Budget Car Rental

Customer service is horrible. Its an independent ownher and Helen Lau makes sure that you are aware of that with the way she speaks to customers is rude and dismissive. I had a 1 way rental and even the drop off process was unnecessarily difficult.

I usually rent from the Oakland airport but decided to try a closer location. So glad I did. Helen is awesome, friendly and nice. I wish all rental places were as fast and efficient as her!!! I picked up my reserved car with NO issues, they had nice clean cars and it was a super quick pick up.

Being from Australia and on our American Roadtrip, we arrived on Christmas Eve to collect a car that was not available. Unfortunately instead of ringing us earlier to advise us of this, we arrived at the location to be greeted with "hahaha, I don't know why they would have even let you book that as we don't have cars like that here". We were then given an option of a smaller, older car that was well used and just dropped off that needed to be cleaned prior to us taking it. We were happy to wait the 20 minutes that took for a quick wipeover as any car was better than no car on Christmas Eve, especially because we were driving that day to get to our next booked location. We walked around the car and had a look at it with the lady and she said, "it's not like the one you ordered but it was either this or a ute (which wouldn't suit our family on a road trip with luggage and cold weather) or you can cancel your booking". On deciding to opt for the Toyota 4 Runner we queried scratches and presentation and then the lady said "don't worry, we don't count marks like this that's smaller than pen size" (deep scratches in black paint of 5cm long in some occurrences and actual past user dirt left inside under chairs). We got on with it and had the car from Christmas Eve to the 30th where we proceeded to fill up the car and deliver it to the airport at LAX. On our return to home, we followed up with budget in writing about what had occurred and sought a part refund for being given a sub standard car compared to the one we had booked 9 months earlier. We were then told in writing that we were only charged for what we used, which is clearly untrue as we prepaid everything on March and there was no refund. The worst part is that over two weeks later we were sent a letter saying that we returned the vehicle in a poor state with excessive soilage!! This enraged us as we always provide things back in a good state following a rental of home or car, and the gentleman at the yard checked it and said "ok all good, throw the keys in the boot and hop on the transfer bus".
Our thoughts are is that it's all a big mistake or maybe they do this to foreigners thinking that we'll leave it at that at just cop it? The whole process is disgusting and we and our business will never use or recommend Budget again.

The hidden fee is way too much. I rent a Car,for four days which was basically $70 with add on basic insurance. But finally I paid $ 560. There is a trick, untill up on final discussion they tell you the minimum fee and when you went to pay and pick they throw a paper to sign, this is a time you have to read everything, because they put all untold hidden fee with very fade colors. All business strategy is to put a customer into a trap. Show you 70 $ and finally charge you 140$. Insane.

Excellent service. Locally owned. Beautiful cars and great prices.
Check the actual website for times vs Yelp. May be different.
#BuyLocal

Uh, yeah no. Read the reviews and seen a lot of bad ones. I still decided to at least call before coming since everyone says something about the time being wrong. That's why I called and asked "are you guys open" and the lady said "we'll I answered the phone didn't I" and I responded "oh yeah no. I'm not coming here with that attitude. Someone should look at the yelp review's"

Worst experience ever, the lady "manager" Asian, no respect for customer, no explanation of the return and on top of that she even told me to get out of her business, when I ask for a reason she even told me if she speak Chinese or what part don't understand to get out ...
The reason what she get upset was ... I ask for explanation if I return a car a day early ... why I don't hat a refund for that day ... she say I should read a contract that is not refundable... then I ask if that was the case, I will take the car for with me for the day that I pay, she say that I can't because she already check it in, I told her what we can do .. "she told me the only think I can do is to get out her business" !!!, that she don't care about it .

I told her I will need to speak with a manager and she say she was the manager and she can do wherever she want.

Great job Budget .... try to contact customer service and guess what ... same problem

I prepaid in full. Waited a half hour past my reservation time and left Budget at 10:00AM, returned the car at 11:00AM. They charged me a full day's rental fee - $83.00.
This place, at 2428 Webster, Oakland, is a ripoff scam business. Beware!

I would give this place zero stars if I could. DO NOT GIVE THIS BUSINESS ANY OF YOUR MONEY. I was left stranded without a car. I had a $650 reservation for today, pickup at noon. I arrive on time and the manager yells "we're closed get out of my business!" I tried showing her my reservation and pickup time to no avail. Pleaded to just get me my car before they close. There was a piece of paper with hours for the holiday today taped to the window (8-12) but my pickup time was at noon. How was I supposed to know their hours for the day when my confirmation email said to pickup at noon??? She was incredibly rude, multiple times yelling at me to leave, got in her car and closed the gate on me. It was very apparent she gets pleasure from being a complete asshole. Zero stars do not recommend. Cant understand how they are still in business. Budget, if you are listening, please shut this place down. HORRIBLE

I would have given this five stars for being able to drop off the car so quickly when returning it--except that several weeks later I received a letter saying they had detected an odor of smoke and were billing me for $450! My husband and I, the only ones in the car for the week we used it, both have severe pulmonary problems so certainly do not smoke. Did an employee take a smoke break in the car after we returned it and left it in their garage? Does Budget just routinely pick someone to fine as a way to scam people for extra money? If you have the poor judgment to use this agency, be sure to sit in the car (even if four others are returning cars on Monday morning at the same time) until it has been thoroughly inspected and signed off!