Payless Car Rental

My family arrived in Milwalkee and went to get our rental car. The rental counter had 20+ people in line. The counter agent was yelling to everyone to check in online to speed up the process. I went to the website and enrolled. Pulled up my reservation which was for a 9:30am pickup. By now it was 10:01am. So, it required me to change the pickup to 10:30am to pickup. When I hit complete check in, it automatically changed the drop off time from 6:00pm to 10:30am same as pickup. I did not change the drop off time. When we got to the counter, the agent was extremely rude and said to change it back to 6pm we had to pay more. The original reservation with a 6pm drop off was a total of $446.41. For her to change it back would be $480.95. I tried to explain I did not change the time only pick up because the website said we could not check in after pickup time but she told me signing up online changed my reservation and to call customer service. I stated they told us to do that to speed up the line, she replied call customer service. I called customer service, first time was hung up on while being transfered, second time was on hold 10 mins and then it hung up, third time calling was on hold 17 mins and had to give up waiting as we needed to get to my family reunion. We paid the extra amount. The car was in HORRIBLE condition. Dirty inside and out. Really bald tires was worried about driving in the rain on them and a large gash in the the front passenger tire. The overall experience was extremely disappointing.

Our rental vehicle had a bad battery and wouldn't stay started after shutting off. The dash kept saying service shifter. I mentioned this to both the people who checked us in upon returning the vehicle and the front desk. They returned $52 and some change and that I needed to contact the 1800 number as I did. They informed me there was nothing they could do since they already refunded me. The 4 days of trying to find someone to help jump start and being 2hrs from the airport was a huge inconvenience to my trip.

1 star rating is far too high. Highly recommend avoiding this Avis/Budget location and choosing any other company, even if you have to pay more. Upon arriving at the check in counter, there were approximately 20 parties in line for the Budget/Avis Counter; see attached photo all customers were waiting for Budget/Avis. There were only two agents working the majority of the time, one of which was only serving the "preferred" members and didn't help regular customers even when there were no preferred customers in line. A third agent finally arrived after I had been in line for over an hour but the third agent also focused on the "preferred" members, although he did occasionally help the regular customers. The check in process was painfully slow as it was taking approximately 10 minutes per party to get through the process, although a couple parties were at the counter for over 20 minutes. However, the agents seemed to have no concern for the long line and made no obvious effort to expedite services; the one agent working with regular customers was even engaging in small talk which seemed to add to the delay. As a result, some regular customers were jumping to the preferred line despite having no preferred status however they were allowed to essentially jump over to the single agent for regular customers and skip others that were waiting. In total, I waited in line over 90 minutes to get my rental car, despite having pre-paid for the car and completed the digital check in process prior to arrival. As a result of this experience, I would pay twice as much with any other rental car company before utilizing this Budget location again and would advise anyone to avoid it at all costs.

Car was not cleaned at all. Had masks from the previous customer's, napkins and tissues were all over in the side doors, didn't notice those until I was on 41 driving, it was late at night. Seats were covered in animal hair and dander, one of the passengers has a pretty bad allergy to that so it was problematic. Seats had several burn marks and stains. Car reeked on top of that. I ended up having to clean the thing myself because it was so bad. Plus we are in a pandemic, just gross. It did however have a sticky piece of paper stating MLS cleaned it. Definitely not the case. Tires were bald and it was difficult driving when snow was on the roads, not cool. When I called Monday morning the agent documented all the issues. When I was dropping off the vehicle I was reassured that no charges were posting for this bad experience. Credit card was charged more than the reservation amount and the charge hasn't fallen off like they said. Unacceptable.

I arrived yesterday at 9:15 AM to pick up a full-sized truck from Budget that I reserved a month ago. After 45 minutes of the gal at the counter claiming that they were trying to locate and then trying to get a truck washed for me, I had to leave for an appointment, so I asked for any vehicle in the same class as the truck. They offered me a Toyota 4-Runner a much smaller vehicle than I was prepared to use, so being in a desperate position I took the SUV but asked the gal at the counter for an adjustment on by rental invoice. To which she replied that I’d need to do that upon rental return. Again I was in a hurry to get to an appointment, so I took the 4-Runner and left. After my appointment, I called other car rental agencies and located a truck for much less than the Budget rental, so I returned the Toyota a day early. Upon return, my invoice reflected no adjustment for the smaller vehicle or the early return, so I asked to see a manager. The manager on duty told me that since I prepaid for my rental, they’d need to send in the request for an invoice adjustment. So to summarize: 1 I reserved and paid for a truck rental a month ahead of time 2 I arrived to pick up truck but it was not available 3 I reluctantly, due to time constraints, agreed to accept a smaller vehicle that was not capable of fulfilling my expectations 4 when it became obvious that the smaller vehicle was not up to the job, I returned the rental early 5 Because I prepaid, I was not able to receive an adjustment on my rental Does anyone think I’ll see an adjustment from Budget? Bottom line - “Don’t let your Budget ruin your plans!!!” I am writing this edit the day after my post above and I have changed a 1-star rating to a 4-stars: I was contacted this morning via email by the local Budget manager Alexandra, and she apologized for them not having the truck I reserved. She also adjusted my invoice to reflect the changes. Most importantly she took positive action to correct the poor customer service that I experienced both when picking up the rental as well as when returning it. Thank you, Alexandra.

After a day of use, my rental car had diminished power and the check engine light came on. Then the car would not stay running for more then a couple minutes at a time. I had to call the emergency roadside assistant number and was told the car would be flat bedded that evening Saturday night. I had to call back only to find out that the tow service could not come until Monday morning. Budget would not bring me another car and I was told that I would have to Uber to the airport for a replacement which I didn't have time to do. I ended up having to take Ubers everywhere for the remainder of my trip. The disabled car was taken back to the airport were it came from and was checked in which I was notified about through a text message. I was promptly emailed a final bill for the full amount! Nobody ever followed up with a phone call. When I called customer service several times before getting through to a human for a refund, they had no record of the service call that was requested through Budget! Guess what was Budget's offer for a refund on my $308.00 5 day rental that only gave me two days of use before breaking down....."a one time courtesy credit of $100!!". Unbelievable. Terrible customer service....Never renting from Budget again.....

The entire process was very smooth from pick-up to drop-off. All staff I encountered were kind, fast, and helpful. My vehicle was clean and in good condition.

If at all possible I'll never use Budget again. There were literally more than 50 people in line when I arrived in Milwaukee to pick up my car and about 20 still after me by the time I got my keys. Since I had been in line for more than an hour I had already missed one appointment and was going to be late for the next one. I didn't notice the fuel gauge at 1/3 full until after I was a few miles down the road. I made a compliant to your customer service. I received a reply the day after I returned the car saying I should contact the return office and explain that I'll bring the car back with the tank at 1/3 but of course that wasn't going to happen since I had already returned the car. Also, I returned the car a day early at about 7:00 am because my business was concluded. I was still billed for 5 days rather than 4. There was no one checking in cars when I brought it back. There was a person directing traffic but wasn't close to where I was directed to park so I didn't have the opportunity to request an email receipt on the spot. I was in a hurry in the airport so I didn't go to the counter for help either. Any other rental company would have checked in the car on the actual return date and only charged me for the actual days.

I had a pre-paid reservation for a mid-sized car which is what I am used to and comfortable driving. When I arrived at the time, I had scheduled the pick-up for I was informed they didn't have the car type that I had reserved. I was given the option for a minivan or a 4 Runner. Both of which are much bigger than what I like driving. Because I didn't have time to argue about it, I took the minivan, because I had an extremely important appointment to get to. NEVER AGAIN will I rent from Budget. My advice to everyone is rent elsewhere. I still need to contact the BBB.

Stood in line for One hour and Thirty minutes at the Budget Car Rental Desk to pick up our reserved car. There were only 8 people in the line ahead of us! HOW IS THAT FOR COMPETENCE? Once we got to the counter, we got our car key in seconds, as we made reservations earlier, and had our rental papers in hand. Why not have two lines at the counter? One line for those with reservations, and a second line for walk-ins without reservations. The rental Honda car we received had the front tires improperly installed, resulting in an unpleasant wining noise that increased with the speed of the vehicle. We discovered this after we drove out from the parking structure. Since we planned to drive very little, we decided to put up with this unpleasant experience, in order to avoid dealing with the incompetent desk service we have experienced earlier. The return of the car at the end of the rental period was very casual. The employee took the keys, walked around the car and waved us goodbye. There was no interest to find out if everything was OK with the car, or not? Avoid renting from Budget at the Milwaukee MKE Airport!