Budget Rent A Car New Zealand Arvostelua 

Initially went with Budget Rent A Car because they were a little cheaper than their competitors.However during booking was made aware that a vehicle was not available for collection at Auckland city centre even though the booking was 3 months in advance.The next option was Rosedale Auckland which means nothing to an outsider, however this location is 12 mile north of Auckland and cost a further £85 in a taxi from the airport.Arrived at Budget Rosedale at 15:15 after a 10 hour flight and 1 hour taxi journey sitting in traffic to find they close shop at 15:30.Only just made it.
Also when the vehicle was dropped off the staff member I handed the keys over to had no ID with them which was concerning
I will avoid Budget Rent A car for future car hire

I left my work phone in my rental car. I didnt realise until i arrived home following my flight. I tried to ring them during the day with no luck. The phone number goes to a central call centre and there is no direct dial to the airport desk. They did not try and contact me to let me know they found my phone.
I ended up calling the Hertz desk at Wellington airport to find out if someone was at the Budget desk! Hertz were lovely and gave me a number to call.
I rung a few more times before the call was answered. Noting this is 6 hours after i first tried.
There was trouble looking for it and all of a sudden it was found!
Figuring out how to get it back was equally a disaster. I ended up getting off the call saying I'd figure it out and call back.
I attempted to ring back today to let them know my brother would collect it for me.
Again call centre took awhile to answer, and eventually when they did, it was as if they had never had to deal with lost property before. ALL I WANTED WAS TO GET THROUGH TO THE AIRPORT DESK!
Eventually she tried, and they didnt answer. Sigh, still trying to get through.

I will never rent from Budget Rent-A-Car again. The price seemed reasonable at first, but I was hit with unexpected charges that were never mentioned during booking. They added fees for fuel and insurance that I had explicitly declined

My main gripe is with the guy with the turban who works at the Auckland airport in the carpark.

Very rude, which was the last thing I needed after having traveled 12 hours (due to desert road closure).

Service is going downhill in this country.

Worst online customer service. Sort everything at counter. I am doubtful wither any support center available. If you try to contact them you need to hear their foolish reputed automated messages for minimum two hour, even after that you are not going see any life. Not recemented

Use literally any other company. Don’t think that just because Budget has a global presence that they are a safe bet. They will add on fees for one way and other fees that they can’t explain to you, when you made no change to your drop off and return locations as confirmed by them before your trip. This happened to me on an AKL pickup and WLG dropoff that was reserved as such!

Hired from Budget in Nelson. Arrived to pick up car...agreed on the cost at the counter. When I looked back on the charge after our holiday we had been overcharged by $60. Sent a message to Budget..they refunded the $60 but we received no explanation as to why we were overcharged. How many people does this happen to?? RIP OFF COMPANY....

SCAM WARNING - DO NOT BOOK!

Booked a car for our north island travels and didn't select any optional insurance extras as we had our own separate cover. Expressly declined all insurances and prepaid online.

Was asked again about insurance cover in branch and declined. Was then confirmed by the branch staff that no additional payment beyond the prepaid voucher would be taken (deposit aside)

After returning the car I found an additional circa 200$ payment had been taken from my card. Upon querying this with customer services, I was told this was for excess reduction cover. A copy of the rental agreement was provided, a complex document which had a small line in it about this cover using abbreviations etc.

I explained that I had expressly refused the excess reduction product twice, once when booking online, and again verbally in person in store. The fact this has subsequently been snuck into the contract prior to my signing is at best misleading, and at worst fraudulent. These rental agreements are complex for a consumer to process in an in store environment, especially because the staff at the Auckland branch had attempted to close the store early at the time we aerived and so the whole process was rather rushed. In addition the staff were very clear that there would be no additional charges to my prepaid balance aside from the agreed deposit which was to be refunded upon return. Clearly this has not been adhered to.

Customer services keep repeating themselves in a very unhelpful manner, resending the rental agreement. What matters here is that I turned this product down twice, and then it was added to the rental agreement against my wishes

Budget refuse to back down on this despite it being a clear trading standards matter. In these stores, branch staff are often paid commission to upsell insurance products and in this case, have foisted unwanted products on us despite telling us there would be no extra payment. People renting cars are usually in a rush, tired from their travels, or have just arrived in a new country. This is an egregious and borderline fraudulent practice and I would advise all potential customers to look elsewhere.

Would rate Zero if possible.
Rented car in Christchurch, returned in Greymouth.
Had one minor 3/8” light scratch on front left fender ahead of wheel well.
Agent claimed She could not get a repair estimate today so we would charge your credit card $1000.00 NZ$ and refund when repair completed. Even said it would most certainly be less than $200.00 NZ$.
Last I ever saw that $1000.00
Never got a response to six letters, calls and app contact us form.
These people are absolute crooks!
Much of their “hospitality” industry is the same.
Would never deal with Budget (NZ or stateside) again and that is after some 20 years of nearly weekly rentals for my business.
FRAUD IS THEIR GAME, NOT AUTO RENTALS!
Stay clear.

We will never even visit NZ again. Beautiful country but shady tourist industry.

Car was great. Problem occurred after return and credit card charged. Returned car full of fuel, Budget 'stole' money from my credit card + GST for a 're-fuelling fee'. Lied about it when contacted on the phone and by email and tried to palm me off. If i could give them a negative score I would on this basis alone.

Budget Christchurch did NOT honor my vehicle reservation. I booked a car approximately 8 months in advance. I was given a great price. Unfortunately, we had a flight delay. I called Budget Customer Service and I visited the counter in Auckland. Both checked and both confirmed. I was told Budget understands that issues occur traveling. They stated that they cared about me as a customer and that because of this Budget will hold your reservation 24 hours. "GREAT ", I thought.

I arrive to Christchurch Airport 14 hours late. Confident because of my interaction with multiple Budget employees. I was then told no. We will not honor your reservation you will have to pay for a day of rental. I advised them that I was assured by Budget my reservation would be honored. They did not care to even listen. It was basically too bad. You have no other choice. Give us more money or you're stuck. So, I had to give in.

In summary, do not rent from Budget. I used them a lot. Never had an issue until I did. Disgusting that they used this opportunity to ripoff a customer. I Guess it was too juicy of an opportunity to make an extra buck off an unfortunate traveler. Budget may have made an extra couple hundred off of my here..... but they have lost a lot more in the long run. Avoid them and use a different rental car company.

As below we did a relocation from Christchurch Airport to Picton Ferry for 2 days returned into Picton well with in the 2 days but have been charged an extra day by Budget as they said we dropped it off 1.5 hours late, in fact it was 1.5 hours earlier than 48 Hours we rented for, have sent numerous emails and phone calls but no one will look into this do not use this company. We have been charged 3 days what a rip off and they are not refunding money.

I have booked car for two days, returned car just before 48 hrs limit and what a big surprise, in few days I was charged one day extra because they added 1.5hr to my real car return time. They ignored all four complains I have made even if I had photos of rented car returned and parked at the airport carpark, airport building in the background, with date and time as a clear evidence. Well I thought it's clear but not for someone dedicated to steal your money. Be very careful if you dealing with this company. They really like the fact they have your credit card number available and won't hesitate to charge random extras to elevate profit.

Looks like I am not alone banned on all the negative reports about Budget New Zealand.
I was scammed by them as well.
After renting a car at Christchurch Airport I had an uneventful, but very beautiful, trip through both islands.
I returned the car at Auckland Airport and all was well, apparently.
Some months later I received notification from Budget that they had arbitrarily deducted a $34.50 administrative fee from my credit card because they had been ‘notified that during your rental period, you incurred an Infringement (Speeding, Parking) or left a petrol station without paying (details above)’.
No ‘details above ‘ were provided and to date, some eighteen months later we have received no infringement notice from anyone.
Emails to Budget seeking clarification have been met with stony silence!
Not a huge amount, I know, but still a scam in my books!

I wish I had checked the reviews first before renting from them. Picked up a car from Auckland and had to pay a $200 security bond which was only advised on arrival. They said it would be returned immediately upon return of the vehicle. Called them today to ask how long it would take, to be advised that it would take 30 days.

Overcharged, and near impossible to get someone to help. I read that the best thing is to threaten legal action to get them moving.

Will never ever use again.

Overall terrible company... Will never be using them again and telling everybody i know the same. Able to send threatening emails demanding more money yet won't speak to me in any meaningful manner when it comes to discussing the situation, conflicting statements from different employees. Its actually appalling... I'd be ashamed of myself if I worked for this company.

Never use this company .
We have received numeri emails demanding we pay excessive charges for fuel despite sending receipts as proof that the car was fully refueled within a kilometre of the airport drop off.
They are threatening and refusing to acknowledge receipt of or reply to out emails with proof of refueling .
The huge numbers of appalling reviews speak volumes .
I will be searching for a car rental ombudsman to look into my complaint as they have refused to engage with me .
Simply repeating threats of legal action to fraudulently obtain more money from us in overcharges .
This has been going on for months.
Can't believe how poor this company is .

We were overcharged. Due to family illness we had to drop our car back a day early. We did not expect a refund on our payment however we’re shocked to get home and find that we were actually then charged an extra $806. Despite trying to contact budget rentals multiple ways to get this charge reversed they refuse to reply or engage with us. Appalling over charge