I was on holiday in Australia last Sept/October. Whilst there I searched on line for cheap car rental and was directed to Budget. I duly booked a car and was offered excess reduction insurance which I accepted. On arriving at Sydney Airport to pick up the car during the pick up process I was again offered the ecxess reduction and confirmed that I had already done this. I was asked to sign to confirm the booking details and left with the car.
When I returned to the uk I noticed that I had been charged £240 on my credit card by a firm called IMALL for excess reduction, I also noticed that the charge for the car by Budget was also £400 more that expected. When I queried this I was told that the extra charge was the excess reduction.
After about a dozen emails and phone calls I discovered that when I booked on line I had done it through an agent and they had sold me their version of an excess reduction. Then at the desk when I picked up the car, when I thought I was signing to confirm the details I was in fact signing to take out Budgets own excess reduction policy, which incidentally was nearly twice the cost of the one I had bought when reserving the car on line.
The upshot is that Budget say it was my own fault as I should have known that I had already signed up for a policy and refused the policy that they offered me at the counter.
They are probably right but I think that the booking process is confusing and I believe the counter staff knew what was happening and took advantage of the confusion to earn extra wages through selling me unnecassary insurance. I think they contravened the NSW selling regulations that stipulate that they have to act with honesty and integrity.
C Bone

I'm quite infuriated by the level of customer service that I received from West Georgia location. First off, I was quite surprised by the fact that nobody knew exactly why there were discrepancies in price between the website and the shop itself. When I asked the rep about the reason behind the price difference, they said the prices weren't updated on the website. Secondly, I'm quite infuriated about the misinformation that were given. I was told to come in to the rental office to fill out a damage report, since my rental vehicle had a damage on the windshield. In fact, I didn't have to go in to the rental office to fill out the report. The repair cost was already charged automatically on our credit card and the papers regarding the repair done to the vehicle was sent in the mail. When I first received a phone call from the rental office, I was advised that the vehicle was already under investigation and was told that I would get a phone call from the claims department within 48 hours. However, I never received a call from the claims department what so ever. I left several messages to their voice mail, but nobody responded back to us. Also, when I called in to the rental office last Sunday to change the appointment to fill out the report, a lady told us with a rude tone of voice, saying that the vehicle won't be investigated until we fill out the report. So I actually had to miss work to get to the rental office, but the manager there told us that I didn't have to come in to the shop to fill out the report. In addition, since I had an insurance we had to pay $300 deductible for the cost of the repair + $25 administration fee. When we initially rented the vehicle, all we were told was the $300 deductible. When I brought that up to the manager, he pointed the statement on the contract just above my signature. It states, "all charges, including parking tickets expenses, traffic violations, vehicle impoundment and vehicle damage costs can be charged to the presented." He said that eventhough the fee wasn't mentioned at the point of signing the document, everyone pays for it. He also said that "Would you want to pay $1000?" I told him that we bought the insurance to avoid the charges. He didn't say anything further.
Also, as for the breakdown of the repair cost, the windshield costs $796.13 and 3.1 hours of labour cost $70.55 and there were some other minor material fees as well. What surprises m the most is the cost of the windshield. Based on my investigation, I was told maximum $300 to replace the windshield. To sum up, read the fine print carefully before signing and think about the responsibilities to take on.
I would never ever recommend this place again. The worst customer service ever.

We have alwasys rented cars from Budget with no problems, when we turned the car back in, the representative that was on duty (David) on 4/25/2011 was very rude, he threw the papers at my husband, stating that the car was engulfed in cigarette smoke and they would be charging an extra 250.00 on top of the rental plus 20% on the 250.00 plus the taxes were already include in the cost of the car. We end up paying 500.o0 on a car that was only $179.00. We we no longer be renting from BUDGET and EVERYONE I KNOW WILL BE BOYCOTTING BUDGET AT 714 SOUTH WABASH-Chicago, the service is terrible and they treat their customers very bad.

I recently traveled to Liberia Costa Rica and rented a car for the week at the Budget Rent a Car airport location. I booked and confirmed my reservation online at www.budget.com in the United States. When arriving at the rental counter in Liberia, the counter agent initially attempted to charge me hundreds of dollars more than my confirmed reservation. He reduced the amount but still did not match my confirmed reservation total claiming "additional tax was being charged".
Upon returning the car at the end of the week this same counter agent "converted" the total US dollars into Costa Rica Colons using an over-inflated conversion rate which later appeared on my charge bill as an additional overcharge. Budget has refused to make an adjustment of this overcharge. I have the amount in dispute with my credit card company.
Bottomline to all travelers ... BEWARE Budget Car Rental in Liberia Costa Rica. Unethical business practices!
This will be my first AND last time renting from Budget at ANY location in the world.

On 1-6-11 I rented a car for 113.83 till 1-10-11. I called budget on the 10th to check the price to extend my rental. The reservation agent at the 800-621-2844 told me that from 1-6-11 thru 1-13-11 it would only cost me 123.63 plus a 10.00 extension fee. I asked him over and over if it was only a 20.00 difference for the extra 4 days to rent the car and he said YES. I asked if I would receive another confirmation email and he told me yes. i never received that. On 1-13-11 I returned the car to find that the rep lied to me and the charge was now 226.27. I complained to the store and they told me to contact the toll free number because that's who I talked to. i spoke with them and asked them to pull the recording. The funny things is they said since I called the toll free number that went over seas they could not pull the recording. How great is that. So this rep tell me a price and when I got to return the call I am charged a higher price. So I get charged NSF at my bank.Plus the extra 100.00 and the sad thing is the company would not help me at all. This is a horrible way to treat customers. Never will I use them again. I even filed a complaint with the BBB and they didnt help me.Please beware!