Budget Car Rental — Local services in Philadelphia

Budget doesn't give a damn or else they would've better'ed themselves after the NUMEROUS 1 star reviews all saying the same thing. Anyways here's my ordeal:

Booked an suv 6 weeks ago for a pickup at 8 am. One guy working and only 1 person ahead of me yet I didn't get a vehicle till about 30-40 mins later. The guy told me they had no suv on the lot to give me so I got stuck with some really crap Corolla which was so low, I could barely see above the steering wheel. Called CS who told me to drive around all the Budget locations to see if they have an suv I could get as they don't have a system that can see that info. I was still on the lot yet the CS rep said I couldn't return/refuse this car and had to return it at a diff location. (WHAT?!) Even tho I was forced to get a class of car 4 levels below the one I booked, the guy at the location said he couldn't do any refund and I had to call CS.

I've never had a car rental experience like this where they didn't have the class of vehicle I booked. There was no call, no email to state they didn't have it either so you have to waste your time and energy going to the location to be told in person.

I think I've used Budget before in another city so my only rec is DON'T book with this location and try and inconvenience yourself to go to the airport as I assume they'd have more inventory there.

Im not one who is excited about the advent of AI but this is one company that needs to wipe out their human CS and replace...

Nicole, the front desks woman, was really rude. We arrived with the driver license, credit cards and Argentina’s ID, and she looked at us and said ‘what is all of this?’ And then said ‘where is the passport?’ We told her we hadn’t brought the passport because IT DIDNT SAY A PASSPORT IS NEEDED, it only says a second ID may be needed and she replied ‘I need the passport, it is always like this’ like how in the world are we supposed to know a passport is mandatory if IT DOESN’T SAY and if we had never rented with Budget before? Other companies don’t ask for a passport. We rented with Sixt a few days before and we didn’t need the passport and it was really clear what to bring when picking up the car.

Nicole looked at us like I don’t fing care, you need a passport, she didn’t even say I am sorry for the inconveniences, I am sorry it doesn’t say, she just kept looking at us like go back to the hotel and bring the passport. We needed to go back to the hotel, wasting time of our rented time with the car and the bring the passport. When we arrived again, she left, because she didn’t want to face us. The customer service was horrible, she was really rude and the fact that you don’t let clients know a passport is mandatory made us decide we are never renting with budget again. You should be more clear and have better people in the front desk (the guy who was there when we went back was nice and...

I always book our rental car through Hotwire, no exception here. Due to the numerous locations, I found it easiest to view prices via the map rather than in list view. That way, I was able to pinpoint the nearest location too.

The offices of Budget/Avis are located at the bottom level of the Convention Center Parking Garage on Arch Street. Check in was fast and easy. Their cars are located on the second level of the garage. You can also park your car overnight in the upper levels of the garage since it's public. Overnight parking was $26, probably 50% cheaper than if we parked at our hotel.

I reserved an economy car which turned out to be a Nissan Sentra. The price dropped down to $9/day from $27 after plugging everything in. Score! We opted for Hotwire's $9 insurance and declined the pricier option from Budget. The car had about 6,000 miles on it, so the tires were still new, the a/c strong, the exterior in good shape, and clean inside.

We needed the car for an extra day and they were nice enough to honor the online price. Thanks!

OVERALL: Surprisingly great deal for a last minute booking with a city...