WARNING : Budget

[JoJo88]

We waited ages at Budget in Miami too, but it’s just one of those things. There were about 4 staff members on, plus a guy going down the line with an iPad to speed things up as best he could. Thing is, the price was good for us, and sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture. The rep actually swapped us into a car with sat nav which she didn’t have to do, but because of this the car wasn’t as clean as it could’ve been because it was reserved for a customer for later. Swings and roundabouts.

[scooby99]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Guys. The trouble is we are seeing really bad horror stories with Avis at the moment as well. Things seem to be on the slide sadly.

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Just to even it up slightly we rent 4 times a year in USA and at least 4 times in Europe every year and always with Avis and as long as you checked rental agreement before leaving never had anything but decent service from them

[BevS97]

We had a similar experience few years ago I think with hertz. After such a long day I was just about in tears. The final straw was getting to the front of her queue and glad the staff leaving as it was the end of the shift.

We did eventually get on our way but we used Magical express the following year and Collected the car a few days later.

[ChrisS]

Used to hire one way, one day hires from Budget for driving from/to MCO to Bokeelia, whilst MCO was far busier than their Cape Coral office we never had long waits and their tin box on wheels got us down/up from Bokeelia issue free. Luckily the old tin box on wheels we own saves us thousands against car hire.

Haven't flown into MCO since Nov 2017 due to immigration/buillding works slaver. I saw an article by The Points Guy (I think) who put's MCO in the top 5 worst airports in the US, but then he also includes our airport of choice, RSW, in the same bracket.

[Lemmonie]

Not only were we in the queue for over an hour but when we did get to the front having booked and paid well in advance obviously we still then had to wait another 20 mins for the car to be “serviced” (fuelled) at this point I was beyond rage and frankly almost crying with tiredness. The staff were unapologetic.

As for queuing for rides I’m afraid I’ve been there and done that. This is a nice relaxing holiday and I’m sat on my balcony in Daytona enjoying the sun.

That said I’ve been here four previous times and rented with either Alamo or Avis preferred and always been in the car in under 15 minutes

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by Lemmonie

Not only were we in the queue for over an hour but when we did get to the front having booked and paid well in advance obviously we still then had to wait another 20 mins for the car to be “serviced” (fuelled) at this point I was beyond rage and frankly almost crying with tiredness. The staff were unapologetic.

As for queuing for rides I’m afraid I’ve been there and done that. This is a nice relaxing holiday and I’m sat on my balcony in Daytona enjoying the sun.

That said I’ve been here four previous times and rented with either Alamo or Avis preferred and always been in the car in under 15 minutes

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Enjoy your holiday hin, have a smashing time

[littletink]

Originally Posted by Lemmonie

Not only were we in the queue for over an hour but when we did get to the front having booked and paid well in advance obviously we still then had to wait another 20 mins for the car to be “serviced” (fuelled) at this point I was beyond rage and frankly almost crying with tiredness. The staff were unapologetic.

As for queuing for rides I’m afraid I’ve been there and done that. This is a nice relaxing holiday and I’m sat on my balcony in Daytona enjoying the sun.

That said I’ve been here four previous times and rented with either Alamo or Avis preferred and always been in the car in under 15 minutes

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So pleased you are now relaxing and enjoying your holiday - getting to Florida is a stressful enough, without then having to wait for something you've paid for. Have a lovely holiday.

[ChrisS]

The only time I had an MCO problem was with Dollar. I'd gone straight to garage, given the keys for a Impala and paperwork [I only book cheap as chips economy... no such thing as a free lunch!]. They'd given me a contract with the full hire price for this motor as due. Spent over an hour refusing to leave until they gave me a $0 contract, the Manager tried various computer work-arounds, said it had occurred a few times, their computer didn't recognise the voucher, and yet you did nothing about it I argued. Eventually she rang Head Office who told her to give me a $0 contract, she pointedly told whoever was on the phone they were now responsible.

Somehow I knew it wasn't going to be smooth with Dollar which was confirmed when an unpaid Orlando toll appeared on my account. I rang and said I wanted to view the photo's as we never stay in Orlando and the motor had been parked 150 miles away plus I had a Winn Dixie receipt to boot. Five weeks later I rang for an update and was advised as they couldn't get the photo's (really, what a shocker!) as a 'gesture of goodwill' they'd refund. I couldn't be chowed arguing the 'goodwill' garbage.

[Ridersmom]

Many American airlines have car rental partners. If you rent with the airline partner. there will often be a long line when a flight arrives as many people book with this car company to get extra points.

Even if you have not flown on a partner flight, you can encounter travelers from one of these flights. When a flight full of passengers head to the same rental desk, long lines ensure. I am not positve but I think Southwest is a budget partner and they tend to fly full flights and lots of them to Florida and MCO.

[thatdavieguy]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Guys. The trouble is we are seeing really bad horror stories with Avis at the moment as well. Things seem to be on the slide sadly.

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I think avis are getting some hard press , would say that lots of new folk are hiring from them after being advised to go with them as an Alamo alternative due to preferred scheme (lots of posts on here about it) and it's causing queues at the garage as first time renters have to be validated.

There could have been a number of flights arrived at once which exasperated the situation and left them on the back foot, the same thing could have happened at any garage, we've seen folk on here say Alamo had no cars or very little before.

No one posts the "well done Alamo/avis/budget etc" stories so the bad ones always make things look worse.

Obviously the way the rep spoke to someone isn't nice but we only get one side of the story on here and don't get to see the bigger picture of the interaction.