Budget Car Rental Ireland
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Budget tries to obfuscate the process
We reserved a car Nissan Qashkai or similar in England that was quoted at £42.59 a day for 6 days. Pretty sure it didn’t give me a choice of insurance cover. In Dublin it was made clear that quote was for 3rd party with an excess of €3500 Euros. Decided not to pay an extra €180 Euros for zero excess but did pay €10 per day extra for a second driver which they offered to not charge us for if we took the higher insurance. Clearly some sort of wheeling dealing going on to get the extra insurance money. The order I signed also included €160 for a full tank of fuel which was I think very steep, maybe twice the price per litre for a 50 litre tank. I didn’t see this till later. The order also said received full return empty. Again didn’t read that till later. I thought I had to return it empty which is stupid I know. I didn’t realise this was not fixed and that if we returned it full paying a reasonable price for fuel we’d get the €160 refunded (slowly). I think this is a deliberate obfuscation on their part. I only realised when on return I got a receipt with the fuel cost of €160 removed and the return data saying fuel 0/8. So I guess I will be paying €160 Euros. Just beware. The car itself was a Renault Arkana and it had several lumps and bumps on it. I photographed them all. Outside it had not been properly cleaned. The wireless key was held together by gaffer tape. It was ok but I was naffed off about the fuel con and the lack of transparency when being quoted of insurance being 3rd party only with a huge excess. Clearly I should have been more careful reading stuff but I will not be using Budget again.