Car Rental Complaint

I waited too long to fill out their Customer Survey link . . . but I need to get this out of my system.

I booked our January Florida trip with Costco and I *love* using Costco Travel! They are the best!

We reserved a car at the Fort Lauderdale airport with Budget Car Rental. When we got to the desk, there was a long, slow line (worse than the TSA line!). We had been up and traveling since about 3:30am and just wanted to get our car and go.

When we got to the desk, the guy kept asking us about extra options - more insurance, prepay the gas, etc. It was so irritating! We don't travel much and are not savvy about this. We ended up prepaying for gas, since we didn't know what to expect in Key West. He told us the price per gallon at that moment was $3.26 and if we turned the car in needing gas, it would be $9.99 per gallon. Again, we didn't know what to expect, so we paid up front. By the time he rang it up, it was $55.33 for a tank of gas!

The Hyundai Tucson has a gas tank capacity of 14.3 gallons. Completely filled, $46.62. The receipt has gas service option of $46.54 (ooh - a "savings" of 8 cents). The there were fees . . . I'm adding a picture of the receipt. 

Needless to say, there were plenty of inexpensive options for filling the tank all along the Keys. We didn't bother to run the tank empty, even though we had already paid for that option. Live and learn, right? This lesson is my biggest takeaway from this experience. Don't be pressured into paying for gas in advance unless there's a really, really good reason for it.

The other irritating thing about Budget is that when we finally went out to the garage to get our car from the numbered spot the agent had told us to, the parking spot was empty. I walked toward the little booth and saw a girl sitting off to the side on her phone. I walked around the garage and found a guy with a Budget vest on and told him our car wasn't where it was supposed to be.

He clearly had trouble walking and said he'd find us a car. He walked back to the empty booth and started working on his computer. It took a while, but someone else brought up the Tucson for us. It was an upgrade over the economy car I had reserved, but it didn't feel like a win. And it turns out that the girl sitting on her phone was an employee, while the whole place was super crazy busy.

Overall, not a terrible experience, but definitely not a pleasant one. We overpaid, waited a long time, and were glad to simply get out of Fort Lauderdale with a car!

Side note, I really enjoyed driving the Tucson.