Budget Car Rental — Local services in Philadelphia

I have used Budget 20+ times over the past two years for business and personal travel and up until this morning I would have considered myself a loyal customer. There are cheaper alternatives to Budget but the additional cost has always been worth the customer service. I was returning my rental this morning at approximately 4:45am to the Philadelphia International Airport. I had a very intense and potentially dangerous experience while doing this. Budget cars are returned to the Avis lot (I now understand Budget is a Subsidiary of Avis so it makes sense) but as a loyal customer I wanted to ensure I returned my car to the same office/lot where I picked it up. That was a mistake. I was chased through a parking lot as if I stole the car that I just returned 6 hours before my scheduled drop off time. Yes, there was a posted sign that instructed to return Budget rentals to the Avis rows. Yes, I admit, I missed the sign and drove straight past the Avis return rows and headed towards the Budget parking lot, because as I stated previously, I wanted to ensure I did my part as the customer. Everyone knows how rushed these airports are, even in the early morning hours. However, my mistake of missing the sign lead to me getting chased down in a highly dangerous manner. I was screamed and cursed at. I apologized to the attendant and explained my confusion and agreed to simply turn around. This seemed to upset the attendant even more. He was furious to a level that I was planning out in my mind how I was going to physically defend myself, because I sensed it was coming to that point. I never raised my voice and was respectful. I understand my mistake was an annoyance to him and likely created a small bottleneck in his operation, but mistakes happen and you deal with them. I would have realized the oversight on my own and corrected it. He could have simply followed me over to the Budget lot where I’d eventually stopped (we’re talking 100 yards between the Avis & Budget buildings) and politely just said “hey man you missed the return row would you mind following me back over that way?” Budget’s Corporate Safety Management Team should review the footage (first step when planning my defense was finding the closest security camera) because this employee should be held accountable for his actions. Unprofessional, unethical, and a liability to Budget. The gentleman that ultimately scanned my car in all but apologized for the behavior of his coworker and was much more friendly and understanding just as Budget would expect their customer facing employees to be. To put it bluntly the employee was a thug. Budget lost my business. For readers, consider the safety of your family when deciding to do business with Budget in Philly. I’ll be submitting a formal complaint through my corporate business central concur account too. I figured I’d be cooled off 7 hours later but I’m sitting here writing this review (first ever review in 35 years of life) instead of unpacking. I can’t provide the employees name but he can be identified on footage: • Date: 11/19/2024 • Time: 4:45am- 5:00am • Rental Car: Black Chevy Malibu (the one getting chased 😂) • Employee Vehicle: White Mid-Sized SUV • Employee Race: African American • Employee Age: ~ 30-40

THIS REVIEW DOESN'T DESERVE ONE STAR. ZERO SHOULD...

Let me preface this negative review by stating that I am a long-time satisfied customer of Budget Car Rental, but this location near the PHL airport was the worst ever; I would have given 0 to negative number reviews if I could have! When I checked in at the counter, there were charges added for services I did not want and had declined, but eventually their number matched my reservation, so I signed and got the car. As it turned out, we only drove the car to Lancaster, PA and back, definitely under 200 miles total. When we returned the car, I opted for an e-receipt, as we were catching a flight and the return service was slow and switched employees in the middle of my return transaction. We had agreed to return the car full, and did just that, topping it off near the airport, for a total of $11.90. However, when we got to our gate, I noticed that the e-receipt was $139.99 over the agreed amount, noting "fuel service" for our economy car. I thought I had everything resolved with José at Budget customer service that very day, before boarding our plane, and had even forwarded the gas receipt as requested. José gave me his word that the refund would appear in 3-5 business days, and when it did not, I contacted my credit card company for a dispute of the overcharged amount, and we agreed to wait until my next bill posted before disputing. Today, almost three weeks later, I realized I had still not been refunded, and spoke at length to another customer service rep and her supervisor, both of whom kept me in a loop of not providing assistance, insisting I go online to fill out a form to re-submit the same receipt I had sent José. I was not notified by Budget that my refund was not being processed after all. I decided to give Budget customer service one more chance and spoke with Amir, who allowed me to forward a screen shot of the receipt without my having to jump through hoops for something that was not my mistake. Upon further examination of the receipt, I also noticed the incorrect odometer readings noted: over 1200 miles! Even if the employee had accidentally fat-fingered the number, I should have been trusted, as the customer. I was made a fool of for trusting this facility, realizing that businesses of integrity and great customer service are primarily a thing of the past, and from here on out I must now take the time and responsibility for documenting the odometer readings and fuel gauge, and personally inspect a printed receipt before leaving the rental facility. Shame on me, and lesson learned! My travels will take me to Philadelphia on future occasions, but I will never again use this location, and I hope you don't either. If my experience spares even one person what I went through, it will have been worth the attention, energy, and time it took to get...

Long review but worth the read if you don't want to get pulled over for something not your fault, see details below. Don't rent from here if you can help it.

The front desk staff was completely unprofessional this afternoon 04/24/2019 between the hours of 1:00pm- 3:30pm. This afternoon cars were short in the lot and were being detailed, not a big deal it happens. However, you could see the staff clearly overwhelmed but not maintaining some composure or efficiently communicating with each other, so the vibe was tense among everyone waiting to get their cars and get on with their day.

As I was waiting for my car to get ready along with others, I noticed an older lady waiting with the rest of us. Turns out the staff neglected to tell the older lady that her car was sitting in the lot right in front of us all along. Then when that older lady asked for help with putting her luggage in the car because she was traveling alone and needed assistance, they just straight up told her no. Did not bother to even say they would even find someone to help. The rest of us customers waiting took it upon ourselves to help the lady with the three moderately weighted bags into her small rental truck. Took us less than a minute to help her, but a front desk person couldn't be bothered to assist in some shape or form.

Later on as I made along the way with my own travels I got pulled over. After getting a rental car from this location, I was pulled over by the police in Bellmwar, NJ because the tag on the vehicle was expired and THE PLATE ITSELF WAS NOT EVEN REGISTERED TO THE CAR I WAS DRIVING (note the picture of the Toyotas SC license plate and tag, picture taken May 16th 2019). I called this location to come get the car as I did not feel safe driving on the highways with the state troopers with expired tags and unregistered plates. The told me to just drive it over anyways. I told them no, so in return they asked for my zip code to find me the nearest budget to trade the car with and "Maybe they might have something for you, no guarantee".

I travel from out of state for a work project between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, it feels really awful to just be abandoned like that when you have no one here. To be risked getting pulled over for what may be initially presumed as a "stolen car" because someone could not seem to do their job in car title/tag maintenance. Thank goodness it was the local police and not state trooper and I had the paperwork from the rental company (not something they always give back to the customer).

I'm pretty patient as a person but this just floored me today. Be weary of what you get from here. But do expect the front desk to be understaffed, have poor customer service, and have absolutely no problem leaving you abandoned in a state you...