Budget Location France

Unfortunately a tyre on our holiday rental car burst. We had booked a Budget France car through Holiday Autos. Budget assistance were shocking and we spent 5 days of our holiday car-less, stressed and on the phone constantly trying to sort it out. Upon collecting the repaired car, we were shocked to be presented with the bill of E431 but Budget assured us that it would be refunded when we submitted the receipt. That was a month ago and I have chased both Budget and HA constantly. Despite submitting all the requested info, I've still had no response and no refund. To be aware of – contracts state that you can have a replacement car if you're prepared to go and pick it up (which would have been a 7 hour round trip for us) but they don't deliver one. Terrible service.

Just avoid Budget / Avis (same company). That is the easy conclusion to share with you. Even emails to the CEO's office, which were acknowledged, have led to no satisfactory answers. At Bordeaux airport in May 2019 an employee was verbally and manically aggressive. This was witnessed by the manager and seemingly tolerated. Also, an item of clothing was left in the car. It was not found nor retrieved by the company. Appalling company. As they say, "surtout, a eviter". Nutshell: do not use Budget or Avis
No de contrat: 397852022

It's a pity to leave a bad review as I have used Budget in the past, but the team at Paris CDG are just crooks. I had a voucher rental with Holiday Autos (not their fault, 5Star to them for rates etc), and when I arrived was firstly not asked for voucher, when I offered it was told "not needed", then was tried to be sold insurance. I declined. They gave me keys, no document (said it was fast pick up) and left me to it. I went to car, took lots of photos of damage and went back to office. They filled out a card and signed it, said leave it in the car for drop off. Car was fine, newish Yaris, when I went back they checked over and said all fine, and with hand held device guy asks me to sign. I noticed a Euro15 charge showing on the screen and queried it, he said "Oh looks like the car was booked out with not full tank and you return it full, so it's a credit to you". He then went to deal with other customer, … I got my stuff out of car, then went to ask him for print out "oh I already emailed you". But they didn't have my email address I knew. So, back into their office, long story short…they had added the 1 day insurance charge, and also not correctly assigned full value of my rental voucher. I challenged them and they eventually corrected it all and printed me a final invoice at "zero" extra charges. But… looks like the office staff, and drop off staff are running a scam there. Each backing up the other to rip off customers. I am emailing their manger to report it.

STAY AWAY from Budget Nice Airport! Last year in April we had online rented a small car and prepaid approx. 300 Euros. At the desk in Nice Airport the salesperson (Veronique) argued that it would be "very convenient " to us to buy a lot of extras. Most of it she did not explain to us and we were asked to sign the contract on a computer screen. A written contract would be sent to us by mail later. We ended up paying more than 600 Euros on top of the rent. When we received the contract we tried to protest but we could not get in contact with Budget. We have now for almost a year tried to get their specifications and comments, we have even had legal assistance. But Budget' s argument is "you signed the contract at the desk." Never do business with Budget, their business strategy apparently is to sell you extras, whether you need it or not. Lousy customer treatment!

Update on review below: N.B. Despite having a reputable mobile subscription that covers normal calls to and from France, I received a charge of over EUR 80 for several calls to the helpline as Budget operates a special high-charge number for breakdown assistance (at least for non-residents). At no point was this communicated by Budget. What a rip off!

ORIGINAL REVIEW
Booked a car with pick-up at CDG airport. We were at the desk on time, but the car wasn鈥檛 ready. When we came back 25 minutes later there was a very long queue, which delayed us further. Language was a problem and we didn鈥檛 receive a copy of the contract at the desk. Car was dirty and there was an issue to be addressed. Another long queue to resolve the query awaited us. A total wait time of nearly two hours for a vehicle is unacceptable.

Two hours down the motorway the brake warning light came on. We tried calling customer services three times, but couldn鈥檛 get through. Although we chose the English language option here, the instructions reverted to French at the next stage, which didn鈥檛 help matters. We sent an email, which went unanswered. By the next day, the light had gone off. Day four and it came on again. We tried calling customer services several times, but couldn鈥檛 reach anyone. Still no reply to the original email either. Eventually we got through and were transferred to an English-speaking operator. At this stage, things started to go well and we agreed to exchange the car at Toulon airport, which went very smoothly in fact 鈥?a reason for the extra star in the review (now deleted due to high charge for breakdown helpline).

STAY AWAY – THEY WILL CHEAT YOU BAD
In june 2018, I rented a smal car at Budget Nice Airport. I was given a Yaris, and the Salesman informed me that there were 4 damaged spots on the car. If I found more scratches, I should contact a representative in the delivery area. I did not receive a written contract, as the policy of the Company is, that they later send this to your e-mail address.

On taking over the car I noticed 8 scratches instead of 4 as notifed by the Office. I contacted the representative, and he filled a form to document my complaints. The document noted 4 scratches only, and the man explained to me that he only noted the 4 scratches they did not already have in their system. I got my receipt with the new scratches noted (I wrongfully trusted).

When returning the car, I was informed that they had registered 4 scratches only, and those scratches were exactly the same, that were on my complaint receipt. I had to pay for the other scratches. I explained what happened, and asked them to consider, why I would bother to demand a receipt of the Exact same 4 scratches, of which I was informed when renting the car. They did not want to discuss that, so it is obvious to me, that they deliberatly are cheating.

When returning home I waited for Them to contact me. I did not hear anything, so I wrongfully thought that they had corrected the Errors and accepted my explanations.

Now, they have drawn 690 鈧?from my Mastercard. I discovered that by coincidence, as Budget/Avis did not give me any message or any document to specify that transaction.

So I would in every way encourage you to stay away from Budget Nice Airport, as they have no ethic standards, and as cheating most likely is part of their means of conducting business.

If anyone has rented a White Yaris, before 20 june, or after 26 june, and had similar bad experiences, please contact me, as I can confirm that I reported 8 scratches to the Office on that car. They have probably charged the same scratches more than once.

Our plane was delayed 1 hour at arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport. My family and I got 15 minuttes past midnight at Budget office. But we only found an empty desk. We could not understand since Budget had asked for and received our flight number. (The rental office from Europcar was though open waiting for passangers from the same fly!)
After a long travelling day my family and I had to spent 6 hours at the airport waiting for the office to open again. Not a nice experience!
Since we did not arrive on time, Budget cancelled our contract and charged our credit card with EUR 70 for a new contract.

Lesson learned:
Budget will just not wait 15 min. for you as the guys from Europcar do but they will charge you extra the next day for sleeping at the airport.