***WHY is this showing up as Jos. A. Bank?????***
I had a HORRIBLE experience renting a car at this place! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE!!!
I landed in Cleveland and hopped on the shuttle to their car rental place which is just outside the airport. That was a perfectly smooth process. The driver was great, the guy who helped us get on board was great- mad props to them! My experience went downhill after that.
I stood in line a short period of time- no biggie! I went up the counter and was offered a number of additional services/ products (totally to be expected). I decided to take them up on the GPS- $18 for GPS is a little much for me but I wanted to be able to get around town. I will say that the lady who signed me up was super great and offered to set some addresses in the GPS. She was the best part of my experience.
Side note: the bathrooms at this place were kinda dirty.
Anyway, I was told to just walk outside and that my car would be a certain spot. I walked out there and it was not in the spot and I didn't see the sort of automobile anywhere in the area. Also not to be seen anywhere in the area- a representative from Budget Rent A Car. I looked around (as I melted in the heat) and walked about the area to see if I could find someone. Nope. So I went over to this little phone set up for contacting someone over in the offices. I picked it up and it rang and rang and rang and rang and then the main line that you call for "customer service" picked up and asked me to push a number for whatever. Only this little phone wasn't equipped with numbers. It was meant to be used as a hotline to the office for customers out in the parking lot who needed some kind of assistance. Great idea if only there had been follow through with it. There was not.
I started back towards the office and decided to consult the couple coming out to make sure I was reading my paperwork properly. I was and they agreed that I was looking in the spot where the car was to be and that it was not there and it was not anywhere else that they could tell. Finally they helped me track down someone from Budget to help. He said that someone had taken the car I was assigned and said for me to take this other car. He said to tell the lady at the gate that he told me to take it. I loaded my bags in and got my GPS started up (it was NOT charged at all) and was about to get going when the couple who had been assigned the car I'd been told to take walked up to me and suggested that I was in the wrong car.
At this point I've been in the Budget place for about an hour. The guy came up and told me that he'd contacted the gate lady and said that I was in this car and he started to walk off before the other folks could get his attention. So I start to drive off with this car and notice that the head rests are all kinds of askew which is not great for being able to see and I did manage to get a couple down while waiting for my check out to be done.
After my stay I took the car back and a guy pointed me to a spot. He got the mileage and saw that the gas tank was full (I'd opted for the return the tank full instead of this other thing that charged you for not doing that). He said that I'd have to take the documents to the desk to complete the check out process. So I did. Was anyone at the counter? NO!
When someone did show up at the counter she automatically charged the credit card I'd give them---I'd been told that I would be able to use my debit card instead at check out time. I looked over the long list of charges that I'd racked up that didn't easily make sense. At no point was I given the option to review this prior to my card being charged. As I looked over the charges I noticed that the fuel charges for the program I'd opted out of (so that I was required to return the tank full) had been added. Even though at the upsale point I'd declined and I'd returned the car with a full tank and this had been documented. When I pointed this out I was told that it automatically added the charge since I'd driven less than X amount of miles. That didn't make sense at all. I requested that this be corrected and it was BUT I can only imagine that this practice is overlooked by others who are in a hurry.
I'm NEVER going to use Budget again because of this experience. Maybe that's excessive of me- you know since it is an experience at the Cleveland location. The check out process and the charges make me really, really disturbed. And I can't believe that these are unique to this location.
Another thing: this facility is TOTALLY not accessible. The curb had one area that allows a wheelchair or stroller to roll up onto the sidewalk. This means that anyone who is in the lot with mobility challenges will have to navigate in the roadways instead of using the sidewalk. Though the bathroom was dingy and worn I don't think this facility is newer than the ADA.