Budget Car Rental

They rent cars without maintenance and refuse to change. A maintenance required message popped up after driving about 10-15 miles. Along side with other messages. I returned to the office and requested a change. They refused the change and said “cars can do weird stuff sometimes”.

I've been renting from Budget for 35 years. This time was mayhem at Santa Barbara Airport. When I walked into the baggage claim area every person from my flight was in the Budget line. I grabbed my bag and got in the end of the line. During my hour in line two people kept coming back from the parking lot, cutting in the front of the line and demanding a different vehicle. One guy did it 3 times. The crazy thing is - there are three other rental car companies. As I got to the front of the line it was crazy - they were running out of keys; two people ahead of me a guy cut in line for the sole purpose of making them print him a receipt. Once I finally got a vehicle everything went smoothly. Found my SUV (an upgrade because they were running out of keys) and headed out. After dropping off my S

Budget has always been my favorite car rental place. And this time it wasn't the exception. Doug made my rental pain free with superior customer service, going about and beyond. All I can say is Thank you. You and all the team. You guys rock. I highly recommend budget car rental.

Worst rental experience ever from Budget, Rented a 2023 Toyota Tacoma with 24,000 miles for a trip to visit Northern California. First the bed of the truck was covered in pink paint. But that was only part of the problem I was driving a cou0le of hours into my trip when I noticed the truck was pulling to left and the steering wheel vibrated. Checked the tire pressure at a gas station and noticed both tire were bald on the inside tread indicating severe misalignment. Called the help and emergency service numbers and was on hold at a call center for an extended period and eventually gave up trying and return the vehicle on my scheduled return date and told the Manager to take it out of service and do not rent it out again untill fixed.

Bad experience. First, the first customer service agent talked a mile a minute and was not friendly. The boss on site was more helpful and tried. They wouldn’t run my rental on the card I booked on. They have policies about having a flight even if you are renting a car at the facility and not flying. Not practical given there are not a lot of options in Goleta. What is more, I rented a Tesla to go to work and there was no charger in the car or adapter rendering me at work unable to charge to return. Called the phone number for the local office where I rented and it sends you to a national number. I was told to call roadside assistance, not helpful!