Why my husband and I will never use Budget for our rental car needs…read more..
While we typically go with a different company when renting vehicles for trips, our preferred company no longer carries 12 passenger vans, so after weighing our options and finding that Budget offered a great discount (30% off + 10% in an amazon gift card), we booked and prepaid our vacation van weeks in advance. I called the local pickup location (Anderson)24 hours before we were scheduled to pick it up and was told all was well, that the van would be ready at the preselected time. However, early the next morning, I was awoken by a call from the local company informing me that Budget, at the corporate level, had overbooked 12 passenger vans and that our van, which had been promised and paid for, would not be available. The local Anderson employee was very kind and after informing me this has been happening frequently, she told me her recommendation was to call Budget's corporate number. Over the next three-four hours I can't even tell you how many Budget call center employees/ supervisors I spoke to... far too many. Not once did I ever get a real apology or even a reason this happened. Instead, the only option was to cancel my reservation, something I begrudgingly did after several hours of talking to people who refused to help. Mind you, this is the day we were supposed to leave for our vacation, and we needed transportation for 9 people, which would now mean renting two vehicles and putting gas in both. When I inquired about renting two vehicles from Budget and keeping the price of them within the price of the van we had already paid for, I was told I needed to call my local pick up location and ask if they had vehicles being returned. He refused to check from his end, so I demanded Budget refund all my money that day so I could rent other vehicles elsewhere. After more frustrating calls to Budget, and two calls to my bank, it took a few days before the money, minus a $150 deposit, was refunded. They were keeping my deposit, even though the cancelation was their fault. After more calls, the deposit was finally refunded. Our family looked forward to taking a big van on vacation so we could have everyone in one vehicle with plenty of storage. Instead, we had to put 1500 miles on two vehicles, as well as put gas in them.
Lesson learned, Budget Car Rental sucks!
