Use Alamo, not Budget
My partner and I used Budget Rental at Dublin Aiport back in early August. We will not be using them again. The previous year we had used Alamo car rental but unfortunately this time they didn't have the availability we needed, in future we will be returning to use them. We were charged an additional days rental fee for returning the car an hour later than it should have been returned. However as explained below, there were reasons why this occurred as a direct result of Budget's customer service.
Budget seem to offer flexibility on their terms, but are unwilling to show flexibility the other way around. This creates total inconsistency. Regrettably, we have been let down by individuals working on the check in desk at arrivals, and those in the car park where you return the vehicle.
We picked our car up on the Friday at midday. We arrived just after 11.30 for a 12.00 start with the car, but the car was ready and so we were able to collect early. Nobody told us this meant our return time had changed... this has only been bought to our attention since contacting customer service. The car we had reserved and paid for was a Nissan Duke as there was 4 of us, however the car we collected was a Citroen...... So flexibility is clearly possible!
We asked the lady at the check in desk what the credit card hold would be having taken our their insurance. The hold would be if we didn't return the car with a full fuel tank. We asked what time the car had to be returned on the Monday. Crucially, she told us that "anytime" on the Monday was fine, but to be as early as possible for our flight because Monday's are busy at Dublin. Later it would become apparent our rental ended at midday. We signed the agreement at 11.40am. By the time we got the shuttle to the office, and collected the keys from a busy office, we were away in the car at around 12.00. What we didn't know was that the rental had started at 11.40. Despite being a mile from the car and in the airport...
We returned the car on Monday to the car park at around 12.45. We were processed before 13.00 waiting for a bus to the airport. We'd stopped to get fuel just outside Dublin. This was after dropping the rest our party to departures to save time for them. Our car was checked by one of the support team for any scratches/ issues etc and fuel was checked, before giving us a slip. We were then directed to a cabin and handed our slip to one of 4 customer service agents... this was checked and again, nothing was said to us. At no point did anybody explain that we were being charged another full day's rental despite the opportunity. This is really frustrating as we could have dealt with the issue there and then.
This was only realised when the credit card had the full amount taken. Thinking this was an error, WE had to reach out to find out why we had been charged the full amount. Despite a number of attempts to call into Budget customer service we couldn't get through, so used the email. Nothing came back for nearly two weeks. We then called the front desk at the airport who connected us to customer service, the line then went dead... We called back and were advised of a new email address and that they would pass our number on. No call came back which I'd requested but suddenly customer service emailed us back.
Various emails went back and forth, with Edel stating we'd broken the agreement and now OWED Budget money... As I pointed out, not sure how Budget would have told us, as we'd only found out 3 weeks later having contacted them!
Most disappointingly, our requests to show some compassion and understanding about the above fell on deaf ears. Customer service pointed out the stated written agreement, but failed to answer adequately some of the points above about advice given, and why we weren't told of the extra day's charge by any of the customer service agents on the Monday.
16 days ago I asked for the complaints policy & contact details from customer service. No response as of yet.
All we've wanted to do is speak to someone on the phone, to no avail.
Don't book with Budget.
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