details about the damage that I am supposedly responsible for. Lesson learned is take pictures before and after returning the rental. Now I am trying to deal with Budget and their claim representative trying to get more information.

Is it possible to give zero stars? Hidden fees then they charge for a full day if you are an hour late. Who has never gotten stuck in DC traffic? I rented from them once. Never again. It was worth double the agreed price (which was high to begin with) to learn that lesson.

I have had a wonderful experience with the fast trip option at budget. The customer service was amazing and would gladly recommend them to anyone.

Just turned our car in after a pleasant visit in alexandria va. Could not believe how rude the budget rental car people were where we turned our car in. Just an awful way to end an otherwise great trip. Why do people seem to enjoy seeing how rude they can be and get away with it? Won’t ever use budget again because of a couple of ugly rude women I guess on a power trip or something. One of them yelled at my husband to pull all the way up in THAT lane and then when he did the other woman screamed and gestured at him saying that he was on the crosswalk. They were both so rude and disrespectful and loud that my sweet elderly husband was totally shook up.

Waited almost an hour in line with a reservation. Staff joked around while there were at least 20 people inline. One of them actually stepped out to walk around. Eventually, I got my car. The worse experience was when coming back — the woman (African American, with short punk hair) was rude and completely off-​putting. Was screaming at people to stay in their car and was not even mildly nice when talking to customers. For three dollars more per day, I would go to other car rentals. Awful experience.

I have done a lot of traveling and been to a lot of rental car kiosks but this is by far the worst experience I have had. They were understaffed and the staff they had did not seem knowledgable. We waited over an hour and once we got to the counter we were told hey did not have that car available. In addition, I asked the guy at the counter to cancel the reservation and he did not so I had to call and cancel it on the phone.
Now I know why their prices are a bit cheaper. They do not staff well and are very inefficient. Do not waste your money or time.

Absolutely the worse customer service experience on returning the rental car. Could not find contract so they would not give me a receipt. Counter was closed and no manager to talk to at 645 in the morning on a week day. Waited over an hour for ticket counter to open then had to leave for flight. Paperwork emailed to me charges me for fuel even though it was full. Never again will I rent from budget.

Wish I could give it 0 stars. There were only four of us in line, and after 15 mins, I was unfortunate enough to have Tiblets as my agent. I ordered a midsize car in advance and she gave me a VW beetle, and stated that beetles were midsize. However, out in the garage, the budget associate told me that beetles were compact. So I went back to Tiblets, and she accused me of calling her a liar and said that if I didn’t walk away from her at the counter to talk with my friends (which BTW were three army officers who I thanked for their service) then I wouldn’t have a problem. In the meantime, Tiblets had told me to wait while she found me the beetle.
She then told me that she gave me the beetle bc they didn’t have any more midsize cars. Then, Tiblets refused to refund me for the compact car she assigned me to. She made me wait another 10 mins and I finally got a Nissan altima that wreaked of stale cigarette smoke. The attendants also left their walkie talkie in the car too, which I gave to the attendant when I left the garage.
Yes, I filled out the budget survey that was emailed to me and filled it out accordingly.
Awful experience and I’ll never be back to budget.

I had a reservation, but that didn’t make the 50 minute line move any faster. Only two representatives at a busy airport on a weekend afternoon. Terrible customer service — I’ve literally never seen two agents move more slowly. I will never use Budget here again.

Very very slow service and the staff is not friendly, in fact they are downright rude. I watched people come in and get cars from Enterprise and Hertz without any problems or delay. I have been in line almost 30 minutes and the Budget staff is still working on the same customers as when I got in line. If I didn’t already have a reservation with Budget through my work I would have already gone to Enterprise and been on my way. I do not recommend this Budget at all.

I was given a car that was smoked in, and I have asthma. It was late at night when I arrived, so it was the only car of the size I ordered. I just high-​tailed it to my brother’s house with the windows open (November). I didn’t use the car at all the rest of the trip. Budget would not bring a replacement, nor would they refund my money.

I hope the guy who I spoke to that promised me someone would be there after 1230am — and lied /​gets his but chewed. I literally showed up to an empty counter at Reagan national airport Budget counter and nobody was there. A bad Unilocal review for that.

Just dropped off a car I picked up from another city and although it went fairly quick it wasn’t the smoothest. Despite coming at a slow time it felt as if the staff was either taking a break, confused or both. Not sure how it would be picking up a car but overall it was just A-​OK, 3 Stars.

Read the reviews en route to DCA, and was scared about what would happen. Long 20minute line at the counter, but to their credit, they had all clerks working as fast as they could. They had a Volkswagen Jetta available for me immediately, and the car was clean, fairly new, and worked very nicely for me. I know, there are very bad reviews here and maybe I was just lucky, but I my experience was positive and I would rent from them again.
By the way, the signs in the rental car center are horrible. I saw many customers look for their car, then come back to the counter because they couldn’t find where to go. Just make sure you have clear directions when you leave the counter.
Good luck, and hope your experience will be as pleasant as mine was.

I had an easy, straightforward rental experience at Budget. I arrived with nobody in line in front of me. The agent at the counter did my paperwork. Then I walked to my car. In and out in about 3 minutes. I chose Budget at DCA because their rate was substantially lower than everyone else’s for the dates I needed. All the negative reviews here made me nervous about my choice, but I’m glad I stuck with it because I experienced none of the problems others have complained about.

Waited for over an 2 hours for my car.
The other car rental agencies had no line.
Please spend a couple more $$ and save yourself time.
Simply not worth it.
Thank you budget for wasting my time!

2.2 stars –more than 2 and less than 2.5…
The pros are that (1) there is no waiting in long lines with the Fastbreak customer program membership. It is currently free to enroll. (2) It is conveniently located at the DCA airport if you arrive by air.
The con of this particular experience (last week) is that it appears that someone didn’t properly check in the vehicle from the last renter:
1. there was some sort of chocolate smears on the MYLINK console and the gear shift 2. some sort of greasy smudge in the middle of the front driver door window 3. the vehicle didn’t appear to have been vacuumed from the last use and 4. there was only ½ tank of gas.
I let the inspector know about the gas before I left the gate and he made a note of it on my contract and put his name next to it. Just in case, I called the toll free number to report it there and they made a note of it in the electronic file. Everyone seemed understanding and assured me that I can return it the way I got it (½ tank of gas) and that I wouldn’t be charged extra.
As long as no additional charges «magically» appear on my statement, I won’t let this particular Budget location/​experience discourage me from using Budget… I will try it out a few more times with different locations.

AVOID AVOID AVOID
Staff is rude and acts like they’re better than you. Guest service agent (african woman who was so infuriating i didn’t even catch her name) decided to give me her two cents on my situation every step of the way, even though it definitely wasn’t asked for.
She literally sneered at me when i told her I’d booked through Priceline to save money on the rental car. her response (along with the sneer) «well when you book through third parties sometimes it ends up costing you more».
I paid for full-​size and got a Nissan Altima. It was clean, and with less than 3,000 miles. but definitely not a full-​size.
Company also holds twice as much money if you pay with a Mastercard vs. Visa card.
rationale for doing that? none that they could give me.
Beware of management that is just as rude and even more obnoxious. Don’t expect a resolution to any problem you might have. they just repeat their mantra of, «we can’t do that, it’s against our policy»

This was quite possibly the longest and slowest moving line I’ve ever stood in. And then it took nearly twice as long once we were through the line to get what would be our car brought around. But the staff were nice enough, the price was cheap, and we got free upgrades. And the return process was a breeze. So just be prepared for a lengthy wait and plan accordingly.