Budget Car Rental — Local services in San Francisco

I WILL NEVER USE BUDGET AGAIN IN MY LIFE. If I could give ZERO stars, I would! This is the ABSOLUTE WORST experience at a car rental company that I've ever had in my entire life. When I finally got to the counter after waiting over an hour in line to pick up my rental, I was told that I couldn't use my debit card, even though there was a sign on the counter indicating that it was possible to use a debit card. We had to put the reservation on my colleague's credit card, but I was told I could pay for the rental with my debit card upon return of the car. When I returned the car yesterday, I told the agent I wanted to pay with a different card than was used for the reservation. The agent gave me a receipt and told me to pay at the counter. I went to the counter and while waiting in line, I received an email with a receipt for the rental, paid on my colleague's card! EXACTLY WHAT I TOLD THEM NOT TO DO! When I finally spoke with an agent, after waiting for another hour, he told me that he refunded my colleague's card and charged my debit card. He said he would email me a receipt confirming this. IN FACT HE DID NEITHER! My colleague's card was still charged. He did not issue me a receipt nor a confirmation for the refund as I requested. So I called Budget this morning to request a receipt for payment on the new card and confirmation for the refund. The agent on the phone confirmed that my colleague's card was refunded and he would send me a receipt. GUESS WHAT? I just received a receipt that shows that the rental was STILL CHARGED TO MY COLLEAGUE'S CARD! How many times do I have to ask for the same service? I have had to call the number THREE TIMES now and I am so frustrated. The agents are either lying to me, or their system is completely malfunctioning at the expense...

I would give 4 stars for how Budget eventually fixed our issue and 0 stars for how Jeanette caused it, so that brings me to a 2-star review.

We booked our car online, but we wanted to change the return location. We therefore went to the store one day in advance and were told that this was no issue: we could change that during the actual pickup the next day.

The next day we picked up the car and wanted to change the return location from Palm Springs to Temecula. However, the employee 'helping' us, Jeanette, assured us this was no issue and that it would not lead to additional fees, as Temecula and Palm Springs are in the same region. We still repeatedly asked to change this on the confirmation, as it's not the first time renting a car and moreover, it just seemed as if Jeanette was not pleased with our request at all and had no sense to help us.

The confirmation was not going to be changed. And so we left. Now guess what happened when we turned in the car in Temecula: we got charged an additional 100 dollars for returning to a different location .. surprise surprise. Then it took a few phone calls and 30 mins waiting time before I could actually speak to an agent who would help me and from then it all went quite smooth. Budget acknowledged this strange state of affairs and therefore reimbursement the 100 dollars.

So all in all I would say this is just another car rental company where you have to be extremely aware of what you sign, otherwise you're screwed. And specifically for this store: make sure you're even more sharp in case you're "assisted"...

Reserved a full size car because we needed a full size car (duh!), they would not give us a full size car and we paid the full car price. Gave us a car that had clearly been in an accident and caused many headaches throughout the trip. Brought this to their attention, instead of providing us a different car, sloppily completed a form to provide us documentation that the car was damaged prior to us renting, "which you probably won't need." Want to bet? Now being harassed by Budget's collection team, Segwick. Very lucky we noticed the damage immediately and got that 1960's style form otherwise we'd be on the hook for $3993.27. Shoddy...