ctuttle

I ran into the 75 miles for $9.50 when I was in Houston. Fortunately I drove 70 miles and knew that if I filled it up it was going to be a pain to get the charge reversed, so just used the option. It was probably a couple of bucks more than what it would have been to put gas in on the return, but beat having to deal with the counter on return.

I'm guessing the main office probably decided that this is a huge revenue stream, where you can automatically get $9.50 more for each rental. Most people are conditioned to fill up the car and either don't hear about the charge when they pick up the car, or forget about it. Also many people don't really care, as they are renting a car on business, and don't want to take the time to get it resolved, as it isn't directly their money. They also know at the airport you are probably in a hurry, and $9.50 isn't that much money at a place where a cup of coffee is $3+.

I think it should be an OPTION. An option doesn't require that you have something you didn't request, or use removed from your bill. You should be able to opt for it when you either pick up or return the car. The customer will have a better feeling about the company if when you return the car on 7/8 and didn't stop to refill, that $9.50 is suddenly a bargain. If you agreed to it when you picked up the car you might actually zero out the odometer and make sure you don't go over the 75 miles else the $6 a gallon gas starts being pumped into your car.

One of my favorites was the last time I rented from Dollar, where the clerk said "the gas option is mandantory here, is that OK?". I'm still trying to understand how an option can be mandatory, and if it is mandatory, why even ask me if that is OK. If I say no that isn't OK, is it no longer mandatory? For the record Dollar swears it was just a rogue station doing this, and was in violation of company rules.

My other favorite scam is buying the gas option, and then only getting 3/4 of a tank, something common for me at some Hertz locations. When I pointed that out to the person at the gate, he told me not to worry about it, as I wouldn't be charged for gas on the return because I purchased the full tank option.

JW74

In Hawaii, if you drive less than 100 miles and take the Gas Service Option at Avis, they just charge you the GSO Rate X Mileage. So I assume it may be the same for Budget as They are essentially Left Hand/Right Hand of the same Corporation (Cendant). If you go over the 100 miles, the full GSO rate kicks in. I never use it though they keep offering it to me when I go from Kona to HNL.

LAX

If you take the time to read through all of my posts, you will realize I am NOT blindly loyal to Budget. In fact, I have advocated, on numerous occasions, to use OTHER rental agencies if their rates are cheaper. I guess I will say this again to clarify my stance. If other rental agencies are cheaper, it's a no brainer to avoid Budget and its associated hassles. However, if Budget is significantly cheaper with or without the "hated" surcharge, then it's your decision to make whether you prefer cash or convenience. Just like ezmonee said, it's saving time vs saving cash. If you want to save time, don't bother with the surcharge when you rent with Budget (or better yet, rent with someone else), but if you want to save money, then get in line. There is no such thing as "free lunch." For most cases, the "hassle-free" rental agencies already factor a "convenience fee" into their rates. With Budget, at least you have the option to choose between cash and convenience. AFAIK, other companies don't even give you that option. That's all I have to say.

LAX

cahart

Don't refuel the car 30 miles from the return location and call it full. Try to fill up within 3 miles...this will save you time, money and trouble.

Happy

Last time we rented Budget was last December, from our local in-town office and dropped off at another in-town office on 17th St just before Causeway near Cruiseship Piers at Ft.Lauderdale.

The $9.50 language is on the contract.

I have 3 Budget reservations in place - the $9.50 language is on the reservation T&C.

Matter of factly, Budget has the 2nd best rate for our trip to Maui in late May - only Alamo is $5.00 cheaper in TOTAL estimate before options, due to a double discount from United Airlines - but Alamo charges $9.00 per day for additonal driver, no exception. With Budget, spouse is free as additional driver. You do the math on a weekly rental.

I would say, generally speaking, Budget is cheaper than others 85% of the time. Dollar is consistently cheaper than everybody else in California.

I always go by who is kinder to my pocket book. I always fill up gas as closer to airport as possible, not once Budget made me to stand in line waiting for the charge to remove. The last 4 times, between our local office and MIA, and between our local office and 17th st. nobody needed to see the receipt and the charge was not added automatically either. Whenever we go on trips longer than 10 days, we rented budget from local office 1.5 miles away from home, and dropped off at either FLL or MIA - total driving distance to FLL, 15 miles; to MIA, 35 miles. Not a single time we had to wait in line to get the charge removed. We just mentioned to the rover we had filled the tank and had receipt with us. The bill was correctly done and there was no issue.

I am sorry for your unpleasant experience. May be we are lucky.

The company I would avoid by all means is Alamo - they blantly scam on gas by giving car out with less than 1/2 tank but marked the tank full ... and when you discovered it and came back to reason, they were very arrogant and rude and even threatening.

JW74

Just on a sidenote, Alamo in Hawaii is worthless. Even for 5 bucks cheaper per day, its not worth it.

Back on topic, im glad to hear the 9.50 charge is in the contract and reservations. It pretty much kills 95% of the complaints on this topic. It just points out that we as consumers need to read what were booking to know exactly what is going on.

TRVLRZ

Thanx for the heads up on HI.

newfbc

If you're a Costco member, you get additional driver @ Alamo, no charge. Plus there are a couple of $20/$25 off weekly coupons available.

Ron.

ctuttle

Rented a car last week in St. Louis at Budget and they asked if I wanted the gas option which I declined. Returned the car full of gas, and didn't have to have to have the "option" fee removed. Impressed with the operation of the St. Louis office.

For some reason the times I needed a car all the companies except Budget and Enterprise were sold out. I'm just very happy there was an option other than Enterprise, as I consider a cab to be a much better option than renting from Enterprise.