Budget Car Rental

We recently rented a car to drive to Texas. We've rented lots of cars from different companies with no issue. This was our first experience with Budget. It will also be our last. Their website said we could save 35% to book online so we did, but never received the 35% discount. After a call to customer service they told us they didn't know what that 35% discount was actually for because no one ever got it. We show up to get the car a couple days later and we are told that since we used a debit card we needed proof of residence. Not an issue we thought since we have lots of bills including our house payment. Not good enough. It HAS to be a utility bill. So we had to drive clear back home to get a utility bill. We switched to all electronic billing for our utilities a few months ago so our most recent paper bill is a few months old. Not good enough, they refused it. So we had to drive clear back home for the 2nd time and print a bill off the gas service's website. Showing them proof on our phone wasn't good enough. Total nightmare and the money we spent on fuel driving home and back canceled out any savings we might have gotten by using Budget. Enterprise is half a block down the street, I recommend you use them instead.

Rented a premium car from budget for 1 week with unlimited miles. Had reservations about 10 days in advance. About 15 minutes before I was supposed to pick the car up, I received a call from budget stating the car (S300) had hail damage and they were upgrading me to a Ford edge for free. Had to wait an extra hour for car arrival. Checked the Ford Edge, and it was the same price as the 300. In the long run I was much happier with the edge. The staff did a great job helping me plan my rental, and I was very impressed with the cleanliness of the car they provided. I would recommend Budget Car Rental to my friends and family. I also received a free 10% off coupon in the mail the same day I returned the car. I would have given them 5 stars if my car was on time.

The representative, Tammy, gave misleading information that cost me my planned trip. On a Friday she told me that a bill would not work as proof and told me other options. On Monday she said another proof would not work and refused to accept anything else because she "saw" the bill already. Which she did on Friday. She was not apologetic or understanding and became very rude and threatened to call the cops when I was trying to explain my side to her. Very poor customer service. She kept bragging about the value of the car they rented and belittling me because of a balance forward on my electric bill. She refused to help after telling me that I could use something else. She lied and was extremely rude and acted like I was not worthy of renting from them.

Two years ago I reserved a full sized 7 passenger SUV for the six of us. I went to pick up vehicle and it was a midsized 4 seat SUV with two fold down seats in luggage area for seats 5 and 6 and then no luggage space. We had no choice so had a very uncomfortable ride to Montana and back. After the vehicle was returned, a week later I was notified of hail damage. It never rained when we had the vehicle. The vehicle was never available for my inspection, but was shown photographs of circles drawn only on top of the SUV where supposedly the damage was. Apparently a very isolated hail storm, not on hood, just top. My insurance said you can't fight rental companies so they paid. No one would explain the difference in vehicles except an employee in Hutchinson who said they did that to people at that location. With covid, I had to use Budget last week. Reserved a midsized SUV for just my wife and I. Arrived and they had a small suv unless I wanted to wait. While there, midsized SUV came in and was told I could have it as is. Said Okay. DId paperwork and lady said I was blocked for nonpayment of a claim. I said, I paid the claim. Called local manager who said it was an error as I had paid claim two years ago, but not changed in computer. He said, you will have to come back tomorrow and we will rent you the SUV. I left to never return. I used budget twice and got burned twice. PS, at the desk they had notice that if no damage found at check at return with their inspection, they can still make you pay for damage found later by another inspector in Wichita.