Budget Car Rental, New York NY

They charged $100 for a gas refill even though we returned the car with more gas than we had checked it out, and the attendant even checked this when we returned it. He didn't tell us that they were charging us, so make sure you double check your receipt.

Budget's corporate customer service was very rude and tried to tell me I should never have taken a car with less than a full tank.

Also the phone at this location is turned off. Probably because they are scamming so many people they don't have time to listen to their complaints: D

Terrible experience. I had asked for a Toyota Tacoma but they give me some awful Ford truck which used to start vibrating when I drove over 60 mph. Terrible experience. And when I went to exchange the truck they told me I would have to go all the way to La Guardia. It was such a bad experience that i forgot to fill gas at the end and guess what? They charged me $89 for that! Almost 10 $ a gallon. Plus other ridiculous charges which made the bill 3 times what I was charged by Expedia!
From $59 the bill came to 1$89
Such a bad experience.
I wish I had stuck to Hertz as usual!

The employee didn’t want to rent us a normal car (only SUV - much more expensive) - apparently that was the only cars available. I had to rent it online and to pick it up at the same location. I wanted to extend my rental. I had to spend 2h on the phone because it wasn’t letting me doing it online. I then had to go to a physical location to get a simple paper (even the employee there was confused).

I waited over an hour and a half to get service on Friday, they had only one person giving service. In the end I wasn't able to get the car. I had to call customer service to change the reservation to Sunday morning. But, you know what? Plans change, I had to get the car Saturday night (their open until 11pm). Got there at 9pm. "I'm sorry you have to call customer service or modify on the website. " The website wasn't working, and customer service also said that their system was closed for the day. What's the point of being open until 11pm if I can't rent a car? I don't know. I got the run around 3 times and didn't even get a car. Will I get compensated? Who knows.

Too bad we can't give zero stars. Deplorable welcome, we were asked for an American telephone number even though we were traveling every day (it was that or no car even though this was not noted in the rental conditions). 1h30 wait, extremely unpleasant staff and no one takes stock of the situation. Better to take photos and send them immediately to avoid unpleasant surprises. Only the employee who returned the vehicle was friendly. Unfortunately that doesn't take away the very bad experience.

We had a Chevrolet Tahoe for the drive from New York to Washington D. C.reserved. When we arrived, this very Tahoe was being driven into the garage. But we didn't get it. For whatever reason. After filling out the paperwork, we were supposed to pick up another car outside. The car was at least two classes smaller than the one we had already paid for. They didn't want to compromise on the price. So we refused to take over. There was also a Jeep Grand Cherokee in the garage. We didn't get that either. After the employee had made a phone call, a Ford Expedition arrived a little later, with a lot of damage, uncleaned and an empty tank, which we then took over in order to get away at all. I will probably never understand why the Tahoe that was delivered to the garage wasn't rented to us. There were also problems at the toll booths due to the back and forth with the papers, which were quickly resolved by the station there upon arrival in Washington.

What a terrible experience!
I pre paid for collection of a small car or similar small car to be available at 9: 00am
Whilst I appreciate that you should allow a little time for paperwork and getting the keys to the car, we left the location just after 10: 00 having taken over one hour to first of all queue, then go through the paperwork and then wait for the car to be delivered to the premises as they are kept elsewhere!
When going through the paperwork I was told that a small car was not available, even though I had paid for and reserved it in advance!
I was offered a pick up truck instead…a pick up truck! Or if I paid $30 I could get an SUV instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a trick of there’s to try and get customers to pay more money. I obviously refused to pay anymore money as it’s there responsibility to supply the type of vehicle I asked for but had to take the SUV. I was driving in a foreign road on a different side to what I’m used to and having to use a large car that I was not used to made driving very uncomfortable!
When I returned the car, I was told I needed to put fuel in it, I questioned this but they said yes I did and that they can do it but it is $10 a gallon and would be approx $200, I had to question everything they said as it seems like they was making it up as they was going. I explained that when I took the car it only had quarter tank petrol and even if I did have to refuel theres’s no way it would be $200, they then said oh actually it will be approx $40, again after continuously questioning them, the lady who had my paperwork in her hand said that in fact I didn’t need to pay for fuel as my package said I didn’t!
So I dropped the car off
Then the next day they take $100 from my account! I still don’t know for what for as I have had to email the customer services continuously for about two weeks to get this money back, they never really explained it properly but it seems as though they was trying to charge me for fuel and also the SUV charge!
I eventually got my $100 back although didn’t get anything in the way of apology or explanation
I would say the SUV we was given was extremely clean
It’s safe to say I will never use this company again!

Close to the hotel. Not a very long wait to pick up the car. The only minor issue was that the office was a bit hidden inside the garage so better signage would have helped.

THREE huge problems. 1) they charged me a refueling fee of $17.99 plus tax (over $20 in total) when i filled up the car 3 blocks from the rental car return location. NO question at all that the tank was WAY full. 2) When the person at the counter asked me if i wanted an email receipt, i first asked him if everything was OK and that there were no extra charges such as tolls. He told me it was all "fine". 3). When i tried calling the number on the receipt and on the Budget website to try and get the issue resolved, i kept getting a recording that the number "was not accepting calls at this time".

UPDATE - Budget read my review and refunded the fueling charge. I changed my rating from one star to three stars as a result

Great easy rental with budget friendly staff during up and drop off. It was very easy. Thanks will definitely use you guys again next year when I am back

Rented premium car in NYC through expedia. When I arrived they told me that dont have car available. Options are to wait for another 3+ hours someone may return car I can pick up, when asked if they dont return whats going to happen, they told me I will get another car. Asked why they are not giving me another car now, they said they have only Dudge Durango or Chrisler Pacifica and can not get me in those cars now without upgrading.
So they kinda forced me to upgrade given they also understood that I wont leave my family out for 3+ hours in 90+ degrees heat. Asked Expedia to help, they did not help either, not sure what is the purpose of their existance.

As you can tell from other reviews do not go there. More likely than not you won’t even get a car. Today we were unlucky and didn’t get one and had to cancel to cancel our trip even though we had booked months ago. Upselling, scamming POS station. Don’t know how budget can run this.

I have had previous bad experiences at this location (2 hour wait on the weekends) but figured a Tuesday at 6p should be easy to pick up. Well this was the WORST of my 3 experiences here.

I arrive to see the lights out. Someone finally tells me that the location was closed because someone called in sick. ONE PERSON shuts a place in Manhattan? And if that is the case, shouldn't they reach out to all of their reservations?
After another 5 minute wait (because this was just the total parking lot location person who is not affiliated with the rental car), someone comes out of a car- where he was sitting with his friend, seats leaned all the way back. He smelled like weed. He tells me I can go to a location on the Upper East Side which would take me 30 minutes to get to and also 30 minutes out of my way from where I was going- which means it would add another hour plus to my trip. And I was renting a car to go to a wake.
I admit I raised my voice but his response was to tell me I don't need to be nasty when I asked who I could call since there are locations closer by. While I was having this conversation, a woman came back and showed her phone that they charged for a full tank of gas when she returned the car full- this guy also couldn't help solve her problem.
While I was holding with corporate office for 45 minutes, I walked a few blocks to the competitors (Dollar) who honored my Budget rate and upgraded my car. At first corporate Budget didn't want to refund me as was pre-paid. I finally convinced them to refund me after I was about half way to my destination.
NEVER will I use this location and most likely not Budget again. You would think I learned my lesson the last 2 bad experiences but lesson learned now for sure.
PS this is only the second negative review I have ever written- that is how bad this place is! Pay attention to the rest of the reviews that are 1 star wishing they could give zero.

The car was great, the team nice but two dissapointments:
pick-up location was changed (for a good reason), but NOT communicated at all. Only discovered with a small hand-written note at original pick-up location. This cause significant delays and frustration.
2nd, the pick-up had no bed cover, causing some real issues with when it rained.

We rented a car on 08/12/2023, and the employee was wonderful in dealing with all customers without exception, and he made a great effort to quickly complete the work while maintaining a fun and smiley style, thanks for the good dealing

Tank was very nearly empty, thick cigarette smoke on inside of windshield, overcharges. Leon in billing saved the experience & I would rent there again, only because of Leon in Billing Dept. He made the necessary corrections/adjustments.

Waited for 40 minutes even with a reservation and got terrible service, they made us wait outside in the heat for all that time. Worst service I recommend going to national or hertz where they treat you with respect.

I would have given 0 star if option available.

I booked luxury class vehicle but allocated poor maintained Suv. Stain on all the seat and vehicle not cleaned properly.

After driving 20 miles low tyre pressure indication popped up. I had to stop at gas station to fill the air. Looks like, they did not even checked tyre pressure.

Low tyre pressure indication showed up again in same tyre after driving ~200 miles. I had to go to budget rental location to exchange the vehicle.

At the time of exchange, I came to know that they cannot allocate me luxury vehicle because my contact was locked. I was asked to go any airport location if I need luxury class vehicle. I did not have time and took whatever vehicle available in exchange.

In worst case, I am being charged for luxury vehicle class. Not sure, how many time I need to call to get credit.

I will never rent car from Budget even if they provide free.

Picked up the car in New York City. The agent said the car had a "little" less than half a tank. No! It was hovering on empty. We waited 30 minutes for the car to be brought up because it was being washed. It came filthy inside and out! The gal handing the keys said they had no water that day. Are you kidding me? In addition it smelled of cigarette smoke. Her response was, it is New York. What do you expect? I expect a clean car. Nevertheless we had to get gas immediately and spent $25.00 to get the car cleaned. Terrible service and no offer to remedy the situation whatsoever.