Budget/Avis Car Hire- warning Alicante airport

baaba maal

Just a word of warning on Budget Car Hire, we went to Spain in June for three weeks. Flew in to Alicante ad picked up the car (free upgrade to a Fiat 500X). We did the usual checking the little dents etc. A week into the holiday, we were going for a long daytrip, so I checked the car and then looked at the spare. It was clearly damaged when I lifted the cover, so I brought the car to the nearest garage, to have the puncture repaired. Unfortunately, the mechanic showed me that the tyre was completely shredded and had obviously been driven for a considerable distance after being punctured by a previous user. A like-for-like replacement cost €263 plus fitting!!:eek: (The mechanic showed me the online supplier pricelist- it is an 18" low profile tyre so pricier than normal).
We then spent literally two hours trying to contact Budget (both of us phoning different numbers separately). When I finally got through to somebody, they told us we would have to drive back to the airport (two and a half hours drive away) to show them the tyre. When I asked what we should do if we had a puncture on the way (not having a replacement) I was met with silence.
We restricted our travel to a minimum for the rest of the holiday (which was quite frustrating seeing as how we had booked a car to travel a bit around Spain!). When we returned the car on the last day, to be fair the front of house staff were genuinely embarrassed and dealt with us as best they could.
However, we since wrote to Budget to see what they would do to by way of recompense (we paid for everything, including the second driver and the excess fuel), but felt we should have had some sort of acknowledgement of the poor service. They eventually responded to say "sorry about that, it shouldn't have happened", but as far as they were concerned, the matter was closed.
So, if you do decide to use Budget Car hire in Spain or anywhere else, I strongly advise you to check the spare tyre, because Budget do not bother to undertake basic safety checks (if the tyre isn't being checked, is the brake fluid? The brake discs? The power steering fluid? etc.). For information, Budget share facilities with Avis, this probably includes the "servicing" facility.
I will certainly never use Budget again :mad:

Gatica

We'd rented twice with them this holiday and also had issues. The first was a low brake fluid warning light, they wouldn't send a roadside assist though clearly not our fault they don't check this, had to drive to nearest centre 7 miles away. Next time the cigarette lighter charger stopped working, so we were screwed with a dead Sat nav. Was gonna go swap it but just for last two days decided to cache Google maps and plan route ahead. Two successive bad luck hires with same company just bit too much coincidence for me.. :-/

baaba maal

Yes, that is disappointing. We even asked specifically to see a copy of whatever safety checks were meant to have been done, but got no response from them. You would have to wonder what safety checks are actually carried out on hire vehicles. It is particularly galling when they make such a big deal about going every dent on the car (we also pointed out that the little graphic of the car where they mark the dents doesn't actually picture the spare tyre!). Terrible service, terrible response by Budget this. I'm sure most companies probably operate at this poor level, but somebody else will be getting our business next time, that's for sure.

Yamanoto

baaba maal wrote: »

but somebody else will be getting our business next time, that's for sure.

...and it won't be long before the likes of Sixt, Hertz. Europcar or Enterprise do something that'll let you down too. It's an area of business that needs a serious EU regulation overhaul, to standardise and simplify the whole process & protect the consumer against all too commonplace instances of sharp practise.

Your experience OP is also a reminder to check the spare and accompanying tools, as well as the interior of the vehicle before you exit the rental premises.

baaba maal

100% Yamanato. It is frustrating to be left with just the companies opinion as the final arbiter. The Baaba Maal Exhaustive Pre-rental Check List has already been drawn up I can assure you!