Budget Car Rental

"We waited in line for a little over 3 hours just to pick up the vehicle. Staff was limited and seemed disinterested in customer service. After waiting as long as we did and being told that our vehicle was out in blue diamond, we wandered around in the parking lot for about 15 minutes but couldn't find it. We had to go back in, cut in line, just for them to tell us that the vehicle actually wasn't ready and we would need to wait longer. We waited about 30 more minutes, and when we got the vehicle, it was still dirty externally and internally. It did not appear to be cleaned much at all. Since it was dark, we didn't realize until the next morning that were sitting on remnants of food from the previous customers. Signs for the exit were poorly marked which kept causing customers to reverse out of the exit because they thought they were going the wrong way. The gate attendant did not once step out to check with customers and assure them of the correct direction. The price difference to the Avis rental was only $3 more, and I would recommend to others to use that rental instead."

"We were scheduled for an 8pm pick up, and arrived at the Budget facility later than expected at 9:30pm due to a flight delay. When we arrived, there were hundreds of people crammed in the Budget building, and spilling out into the lot waiting to rent cars, none of which were ready. They were drip feeding the line one car at a time and the three counter staff were all hanging out at one computer, waiting for someone who seemed to be the manager to 'find' cars in the lot, which was apparently large and unorganized, so it was difficult to locate vehicles. The line just never seemed to move - everything went at a snail's pace and the staff just stood around chatting most of the time. We were finally given a vehicle 5 hours later at 2:30am. There were people with little children melting down, people with older children who had an early morning sports tournament the following day, people who were given electric vehicles as an alternative to what they actually booked that had no charge to drive to where they needed to go (37 miles). Many people gave up and left, and walked up the dark and snowy highway outside amongst the traffic to go to competitors to rent vehicles. The staff were in an awful situation with no vehicles ready to rent, and informed the line that they were about to finish their shifts and leave, and that 'maybe someone else would show up to help them, although we overhead them talking amongst themselves like there was no one scheduled'. When I finally got my vehicle at 2:30am in the morning it had a massive crack through the windshield that ran to four edges on the windshield frame, and the tank was only 3/4 full. Instead of discounting my rental for picking it up 6.5 hours later than booked, they just extended the return time 6 hours and charged me the same amount. But when they rang it up and asked me to run my credit card, the amount shown on the terminal was 3 times my booking amount. When I brought it to the counter agent's attention he actually said to me "You've been here 5 hours and you don't know there's a $200 deposit?" I explained to him that a $300 contract + a $200 deposit does not add up to $900, at which time he became extremely annoyed and had to start the laborious rental process all over again, which elicited groans and cries from the poor people still waiting in line behind me. It was an AWFUL experience all around. I doubt that anybody who was in that building will ever rent from Budget again. Looking at their reviews, it appears that this is not an isolated incident at this location. I have no idea how they are still in business. Everyone in line had a reservation, so it's mind boggling that they weren't better prepared. They knew in advance exactly how many vehicles and what type of vehicles needed to be ready to go out the front gate. I couldn't have run this operation any worse myself if I tried. The photo attached doesn't really do it justice - there were easily 2 or 3 times the amount of people you can see in the photo crammed into this place behind me, in the lobby and outside. We wound up missing a half day's skiing the following day as we weren't able to get into our accommodation until 5am. Super disappointing experience - if I could give them negative stars I totally would"

"No visitor parking, park on the street/driveway, dangerous!! 200+ people waiting to check in. Broke every fire code with the amount of people. Forced to stand outside 22D weather. After an hour wait, I finally got to the counter so they can verify my ID and credit card. Employee yelled at me saying I put a second driver on the car demanding more money. Then the employee got mad and flipped the computer around pointing and saying, “see right here” along with several other rude comments. He was mad, I asked him to repeat himself. Then he tells me to go stand in a second line with about 40 people to have a car assigned to me but not before he steals my driver’s license. I ask him for my id, he says “I gave it back to you”. I said, “no you did not”, he throws up his hands in a threatening manner and says “are you sure, I don’t have it” making a scene where he starts picking up his keyboard slamming it down, yelling and tossing paper. Guess what, there was my id under a red card he had. Then he just glares at me and hands it back, no apologies, nothing. While waiting in the second line another Budget agent starts yelling at a customer threatening to call the cops and have her escorted out of the building. The male employee was in this women’s face throwing his hands up and towering over her. The employee was angry at what the customer said and was threatening her physically. He easily out weighted this woman by 100 pounds. In the meantime, another employee calls for a manager to diffuse the situation, but they never came, making it dangerous for everyone. Then the women who was assigning cars “the bottleneck” was angry she was working past her shift and off the clock. She let us all know she was doing us a favor. She was talking in circles to the employee on the radio causing a ton of confusion. Then the three agents started fighting behind the counter because she didn’t want to take any more tickets so she could go home. The employees were so rude to her, refusing to call for their own cars. The employee who tried to steal my id just started throwing his tickets at her. I finally got my name called for my car. I walked out to the car and the seat belt was broken. All the parts are missing to click in the driver seatbelt. It’s illegal in the state to drive without a seatbelt and I was taking this car to Iowa 455 miles one way. Who wants to hear that dinging while driving or go without a seat belt? Budget is expensive to rent from, I thought I was getting quality. So, I went back and talked to the agent, they are mad, they must exchange the car, I said, “it’s illegal to rent the car”. I got a second car and the whole side of the car is crashed it’s been in a wreck. Writing all over the driver window. Red sticker on the front windshield. Broken parts all the in trunk of the car. I can’t use the one door it has a sticker that says “Do Not Open”. Did the employee have the guts to tell me it was wrecked, nope. So, I thought OMG I’ve been here already over two hours most of these people have waited over three hours and I had to get on the road I had meetings. Clearly this was my punishment for refusing the first car. I thought well, I can see this damage, if I go in a third time the car might explode or have cut break lines. So, I drove the wreaked car to Iowa 455 one way and back with a sign that said, “Budget Rental rented me this car with this damage, ask me about my experience it’s worse than the damage.” Drove it through several major cities, parked it at the colleges we toured with several other kids and parents. Yes, I had a lot of conversations with people as they touched the car and evaluated the damage. Don’t worry I gave Budget over 1,100 miles of free advertisement for their prestigious customer service. I’ve never seen a location run so poorly. I can’t believe Budget’s corporate office is not at this location dealing with this situation. Denver is a major city, and this location is at a major international airport. I had the car for 48 hours, it cost me $368.63 for an unbelievable, traumatizing experience."

"Im not usually a person that does reviews but I had a really bad experience renting a vehicle from this budget in denver! The van i rented had alot of issues and stuff that didnt work! *First as i picked up the van it had a really bad cigar smell! *Secondly I noticed that it didn’t have wiper fluid and that made our drive from denver to Aspen a living hell because it was snowing and the dirt from the road was going in the windshield and I couldn’t wash it down and when i would try to use the wipers i would just smudged all the dirt in the windshield making it impossible to see the road so we would have to pull over and cleaned it every certain miles with our personal towel! *Thirdly the rear camera was not working at all!!! Lastly those front and rear tires where really bald with almost NO TIRE THREAD making our drive even more dangerous! driving through the mountains And snow was a living hell!!"

"I rented an SUV at the Denver Budget and was told twice that the vehicle was AWD and would be able to handle the snowy mountain road conditions. It was only after I started driving over the pass and the vehicle slid across the road so I get out and check. It was not AWD and the tires were plain street tires with very little traction. I ended up parking the SUV and relying on friends to drive me around town. I also had to cut my trip short to make sure I could safely drive it back. I attempted to contact Budget while on my trip and never received a response. When I brought the vehicle back, my concerns were dismissed. Find another place to rent from!!"