An upgrade is only an "upgrade" when it has perceived value to the customer…read more
I reserved a vehicle to be picked up on 9/09 and returned on 9/15/18 and when I arrived at my scheduled time to pick up said vehicle I was told, "Sorry, we only have this left, take it or leave it."
Well I had reserved a full-size car what I got stuck with was a mini-van and I was told it was an upgrade. Nope, sorry, not sorry, I don't need a buttload of seats . . . but got stuck with it b/c I was told, "Take it or leave it!"
I figured, crap, I can deal with it for a few days as I was on my way out of town. Well, I returned into town on 9/12/18 and began trying to call the local office around 2 p.m. to trade this sucker in as I had paid for a full-size car thru 9/15/18. No one would answer the phone at the local office and I kept getting forwarded to the national customer service line.
I did speak to someone at the national office and was told try calling the local office again. WTF? Okay, still no one answering - and don't even try to do anything at an airport rental location unless you have some sort of plane ticket confirming that you actually traveled - WTF x 2 !!??
So after various unsuccessful tries at contacting someone from local office again that I rented it from I tried on-line chat with Budget national office, and they told me to call the 800# and have them deal with it...UGH!!!
Well, still SSDD. Fast forward to Thursday, SOS and didn't even drive the thing, beast, monster gas-guzzler. So now it's Friday morning and was hopeful once again and called the 800# for Budget customer service and was told by Jose, "Sorry but you need to talk to the location in which you rented the vehicle from." I wanted to say, "Listed here Jose, I am unable to contact them as they're not answering the phone." Jose had suggested I drive up to the location and see about exchanging vehicles that way - double UGH!!
I don't want to drive all the way up there for bupkiss, zilch, nada b/c this thing gets shit gas mileage. So I'm stuck and it sucks - I've paid for a useless rental until Saturday 9/15/18 but I'll be damned if I return it early out of mere principle.
DON'T RENT FROM THEM is my advice - you'll have your car that you reserved early jacked right out from you and may not have anyone to assist you in getting another more acceptable vehicle. What a load of BS! An upgrade is only an upgrade if they're is some benefit for the renter. This is more of a punishment to me than an upgrade period. The gas mileage sucks and oh yeah, it's a fricking minivan. (No offense to the mini-van or those who own one, but if I would have wanted a minivan I would have purchased one or at least reserved a minivan.