This is not a Budget rental office. This is a random parking lot at a mall. There are no Budget signs anywhere in sight. No office. No booth. No kiosk. Just a random parking lot. The parking lot in question is in front of a defunct Sears store. The listed phone number is some guy's cell phone and the listed address is just the Sears address. I learned all this after arriving since the guy whose cell phone is listed didn't deign to tell me when I called prior to making my reservation online. I hope this information will be helpful to anyone who has the misfortune of reading this review after committing to a reservation involving this location. For those who read this before committing to a reservation, I can't recommend strongly enough that you NOT use this location under any circumstances.
When I arrived at this parking lot to drop off my rental, the guy that met me did not have any Budget credentials (not even a business card) and was dressed in casual clothes. He told me I just needed to take a picture of the mileage and hand over the keys. According to him, this would complete the return. The guy offered nothing to confirm the legitimacy of the transaction -- no confirmation number, no paperwork, nothing.
Given that I was being asked to hand over the keys to a $35,000 vehicle, I thought it best to call customer service to confirm what I was being told by this individual. I told him as much and he said he would wait in his vehicle while I did so. After a few minutes waiting on hold with customer service, the guy drove off saying he was going to run errands elsewhere. That was the last I saw or heard of him.
Customer service wasn't much more help than this guy and I ended up having to pay a full extra day's rental since it was late by the time I was able to make alternate drop off arrangements. Of course, the rep at the new drop off location said only customer service could offer a discount, and customer service said only the rep at the drop off location could offer a discount. That's a story for the BBB, though. I don't recommend anyone use Budget in general, but if you do, avoid this location. They're completely unprofessional and unhelpful, not to mention more than a little shady. read more