Budget Car Rental — Local services in Hollywood

Zero Stars (had to click one in order to post). Never again with Budget thanks to this facility at 2520 Miami Rd. Started with waiting about an hour at the cruise ship port for the shuttle ride to the facility. My pre-paid Suburban was not there. Must have been over 50 people waiting for cars. Was told it would be at least 2 hours before a car would be available. They had temporary signs posted at the check-in desk stating that due to high demand the wait time would be excessive. Basic question - When you pre-paid for a specific car, why isn't there ready for you? The one woman working the counter asked for my cell number and told me she would call me when the Suburban was ready. I had a reservation at a local hotel with early check-in so me and my party of six went to the hotel and waited for the call. That call never came. This facility forwarded their phone to the 800 Budget help line which was useless. I had no way of contacting the facility for status. I Ubered back to the facility 3 1/2 hours later. Asked for status and still no car. I asked why I was never contacted, and the same woman (grossly understaff counter) told me she called out my name but didn't call me even though she asked for my cell phone number. It was apparent to me they may have given my car away or simply forgot about me. She had five handwritten pages of people waiting for cars and cell phone numbers, my name was never crossed out.... I asked to speak with the Manager of this Budget facility, his name is Sagar Gurbulrajani. They told me the best they MAY BE ABLE TO DO for me was a minivan. Realize that I pre-paid over $700 for this Suburban. Was at the facility another hour and magically they told me a Suburban just arrived and would be ready for me shorty, after they clean it. Another 20 mintues later, the Suburban they eventually gave me showed up. Another 20 minutes later they turned it over to me. I asked to speak with Sagar and was told he left the facility and wouldn't be back. Before I pulled out, I noticed the gas gauge less than full. Went back in and the facility to inquire and she told me the contract she printed shows 6/8 tank and return it as such at the facility in Tampa airport and no problem. Later that day, the Tire Pressure gauge goes off for the rear right tire. Good tire pressure for tires on a Suburban should be 36~38 due to weight load etc.. All the tires were less than 28 and that tire specifically was 25. Dangerous situation. I found a gas station and put the proper air pressure in all the tires. That right rear had a slow leak which I had to deal with all weekend. I also noticed that the Suburban had NY plates and the NYS vehicle inspection was overdue since March of 2023. The dropoff at Tampa airport was ok but concerning that no one seem to care to ask me anything about the vehicle. They just pointed where to leave the car. I asked about a receipt, and they said it would be sent to me. I told them about the tires, he seemed to write that down. I filled the gas tank to 7/8 full, one better then I received it. I just received my electronic invoice that included a $25 charge for not returning the gas tank full!!! I did not interface with a single person that cared about my situation at the Budget facility at 2520 Miami Rd. The whole pre-paid rental process at Budget is setup to rip you off; nickle and dime you at every chance, cut corners in their favor, no accountability for good service for...

Horrible! Here is the post my friend put up regarding this location. BEWARE! After enjoying an great 10 day vacation, I met this man Erik Colon, a Budget Car Rental shuttle bus employee. We had reservations at 11am and got off the ship at 9:50am. We called the Budget office located at 1515 SE 17th St #117a, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 where our reservation was to have the free shuttle pick us up. Their recording says the shuttle comes every 20-30 minutes. After waiting about 30 minutes we called & they said oh the driver's on their way or let me call the driver & see where he's at. That was the same story we got for the next 2 hours. They even kept telling us "oh just get a taxi and we will pay for it." & hung up on us multiple times. After 2 1/2 hours the bus finally pulls up & the 1st thing we say is where have you been? We've been standing in the hot sun for a long time & very frustrated at this point. The employee ERIK COLON gets in Sarai Inez Dickinson face and starts yelling at her then throws our luggage on the racks. We're screaming at him to be careful & he just keeps arguing with us. So once we all sit down he speeds off in a hurry and turns up the music very loudly. I scream you need to drive safely and I yell it a 2nd time because he doesn't hear me. This man turns the music down & with an attitude yells "what did you say." I repeat myself again and he HARD BRAKES, no over reacting we all literally fell out of seats. Sarah hits her head/neck on the metal holding racks and a little boy could have seriously been injured if his mother didn't put her legs and arms in front of him. The driver gets out of the bus and goes to get cruise security. The cops get called. Embarrassing. Like 4 cop cars pull up and we explain the story, they feel bad for us but says we have to get off the shuttle because the employee requested that. The cops call us a taxi. This place was only 10 minutes away so I don't understand why Budget shuttle never came for over 2 hours. We tell the manager and he's basically calling us a liar and keeps telling us to call corporate office. I've never experienced anything like this. We've filed multiple complaints. Instead of relaxing on our last day before going back to work, Sarah has to go to the doctors because her neck is very bruised. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE FOR AN EMPLOYEE, A MAN AT THAT TO GET IN A WOMAN'S FACE OR DRIVE RECKLESSLY. PEOPLE'S SAFETY IS NOTHING TO PLAY ABOUT! SHARE SHARE SHARE! #BudgetCarRental #BudgetRentalCar #Budget...

In short, this is the worst customer service for a car rental location in Fort Lauderdale...read below for full details...or simply go to Enterprise rental just down the road to save you time, money and a major headache. Trust me -- I'm from Fort Lauderdale and have rented from all of them!

I am from Fort Lauderdale and I rented a car from this location because it was close to my house, even though I typically use Hertz or Enterprise... I was scheduled to return my car at 12:00pm and I was running some errands so I called to see if I could return the car at 12:30pm... I have asked for this simple request multiple times with Hertz and Enterprise as I often rent cars for work and they have always accommodating and let me return later with no additional fee (as long as you call them in advance).

When I got a hold of a representative I asked if it would be OK for me to return the car at 12:30pm as I was wrapping up some errands. The representative said "No the rate will change" in response I said "ok, what is the rate change?" He responded saying "the rate will go up and you can't return it later" again I asked what the rate change would be? He told me the rate was going to go up and I couldn't return it late... But he continued to refuse to tell me how much.

I asked to speak to a manager so that I could find out how much the rate change would be or if there is any chance it could be waived if it was significant. He refused to transfer my asking "well why do you need to speak to my manager" I was very polite and told him why and he kept refusing to transfer me to a manager in a childish manner as though he thought he was in trouble. I finally asked him to please let me speak to a supervisor and he responded "I'm not going to do it!" and he hung up on me!

I stopped my errands to return the car and the line was out the door...literally! I arrived at 11:45 to a line that would take 30 minutes. I wasn't charged extra but the service was so horrible that it warrants my first 1...