My girlfriend made an online reservation with Budget Rental Car for a Mazda which we were going to use on our recent visit to Tampa. When we arrived at Tampa International Airport to pick up the car the rental agent told us we could have a choice of a Mazda or a Ford Taurus. My girlfriend owns a Ford Taurus and had never driven a Mazda, so we decided the Taurus sounded more practical. What the agent did not tell us was that the Taurus was an upgrade and was going to cost us an additional $20 per day. Unfortunately, both of us were tired from our flight and did not read the contract carefully enough, and we failed to notice that the agent had my girlfriend put her initials next to the words "upgrade - $20 per day." Of course we should have paid closer attention to the contract, but the agent never told us that the Taurus was an upgrade and she never said how much it would cost. In fact, when my girlfriend asked what the total cost would be, the agent said "that will be figured out at the end when you return the car." Of course now we see that the rental agent was trying to hide the fact that we were going to pay more than we anticipated.
Needless to say, when we returned the car 4 days later we were shocked to find that the cost was $80 more than we planned. When we tried to explain to the agent at the return desk that the rental agent never told us (1) that the Taurus was an upgrade; (2) that it was going to cost $20 more per day; and (3) what the total would be, all he did was point to the contract and say "these are your initials so you must have known about the upgrade. We are not going to do anything." He was completely rude and unprofessional. Should we have read the contract more carefully? Of course. That having been said, it was unethical for the rental agent to not tell us that the Taurus would be an upgrade and that it would cost us $20 per day more than we expected. The fact that the return agent was rude and completely unsympathetic to us was also disconcerting. So much for the adage "the customer is always right." .

Picked up a Hyundai Electra with paint on the passenger seat and passenger door. I thought, “Ok, this is not how I would want my cars going out, but maybe they are busy because it is Christmas and all”. I thought it was SO obviously all over the place that there was no doubt they knew about it. I am not much of a complainer, and it didn’t affect my ability to drive the car, and it was otherwise clean, so I left, did my visiting with my family and friends and went to turn it in a week later.

I told the guy who received my car that I was surprised it went out that way. I was not in any way ugly about it, and I was not looking for a refund or any kind of special treatment. The man said it wouldn’t have gone out that way so I must have done it. My jaw dropped! I told him it was like that when I picked it up and he said he doubted it since it changes hands so many times during the process of “cleaning”. I said, never mind I’ll tell them inside. I went inside and explained the paint, the girl gave me a look, and called the manager.

The manager came out, I explained what happened, she rolled her eyes and said, “There’s nothing I can do, but I will look at it”. I followed her out to the car she looked at it and said, “Mm, nope, it wouldn’t have gone out of here like that, no way”, and walked off. I said, “God is my witness, it did go out like that”. She just said, “Nope, you will be charged for this”. I was incredulous. What could I possibly do now? I am the one that didn’t complain, so it is my fault? I know now I should have complained.

Now I know how an innocent person in jail feels like sort of. I cried all the way home. But then my sister said, they probably just recycle the car. If you complain, fine they get you another car, but if you don’t, you get stuck with a bill. Hmmmm. There is no way, if it “passes through so many hands”, that they didn’t know about it. It got me to wondering how many people would just pay the bill and go on with life. Ok, I know, it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I am innocent, I did not do this. How could so many people there NOT know about it? So beware of the Budget Rental at the Hobby Airport, Houston, location.

Budget car rental aka Avis car rental is the worst car rental company in existence. The employees took over the company a few years ago and they overcharge you to benefit their bank accounts. I rented a car for 5 days in Tampa Fl recently. I got a quote beforehand through their website for $253.00. I thought this was reasonable. When I got to the counter at the airport the woman who was waiting on me said "do you want an upgrade so you will have more room"? I said "no" it's only me and my daughter and we will be fine in the one I ordered. She asked again and again I declined. Then she asked me if I wanted bumper to bumper insurance. I said "no I don't, I have my own insurance" I then showed her my Geico card. So she told me the total was going to be $305.00 for taxes etc. and said to initial where it had $305.00 on the paper which I did. She then told me to initial in the other boxes to decline the extras which I did. The font was conveniently not showing the tops of the numbers so I couldn't see what I was initialing but I assumed the woman was honest and I trusted her. Well don't you know when I returned the car they charged me $527.03. I was livid. I went right up to the counter and told them to get this off my credit card that the total should be $305.00. The guy at the counter looked at it and told me the extra was for tax. I couldn't believe it. When I got home to New Jersey I researched on line and apparently this is a common fraud tactic by this company. There are thousands of complaints from people about the same exact scenario. When I wrote to customer service they had a scripted response saying I initialed for the insurance at $26.00 a day and I asked for an upgrade. These people are nothing but common thieves. If any lawyer is reading this and wants to do a class action lawsuit against them contact me at [email protected] Thank You, Dolores

Paid in advance for an Explorer size SUV. They didn't have one and tried to give me a small SUV. With four adults traveling together I had to pay an upgrade fee to get a big enough car. Talk about a Bait and Switch. I will NEVER rent from Budget again.

Budget Rental Car gave me a car with 2 rows of seats, then switched me to another different car and consequently created time pressure to reach my next appointment. I noticed a brush on the bumper but it seemed minor and didn't mention anything as it seemed like nothing. When I returned Michael Webster said the bumper was actually damaged and that it was my responsibility to cover it. We were not in an accident, but Michael said that his people would not have made a mistake, and that this was my fault. I feel as though I have been through a robbery after using Budget Rental Car. I would not recommend using either Budget and one should carefully avoid the Seattle SeaTac Airport. This was the station manager that I was dealing with and he is running an operation there that doesn't check carefully cars going out but does check them very carefully coming in, and he will hang repairs on unsuspecting customers with no hesitation. They need to cover losses and don't care whether it is done justly.