Budget Rent A Car Not clear in their rental policies Parsippany New Jersey

I had a similar experience with Budget. My boyfriend goes to school 650 miles away, and I rent a car every six to eight weeks to drive out and see him. The first time I rented with the non-airport Budget location in my city, everything was great. I booked online, and there was a link to the age restrictions and under-25 fees, where all the information was listed by state and city. I received a Chevy Cavalier and had absolutely no problems with it (except for leaving a CD in the CD player, and when I called the office to report this, they said they hadn't found it... but that's another story).

A few weeks later, I booked another rental. With the first one, I was not subjected to any fees for being only 23 years old. The second time, I noticed that they had begun charging an under-25 fee of $10 a day. Nothing too bad, but it made me suspicious enough to go back and check two days before the rental. Sure enough, this time the fee was $25 a day. I called the rental office.

I asked the service rep why they'd increased the fee within a period of a few weeks. She informed me that the policy had changed because their formerly independent office had been bought out by "corporate;" therefore, their policy was now NO rentals to ANYONE under 25.

The thing was, I had gotten a "reminder" email about the reservation. However, I hadn't received any notice that the branch with which I had rented recently changed their fees and policies. Not only that, but the information on their site was wrong (although, to their credit, it may have just not been updated YET).

Luckily, I was able to rent from another company, who I've been renting from ever since with no issues whatsoever (knock on wood). But I can't even imagine how upset I would have been had I shown up at the Budget rental office the morning of my trip only to find out that I couldn't have the car I'd booked because they'd changed their rules. I won't ever rent from Budget, even when I am old enough to.

My advice is, check, double-check, and triple-check. Call the day before and confirm, if you can. It's better to be anal-retentive about it than wind up stranded. However, I think that Budget should have sent out some sort of notification to those who had pending reservations, notifying their customers of this change. That's just good service - the lack of which will keep me and everyone I know from renting with Budget.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I had a similar experience with Budget. My boyfriend goes to school 650 miles away, and I rent a car every six to eight weeks to drive out and see him. The first time I rented with the non-airport Budget location in my city, everything was great. I booked online, and there was a link to the age restrictions and under-25 fees, where all the information was listed by state and city. I received a Chevy Cavalier and had absolutely no problems with it (except for leaving a CD in the CD player, and when I called the office to report this, they said they hadn't found it... but that's another story).

A few weeks later, I booked another rental. With the first one, I was not subjected to any fees for being only 23 years old. The second time, I noticed that they had begun charging an under-25 fee of $10 a day. Nothing too bad, but it made me suspicious enough to go back and check two days before the rental. Sure enough, this time the fee was $25 a day. I called the rental office.

I asked the service rep why they'd increased the fee within a period of a few weeks. She informed me that the policy had changed because their formerly independent office had been bought out by "corporate;" therefore, their policy was now NO rentals to ANYONE under 25.

The thing was, I had gotten a "reminder" email about the reservation. However, I hadn't received any notice that the branch with which I had rented recently changed their fees and policies. Not only that, but the information on their site was wrong (although, to their credit, it may have just not been updated YET).

Luckily, I was able to rent from another company, who I've been renting from ever since with no issues whatsoever (knock on wood). But I can't even imagine how upset I would have been had I shown up at the Budget rental office the morning of my trip only to find out that I couldn't have the car I'd booked because they'd changed their rules. I won't ever rent from Budget, even when I am old enough to.

My advice is, check, double-check, and triple-check. Call the day before and confirm, if you can. It's better to be anal-retentive about it than wind up stranded. However, I think that Budget should have sent out some sort of notification to those who had pending reservations, notifying their customers of this change. That's just good service - the lack of which will keep me and everyone I know from renting with Budget.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I had a similar experience with Budget. My boyfriend goes to school 650 miles away, and I rent a car every six to eight weeks to drive out and see him. The first time I rented with the non-airport Budget location in my city, everything was great. I booked online, and there was a link to the age restrictions and under-25 fees, where all the information was listed by state and city. I received a Chevy Cavalier and had absolutely no problems with it (except for leaving a CD in the CD player, and when I called the office to report this, they said they hadn't found it... but that's another story).

A few weeks later, I booked another rental. With the first one, I was not subjected to any fees for being only 23 years old. The second time, I noticed that they had begun charging an under-25 fee of $10 a day. Nothing too bad, but it made me suspicious enough to go back and check two days before the rental. Sure enough, this time the fee was $25 a day. I called the rental office.

I asked the service rep why they'd increased the fee within a period of a few weeks. She informed me that the policy had changed because their formerly independent office had been bought out by "corporate;" therefore, their policy was now NO rentals to ANYONE under 25.

The thing was, I had gotten a "reminder" email about the reservation. However, I hadn't received any notice that the branch with which I had rented recently changed their fees and policies. Not only that, but the information on their site was wrong (although, to their credit, it may have just not been updated YET).

Luckily, I was able to rent from another company, who I've been renting from ever since with no issues whatsoever (knock on wood). But I can't even imagine how upset I would have been had I shown up at the Budget rental office the morning of my trip only to find out that I couldn't have the car I'd booked because they'd changed their rules. I won't ever rent from Budget, even when I am old enough to.

My advice is, check, double-check, and triple-check. Call the day before and confirm, if you can. It's better to be anal-retentive about it than wind up stranded. However, I think that Budget should have sent out some sort of notification to those who had pending reservations, notifying their customers of this change. That's just good service - the lack of which will keep me and everyone I know from renting with Budget.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I had a similar experience with Budget. My boyfriend goes to school 650 miles away, and I rent a car every six to eight weeks to drive out and see him. The first time I rented with the non-airport Budget location in my city, everything was great. I booked online, and there was a link to the age restrictions and under-25 fees, where all the information was listed by state and city. I received a Chevy Cavalier and had absolutely no problems with it (except for leaving a CD in the CD player, and when I called the office to report this, they said they hadn't found it... but that's another story).

A few weeks later, I booked another rental. With the first one, I was not subjected to any fees for being only 23 years old. The second time, I noticed that they had begun charging an under-25 fee of $10 a day. Nothing too bad, but it made me suspicious enough to go back and check two days before the rental. Sure enough, this time the fee was $25 a day. I called the rental office.

I asked the service rep why they'd increased the fee within a period of a few weeks. She informed me that the policy had changed because their formerly independent office had been bought out by "corporate;" therefore, their policy was now NO rentals to ANYONE under 25.

The thing was, I had gotten a "reminder" email about the reservation. However, I hadn't received any notice that the branch with which I had rented recently changed their fees and policies. Not only that, but the information on their site was wrong (although, to their credit, it may have just not been updated YET).

Luckily, I was able to rent from another company, who I've been renting from ever since with no issues whatsoever (knock on wood). But I can't even imagine how upset I would have been had I shown up at the Budget rental office the morning of my trip only to find out that I couldn't have the car I'd booked because they'd changed their rules. I won't ever rent from Budget, even when I am old enough to.

My advice is, check, double-check, and triple-check. Call the day before and confirm, if you can. It's better to be anal-retentive about it than wind up stranded. However, I think that Budget should have sent out some sort of notification to those who had pending reservations, notifying their customers of this change. That's just good service - the lack of which will keep me and everyone I know from renting with Budget.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.