Budget

Literally over 30 people in front of me. Started with 2 agents. Waiting over 50 minutes for a rental car. That is ridiculous. Dont plan to use Budget rental again. High pressure sales tactics and poor customer service.

These people are dishonest. I made the mistake of using one of those online booking systems called
to book a car at Budget for the week. That was my first problem. When I showed up in San Francisco, I was charged by Budget almost 3 times what the receipt from Holiday Cars showed — instead of $ 52, I was charged above $ 120. And Budget upgraded my car to a Prius without informing me that I was doing an upgrade. In fact, when I asked the attendant if I was going to be paying the same price for the Prius as the car I had originally booked, he told me «its the same price.» He also claimed that HolidayCars had not really charged me, and that my total rental was about $ 120. So I ended up paying $ 300 for a car for 6 days with no GPS or nothing, when I could have gotten it for $ 200 at any other rental.
This happened in April, and first I reported Holiday Cars to my credit card company for not making it clear the total cost of my rental when I booked the car. That was how it was discovered that Budget had upgraded my booking without asking me «do you want to upgrade?» or making it clear what exactly I was paying for. I am so angry about the whole thing. Never renting a car with this company again in any city. Both Budget and
are a match made in Shady-​Ass Heaven.

This place is a disaster! No fog to blame the high volume low representatives on.
A one hour wait to get to the desk. The woman greeting the customers said that noon time is always busy! So why don’t they put extra people on? Definitely will reconsider using budget again!

I don’t often write reviews, but I believe in giving credit where it’s due. For the purpose of this review, that credit goes to Jordan Armstrong, Operations Manager.
Story:
I had an extremely frustrating rental experience with this location in Sept 2015, involving a botched response to a simple flat tire, unreasonable wait times for roadside assistance in the middle of San Francisco (2+ hours after being quoted 45 mins.), and being literally locked in the repair lot with the tow truck drivers for over an hour while the gate attendant was MIA in the middle of the night. Not kidding. When all was said and done, 4 hours of my life I’ll never get back. Easily the most frustrating rental experience of my life. After which, I was sent a notice saying Budget was going to debit my account for repairs. I was so pissed and busy with life, I didn’t bother responding for months… but I had it at the top of my «OH NO YOU DIDN’T» list.
Every company screws up sometimes, but how they respond to their mistakes is the most important factor. My experience was salvaged by the Operations Manager, Jordan Armstrong. After listening carefully to me explain my situation in person (months later), Jordan said he’d like to investigate. He surprised me by replying to my email within 24 hours with a proposed solution, which he had reached with his manager. While I was delighted with such a prompt response (many big companies are molasses-​slow), I didn’t feel the initial proposed solution was good enough, so I politely pushed back. We exchanged emails a few times. Throughout this process, Jordan was polite, professional, and I felt he advocated for me, likely against manager resistance, to reach an acceptable solution.
Ultimately, I felt that despite a crappy rental experience, it was handled very well in the end by an employee who actually wanted to do right by the customer. Make no mistake — Jordan, your service is the only thing that encourages me to consider renting from this Budget again.
Thank you!

I’ve never seen such a long line to be served to pick up a car! No self serve kiosks and you need special status if you expect to get your car anytime soon. I feel sorry for people who had a long flight only to wait in extremely long lines.

I booked a minivan online. When I came to pick it up, the customer service rep noted that I had been charged for two days even though I rented it for only one – because I was returning it an hour later. «That’s one expensive hour,» he said, and suggested that I bring it back an hour early to halve my rate.
Two stars for the Budget reservation website, which should have warned me about this.
One star for my stupidity at not noticing why it was so freaking expensive.
Five stars for their great customer service rep for pointing this out and saving me money!
Also, the van was in perfect condition and very clean, despite all the mileage on the odometer.

Sorry for the long review. It’s just for the sake of accuracy and posterity.
We reserved a car with Budget SFO for Memorial Day weekend. We booked directly through them. Then we changed our plans and decided to cancel our reservation. Here is where our trouble started.
The Budget SFO website says:
«We understand that plans change. If you cancel prior to your pick-​up time, we’ll recharge the full amount, and only charge a $ 10 processing fee. If you don’t pick up the car at all, we’ll refund the full amount less a $ 50 no-​show processing fee.»
When you click to see the Terms and Conditions, it tells you that these will be available on «Step 3 of the reservation process.»
So imagine how I felt when I had already reserved the car, and then opened the Terms and Conditions in my email to see that you must cancel before 24 hours to only get docked $ 50, and if you cancel within 24 hours, you get charged $ 150.
I don’t usually change travel plans so close to my departure, so I accept responsibility for not being well-​versed and for not looking into this as much as I should have. Had I anticipated my plans changing, I would’ve looked into this (and other companies) more. OK, that’s on me. But I find this practice to be deceptive, kind of like a «gotcha!» move.
I called customer service, and explained that I’m trying to cancel before my pick-​up time, so may I please only get docked $ 50? No. She explained to me that «canceling within 24 hours is considered no-​showing.» Really? Because I thought no-​showing meant that I didn’t show up. So I accepted this, and told her I would like to keep my reservation but that I thought this was a little bit shady and that next time I’ll make sure to avoid Budget.
I’m not a sensitive person, so believe me when I tell you she mocked me with a very prolonged exit speech about how she was glad she could help me and she looks forward to my continued business. Wow! Bold move! I laughed it off because, you know, small victories really do it for some people — that’s her prerogative if the company allows that.
I still wasn’t that ticked off, because you learn valuable lessons in life by spending money. At this point, we have the reservation so we might as well make use of the car. We took a nice drive up north and enjoyed ourselves.
By the way, I know most of the above related to Budget and their practices as a business in general. So just to make it more pertinent: I showed up at the SFO location to rent the car and had an odd experience with the desk agent. This was actually my second encounter with him — he’s very pushy about upselling. I get that there’s value in being able to upsell a customer, but his reaction was very off-​putting when I declined all of the selling points. Strange. Also, nobody rents a car to get a Prius. Give me that sick Kia anyday! Haha.

I am a weary traveler, but I had to take time on returning home to rave about the service we got at the Budget Rental Office at San Francisco Airport. We had rented a VW Beetle, with which we were very pleased. When we returned the car, my wife accidentally left her Kindle on the floor. We didn’t realize the loss till we were all the way to the plane’s boarding gate. I came hot-​footing it back through the airport and via the train… Terrence spent a lot of time helping me find it, which we did! And when it was clear that I was running late for my plane, he drove me to the terminal. This is the kind of customer service that legends are made of. Huge thanks to Terrence and to the entire team at the San Francisco Airport Budget office!!!

I am a San Francisco native. I used Expedia to book a Budget rental car for a trip from San Francisco to Haiti. Upon arrival in Port au Prince I was horrified to find a Soundgarden/​Pearl Jam era Toyota.
I mean, do you understand the roads in Haiti?
Rubble strewn streets is an understatement.
I am working for a tiny Bay Area non-​profit that helps connect reproductive resources for rural women. I needed to drive in the mountains, by myself in a car so low to the ground the oil pan scraped on most uneven streets let alone the rural mountain roads. It wasn’t safe.
I paid $ 400+ for a car that I basically couldn’t use for the 501C3 project I had rented it for. PLUS I was charged for insurance twice and a $ 1,000 deposit that took 7 weeks to be reversed.
It would be nice if Budget could improve its fleet in Port au Prince and make amends to me and the rural women I serve with a new and improved car rental.

Great service! Made my reservation through Expedia weeks prior to arrival. We had a pretty early flight so there was no line when we arrived, we were greeted promptly, very easy check-​in, and explanation of costs and important things about SF… such as Golden Gate bridge tolls, etc. I was on my way to get in my car in less then 5 minutes– which by the way, was a brand new Jetta with only 40 miles on it! Returning was a breeze, simply pulled up, parked and walked to the train to catch my flight. They handled everything else. Satisfied customer here!

Budget SFO should be avoided. Charged $ 19.10 for toll charges that had already been paid online. Disputed charge with company, then credit card who reversed the charge and then was charged again. The company might consider the long-​term cost of continued thievery.

This must be the worst run franchise in North America. Every other car company has each post filled. With a line of 30 + they go on break??? What happened to service ???
Take it all back. 2 people sick. Manager came out to pitch in

Slowest service I’ve ever had at a car rental: 40 minutes to get to the counter and 10 minutes to have them print off paperwork. Their representatives at the counter dawdle while the line goes out the door. And then they have to call over to get cars delivered when I tell them what flight I’m on, when it lands, and when I’ll be there to pick up the car. Picking up a car should never take an hour to get to the actual car. They never added any more reps to the counter, just continued with the slowest service I’ve seen.

Got a brand new Toyota with 78 miles on the clock, would have given them 5 stars but the gas tank was not full like they said, other than that, service was spot on!

Awful. Waited an hour to be served, couldn’t locate my reservation for 15 additonal minutes, then didn’t have any cars for the class I reserved. Finally got a car, told me toll pass was not an option, so I prepaid the SF toll authority. Two weeks later found out they charged my corporate card for tolls, had to call 5 times to get the charges credited, but only after finally getting a supervisor on the line. Only good thing was the car was clean.

Not great customer service. There was a line at Budget so one of the Avis workers came over to help. As soon as the line died down to two people in line the guy went back to Avis and just looked at the line. The guy who was being helped had issues with his rental so the line grew again but no one came to help any more and just watched. It took over 30 minutes to get through the Budget Fast Pass Lane and it should take 5 minutes or less

The worst car hire company I have met ever. We rented a minivan through
, which is prepaid, for my parents from China. Before renting, we read the terms very carefully and made sure that only an international driver’s license is required. Besides, we have already successfully rented a car through Budget at the office at Davis before that.
But when we went there, the staff asked us to show a UK ID to her, otherwise she refused to rent a car to us. This sounds unreasonable to us so we asked her to show us the paperwork which indicates this requirement. Unfortunately, she failed to provide us any paperwork related and instead she asked her manager named Steven Ahboltin to talk with us. He also rejected our request of showing the paperwork and passed the buck to the third party, Expedia and also called the Budget at Davis not the same company as the Budget at SFO.
In the end, we had to rent another minivan from Budget with double price compared with our original reservation. It is definitely not a good experience with Budget and in the future we would rather rent cars from other companies which are more responsible and friendly.

Worst customer service of my life.
Lines are horrible.
They have workers walking around asking people if they have Fast Break and telling them to sign up. These fools need to be behind the counter helping to deal with the ridiculous lines. Or else saying, «if you don’t have fast break, don’t sign up.»
I signed up for fast break, got out of line, went and waited in the fast break line. They couldn’t find my new account. The guy was a total asshole and basically told me to leave and wouldn’t even TRY to look in the system for my fast break acct.
Called 1800 number and was told that the account takes a few hours to create. An hour later, I’m STILL waiting in line to get the car.
What a shitty way to start a trip.
Basically:
–long lines
–bad customer service (not helpful, rude.)
— employees don’t know what they’re talking about

This review could also apply to their neighbor, Avis as they share the same lot and agents.
I pre paid a rental for a convertible Mustang 2 months in advance through Budget’s website.
Upon arriving to the rental space counter, there was a line of at least 40 people in front of me. They had no expedited line for people that pre-​paid. Each customer was taking approx. 20 minutes per person and it baffled me why. Renting a car is typically very quick.
When I finally got to the counter… I knew what the issue was… Budget was pulling a scam on its customers.
I presented my ID and credit card to the agent and he said, «you are renting a convertible right?» I said, «No, I am renting a Mustang Convertible.»
The agent then laughed and said, «I’ll be right back.» He ran behind the counter and came back about 5 minutes later. He slammed a set of keys down in front my guest and I… and didn’t say a word. I looked at the keys and noticed a chevy logo and said «A camaro?» The agent said look again… my friend said, «A corvette?» and the agent said bingo.
At that moment, I handed the agent a $ 20 bill to thank him for upgrading me and he said, «Hold on, this comes with a cost.» and this is where the shadiness began.
The agent told me that «it would come with an additional cost of $ 240 a day.» Immediately, I said, «No thanks, we just want the mustang we already pre-​paid for and reserved in advance.»
He goes, «I’ve been doing this for 12 years. It may say convertible which means any type of convertible.» At this point I pulled out our printed reservation and showed him I didn’t buy through a third party, I bought through budget and my reservation specifically showed a Mustang Convertible… Nowhere did it say convertible equivalent.
He said, «Well, I’ll try to help, but it looks like you’ll be getting a vw convertibile.» I said, «Really, have you ever heard of the term bait and switch. It’s illegal and that’s exactly what’s going on here.»
The agent left the counter again and came back 5 minutes later and goes, «Okay my manager approved me to do it for $ 140 a day extra.» hahaha I still told him «no thanks I just want the car I rented, reserved, and paid for. the mustang convertible.» He then said, «what about just $ 150 for the weekend?» I told him I was not happy and I just wanted my car. I said, «Look, I was in the customer service industry once and if we overbooked or didn’t have something for the guest, we went out of our way to make it right. If that means you want to give me a corvette, instead of the mustang becuase you gave my mustang away, I’m okay with that, but I don’t want to pay anything more for something I didn’t order. The agent left again.
He then came back with a smirk and his face and laid down another set of keys… keys for a mustang convertible…“I got you the car.»
I couldn’t believe it! I wanted to flip out and cause a scene and alert the crowd, but I also wanted to get on the road and enjoy my trip. I chose the higher ground, thanked him, and made a note to Unilocal about it. The agent was blatantly lying during the entire interaction in a means to try to upsell an already paying customer. I wonder how many innocent people they take advantage of. Needless to say, Budget will never get my money again.
Bottom Line — Stay away from this place, it’s dirty sales tactics, and lack of care for customers. It’s atrocious!

The GF and I came here around 830pm to pick up a car that we would be taking to Reno. When we arrived at the front counter for Budget, we were acknowledged (not greeted) by a woman. I believe the first words that came out of her mouth were, «Are you a fast break member»? Had my GF not been a fast break member, there was no way she would be willing to help us out. She seemed lazy and did not look like she wanted to do anything but go home.
When asked if we wanted a Hyundai elantra or a Mitsubishi lancer, we said the lancer twice. She even confirmed. However, she handed us a slip for the elantra. She corrected the error in the computer and a few minutes later, she handed us the correct ticket.
+2 for the car. –3 for the service and the fee for dropping off the car an hour late.

Globalement une bonne expérience avec le comptoir Budget de l’aéroport de SF, juste entachée d’une mésaventure.
Les points positifs sont, heureusement, les qualités les plus importantes qu’on attend d’un comptoir de location de voitures :
— prix très compétitifs: 30 à 40 $ pour une journée de location, imbattable, très inférieur aux concurrents au même endroit (réservez et payez sur leur site web !)
— disponibilité des véhicules quasi illimitée, merci l’aéroport, si on n’a pas des exigences particulières sur le type de voiture
— horaires d’ouverture 24/​24, ⁷⁄₇
Une critique, mais Budget n’y peut rien: tous les loueurs sont relégués à Perpète, le trajet en métro automatique depuis les terminaux ou la station de BART est long (surtout pour en revenir, d’ailleurs, car il fait une boucle).
Et puis la mise en garde, du classique mais je suis quand même tombé dans le panneau: il se peut qu’on tente de vous vendre un quelconque upgrade, voiture plus grosse ou option, soi-​disant pour quelques dollars. Curieusement quand vient le moment de signer le contrat mis à jour, les quelques dollars se sont transformés en 30 $. Et quand comme moi vous êtes assez truffe pour né pas bien lire et croire que le nouveau contrat remplace l’ancien au lieu de s’y ajouter, au final vous payez le double du prix de départ. OK 60 $ ça reste pas cher pour une journée en Ford Mustang sur la Highway 1 :-) :
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Mais c’est tout de même déplaisant de se sentir arnaqué. Une fois découverts les 2 débits sur ma carte de crédit, j’ai gueulé comme un veau au service clientèle, et vu le nombre de locations que j’ai faites chez Budget, ils m’ont remboursé la moitié du surcoût. Mieux que rien, mais bon…
Conclusion: refusez tout net tout upgrade, tout bonus, même soi-​disant gratuit, «it’s on me» et autres, ce sont des pièges. Restez inflexibles et vous profiterez à fond des avantages réels de ce comptoir Budget !