I made my reservations months in advance to see both of my grandparents who are in seperate states in retirement homes. Needless to say not good circumstances for my travels. I printed out my confirmation pages for the location on Olive Street. Once we arrived I was told by Patrick the owner that my social security number was needed to run a background check as well as $100 deposit since I had booked with a debit card. I paid already by the way. No where in their terms and conditions, or in my confirmation did it state that. We had arrived 30mins before our pick up time only to be greeted with a not so great business owner, and then had to deal with this nonsense. After being told he needed my ssn I said no. I've been a victim of identity theft 3x now, and not once have I ever needed to give out my social for a rental car. He claimed that this was the policy regardless of the paperwork I was provided for my rental. My fiance inquired as to what he needed to avoid needing my ssn, and he said a major credit card. So we ended up trying to switch the payment type. However, instead of doing so Patrick started a new reservation under my fiance, and now we had 2 reservations we paid for. I let my fiance handle it as I called the 800 number for Budget to argue this situation, and got nowhere. My fiance talked to the 800 number to clarify the policy of running ssn, and they told him that it's the business owners personal policy. So you book online with the company, pay, and agree to terms, but when picking up the car are now notified of the owners personal policy? Never heard of such a thing. My fiance was also told to shut up by the business owner as well during their interactions while I was on the phone. The only thing good I have to say is about the 2nd call to the 800 line we were able to get my 1st reservation refunded. I would never recommend this rental company to anyone. We unfortunately had no choice but to do business with this incompentent business owner Patrick due to our circumstances and limited time in the area. When we finally did get our car it smelt like cigarette smoke, was dirty, and also had trash left in the trunk from the previous renter. I have photos to prove as well. I will continue to write these reviews so that others can save the time and hassel of dealing with this man Patrick and the company Budget Rentals.
Dear Casie,
I am sorry to hear about your experience. Please send us your booking number to: support@bookingroup.com referencing this post so that we can look into your claim, and see if there is anything additional that can be done from our end.
We hope that very soon hear from you and we be able to check the situation.
Best Regards,
Booking Group Team