PSA for the day.... When taking an out of town trip don't ever use Budget Car Rental. They have "lost" my car rental, charged by car upwards of $2k as of right now AND you can't speak to a human. The best part is the cut and paste "we are so sorry for this inconvenience...." emails. read more

Horrible experience and Budget's shady practices... First off, Budget has an F on the Better Business Bureau and is not Accredited. Second, we returned the car and left the country the same day. We remembered what the individual that took the car among looked like. He said that he would email the receipt that morning. Now Budget claims that the car was returned two days late with damage. We are requesting for Security footage and will escalate as high and wide as possible. Budget will not cheat anyone like this. Other than their practices, here's the experience that's typical of this Denver Budget office: It's normal to wait an hour and then spending the next 10 minutes saying no thanks to their slimy up-sell. E.g. They will often say because there are mountains around, you will want a v6. So I upgraded to their suggested car and found out the car only is a 4 cylinder! Another lie, was on my recent trip where she said I had a stationwagon jetta. It turn out to be a sedan jetta with a trunk too small for all bags. Either Budget needs to staff up or stop spending so much time up selling with lies. Update 7/31/2017: I just found out that I was double charged by Budget. I'm digging into why and will update this post. read more

Terrible company, they don't provide full disclosure, the owner very rude, and the car I ordered, they provided me with another, they didn't honor the contract. As an adult you provide the times you need the car not when they need the car. They don't care for longevity relationships. Budget on Broadway over charged me and disregarded my company discount. I will never go there again. As I sat in the lobby and watched potential customers were turned off by the attitude and for there online service for not providing the full disclosure. Zero stars for poor communication and unethical practice. They should be sued for being prejudice against women. read more

DO NOT Prepay unless you're sure of the exact time you will need the rental. Rented a pickup to use while mine was being repaired. I was told it could be up to eight days before the repair was completed. SO, I rented for eight days but the repair was done in one day. I returned the rental that same day and was informed they could not refund any money on a prepay. $896.29 for a one-day rental. Called customer service. After some back and forth, they agreed to refund $431.48. Therefore, it only cost me $464.81 for a one-day rental. That's after they couldn't deliver the vehicle I was promised, taking an hour and a half to do their FASTBREAK rental, having to get a manager involved to get anything and requiring an hour to do the drop off. read more

Really easy check in and check out. We booked pretty last minute but were able to get a car we liked. Check in staff was friendly and were to answer our questions. They even threw in some suggestions of stuff to do. We also extended our rental and that process was shockingly easy. No extra paperwork or anything when we returned our car. Will definitely use again in the future! read more

If I could give the downtown Budget location zero stars I would. I reserved a mid size car from this location and to drop off at Denver Airport. Ubered to the office at 1pm. My reservation said "Pick Up After 12pm". Simon, the delightful fellow told me "you are late". He went on to complain I might have cost him another rental. I pointed out the rental said anytime after 12pm and that I would have had the car and paid for it anyway. Then, he tole me i had to return the car to the downtown location.....no I said, i specifically rented it for a drop off at the airport. He insisted I was wrong, and that I would have to pau a one wat rental fee, a new daily rate plus a drop off fee of $150. He accuse me of lying about my reservation and that, again I would cost him a rental fee. I had to dig around for the reservation that clearly said drop off at the airport. He STILL argued that that could mean the pick up lo cation until i oiiunted out were were there talking at the pick up location, the pick up location was his location. At this point he said he was going to cancel my reservation and that I should find somewhere else to rent (I was stranded in downtown Denver). Apparently I was argumentative and he found that rude. I had to point out that I was only trying to get him to do what was was on the written reservation in front of him. He eventually re-instated my reservation (although I haven't seen what I was charged yet) and threw the paper work at me, didnt do a wlk around, and said there were no scratches or damage on the car (there were numerous, and I made sure to take photographs). As I was walking our he shouted after me that "I should find another rental company in future". Simon is a bad tempered, rude, nasty person. I have never been treated so poorly in over 30 years of renting a car. I am not one of those rude, entitled complainers and I have never written a review before, but this was horrible. Avoid this location, he should be fired, I was relieved to see others had the same experience as me, as, as one does sometimes, thought perhaps this was my fault. read more

After a nightmare experience at the airport location, we came here to return our car with a giant crack through the entire windshield. Courtney was kind and helpful and took care of us right away. read more

The very worst of car rentals. I arranged for our car rental online, specifically requesting a compact car and planning our gas budget on a fuel efficient vehicle. When we arrived, the customer service rep. named Andrew, gave us a full size car. I just didn't realize what a gas guzzler the full size car was until half way through our vacation. When we returned the vehicle, I mentioned to Andrew that the only problem we'd had with the car was it's terrible fuel economy. He only laughed it off and didn't apologize for not delivering the car that was promised to us. Then came the WORST part. As we were about to leave the rental office, I asked Andrew if could summon a taxi to take us to the train station. Andrew actually said, "I think the best thing to do would be to walk to the closest hotel." and he gave us directions to walk with all of our obvious luggage (3 bags each) the four or five blocks to the nearest hotel. I was shocked, since I am very sure that he had a phone and all the capabilities of calling us a cab. It was infuriating and I was eager to leave this location, never to return. I would never rent a car from here again. Now, one week later, I have received a charge on my credit card from Budget for $16. A charge from the company for going through a single $1.25 toll. Apparently, when you go through a toll booth in Colorado, this rental company charges you a $2.75 per day fee for every day that you rent the car, regardless of whether you use the tollway each day or not. I understand that this was the policy on the rental, although you'd think they would have told me about the hefty charges. It just enforces my opinion on this company. read more

I rented a Subaru Legacy at the Budget location at DIA last week while I was in Denver. The car was great - it was brand new and got great gas mileage. My problem was with their agents at the check-in desk. This isn't the first time I've rented from Budget, so some of the review applies to the other times I've rented. I reserved my car online with an AARP discount and received a free day as the discount. Luckily I had the receipt with me when I checked in. The agent told me that the discount wasn't available for last weekend, so I pulled out my receipt. He wanted to apply it to a future rental, but I demanded the discount and he gave it to me. If I didn't have the paperwork, I would have been charged the full amount. Budget has a habit of upselling when you rent a car, so buyer beware!! They will try and talk you into a more expensive vehicle (especially in the winter with SUV's), purchasing very overpriced insurance (they tell you that the deductible on your personal auto insurance would be waived if you cause an accident), and charging for a full tank of gas at a premium price (I paid 30 cents less per gallon then they were charging). All of this on top of a $60 per day rate for a mid-size car. read more

"It was in the contract" "Well you didn't ask about that" "Haven't you ever rented a car before?" These are some of the responses you can expect to hear from the delightful "manager" of this establishment. What he managing? probably a lot of pissed customers. On our first trip together to CO, we rented our car and returned it in great condition. Unaware of the 24 hour mark, we received an generous charge. When I called to inquire about it, I received a laundry list of reasons why it was our fault. In no way, shape or form was an apology given. No, we have not rented a car before and that's why we didn't think to ask. Part of customer service is keep your client in the loop and informed. Maybe try explaining the multipage contract? But you know, don't serve the customer or anything. We have many years ahead of us to take trips and rent cars and we will never be back to Budget and will encourage all of our travelling friends to follow us in doing so. Budget on Broadway, you're terrible. read more

Terrible experience. Avoid Budget at all costs! I rented a car for 4 days recently. I returned the car, on time and undamaged as promised. 3 days after I returned the car, Budget attempted to charge my credit card 3 separate times totaling $4,376.26. Luckily my credit card company declined the charges but since then Budget charged me 5x the agreed upon rental amount, with absolutely no explanation as to why. I have spent hours on the phone with both Budget and my credit card company to get this resolved. I've also had to cancel my credit card and will now have to spend additional time changing automatic payments due to fraudulent charges from Budget. This is completely unacceptable and I will never rent from Budget again and I will tell everyone I know not to either. If I could rate them a 0, I would. read more

Well I wish that we had read the reviews of the Budget Car Rental at the airport before we had rented a car. We prepaid for our rental. We were offered all the usual add ons at the airport location before they gave us the car and we declined all of them. We were shocked to get a bill after we returned for $158.20. We called the location and they said that it was for items that we agreed to. We paid ahead of time for the charges that we had requested and we know that we declined all of the up charges at the Denver location. Yes their customer service is terrible. I would at least like to know the dates that we supposedly made these charges, but that information must be top secret because it was never offered. I just find it weird that a business with this many bad reviews would not want to improve their image. It sounds like it is a lost cause to fight them and a waste of precious time. I just wrote this review to let people know that they have not changed their act. Renting a car is very expensive now and their questionable practices makes it that much worse. Moral of the story is READ REVIEWS!!!!! read more

Picked up the car early by mistake. The initial person who checked us in was barely speaking loud enough to hear. I didn't understand that dropping it off at the agreed upon time would incur and additional $152 dollars. I called to try and reason with budget about the charge and the employee was extremely rude. He informed me that "the charge should have been obvious" and didn't need to be clearly explained because "i signed off on it." This is horrible customer service and I will not use budget again. I will gladly pay more for a company with competent workers and clear instructions on the expectations of return. read more

For the downtown Denver location, Alex made our trip! We got in and out no problem, great car, and friendly for the whole time. This was the best car rental check out we ever went through. I normally DREAD car rental situations but I'm hoping the next Budget we rent from is just as good. Tipsters for people staying downtown - you can rent from this location and drive back to the airport for drop off. We spent $60 on a cab ride into town (to avoid the $30 a night hotel parking for 5 nights) and picked up the rental on our last day to explore some more distant attractions. read more

Worst customer service!! Car not ready and had to wait over an hour in the winter. Did not call or text to account for our time.

We used this as a rental drop off point. It took 5 minutes to pull up and obtain a receipt. Nice staff. I was able to walk back to my hotel after returning the car at this location (1.7m), so no complaints! read more

I rented a car through the AARP's travel benefit. I picked the Budget on 1980 Broadway in Denver Colorado. When I arrived, the service representative told me about a new Budget policy concerning debit and credit cards. I told him I understood yet it was frustrating that this information was not given to me via the website or in my confirmation. I explained that I rented the car through AARP travel service. He then took a sour tone and began to explain to me how the new policy is all over the Budget website. He would not look at me at all when he spoke. I then explained how I rented the car through AARP travel service and that no information was given to me about this new policy. When renting through AARP I am linked to the Budget website. He then took an even ruder tone and told me that I could not have rented through AARP because that does not exist. I said that I do not appreciate his tone and attitude and that he should just focus on getting me the car I had paid for in advance. He said that he wanted a different card than the one I used to pay for the car. I gave him another credit card. He then claimed that I had "bad credit" and that I "failed the credit check" he ran on my card. I explained to him that my identity was stolen in the equifax hacking and I have locks on my credit cards. I then told him that I would get my wife's credit card because she was outside in the car with our young child. As I was saying this he took a call while I was talking. I went and got the credit card and had to wait while he spoke on the phone to a customer. As I stood at the counter, I watched him be very rude to that customer on the phone also. I then gave him the credit card. He then said I need my wife's driver's license. So I went out again and got my wife's driver's license. I gave that to him. Then he told me that she would need to come in. I went and switched places with my wife. In less than 2 minuets, my wife came out and told me that he had "kicked us out" because we were "problematic" and "late for the rental". When I initially came in he did not say anything about "being late" and said that my check in time was now 2 pm and I could return the car on my return day at 2pm. My wife said that she asked him why he sent me out three times when all he had to say was can you please have your wife come in. That was when he became rude to her and said he was cancelling my reservation. When my wife tried to inquire further about refunds and what was happening, that is when he said "you are kicked out for being a problem". What is even more shocking is that this man Simon S. is the owner of this franchise. I contacted budget to file a complaint and to see what was happening with my rental car purchase. The Budget customer service person, who was polite, apologetic and helpful said that the reservation had not been cancelled and that I could go pick up my car or she could could provide me with a full refund. I accepted the refund and the customer service representative also connected me to where I could file a complaint with Budget on this franchise. I have to say that the budget corporate was great. They listened, responded, and waived fees. That is what good customer service looks like. I rent cars from budget for business purposes, I own my own business. I have cancelled my corporate account and switched to another rental car service. read more

I will literally never rent from budget again, to get off a long flight to a 3 hour line. Not 3 hours because it's so many people flying but 3 hours because they lack the manpower to handle anyone and the staff they have has no sense of urgency literally the worst ! read more

do not rent from these incompetent people unless you want charges you did not previously approve. i have rented cars about 25 times. this was by far the worst experience i have ever had in my life. read more

The Filipino guy at the front (Simon) was extremely rude and verbally abusive. The kind of guy that laughs at a funeral and enjoys yellow starbursts. My moms from the Philippines and we are some of the nicest people but this guy was incredibly unprofessional. You need to brush up on your company's policies, refusing to take a international drivers license citing "policy change" is a lie. When I asked to see the policy changes in writing he said his word was enough. There's no such policy change according to your corporate supervisor, stop lying to customers it's not my first time renting a car. When I gave him my Australian drivers license he asked for an "Australian credit card." You know that's not a thing right? Ill let Visa, discover and American Express know you don't accept their cards at this location. He was left speechless after my gf called him out on his behavior , refused to rent from him and walked out. (Embarrassed for him, proud of her though) It's good to be Denver content creators in situations like these, after we left and posted about our experience at this budget it got over 1m views in the first hour, I decided to leave a comment here too if you haven't already seen the video. I'm sure they're going out of business soon so this won't be relevant anymore like all the cars parked bumper to bumper In the lot. I walked by the window when I was crossing the street and noticed him crying hysterically at the front desk. Take a day off and heal your inner child, because he's hurting badly. You're not nice buddy. read more

We were given a massive vehicle at the airport Budget location we were not comfortable with and they were unable to offer us a smaller vehicle so we decided to stop by this Budget location in downtown Denver to see if there was any possibility to trade it in for something smaller. We met Matthew who exchanged our vehicle for a smaller one without any problems within 10 minutes. He was friendly and provided us with great customer service. 5 stars for you Matthew! Thanks again! read more

Horrible service! I was met at the desk by a guy who without my agreement/understanding upgraded my car so that I had to pay 200 dollars extra! I had already preordered and payed for a really nice car and this 'new' car was no better plus I had to pay for the 'upgrade'! Worst experience ever, called customer service who gave no help whatsoever. Zero stars, will never ever use budget again nor recommend it to anyone. Dishonest company, stay far away if you want a good experience!!!! read more

The worst rental experience I ever had. Guy at the rental was super stubborn and unfriendly. when we were picking up a car he refused to void the insurance by our request. When dropping off we were an hour late, and were charged an additional day and insurance for that day, even though we were simply stuck in the traffic on I-70. Summarizing - not customer oriented attitude at all, won't recommend it. read more

Had our rental already setup with airline miles and the customer representative we dealt with was rude and tried to be slick the entire time. Don't remember his name but had glasses and short hair cut. Was very rude and tried to "upgrade" us to a minivan when we already ordered a ford fusion. Wouldn't budge when I kept saying we want what we ordered, only to find out he was trying to upgrade us because they had excess of minivans. Was very annoying and rude should be fired. Overall the place was managed poorly and if possible avoid or take business elsewhere. read more

This was the worst rental experience I have ever had. I rented a car on a Tuesday afternoon to go away for the Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Tuesday evening my son came down with a stomach virus. We cancelled our plans and I returned the car that night. I had it for all of 6 hours, most of which it sat in a parking garage while I was at work. It was driven 4 miles. I was "changed" to the daily rate when i returned the car early, which for one day was nearly the same price as my 5-day rental. The agent at the location was rude and not at all helpful. Then I called customer service and got similar treatment. I am a first member with Avis and this would never have happened with them. I should have read the reviews before renting from Budget. I am a frequent business traveler and will never make the mistake of renting from Budget ever again. read more

Pick up was wonderful. At the pick up the attendant was courteous and helpful. Drop off was complete opposite. We had a 7am flight and went to drop off at 5am. The only attendant there was the shuttle bus driver. We were all told to leave the cars parked and keys inside. We complied and flew home. We then receive a charge for$250 for returning the vehicle late. Budget claims the vehicle was returned at 4pm. We were already home in NY. No resolution with customer service. We rent 4x annually and have never had a problem. Choose another rental agency. Unacceptable customer care. read more

I am only giving 1 star due to the fact the the 1st represenative was courteuos and nice, but not informative so I had to return with a problem with the car. This woman did not smile during the whole conversation. Only at the end when we left. With a harsh tone and less than positive attitude is what I dealt with, but what amazed me was her unproffessional appearence. Her shirt was rumpled under her dirty jacket and her hair was in a ponytail, half to the side and half her hair wasn't even part of the ponytail. Either she couldn't do her hair in front of a mirror or she rolled out of bed and came to the counter. read more

Poor representatives inside. Poor car deposit management. Would not recommend to anyone.

RIP OFF. For 6 months I had a reservation for 432 for a week. Decided to take my trip an day early and change my reservation by ONE DAY. They wanted to charge the current rate which would be 684 $. I say would because no way in hell I am paying that. Airline auto rental. Off the airport with a shuttle for 352$ is where I am going. Enough of these big chains jerking people at airports read more

Got hit with a $43 charge for arriving 15 mins over the 24 hour mark, which doubled the cost of my rental

Affordable prices for rental cars if you want to roam around the city.

Customer service is non-existent with these people. Our car died and we called USAA for service and towing, then they tried to help us get a rental car. They discovered Budget was the one with the most availability, and they gave me the phone # for Budget, along with a discount code to use. When I called to reserve the car, I was quoted $47.91 per day or $335.35 per week. We ended up returning the car to them less than 24 hours later, only to find their location closed, despite an email to me stating Sunday hours were from 10am-2pm. My husband noticed an obscure, small sign on a different door (a side door) than I had used the previous day, stating they would be closed Sunday due to a race. Not one person bothered to mention that piece of information the day before, and it was nowhere in their emailonfirmation sent later that day. The note redirected us to an Avis location, who apparently were not given the memo, as they balked at us returning a car they did not rent to us. After some back and forth and leaving to fill the gas tank, we finally turned the car in to Avis, having rented it for only 21 hours total. I stressed to Avis to be sure Budget knows the time we returned it, so we would not be overcharged. Today I called Budget to confirm and was told we would owe the weekly rental amount, which came to about $380! I told the man I spoke with that we had made it clear when we picked up the car that we did not know if we would need it for a day, 2 days or a week, and it turned out to be less than a day, so why charge me for a week? He claimed he had to go "find my paperwork", and would call back. After about 4 hours, I received a call from the supervisor (I failed to note her name), and essentially was told we would be charged $76.67, including taxes and fees ($65 before taxes), despite my giving them a code from their "partner", USAA, I was also told by her I should have known they were closed Sunday as "signs were everywhere" and there was nothing she could do about the discount we had been told about. My conversation with her ended when she kept repeating the same things and decided this was "going nowhere". We drove all over downtown Denver trying to return the car to a company Budget had referred us to (Avis), only to be told by that company that they don't take cars from other rental companies, but the supervisor at Budget claims that I "should have known" they were closed and refuses to honor a discount from a partner organization. DO NOT EVER RENT FROM THIS COMPANY, EVEN IF IT IS THE LAST CAR AVAILABLE ON EARTH. They obviously do not believe in customer service. read more

do not go here save your money and go somewhere else because the lines are too long and they have terrible management. we had to wait 2 hours just to get a car that had the license plate hanging off! we asked them to fix it and said they couldn't and that we would have to get a whole new car and when we asked to get an upgrade for the inconvenience they said they had no cars left?! on top of that we had to wait 45 min at the airport just for the shuttle to pick us up. if i could rate this 0 stars i would! overall just save the time and money and just go to enterprise. read more

Got a last minute reservation after Hertz cancelled my reservation 15 minutes before my pick-up. Super nice staff, very accommodating & friendly. Easy pick-up & drop off. read more

There's something wrong at the Budget office located at 1980 Broadway in Denver. It seems to be a den of misery. When I picked up a rental there, I had the misfortune to be served by Nicole. She seemed angry and disheveled - did not smile, did not greet me and had to be asked several times to explain the fees and policies. When I returned the car, Nicole was there, but didn't even look up when I came in. I was helped by a gentleman without a name tag who was just as rude. Again, no greeting or thank you. He was annoyed and grumpy. Since you have plenty of rental car companies to choose from, why give business to a franchise that is so unprofessional? My interactions with the bitter staff there soured my day and my opinion of the organization as a whole. read more

Terrible experience! I recently rented a vehicle from Denver Colorado Airport with Budget! The vehicle was prepaid. We added a second driver upon rental and was told it would cost $13 a day. We declined the extra insurance! Upon returning home, I received a bill for almost $600. When I called customer service, I was told it was for the additional driver and additional insurance. The representative offered to take 25% off the bill and within 10 seconds offered to take 50% off. I asked for a supervisor to call me back. I am still waiting to get this resolved! Very shady! Think twice before renting a vehicle from Budget! read more

We rented an economy car through Budget for a one day rental and were upgraded to a full size SUV with no additional charge. HOWEVER, when we returned the car we were directed to drop it off in the "drop off" area. This is an area where renters pull their car up into the line of cars that are being dropped off, leave the keys in the car, and then leaves to catch the shuttle to the airport. An employee was checking in the cars ahead of us, told us to leave our paperwork in the car and that we could go ahead and leave. We did. BIG MISTAKE. When I got my credit card bill I saw that they charged me $648.00 ! I called up the main office to complain about this overcharge and demanded a refund. They said the extra charges were for them having to fill up the car with gas after I returned it and for the 5 additional days I had the car. I was furious, I had the car for one day, (picked it up in the am and returned it in the early pm the same day) and filled it up at the gas station near the airport before I returned it. It took a month to finally get my money back after many calls to Budget and being given the run around. They finally agreed to refund my money only if I could show them the gas receipt from the gas I purchased and a copy of my airline ticket showing that I flew out that same day. Thankfully, I had kept both proving that I did fill up the car and I did fly out that same day. My recommendation to all who rent a car: DO NOT USE A DEBIT CARD TO RESERVE OR PAY FOR YOUR RENTAL AND BY ALL MEANS, DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE VEHCILE WHEN YOU RETURN IT UNTIL YOU HAVE AN EMPLOYEE SIGN OFF STATING THE DAY AND TIME YOU DROPPED IT OFF AND THE AMOUNT OF GAS THAT IS IN THE GAS TANK. Because of Budget's fraudulent business practices we will not rent from Budget again. read more

I gave this Budget location 1 star, but it really should be ZERO! We rented a car here before arriving in Denver but I forgot it was with Budget instead of Enterprise which is my go-to car rental service. I had our uber driver drop us off at the Enterprise on Broadway and after they searched their system for my reservation we discovered my error. I need to mention that my mom is disabled, on crutches, and we traveled during the winter when it was very snowy/icy. So, while we were at Enterprise, there were approximately 6 people working behind the counter and they were all so friendly. They saw my mom struggling to get to their front door and one guy ran to help me with her. After discovering that we should be at Budget, another guy offered to drive us over there. My mom and I were very apologetic and every single person working there told us they were happy to help with HUGE smiles on their faces! Of course I asked them if they had a small SUV to rent but they were completely booked. The guy loaded all of our luggage into an SUV and drove us to Budget. This guy was super friendly!! The Budget on Broadway is not mobility accessible, so the Enterprise guy drove around the block a few times before deciding on driving on the sidewalk to get my mom as close to the front steps as possible. He brought the bags in and helped with my mom. Once inside, he gave my mom a big hug and wished us a great visit. We tipped him $20 which he tried to refuse, but we wouldn't let him. Ok, so I know that sounded like a rave review for Enterprise (and it is), and you're wondering what that has to do with Budget, but I thought it was important to know the enjoyable prelude before the angry mess that is the Broadway location of Budget. My mom was still standing just inside the door of Budget, and said to the lady behind the desk that she was worried about falling on their tile floor because it was wet. The nasty woman said very rudely that it's slick everywhere. She rudely told the guy who was also working that she'd go get the car. The guy was also rude but not nearly as much as the girl. They both behaved as if they hated their jobs. There was a very angry and volatile vibe in that place. When we returned the car a different guy than we saw before raised his voice in anger to me when I gave him my mom's credit card (which has her picture on it). I tried to tell him she was still in the car outside due to the difficulty coming in. I told him to calm down and just go out to the car to talk to her. He said extremely rudely that yeah he needed to see her ID. This is logical, but my gosh, there are a million better ways to handle his questions and requests. I will NEVER rent a car from Budget again. My mom and I felt disrespected and that they could care less about us as customers. Going from such an amazing experience with a company who wasn't even getting our business to THIS was a major disappointment. Lesson learned..stick with Enterprise!! read more

Friendly service. We had too much luggage for the car we reserved online. They suggested a larger car at a small surcharge. They also suggested we drop the car off at the airport. Car rental at the airport is twice as expensive this week of Christmas. So we have a much better rate, convenience of drop off and a larger car. read more

Unfortunately this location may value the customer less than a tank of gas. This is my first time every giving a bad review, as I almost always give service industry workers the benefit of the doubt for a bad experience, assuming they may have just had a bad day. But this was just too concerning to avoid. My wife and I flew into Denver and got a car from Budget at the airport (paying a premium of 75 dollars per day). The time was past midnight and we were well on our way to our hotel downtown when we discovered we were given a car that was nearly empty on gas and the oil change light was on. We took a photo of the dash to include the mileage and gas level just in case. So the next day we called the Budget national line and were advised that the car was not safe to drive with the oil light on and that we should go to the nearest Budget location for an exchange. We took the car to the Budget on 1980 Broadway downtown Denver. We explained the situation and figured this would be a simple car exchange. Unfortunately and unexpectedly we were immediately confronted with an unwarranted defensive attitude and a refusal to trade the car, as he said "not my problem" and began to blame us for not looking at the gas level and oil light prior to leaving the rental facility. We showed the worker the photo and he said that there was no way to prove we did not doctor the photo...this is likely to be considered a ridiculous assertion by most customers. With an aggressive attitude, we were told we would have to either drive an hour back to the airport for an exchange or fill up the car before exchanging with him...as he did not want to lose 30 dollars. My wife was upset by the unwelcome attitude and blatant customer blaming, particularly as he boldly began to lecture her on how to be a good customer. We admittedly were upset by this confrontation, and likely our attitude in response did not help the situation. But unfortunately the confrontation was not necessary at all because there was a solution to the problem the entire time. After I tried to reason my way through his "I hate customers" cloud, I was able to understand his point of view that he was not affiliated with the airport budget (he was a franchise) and so did not want to take a loss from their (or our) mistake. Some businesses might disagree with this approach because, while he may lose 30 dollars, he will certainly lose future customers (worth more than 30 dollars). Regardless, the solution was simple and did not need to have a confrontation prior to reaching it. We simply called the Budget national line and got them to refund the price of filling up the tank for this particular franchise Budget location. Ultimately we payed him 30 dollars for a tank of gas, he traded our car, and the gas was refunded by the airport location...not sure that was so difficult that it warranted customer aggression. We really hope that this budget can learn from this experience. I understand that working with disgruntled customers can wear on you, and I hope that we just caught him in a rare bad mood and that other customers have had a better experience. If not, I might suggest that they respond to similar situations with kindness and empathy and offer to call the national Budget line himself to help figure this issue out for the customer. We go to Denver often, and we will not rent any cars from this location in the future...which is probably a bigger hit than a tank of gas. read more