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January 2024 by Jacques Goldenberg
The worst rental car of my life ! No Budget employees when you show-up. 2 hours queue to get your car. Only electrical car available, even if you have a reservation. Super unfriendly employee at Austin airport. A real shame. Last time with BUDGET !
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December 2023 by K Lamb
Bait & Switch! I had reserved a Genesis G80 EV, prepaid for a Genesis G80 EV and Budget gave me a Hyundai Ioniq 5. Here's the back story - after waiting in line for 30 minutes, poor Budget CSR was dealing with an irate customer that had an unacceptable driver's license, I get to the the counter and start the process. The Budget CSR determines that they do not have the car I had reserved, but a gas version. I say okay, but I was hoping to drive the EV version. A few minutes later, he gets a phone call and tells me that one is coming out of the wash. I said great. I go up to the stall and get it and lo and behold it was the Hyundai. Since I had an appointment to get to and had already waited in the Budget line for an excessive amount of time, I did not have time to go back to the CSR and get a car more comparable to what I had rented and expected. And to make matters worse - Budget charged me for the premium car that I had rented. I will not rent from Budget again.
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December 2023 by Hazar Alsabagh
I did not have a good experience with this rental company. Collecting the car was easy, and the staff at the time of pick up were great. But after dropping off the car, I was deeply disappointed. I left a private property parking permit on the rearview mirror by mistake in my haste to make it to my flight. I filed a lost and found report, and my friend went on my behalf to the Budget location to inquire about the permit. The staff said the car had already been rented out, unfortunately. But what is truly disappointing is the staff told us that "they would have likely trashed everything in the car to be honest." Who trashes a parking permit?! I understand rubbish, but is the staff not intuitive enough to know that that might be important or at least extend the courtesy to call me before throwing out a pass with a bar code?! Also, what is the point of filing a lost and found report if you're going to throw out property?I totally understand that I should have been more responsible; however, customer service should have been more intuitive and empathetic. I don't appreciate how dismissive they were of an expensive parking permit.This actually really ruined what could have been a great experience with budget.
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December 2023 by Doug W.
After going to the desk to get my car and directed to my spot, I found someone else taking the car. We were both given the same car to drive off the lot. So I went back to the front desk to get a car that someone hadnt been given. Got to the new car, and it had never been wash. Absolutely fithy inside and out, but it was 2am and I was done trying. To add insult to injury, they also ended up charging me a fuel service fee, even though the car was just topped off before return. This happened with Avis as well... no wonder, since they are the same company now. Absolutely dishonest and crappy service. Do not rent from Budget (or Avis).
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November 2023 by Jose C.
BEWARE! DO NOT RENT FROM HERE! I was charged a whole week when I only used the vehicle for a few hours. I returned the vehicle the same day. I was charged for a whole week and when I tried to dispute the charge one of the customer service reps told me the car I returned was rented out the next day. They told me to wait 7-10 business days for a refund and never received anything. I called again and now another rep told me they have no idea what I'm talking about. The "Supervisor" said they cannot check to see if it was rented out(hiding the fact the vehicle WAS rented) so they can keep my money.
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November 2023 by Dana Johnson
We waited in line for 30Minutes at the rental desk. We were given a piece of paper to take to pickup our car in the “express access” area of the garage. We got there to find about 100 people in line. After one and a half hours in this line (outside, in the garage, not that warm) we still had about 60-70 people in line in front of us.Around then, someone from Avis/Budget came to ask for people who had rented electric cars from anywhere in the line. I said I would take an electric car, even though we had rented a large sedan for our family of 5. We were given a brand new electronic Ford Mustang — cool! But it was still in “transport mode” and alerted me to call the dealership. The poor guy working (by himself, apparently) tried three other cars, only to find similar issues. We finally got a Hyundai that was half charged. And I got to my airbnb (two hours late) to find there was no charging cable with the car.And guess what, there were no gas cars at all available for any of the dozens of people left in line. Sure hope they were all prepared to drive electric for the first time on Thanksgiving day.How could this be the way Budget runs its business? I will not be renting again from Budget because I can’t afford to be left stranded again like this.You should give the man working at Austin airport that day a giant bonus for what he had to do for you that day.
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November 2023 by Abigail R.
Budget has always been our go to and when we arrived to Austin Tx we checked in at the budget counter and the guy working there was super nice and made everything easy. Once we went to pick up our vehicle that's when it went downhill. They didn't have our vehicle ready..waited 30 mins for "another" one. Then they walk us to a vehicle only to tell us it was on "alert" and no longer available. They take us to a different downgraded vehicle with multiple dents and scratches. We went to Budget fastbreak office to let them know we want an exchange only to be told "I just got here" like ok? So you need like 30 mins to get into work mode?? Anyways she was able to do her job and got us another vehicle..Not in any better condition but it was luxurious. When we tried telling her about the big ole side dent she had a nasty attitude and said "it's a rental", shoved the paper to my dad and walked away. There was tissues and soda cans left in the vehicle. Not a good experience at all... we are disappointed..
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November 2023 by Rick P.
Had to wait in line for over half an hour, desk person tried to upsell me on insurance even though my company has negotiated conditions, went up to get my car and waited another 15 min to get a dirty car. When i checked it back in they tried to bill me for a full tank of gas when I declined the fuel option at the desk and told them I filled it. Total trash operation - avoid it all costs
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November 2023 by Millie R.
The worst ever. Waited in line over 2 hours for them to tell me and everyone in line that there were no more vehicles! The guy at the counter had an attitude, the manager wouldn't come down to address the situation and they spoke to us like crap. Very unprofessional.
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November 2023 by Luis V.
Do Not Try to rent a Tesla!!!!! We thought we would splurge and drive a fun electric car. We set up everything so we would have charging spots and were set up to have a good time. They didn't have a Tesla so they gave us a ford. No additional information. Turns out that you can't charge a ford like a Tesla, there are some places where the people yell at you for even parking your non Tesla in the charging spaces for a second. The guy said there is a charger near the airport so we could charge it before we got back, well you can, if you want to wait 8 hours for 60% of a charge. If we weren't as good with technology this thing would have been on to side of the road waiting for budget to pick it up. We spent the whole vacation worried about when to charge the car next and it was ruined. A ford is not a Tesla and you should be warned what you sign up for when you get an electric car that isn't a Tesla. Not to mention we got it with 60% charge when we left. We were supposed to have a fun time, budget ruined our vacation. Don't rent electric from budget
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November 2023 by Sabrina JaDoul
After waiting LITERALLY 2.5 hours in line for a car (1.5 hours at the counter and 1 hour to receive the car), the vehicle they brought was FILTHY, not dirty but FILTHY. It was not cleaned when it was originally returned, had saw dust like dirt everywhere, candy wrappers, plastic spoons, drink containers. Myself and my kids cleaned out the garbage and vacuumed the best we could to at least be able to ride in this vehicle. The fluid light was on low and they just didn't do any kind of maintenance before they turned around. NEVER will I use Budget again. I will spend the extra money a day to go with a more reputable car rental company. I have never in all my travel experience a car rental in this condition, or taken 2.5 hours to even get to a car in this condition. I should have submitted a bill for the cleaning we had to do and they should have paid me. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET!!! If you value time on your vacation or what a good vehicle, go somewhere else.
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November 2023 by Brenda Tarquinio
The check in agent was rude. I'm deaf on one side, he explained something about the tolls and it was loud in there so hard to hear. I asked again about it, his response was "I JUST TOLD YOU THAT". When I explained I'm half deaf, he never apologized but seemed annoyed by me. We got our car and waited to exit, since there was a line, it took awhile and we had to be somewhere No problem, except once we got to that agent, she said "Oh, you can't rent this car, it is an Uber car" No idea what that was something that would happen. So we had to return to car area, now we are going to be late. The agent there said, oh we have one car you can use at your level, over there. We went to the car, there were THREE LARGE STICKERS on the passenger side windshield. I asked two people if they could remove them, they were blocking sight, they said no, sorry. It was from some even they had that past weekend?? We called one more guy over, he said same thing. We then asked about tolls, he said, oh don't worry about that you are good. We questioned this and he repeated, it will be ok. (we were not going through that many) Now we are REALLY late. So we left. We had to drive around with these stickers, not only was it not safe, but it made us look like targets at tourists. It was a terrible experience. Luckily, we didn't have to drive the car much once we got it to our destination. We paid for the gas, but used less than a half tank. As the guy who checked us out was so pushy for us to buy everything and made when we said no. It was stressful from the moment we got to the counter. And driving that car, which was nice, was so unsafe. I'm surprised a cop didn't pull us over. If we were not late already, I would have insisted on another car, but we could see no other cars in the row of our level, midsize SUV.
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November 2023 by Marti Ouellette
I hesitate to give one star. Rented at Austin location. The minivan was mechanically failing. Warning lights on dashboard with regard to braking system and collision system (no airbags?) and when I pointed it out to the agent she responded with "you get what you get". The entire car shook every time I used the brakes. all of this after waiting in line 90 minutes to pick up a car I reserved over 2 months ago. Unacceptable.
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November 2023 by John McIlmoil
I arrived at the airport at 9:30 and it took an hour to check in at the rental counter and then it took over an hour of standing in line to get a car. The car was dirty and smelled. It was a very poor experience. The staff did t the best they could but were very understaffed. The lady working the counter mentioned she had been working for 10 hours already.
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November 2023 by rob montoya
I really appreciate the Budget Rental Car staff that assisted me with my car and rental experience in Austin, Texas. The agent went the extra mile to get me a great vehicle and was very helpful and friendly in the process.?