Budget Car & Truck Rental

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

These guys will milk you for every cent you have, I urge you even in your darkest hour in need of a rental vehicle not to use this shop. I have used this shop twice now and both experiences have left me with a hefty bill. My most recent experience is as follows. I wanted to book a car for 1 day (Saturday). On the budget website I got quoted a decent price for rental from 7am-10pm. I then got a quote to pick the car up on the Friday evening to save the hassle of collecting the car on the Saturday morning, surprisingly it was around the same price so I figured I would just pick up on friday. However on arrival to the shop on the Friday evening I was told that my bill would be double what I was quoted on the website, The agent informed me that this was because pickup Friday evening would be considered an entire day. This was completely contractictory to the quote on their website. The agent agreed that perhaps the website was misleading. Misleading???......it is complete and utter false advertisement .Anyway I decided to come back early saturday morning to pick up the vehicle. I left the shop with an ominous feeling, fearing what next they would rip me off on. So Saturday morning I collect the vehicle in darkness and am required to inspect the vehicle in darkness in the outdoor car lot. I inform the agent that I do not notice any major issues with the vehicle but it is dark and I cant really see. He grunts and I sign the sheet. So I use the vehicle to drive to Seatlle and stay on I5 most of the time. I drop the vehicle back sturday night with no visible damage and wait for the impending doom. As sure as day becomes night the phone call comes Sunday morning from Budget, "Can you call us, we have noticed a chip on the vehicle windshield". I promptly call to the shop but there is no sign of the Vehicle, they tell me " Oh we have sent it to the claims department in the airport", I am thinking wow these guys have done this before. So I request the Vehicle to be brought back and low and behold there is a cent sized chip in the bottom right hand corner of the windshield. This chip would have been impossible to notice in the dark and even not that noticable in daylight. Anyway the upshot of the affair is that they nailed my credit card for $CAD775 ( I was told a hold would be put on my CC, not an actual charge) to replace the entire windshield and have left it up to me to try claim from my Insurance. I consider myself a reasonable person and am willing to pay my way, however these guys are con artists posing as a rental car company. Let me re-iterate this is the second time I have used these guys and second time I have been fleeced. Something untoward is going on at this lcoation, do not use this shop. How have so many people here written similiar reviews ? There is no smoke without fire people. I will be writing to Budget directly to cite my complaints and I urge other victims to do likewise. I will also be writing a letter to the ombusdman to complain about the treatment I have received.

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A

A Private User

I made an online booking (for a long term - 2 month booking) but because of the bad reviews that this location gets, I went to speak to the reps in person before starting the rental. The rate was super cheap - almost half the cost of other companies, but there had to be a catch.... The first thing to say is that no-one knew what they were talking about - I got at least 2 different versions from 2 different reps. The LDW that I booked online (which had only one option on the internet), apparently exists in 2 different forms and with differing excesses. Of course I was told that the online version came with a $750 excess and if I wanted $0 excess I would have to pay an extra $2800!!!! When asking about liability, they stated I had to buy it at $5 per day. This is untrue. Car rental companies in BC (by law) have to provide a minimum 3rd party liability insurance ($200000 protection) and you can buy their supplementary liability insurance (up to $1 million) if you want. AGAIN A LIE! By this time the reps were thoroughly confused as I was arguing my point and they took a copy of my internet booking so that the manager could call me back. When the Assistant Manager rang me back, he had no clue. He gave me a different excess for LDW and after 20 minutes on the phone I had got nowhere. He promised to ring me back but I had to wait til the next day to get a reply. I tried to ring the office but apparently YOU CANT!!! You get to a central booking clerk who can only relay a message to the location.... and of course they never respond to you call back request. I then rang Budget central reservations and they told me my LDW was $0 excess. But nowhere is this stated on the intial reservation. When the assistant manager rrang the next day I was informed that there was a $750 excess on the LDW (again not what the customer service centre says) and that the quote does not include tax on the LDW!!!!! Having been through all this even BEFORE renting the car there is no way Im going to proceed with the reservation. Im going back to Avis - although Budget appears to be cheaper, by the time you add on what the other big rental companies consider as standard, they are much the same in price, but with awful customer service, dishonesty and sheer incompetence. Dont ever rent from them!!!

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SH

Sheriff Guirguis

I rented my car from Expedia which was due to be picked up at 416 W Georgia St. Expedia on their reservation email gives you the price which includes all taxes. But it also include the extra cost per day if you want to keep the car for extra days. The cost per day from expedia was $17.33 for the medium size car. I didnt read the contract that Budget gave me at the time I picked up the car. I wrongly assumed they would honor Expedias cost. I was one day late in returning the car. They charge me $27.33 for that day. I showed him my reservation from expedia that explicitly says its an extra $17.33/day for extra days. His reply? Expedia is a THIRD party company separate from Budget so I need to take that with Expedia. In other words, whats written by expedia was not valid and therefore I must pay the full rate. Instead of doing the right thing, when they clearly saw they made a mistake in the contract (I had the expedia reservation with me), they decided to keep the rate since I had already signed the contract and they had me. A few more thing to know... 1. They charged me $20!! for crossing the toll bridge (a return trip - so back and forth). Its $5 one way. Plus a $10 administration fee. The guy there told me that I could have saved the $10 if I called them ahead of time about the crossing. So you have to call them to let them know youre crossing the toll bridge? That creates even more work. Not only they have to process the fee, but they also have to take your call as well which increases their administrative cost. So its obvious that its just an excuse to grab more cash from you since they know most wont call. 2. Gas your car before returning it or theyll charge you 3 TIMES MORE ON GAS!! Thats what the guy told me. They charge more than $3/L . Another cash grab. They will not do the right thing in this office. If they see they made a mistake which puts more money in their pocket, theyll take it. So if youre gonna rent from them, bring your lawyer with you. If you reserved from Expedia, or other online sites, bring your reservation and take the time to read the contract they give you. Its likely that youll find a few "errors" in the contract that benefit budget.

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