Pay extra and AVOID Budget!

[3kidz4dis]

We booked a Costco car reservation using Budget and it was shady! We were told that they had to put on a prepay of fuel in the amount of $63.51 and it would be reversed when we prove that we fillled up within 5 miles. We did that and during the return the attendant refused to look at our receipt. I called CS and they said we agreed to the prepay. Not true! Also, the line was 1 1/2 hours nd we were told we had to return the car according to when our reservation was booked (noon), not from when we picked it up at 1:30. They also did not give us a standard SUV which is what we paid for but an intermediate. They were as shady as renting a car in Mexico....AVOID!

 

[midwestdee]

We booked a Costco car reservation using Budget and it was shady! We were told that they had to put on a prepay of fuel in the amount of $63.51 and it would be reversed when we prove that we fillled up within 5 miles. We did that and during the return the attendant refused to look at our receipt. I called CS and they said we agreed to the prepay. Not true! Also, the line was 1 1/2 hours nd we were told we had to return the car according to when our reservation was booked (noon), not from when we picked it up at 1:30. They also did not give us a standard SUV which is what we paid for but an intermediate. They were as shady as renting a car in Mexico....AVOID!

I’d be on Twitter right now. @CostcoTravel. Don’t give personal info on tweet but describe what happened

 

[3kidz4dis]

I’d be on Twitter right now. @CostcoTravel. Don’t give personal info on tweet but describe what happened

I will..do you think I should tweet to costco or to budget?

 

[Genie+]

We booked a Costco car reservation using Budget and it was shady! We were told that they had to put on a prepay of fuel in the amount of $63.51 and it would be reversed when we prove that we fillled up within 5 miles. We did that and during the return the attendant refused to look at our receipt. I called CS and they said we agreed to the prepay. Not true! Also, the line was 1 1/2 hours nd we were told we had to return the car according to when our reservation was booked (noon), not from when we picked it up at 1:30. They also did not give us a standard SUV which is what we paid for but an intermediate. They were as shady as renting a car in Mexico....AVOID!

Sorry

We also had very bad experience with Budget last fall. Never had issues previously with car rentals using Avis, Alamo and Sixt over a dozen trips.

Budget totally ripped us off.

We fully prepaid a $500 SUV through Undercover Tourist. After over an hour wait to get to the counter, they turned around and charged another $400 saying there are always these extra fees.

No more Budget or UT for us. Shady as an oak tree, both of them.

 

[Woodview]

I think that you are annoyed But you did agree to Pre pay for fuel

This means handing back the car EMPTY

You Did Book the rental for NOON & That is the Start & Finish time
Extra wait time is not their fault You might have gone for a coffee

Different Type of car ........ That happens ....... tough

 

[3kidz4dis]

I think that you are annoyed But you did agree to Pre pay for fuel

This means handing back the car EMPTY

You Did Book the rental for NOON & That is the Start & Finish time
Extra wait time is not their fault You might have gone for a coffee

Different Type of car ........ That happens ....... tough

Are you serious? We didn’t agree to pre-pay fuel, and we should’ve received the car that we paid for. And rentals go in 24 hour increments from when you get the car. I’m not sure if you work for budget, but what you just said is nonsense

 

[Woodview]

Yes You agreed to Allow them to take for Pre Pay fuel

You had a Booking for Noon ... .... marked in your reservation ........

 

[3kidz4dis]

Yes You agreed to Allow them to take for Pre Pay fuel

You had a Booking for Noon ... .... marked in your reservation ........

Yes You agreed to Allow them to take for Pre Pay fuel

You had a Booking for Noon ... .... marked in your reservation ........

they said that there would not be a charge if we showed them the receipt that we filled it up within 5 miles. You’re just being contrarian for the sake of argument purposes. You’re not making any sense. THEY ARE SHADY!

 

[midwestdee]

I will..do you think I should tweet to costco or to budget?

Do both - but Budget will care a whole lot more if bad Budget reviews to Costco Travel get Costco breathing down their neck.

 

[sam_gordon]

Yes You agreed to Allow them to take for Pre Pay fuel

You had a Booking for Noon ... .... marked in your reservation ........

So if the flight was 3 hours late and they get to the rental counter, it should still start at Noon? Sorry, if any company pulled that on me, that would be the last time I used them AND I'd let everyone know.

Now, I agree OP agreed to the fuel charge. BUT, assuming what they relayed is true (and there's no reason to doubt), they were lied to by the clerk (who said the fuel charge would come off if they can prove they filled up close). Of course, there's nothing in writing to support that, but that's another one that would rule them out and let everyone know.

As far as changing the type of car, while it happens I'm sure, if they put me into a lesser class of vehicle, they would be giving me a discount. If not, again, would rule them out and let everyone know.

OP, I would reach out to Costco. Explain the situation as calmly as you can "just the facts ma'am" (assuming you're a female, it works for the quote). Costco may work with you if you can provide paperwork (showing the fuel charge and gas receipt, and class of car). It can't hurt.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

So did you get a late fee or something?

We have always rented a car for specific times and yes even through Costco.

If you reserved your car from noon until noon you still only have until noon the date of your reservation. Just because you picked up the car at 1:30pm does not change your reservation to 1:30pm the next day. Some companies offer grace periods; for Budget that is 29 mins and at 30 mins they can (although I'm not sure they always will) apply a late fee.

We have tons of experience with rental cars..my husband literally gets one all the time for work (including one earlier this week). Hundreds of rental cars over the years. You get your rental car for the time of your reservation no longer unless you want a fee to apply if it is applicable. You can alter your reservation to later depending on the company and the process is dependent on the company.

I'm not discounting you may have not experienced any pushback elsewhere but it is very standard that regardless of whether you picked the car up at your exact time you only have until the reservation end time to return it without modifying the existing reservation. In the world of rental cars this is really needed to keep reservations going. Imagine reserving a rental car and it's not available to you because someone always thought if they picked it up late their reservation just rolls on by. It has the potential to a domino effect on availability of cars for other people.

In particular to Budget



As far as not getting the car you want I totally get the frustration on that. It varies between the companies and locations on what they have. I would however have expected a partial refund for the cost difference assuming their was one to get a downgrade from a standard SUV to an intermediate but there is not always a cost difference and we've checked Costco recently enough (in January) and sometimes the pricing is more sometimes it's less. I can imagine booking through Costco makes things a tad complicated as they negotiate deals with them to offer. When we were in Puerto Rico we rented through Avis but they gave us technically a car in Budget's area. However, admittedly in Puerto Rico many of their cars had pre-existing damage so not sure they would have been nitpicky anyhow.

 

[3kidz4dis]

So did you get a late fee or something?

We have always rented a car for specific times and yes even through Costco.

If you reserved your car from noon until noon you still only have until noon the date of your reservation. Just because you picked up the car at 1:30pm does not change your reservation to 1:30pm the next day. Some companies offer grace periods; for Budget that is 29 mins and at 30 mins they can (although I'm not sure they always will) apply a late fee.

We have tons of experience with rental cars..my husband literally gets one all the time for work (including one earlier this week). Hundreds of rental cars over the years. You get your rental car for the time of your reservation no longer unless you want a fee to apply if it is applicable. You can alter your reservation to later depending on the company and the process is dependent on the company.

I'm not discounting you may have not experienced any pushback elsewhere but it is very standard that regardless of whether you picked the car up at your exact time you only have until the reservation end time to return it without modifying the existing reservation. In the world of rental cars this is really needed to keep reservations going. Imagine reserving a rental car and it's not available to you because someone always thought if they picked it up late their reservation just rolls on by. It has the potential to a domino effect on availability of cars for other people.

In particular to Budget
View attachment 760726


As far as not getting the car you want I totally get the frustration on that. It varies between the companies and locations on what they have. I would however have expected a partial refund for the cost difference assuming their was one to get a downgrade from a standard SUV to an intermediate but there is not always a cost difference and we've checked Costco recently enough (in January) and sometimes the pricing is more sometimes it's less. I can imagine booking through Costco makes things a tad complicated as they negotiate deals with them to offer. When we were in Puerto Rico we rented through Avis but they gave us technically a car in Budget's area. However, admittedly in Puerto Rico many of their cars had pre-existing damage so not sure they would have been nitpicky anyhow.

Thankfully we did not receive a late fee. The rep told us that is was due back by noon. We had a little back and forth but he didn't push back and we so far did not get charged. I just spoke with Budget and they are refunding the fuel charge of $63.51-in reality we provided them a receipt of $14.00 to fill the tank. The reason I thought it was shady was that the return clerk made a point of saying that he was not planning on looking at the receipt. He made a point to tell us that. We have traveled and rented many cars and the only worse experience was Mexico where it was pure theft

 

[3kidz4dis]

So if the flight was 3 hours late and they get to the rental counter, it should still start at Noon? Sorry, if any company pulled that on me, that would be the last time I used them AND I'd let everyone know.

Now, I agree OP agreed to the fuel charge. BUT, assuming what they relayed is true (and there's no reason to doubt), they were lied to by the clerk (who said the fuel charge would come off if they can prove they filled up close). Of course, there's nothing in writing to support that, but that's another one that would rule them out and let everyone know.

As far as changing the type of car, while it happens I'm sure, if they put me into a lesser class of vehicle, they would be giving me a discount. If not, again, would rule them out and let everyone know.

OP, I would reach out to Costco. Explain the situation as calmly as you can "just the facts ma'am" (assuming you're a female, it works for the quote). Costco may work with you if you can provide paperwork (showing the fuel charge and gas receipt, and class of car). It can't hurt.

I will reach out to Costco. So far we have not been charged a late fee but the fuel surcharge was super annoying and seemed deliberate. The line was so long I suspect that they ran out of SUVs and just didn't mention that a Rav4 was an intermediate SUV. We had wasted so much time in line we didn't fight about it

 

[dizneedoll]

100% Agree! Budget is shady AF. I booked with Costco too and against my better judgement, decided to use Budget and save $100 over Alamo. Long story short...they tried to give me an SUV and charge extra for it when I had booked economy size, they tried to sneak in unlimited toll fee and I had to go back to the desk 3x before I got out of there, arguing all this with them and they were rude about it too. At the end, they still charged an extra $60 for what I don't know! They tried to say taxes but that's included in the Costco price! I ended up paying but I will never rent from them again!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thankfully we did not receive a late fee. The rep told us that is was due back by noon. We had a little back and forth but he didn't push back and we so far did not get charged. I just spoke with Budget and they are refunding the fuel charge of $63.51-in reality we provided them a receipt of $14.00 to fill the tank. The reason I thought it was shady was that the return clerk made a point of saying that he was not planning on looking at the receipt. In fact he made a point to tell us that. We have traveled and rented many cars and the only worse experience was Mexico where it was pure theft

I'm glad that you both didn't get charged a late fee and that you got the refund on the pre-pay. I don't like to do pre-pay options myself and can understand how that would have been a shock to be told that and have it not be the case. I think you sometimes get that worker who pushes unethically on some things including pre-pay or the insurance add on costs another common one.

As far as Mexico yeah interestingly enough we just got back from there almost a month ago and research indicated that Mexico's rental sites are not really actually the real companies. Like Avis isn't really Avis for example. And they are very well known for fleecing tourists. At least if you're talking about Cancun airport where they are know for that. The rental car companies being franchises that def. take advantage of tourists. We learned how you need to just walk straight out don't make eye contact with people otherwise they will hassle you for either listening to a timeshare or to offer you a cab/taxi ride where they will take advantage of you at least in fare cost.

 

[3kidz4dis]

So did you get a late fee or something?

We have always rented a car for specific times and yes even through Costco.

If you reserved your car from noon until noon you still only have until noon the date of your reservation. Just because you picked up the car at 1:30pm does not change your reservation to 1:30pm the next day. Some companies offer grace periods; for Budget that is 29 mins and at 30 mins they can (although I'm not sure they always will) apply a late fee.

We have tons of experience with rental cars..my husband literally gets one all the time for work (including one earlier this week). Hundreds of rental cars over the years. You get your rental car for the time of your reservation no longer unless you want a fee to apply if it is applicable. You can alter your reservation to later depending on the company and the process is dependent on the company.

I'm not discounting you may have not experienced any pushback elsewhere but it is very standard that regardless of whether you picked the car up at your exact time you only have until the reservation end time to return it without modifying the existing reservation. In the world of rental cars this is really needed to keep reservations going. Imagine reserving a rental car and it's not available to you because someone always thought if they picked it up late their reservation just rolls on by. It has the potential to a domino effect on availability of cars for other people.

In particular to Budget
View attachment 760726


As far as not getting the car you want I totally get the frustration on that. It varies between the companies and locations on what they have. I would however have expected a partial refund for the cost difference assuming their was one to get a downgrade from a standard SUV to an intermediate but there is not always a cost difference and we've checked Costco recently enough (in January) and sometimes the pricing is more sometimes it's less. I can imagine booking through Costco makes things a tad complicated as they negotiate deals with them to offer. When we were in Puerto Rico we rented through Avis but they gave us technically a car in Budget's area. However, admittedly in Puerto Rico many of their cars had pre-existing damage so not sure they would have been nitpicky anyhow.

On the issue of the noon to noon...I totally get that ! If our flight was late or we were late, I fully would expect it would still be noon, however it was their issue of being short staffed and the line being an hour and a half that they should be somewhat forgiving and flexible. Just providing a little customer service.

 

[3kidz4dis]

I'm glad that you both didn't get charged a late fee and that you got the refund on the pre-pay. I don't like to do pre-pay options myself and can understand how that would have been a shock to be told that and have it not be the case. I think you sometimes get that worker who pushes unethically on some things including pre-pay or the insurance add on costs another common one.

As far as Mexico yeah interestingly enough we just got back from there almost a month ago and research indicated that Mexico's rental sites are not really actually the real companies. Like Avis isn't really Avis for example. And they are very well known for fleecing tourists. At least if you're talking about Cancun airport where they are know for that. The rental car companies being franchises that def. take advantage of tourists. We learned how you need to just walk straight out don't make eye contact with people otherwise they will hassle you for either listening to a timeshare or to offer you a cab/taxi ride where they will take advantage of you at least in fare cost.

YES!!!! To all of the above! I agree with you!! Mexico plays games with what is on actually on the gas tank as well. And we also have been pulled over by police for a shakedown for speeding. We told them we are not paying them cash and they let us go.

 

[3kidz4dis]

100% Agree! Budget is shady AF. I booked with Costco too and against my better judgement, decided to use Budget and save $100 over Alamo. Long story short...they tried to give me an SUV and charge extra for it when I had booked economy size, they tried to sneak in unlimited toll fee and I had to go back to the desk 3x before I got out of there, arguing all this with them and they were rude about it too. At the end, they still charged an extra $60 for what I don't know! They tried to say taxes but that's included in the Costco price! I ended up paying but I will never rent from them again!

That is the reason for my post..just a warning that they are looking for an opportunity to upsell and upcharge. We have rented plenty and just had an "off" feeling of the transaction in general for numerous reasons.

 

[LoveToDisney]

Thank you for the warning.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We booked a Costco car reservation using Budget and it was shady! We were told that they had to put on a prepay of fuel in the amount of $63.51 and it would be reversed when we prove that we fillled up within 5 miles. We did that and during the return the attendant refused to look at our receipt. I called CS and they said we agreed to the prepay. Not true! Also, the line was 1 1/2 hours nd we were told we had to return the car according to when our reservation was booked (noon), not from when we picked it up at 1:30. They also did not give us a standard SUV which is what we paid for but an intermediate. They were as shady as renting a car in Mexico....AVOID!

Thanks for the warning, that’s ridiculous. If you used a credit or debit card file a dispute for the suspect charges. State the facts, no emotions. You can dispute part of a charge if they combined it with a legit one as well. You may be given a chance to attach evidence, such as the receipt for gas, do it.

As far as the downgraded car goes I’d contact Costco and see if you can get a partial refund.