Budget

Would NEVER use them again! Reserved a car weeks in advance to pick up my sister from the airport in Portland to take her on a road trip around the state (did not trust my car to make the drive). First I called their shuttle service at 8am (their opening time) like they suggested, nobody would even answer the phone until 8:30. When I got someone on the line, they said they would send someone out right away, they were on their way-​they did not show up for an HOUR-​I live about 10 minutes away. Already running late, I was anxious to get on the road at this point. Well, when I go to give them my debit card for them to put a hold on it, they tell me that I can’t use it, that I need to use a credit card instead. Their website where I made the reservation clearly says they will need to put a 400 dollar hold on a debit account. My account had at least 3 times that amount in it at the time, but my credit card was nearly maxed out. They said they needed to put just a 200 dollar hold on a credit card, that they had swiped my bank card and done a «credit check»…so they couldn’t use my debit card. For the record, I know my credit is fine. I go to great lengths to make sure that my credit is fine. Whatever. I asked if I could use their computer to go online and transfer funds from my checking to my credit card if this was really such an issue… sorry, they said, we don’t have internet here. Really??! you don“t have internet but you are a car rental company that takes online reservations AND you also supposedly just did a credit check on me? Fuming, I get on the phone with my bank to make the transfer over the phone. My bank then informs me they can do this, but there is a 24 hour wait for these transactions to go through-​I need to use my card 45 minutes ago!!! At this point I am already late to pick my sister up from the airport and beginning to have somewhat of a meltdown. I am finally able to get a bank representative on the phone to override the 24 hour wait on payment. After I explain the situation to her, she says she can tell if my card has been swiped for this supposed credit check, and it has NOT been swiped! What a load of crap! I finally am able to take the car, 2 ½ hours late picking up my sister but the rest of my trip was great. I was happy with the car itself, great gas mileage and fun to drive, it was just far too much of a hassle to get it. The fact that their policy differs from website to store is extremely unprofessional, I would have prepared for using my credit card if I knew I was going to need to. If you do use this company, be aware this could happen to you!

For the second time in a month we were forced to rent a car in Bend. At Budget they gave us a Hyundae Sonata — a fairly roomy car with satellite radio. This was cheaper than the Enterprise Rent-​a-​Car [
place down the road, but their insurance was $ 5.00 a day more expensive. We still came out ahead. There was also less hassle in getting set up for rental here. Sales people were friendly and helpful.
They’ll pick you up and bring you to their office if you want to rent a car. We were in a motel and had a check-​out time deadline to deal with — they arrived in time and took all our stuff (quite a load!) to the Budget place.