Budget Car Rental

[BM243923]

I rented a car at Fort Lauderdale Airport for our 1 week vacation stay. Booked through Costco travel. It was a great deal.

We both got the flu and did not go out much.

When you return the car you just drop it off and they email you the final invoice.

When I got the email it was $42.00 higher than the agreed price.

I called customer service they said there was an additional charge for having low mileage on the car. I said to him does that make sense, he agreed no, but Fort Lauderdale Airport continues to charge it. He said I would receive a credit in 5 days.

The car was returned with a full tank of gas, I filled it before returning it

 

[Patri]

I rented a car at Fort Lauderdale Airport for our 1 week vacation stay. Booked through Costco travel. It was a great deal.

We both got the flu and did not go out much.

When you return the car you just drop it off and they email you the final invoice.

When I got the email it was $42.00 higher than the agreed price.

I called customer service they said there was an additional charge for having low mileage on the car. I said to him does that make sense, he agreed no, but Fort Lauderdale Airport continues to charge it. He said I would receive a credit in 5 days.

The car was returned with a full tank of gas, I filled it before returning it

What the heck?

 

[BM243923]

What the heck?

It makes no sense a all. They are not charging you by mile so why would they penalize you for low mileage

 

[easyrider]

It makes no sense a all. They are not charging you by mile so why would they penalize you for low mileage

I guess it's because they can.

Bill

 

[emeryjre]

I use Costco Travel for my car rentals whenever possible
Budget car rental often comes up as the lowest rates
When you get to the rental desk
They have clerks trained as timeshare salespeople
Everything extra is pushed
They do not take No for an answer
They can get nasty if you buy nothing
I avoid them every time when doing a car rental
Even if they are cheaper

Charging for low miles used is a new add I have not seen before

 

[Delexed]

I too use Costco Travel to reserve a car rental, but with the following strategy:

Since you can freely cancel your reservation with no financial penalty, I continue to monitor prices after my initial reservation. If the price goes down enough (which it will likely do if you have booked far enough in advance) I just cancel and rebook...then rinse and repeat. Even better, I also watch Hotwire for their Hot deal of the day (or whatever it's called) and will often end up booking my final reservation there (non-cancelable) when it gets closer to my actual trip date. So Costco Travel is really just my "backup plan". Note too that Hotwire (on all reservations, not just car rentals) charges a few dollars lower on the phone app than on their website.

 

[BM243923]

I use Costco Travel for my car rentals whenever possible
Budget car rental often comes up as the lowest rates
When you get to the rental desk
They have clerks trained as timeshare salespeople
Everything extra is pushed
They do not take No for an answer
They can get nasty if you buy nothing
I avoid them every time when doing a car rental
Even if they are cheaper

Charging for low miles used is a new add I have not seen before

I have never had any agents of Budget try and push anything on me. We have our own insurance for non owned vehicles and they accept it with no problem. We have always driven the car several hundred miles so low mileage never came up before.

 

[emeryjre]

I have never had any agents of Budget try and push anything on me. We have our own insurance for non owned vehicles and they accept it with no problem. We have always driven the car several hundred miles so low mileage never came up before.

I have not used them for any rentals in probably 10 years
They may have changed their ways
But they lost me as a customer a long time ago

 

[beejaybee]

We just returned a Budget rental booked through Costco to GJT on Halloween. I kept monitoring prices and saved a lot for going with a vehicle similar to a Toyota Corolla. We ended up with a Ford Escape. There were no extra charges on our final receipt. A few days prior to the start of the rental, Costco sent an email offering extra insurance for $5.50/day. (DH handled that and opted for it).
While it was nice to have such a roomy vehicle, there was no spare tire! After recently having a flat on I-71 in the middle of nowhere between Columbus and Cincinnati in my CRV, this was very concerning to me, especially since we were staying at Worldmark Moab. Brochures from the nearby national parks warned of virtually no cell service and to be sure to travel with a spare! Thankfully, no flat!

 

[BM243923]

We just returned a Budget rental booked through Costco to GJT on Halloween. I kept monitoring prices and saved a lot for going with a vehicle similar to a Toyota Corolla. We ended up with a Ford Escape. There were no extra charges on our final receipt. A few days prior to the start of the rental, Costco sent an email offering extra insurance for $5.50/day. (DH handled that and opted for it).
While it was nice to have such a roomy vehicle, there was no spare tire! After recently having a flat on I-71 in the middle of nowhere between Columbus and Cincinnati in my CRV, this was very concerning to me, especially since we were staying at Worldmark Moab. Brochures from the nearby national parks warned of virtually no cell service and to be sure to travel with a spare! Thankfully, no flat!

That is terrible and against the law I am sure. What was Budgets response when you told them.

 

[patdouma]

Yes! That happened to me a few years ago with Budget! It took a fight, but then they credited me. I had another problem with Budget two years ago - we got a flat tire and pulled over to change the tire but there was no spare in the trunk. There was only a small machine to fill the current tire up with air. We tried that, but the tire didn't keep the air in it. We called Budget and it took 6 hours for their tow truck to arrive and take us back to the airport for another car. Then they towed the car to their garage some 70 miles away. They sent us a bill for several thousands dollars! We fought it via email stating they were negligent in renting us an incomplete car. Eventually, because we were tenacious, they removed the charge. We don't use Budget anymore.

 

[BM243923]

Update to overcharge on car rental

Called to ask if credit had been processed, he said there is a note on the file process refund. "Let me put you on hold and I will process"

When checking my account the credit was not the right amount.

I had to call back and the agent did the adjustment to make my charge agree with the Costco Travel price.

If I had not called nothing would have happened which is not what I was originally told.

Cannot get any good help!

 

[moonstone]

We rented from Budget at St. Augustine last December to drive to our DS's near Tampa before flying home. The Budget location closest to us is in Walmart on US1 so the cars are just parked in a far corner of the Walmart parking lot. We did all the paperwork in the kiosk in the store and were given the type & license plate of the car to go out to look for. The car assigned to us was parked against the edge of the property near the road & sidewalk, not in the next 2-3 rows back like most of the others. As DH started his walk around he noticed the 2 front tires (facing the sidewalk) were flat -as were the front tires of the next 2 cars in the row. We went back inside the store and advised the guy at the desk. He said oh no not again! It seems somebody frequently punctures or slashes the tires of cars parked along the edge of the parking lot! Nice People! Since there were no more Economy class cars he upgraded us to a Compact (or was it the other way around?). Luckily the car had been sitting for a while so the tires were noticeably flat and we didnt discover it after we were on our way. We were only delayed about 10 minutes but who knows how long it could have been if the flats happened part way into our trip.

~Diane

 

[Luanne]

I got turned off of Budget years ago. Can't remember exactly why, but whatever it was it made me decide not to use them any more.

 

[moonstone]

One thing that irks us about Budget, maybe other rental companies too but we haven't checked, is that when I put in all the particulars to get a rental price and leave the box "I live in the USA" I get a good price. For instance on our rental search for this December I get a price of $88. US for a 1 day, 1 way rental. If I change that 'I live in' to Canada and still leave it in US dollars, I get a price for the same dates/times/car of $186.US.!! Almost $100. more because we live (most of the year) in Canada?!? Why does our country of residence make such a difference? DH said he is tempted to go and get a FL drivers license since we already own property (a condo) here so we can get the lower price. I dont know if I leave it as I live in the USA then show up with just an Ontario DL if they would adjust the rental cost.

~Diane

 

[Cornell]

My car rental rant: Last two times I've rented I was told I got "upgraded". One upgrade was a full sized pickup truck; the other a cargo van. I don't consider these upgrades. I feel completely uncomfortable driving cars of this size. Both times "It's all we have left".

 

[dioxide45]

That is terrible and against the law I am sure. What was Budgets response when you told them.

Many cars are now delivered without spare tires. Some just come with a tire patch kit that is meant to get you to the closest repair shop.

 

[MrockStar]

My car rental rant: Last two times I've rented I was told I got "upgraded". One upgrade was a full sized pickup truck; the other a cargo van. I don't consider these upgrades. I feel completely uncomfortable driving cars of this size. Both times "It's all we have left".

Cornell at least it was an Ice vehicle, and not an EV. I would try one if our timeshare had an EV charging station and i could charge it overnight!

 

[BM243923]

One thing that irks us about Budget, maybe other rental companies too but we haven't checked, is that when I put in all the particulars to get a rental price and leave the box "I live in the USA" I get a good price. For instance on our rental search for this December I get a price of $88. US for a 1 day, 1 way rental. If I change that 'I live in' to Canada and still leave it in US dollars, I get a price for the same dates/times/car of $186.US.!! Almost $100. more because we live (most of the year) in Canada?!? Why does our country of residence make such a difference? DH said he is tempted to go and get a FL drivers license since we already own property (a condo) here so we can get the lower price. I dont know if I leave it as I live in the USA then show up with just an Ontario DL if they would adjust the rental cost.

~Diane

Diane

I used Costco travel.

I would search Costcotravel.ca and Costcotravel.com

Most times the CA website was cheaper. But ended up using the com site the day of arriving and price was cheaper. Makes no sense, but that is the advantage of using Costco travel you can book and cancel as many times as you want. Budget was always the cheapest

 

[BingoBangoBongo]

With all the flights recently cancelled, it’s lead many people to hold on to their cars for extra days which creates an inventory issue for new renters.

The last Budget rental I had was a Dodge with over 60,000 miles on it. When I returned it, the rep put a sticker on it to send to an auction. It was filthy and the windows were all dirty. If I wasn’t by myself and had very little spare time I would have returned it.

Last week I had two different rentals on my trip through Avis. Returned my first car and after returning it through the line rep a manager asked me how my experience was and I shared the cluster I had picking up the first car. The guy followed me to the rental booth to pick up the new car almost trying to verbally fight with me. I told the guy 4-5 times I didn’t need his help anymore and he wouldn’t stop. I really wish I could get a good corporate rate through National again.

 

[moonstone]

Diane

I used Costco travel.

I would search Costcotravel.ca and Costcotravel.com

Most times the CA website was cheaper. But ended up using the com site the day of arriving and price was cheaper. Makes no sense, but that is the advantage of using Costco travel you can book and cancel as many times as you want. Budget was always the cheapest

Thanks but I have looked at Costco rental cars but it will only allow us to drop off the car at an airport. They have no problem with us picking it up at the Budget Walmart or the Avis location just up the street here in St. Augustine, but we dont want to drop the car at the Tampa airport, but rather at a hotel location south of Tampa closer to our DS's house. The Costco travel (dot com since it wont let me on the dot ca site from FL) prices are much higher than what I was getting through Rentalcarmomma, like almost double!

Now DH is looking at taking the Amtrak train over since we can both travel from near St. Augustine to downtown Tampa for $21.US taxes incl. Our DS has meetings near the train station on the morning we plan to arrive so he can pick us up which is much closer than going up to the airport for him. If we do the Budget rental we can drop the car at the Embassy Suites hotel which is on his way home from his meetings. The train trip is just over 1 hour longer than driving but a lot less stressful than driving I-4 though the Orlando area. If DS had just bought a house with a bigger garage, or even a bigger driveway, we could just drive our own car over and leave it at his house for the 9 weeks we are gone.

~Diane

 

[Luanne]

@moonstone how odd that Costco won't let you drop off the car at an off airport location. I've rented several times through them where I either picked up or dropped off somewhere other than an airport. Once was in San Francisco and another time in Montreal.

 

[beejaybee]

That is terrible and against the law I am sure. What was Budgets response when you told them.

The agent shrugged and said that there was an air compressor kit designed to patch a flat.

Our Enterprise rental in England a decade ago had one of those, which didn't do a thing to get us back on the cell dead-zone country road we were traveling. God bless the gentleman who tried to assist us and Mega Blessings to the couple who took us to their home so I could call Enterprise for help. Car was towed to our Whitbarrow t/s where it spent a night until Enterprise was able to switch it out for a replacement.
When we returned that car to the Manchester airport, the counter agents were apologetic for our plight and even went so far as to tell us what a lovely couple we were!

Ha!!! A few months after arriving home, Enterprise sent us a bill for @$1000 for purported damage to the vehicle. DH submitted photos to refute their claim and we never paid. But this incident has put me on Enterprise's Do Not Rent list since I was the one who booked the car.

 

[moonstone]

@moonstone how odd that Costco won't let you drop off the car at an off airport location. I've rented several times through them where I either picked up or dropped off somewhere other than an airport. Once was in San Francisco and another time in Montreal.

Yes, I found it odd since so many rental companies have so many off airport locations in the Tampa area. Maybe it was just the Tampa location, that is the only one I looked at.
Years ago we got a really good deal on a 1 day/1 way rental to MCO from Daytona Beach. The guy at the counter said it was because they had a surplus of vehicles at Daytona that needed returning to MCO.

~Diane