Getting to the car rental facility at the Seattle airport was easy and straightforward. There was no line and no wait to see a customer service representative at the Budget counter. The rep was very friendly and professional, and even managed to upsell me on a larger vehicle than what I had originally reserved (partly because I was exhausted from a long trip and didn’t feel like haggling). Where I wish my experience had been better, though, is that she could have been more forthcoming with certain features of the upgrade that mattered, like the fact that there were no USB outlets anywhere in the vehicle, only USB-C. This meant that for my entire five hour drive, I was unable to charge my phone while using my navigation app (The vehicle’s gps navigation was unavailable for use as part of my rental agreement), and my battery almost died before I arrived at my destination.
She got me to upgrade and then a truck was in the space I was given so after looking all around I had to go to the Avis desk in the garage to get another car. Car was fine.
Honestly, bad. I pre paid the gas because the guy told me they offered a cheaper price, which wasn’t true, after, they charged me for a full tank even though I didn’t use it all.
45 minute line upstairs to speak to a rep. 45 minute line in the garage waiting for a car which then was not what we had booked.
Our rental vehicle was great until the low oil light came on as we waited to exit the parking garage. At first they were to add oil then switched us to another vehicle. To exit SEA it takes about 40 minutes in the cue to exit, because of the vehicle switch we got to go through that process twice. Budget was good enough to supply us with another vehicle. Obviously it was a rush job because the windshield was smudge and not clean as well with the cab of the vehicle. They did discount our bill to reflect the inconvenience. As we drove our replacement vehicle, toward the end of the rental the low oil message came on the dash our replacement vehicle too. After that all was good until our return home when I received a message our vehicle was 3 days late being returned. We returned our vehicle on its return date 1 hour early. After a other 30 minutes on the phone, off and on waiting they found their mistake and told me all was good. The rental was good, not excellent for the price and moderate inconvenience. I would still shop Budget again for our next car rental need. They just need to tighten up a bit.
This was the worst car rental experience we’ve ever had. It was a 2.5 hour wait to get a car. They didn’t have enough cars there for the reservations they took, and they didn’t have enough workers. Luckily I wasn’t too far back in the line. People behind me were going to be there until 4am before getting a car. I had made a 10pm pickup, which they took the reservation, yet they were closed and sent us all over to Avis. . Absolutely horrific.
