Budget Car Rental

Complaints

To whom it may concern,<br /><br />I would like to raise a complaint with your company. On arriving at Brisbane International (25/01/2024) airport I went to the Budget counter to pick up the car I’d booked for 530pm, this was approximately 600pm.<br /><br />On arrival at the counter the Budget representative let me know the car wasn’t ready and he would ‘have to see’ if they could find me one. Ok, that was slightly alarming giving I’d been in transit for nearly 30 hours from London and haven’t had any issues of such when booking cars from Budget/Avis (including from this location) in the past.<br /><br />There was no angst from my end at this point. However, then you representative decided for whatever reason to blame me, the customer, for the car not being there, going on to explain that I hadn’t filled out my flight number, thus the car was probably at Domestic. I replied that I had confirmation of the booking in my hand, which clearly stated the booking was at the International airport. Again, no angst at this point, just pointing out that the booking confirmation confirmed the location, and obviously the conformation is all I have to go on. If there was a problem or query with the location, why was it not raised on the confirmation? I offered to show him this conformation, but he wasn’t interested. <br /><br />Your representative then informed me as it was done through a third party that it wasn’t Budgets responsibility. I then questioned this as it is obviously a company that Budget have authorised to sell on their behalf, and was there not a possible breakdown between that company and Budgets communication, given that company knew exactly where my car location was? Your representative then proceeded to show me his manifest in front of other customers, and said if its not on here its your fault for not filling out the flight number. <br /><br />By this time, I am starting to get a bit fed up with his antagonistic belligerent attitude. Maybe he’s had a bad day, maybe that’s the way he acts normally, but that’s not my fault. So then we get to payment, he stated he’ll be taking a security deposit and the cost of the hire, I informed him that I think I've paid the hire in advance, to which he replies he still needed it to take the security deposit, which I had no issue with at all, I have hired cars in the past and know that’s part of the requirement. He then put the card in the device, told me I hadn’t paid the hire and to put in the pin. Now you probably needed to have been there to appreciate just had bad his attitude was, so I grab my card, and say I’m going to check my details to see if I have paid, and walk over to where my wife is.<br /><br />I then go through by credit card details and find two payments to the third party company, but neither amount tie in with the exact amount of the car booking, which is kind of odd, and something I’m still chasing up. I then go back to the counter, where there were now about seven people in front of me, but I didn’t jump the line, and waited my turn. When I got to the counter, I tried to show the payments on my phone to your representative, but he wasn’t interested in looking at that. I then said, I’m not sure what these payments were exactly, but for the sake of speeding the process up, I’d pay and sort with the third party company later.<br /><br />At no point had anyone raised the voice, so you can imagine my shock when your representative, who holds all the power in this situation, completely out of the blue, informs me he’s minded to cancel the booking and I can go elsewhere. I had an elderly gentleman behind me, who was obviously getting a tad impatient, and I am now in total disbelief at what is unfolding in front of me. <br /><br />I must admit, at this point, without raising my voice, I did say to your representative, “for F@@@ sake , can you please just process the booking”. So he then informs me the booking in cancelled and I can elsewhere. I honestly was completely gobsmacked, in a state of shock, and said to him something along the lines that in the old days someone would be minded to chin him for that attitude. He then challenged me to say it again two more times, before saying, “yeah right, have a good day”. <br /><br />I’m certainly not proud of the last comment, but please do appreciate the situation and how poor his attitude was. I was rattled, and upset, and now concerned about getting a car. <br /><br />Just in closing, I booked a car form the same location at approximately the same time last year. I don’t have the details in front of me, but I’d be surprised if they aren’t on your system. When I got to the location after flying in from London (approximately 30 hours door to door), I had to wait 30 minutes for a representative to turn up at the counter, despite having my flight details, and then the car after a week wouldn’t allow me access, so we had to swap cars over at Brisbane airport late at night before I then drove two hours back to Noosa. Whilst neither incident was ideal, I never complained once, these things happen. But this was different, this wasn’t a mistake, or a car breakdown etc, this was a representative being antagonistic and unhelpful. I really didn’t deserve that. I've got to pick a car up at the same location on the 17th February for a two week rental, I really do hope this was a one of incident, because that was totally uncalled for.<br /><br />Kind regards;<br />T J Carroll<br /><br />Booking through airport-rentals<br />confirmation- 41601755GB6<br />reference- IM41760232