Budget Rental Cars - Nightmare Stories?

[sammielynn]

I just found a great rate on a Car through Budget. Now I am hearing all sorts of horror stories. Have you had a bad experience with Budget? I was planning on using my own transponder for tolls and am hearing and seeing horror stories about being charged for tolls after the fact.

 

[MillauFr]

I had a great experience with them last month. The rental car transponders have a switch so you can disable them.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I just found a great rate on a Car through Budget. Now I am hearing all sorts of horror stories. Have you had a bad experience with Budget? I was planning on using my own transponder for tolls and am hearing and seeing horror stories about being charged for tolls after the fact.

Here's what SunPass says about using your own SunPass transponder at https://www.sunpass.com/rentalcar

SunPass Customers:
SunPass customers using a rental vehicle may have their tolls applied to their SunPass account. Customers with SunPass Portable transponders may use their transponders in their rental vehicles. (It is strongly recommended that SunPass customers access their online SunPass accounts or contact the SunPass Customer Service Center to add the rental vehicle subscription to their account for the rental period.) If the transponder is not in your vehicle or functioning properly, tolls from other agencies will not be posted to your SunPass account, and may be charged to you by the rental Service Provider. Please remember to remove your transponder upon return of the vehicle. SunPass customers that do not have their transponders in the vehicle are subject to the tolls, fees and charges set forth below and in their rental agreements.​

Most rental car companies at MCO do not use transponders (with or without a switch) and do not have a formal opt-in/opt-out process at the time of rental. Most use toll-by-plate. This includes Budget (unless something has changed very recently).

If you rent from Budget and you pay your tolls at "cash-change" toll booths or use your own transponder, you should not pay any toll charge or service fee to Budget.

Here's what I posted last month in another thread on DISboards:

The toll programs and the service charges vary depending on the rental car company. Usually, the programs rely on reading the license plate number at toll locations, not on using a transponder. With most rental car companies at MCO, there is no "opt in" decision to use toll-by-plate. If you go through an electronic toll (on purpose or accidentally), you automatically "agree" to pay the toll and service charge.

For a comparison of rental car toll programs, see https://www.sunpass.com/rentalcar

For anyone who only drives from Orlando Int'l Airport to the tourist corridor and back, the easiest and cheapest solution is simply to pay two cash tells in each direction. Regardless of whether you use the northern route (528 to I-4) or the southern route (417 to exit 6), there are "Change-Receipt" toll booths available. This will avoid any rental car toll service charge. If your rental car company requires "opt in" or "opt out," you can safely opt out.

Just pay attention. The cash toll lanes can look somewhat like highway exits, so they're easy to overlook if you don't expect an exit for many miles.

There are no tolls along I-4, so, once you're in the tourist corridor, you can visit WDW, SeaWorld, Universal, and popular shopping destinations without tolls.

If you use toll roads to drive away from the tourist corridor, many smaller exits are not attended. You must use exact change or electronic toll payment. On the far southeastern edge of the Orlando-Kissimmee area, Florida Turnpike exit 240 is SunPass-Only. There may be others, but I don't recall seeing any. The exit sign will clearly show "SunPass-Only." The vast majority of tourists should never encounter such an exit for the time being.​

 

[sammielynn]

Thanks. We will be staying in our condo that is just off 528 near the Airport, so we will be on toll roads several times a day. I will just make sure and call and add the rental to the transponder for the time that we will be renting.

 

[sympatico]

Used Budget last year and everything went smoothly although we had reserved a SUV and they only had minivans but that's happened the last few times we've gone with other companies.

 

[crazyventures]

You'll hear horror stories about every car rental company! Most people who leave reviews for these companies on places like Yelp do so because they had a bad experience. There are tens of thousands of people who rent cars every day without a problem. We used Budget to rent a Ford Excursion in December 2012; we had to wait a while but Budget let us return the car on an empty tank to make up for it. Other than that, no issues whatsoever.

Just make sure you know all the particulars of the contract and that you take photos of the car when you pick it up.

 

[wolf29]

Apart from the post-rental toll charge (which I'm pretty confident will be rectified) I had no problems with Budget, nor have I with any other companies. Have rented from pretty much all the major car rental companies without issue.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I had a Budget rental just a couple of weeks ago. No problems at all with the car or returning it. The only slight bump was the pressure tactic the guy at the counter tried on me about the insurance. I'm over insured and don't need anything Budget has to offer...I think I had to say no 4 times.

I should also add that I used a Costco code for the rental and was asked to produce my membership card. That is the first time I have ever been asked.

 

[sympatico]

Thanks for the info about producing the costco membership card. I usually take mine to Florida but it would be my luck to leave it home this time.

 

[sammielynn]

I'm starting to feel better about this. Thanks. Saving $50 is great but not if you have to go through heck to get there.

 

[wolf29]

I had heard about Budget using pressure tactics to sell extra insurance, but the agent never even mentioned it.

 

[Mickeygolf]

If you sign up for their Fastbreak program (free) you can list your preferences in your profile and they will never bother asking about insurance. I did have a counter representative ask once and I just replied it's in my Fastbreak perference that I won't need the additional insurance and not another word was said.

Good luck!!!

 

[houseofduck]

Our story was not a nightmare story, nor was it at MCO. But, we did have a few inconveniences with our recent rental from Budget.

We picked up a car in West Palm Beach a few weeks ago. We had reserved a full size car. When we arrived at the counter, the representative started rattling off the names of a few different types of cars and asked if we wanted one of them. I am not that into cars and definitely don't know them by names. So, I asked if the cars he mentioned were full size cars and reminded him that we wanted a FULL SIZE car. He repeatedly asked us about different cars and I repeatedly said that we wanted a FULL SIZE car, like we had reserved. He probably did this about three or four times before he realized that I didn't want to pay for an upgrade. Eventually, we got our full size car, but it took some convincing that we didn't want to upgrade.

I have never experienced that type of persistence before. We have rented from Budget several times without that type of pressure. So, it may have been an isolated incident.

Also, when we dropped the car off at MCO, they tried to charge us extra for being late. I had reserved the car from noon to noon. We picked up the car in West Palm Beach at 12:31 (as marked on our rental agreement) and were checked in by the customer representative at MCO at 12:15. They said they were expecting the car back by 11:40. Maybe, that was another gift from the West Palm Beach guy. In any case, they removed the late charge at MCO.

Even with the hassles, I have another reservation with Budget in November. Here's hoping this one is smoother!

 

[Judyat]

Budget is OK but I have been checking rental cars for the past few months on Costco and have found Alamo to be the lowest for renting in Orlando. I am looking at three different times and Alamo has had the lowest prices for all of them. These are for dates in December, January and February. I like Alamo because you can pick your car from the lot. With Budget it is assigned.

 

[MillauFr]

If you are renting from Budget I would recommend joining their FastBreak club. There is no cost to join and no requirement to rent again from Budget. It allows you to skip the counter inside the airport and go straight to the garage. The person will have your contract already printed out and I recall just signing the contract and showing ID and a credit card. No pressure at all and very easy.

 

[houseofduck]

I started to join FastBreak and then got to the point where they were asking for something (credit card number, maybe?) that I didn't feel comfortable leaving in my profile. Maybe, it was a combination of things that they were asking that made me uncomfortable because I can't imagine just a credit card number would stop me.

In any case, maybe I should look into it again, before our November trip!

 

[lilclerk]

Well I got Budget through Priceline's NYOP system for next week. I signed up for Fastbreak, now I just need to get someone to add it to the reservation for me I called Budget, they told me to call Priceline. Priceline's automated system keeps hanging up on me. Chatting with Priceline now, let's see what they say.

Edit: no dice, loyalty programs can't be added to name your own price reservations. Hmm, bummer.

 

[Disney Ron]

We just used Budget last month and had a great experience. We signed up for FastBreak and everything went smoothly. Will definitely use them again.

 

[richmo]

I rented from Budget in June and had no problems.

I did sign up for Fastbreak (free), so I skipped the counter and went right to the Fastbreak counter in the garage. I was never asked about insurance and I think the only question I was asked was if I wanted to use the SunPass transponder. Since I did not, the agent (who was very nice), just showed me how to turn it off.

I have heard of people getting charged for tolls. The agent told me to be very sure that I close the switch completely (some apparently don't) and I took the additional step of removing the transponder from the windshield and stored it in the center console until I returned the car. For those used to EZPass and the like, the Budget transponders are attached to the windshield with the same strong velcro-like tape that EZPass uses.