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The Worst Experience EVER
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA -- Rented a 26' truck online 1/20/2020 to move my family to Atlanta from Fort Walton Beach, FL. I flew in from Arizona to facilitate the move. We picked up the truck at the Eglin Pkwy, Fort Walton Beach location on 1/24/2020. Everything appeared to be fine (at first). We drive the truck to our house and load the truck with our household belongings. The next day (1/25/2020) we get ready to make the 325 mile drive to Atlanta. Here's where the drama begins. The truck won't start.

Fast forward after being on hold with roadside assistance for literally 74 minutes and experiencing extremely rude customer service with John **. who said he was the supervisor, the roadside crew came out to diagnose the problem. The starter went out in the truck. By now it is approximately 5pm Saturday evening. Budget does not have any replacement trucks and roadside assistance refuses to offer any assistance.

Here is the dilemna: I flew in from Arizona, I hired movers to be available for Saturday to offload the truck. I have to catch a flight back to Arizona and because the truck is not operable, I am now stranded in Fort Walton Beach with all of my property on this 26' truck. Budget states that they have no back-up options and will TRY to locate a back-up truck when they open on Sunday Morning. I call Customer Service first thing Sunday morning at which time they tell me they are working on the issue but they need manager approval to move forward.

At approximately 10 am, they call me and tell me that they are going to TOW the truck to Atlanta. TOW truck arrived and we started our journey at noon on Sunday. We had to ride in the cab with the TOW truck driver which was very uncomfortable. We arrive in Atlanta at 8 pm. The TOW truck driver said he was instructed to leave this inoperable truck in the front of my house. My neighborhood has an HOA and does not allow moving trucks to be parked for more than 24 hours. Because it is 8pm on a Sunday night, I have no way of unloading this truck as the crew I hired is not available.

The other issue is that I needed to use that same truck to remove items from my storage unit (in Atlanta) which I can no longer do because the truck is inoperable. I called customer service and advised them of the issue and told them that I was not sure when I could get the inoperable truck unloaded and advised them that I would need a replacement truck to obtain the remaining items in storage. They were gracious enough to send out a replacement truck, however it took approximately 4 days before I could find laborers that were available to move the furniture.

And what's worse - I missed my flight back to Arizona on Sunday and had to pay a change fee. Budget refuses to refund my rental fee of $340.76 and refuses to reimburse me for my change fee due to their inoperable equipment and the lack of having a back up plan for maintenance issues. I am not sure how this business stays in business after reading all of the bad reviews for this company. I should have rented with Uhaul. Lesson learned.

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HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

GREENVILLE NC -- I am writing this review because of my recent experience with Budget Truck Rentals (400 Airport Rd. Greenville NC 27834). I reserved a 16 foot truck online on 7/25/16 for a one-way move on 7/30/16. I received a confirmation email on 7/28/16. I called the local office (Airport Rd.) where I was scheduled to pick up my truck to confirm they would have a truck available. I spoke with a woman (I didn't get her name) who assured me they had my truck available. She also explained that they were located inside the airport.

I arrived on 7/30/16 to pick up my truck and I was informed that there was no truck available. I was livid. I told the woman that I just called and confirmed 2 days ago and the woman I spoke with assured me they had a truck for me. She said she is the only woman that works there and I never spoke with her. She said, "No, no I would have never told you that." In a nutshell, she blew me off and told me it's not their issue and that I needed to call the 1-800 number because they made the reservation. She was very rude and dismissive. She then proceeded to assist the next customer in line.

I will be honest, I became very enraged at this point and I called her a ** and walked out of the store. I saw a gentleman come in a few minutes later so I went back in the store. The lady and I went back and forth and I finally just told her to just shut up (it got very heated). Well the gentleman (whose name was **) pretty much did the same thing. He said I may have called and all that, but the fact remains they don't have any trucks available. He basically dismissed me too without even attempting to offer an alternative. I will NEVER conduct business with this company again.

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Budget Is Horrible!
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

CINCINNATI, OHIO -- I had a reservation for a truck yesterday on September 30, to pick my truck up from Cincinnati Ohio Budget Truck Rental, I made the reservation a month ahead and I went to pick up my truck, and the guy said he doesn't know what happened but my truck isn't there and he does not have a truck for me. I called Budget Customer Service and I was told I would have to wait two hours, when I have movers waiting, for you Budget Rental to see if you can even get me a truck.

So I get a call two hours later and I'm told, "Sorry NO truck for you", no apologies, no compensation for having to pay movers $100 an hour and I had to pay the movers for that hundred dollars waiting for a truck, Good thing that U-Haul stepped up to plate and called around and made sure that I got a 26 foot truck within the hour so I could move all my stuff as planned, from Cincinnati to Chicago.

Budget Rental sucks!!! I'm going to put a review in every site online telling everybody of my experience and telling them not to use Budget to be sure to go to U-Haul! That is the worst customer service that I got yesterday from you budget people, how could Budget Rental treat their customers this way?! Unreal.

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Don't Use Them!
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

MELBOURNE, FLORIDA -- On 10/19/17 I rented a 1 way travel. My pick up location was at the Melbourne, FL on Babcock Street. DON'T use them RUN! So call supervisor Ron said there will be a hold placed on my corporate card & I can pay w/ my personal card at the drop off center so NOT true. (No biggie I thought...) I called the Melbourne office. The manager said he will not swap my card. I can call customer service which I stated CS informed they don't have the authorization to do it but I will call again.

Long story short with calls back & forth I got a hold of so call supervisor Ron explained the manager HD a brilliant idea he said if I'm willing to pickup the truck from the drop off site & drive the truck 3.5 hrs back to their location they will cancel the first transaction using my Corp Card & change my travel to a round trip using my personal card. Believable I was devastated! I said, "NO that truck have been rented by now & my transaction been closed." Their response, "Well we would be unable to assist."

I made over 57 calls to level 1 Customer Service. A bunch of liars. To the escalation team which is level 2 with their excuses. On 10/28 I had to go to my drop off location to have them Fax over the credit card authorization. Even after that the credit wasn't posted back on my Corp card until 11/7 three weeks later! What a nightmare. I explained daily I can lose my job because their supervisor provided inaccurate information. Budget absolutely didn't care!

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Beware of Budget Truck rental - cancelled, and still charged
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY -- I reserved a truck on their website, and cancelled that reservation less than 17 hrs after making it, also on the website, which was over 24 hrs before I was to pick up the truck. Budget Truck does not guarantee that I get even a truck, or the truck that I reserved. Now, I have a $50 cancellation charge on my credit card, even if the truck was cancelled, and I never even went to the rental site.

I called the customer service, and spoke with a supervisor (supposedly) to have that charge disappear. After spending over 30 minutes arguing about it, nothing was done. Budget Truck is in business for charging people for reservation, not in business for renting trucks. That is some business model!

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License Plates Out of Date
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

SAVANNAH, SOUTH CAROLINA -- We picked up a Nissan Versa at Savannah airport, took pictures but didn't notice the license plates were expiring the next day (there were temporary plates on the car). We noticed the plates once we got to our resort on Hilton Head, and since we were going to Charleston the next day I called Budget to see what we should do. Budget said the closest place we could go was the Hilton Head Island Airport, which was great - only 2 miles away. They said nothing else.

I drove the car to Hilton Head's airport, and the woman there was short, rude and downright insulting. She made it clear (or tried to, I didn't really care) that the Budget at Savannah's airport was Corporate and this location was "private" and she was doing ME a favor by accommodating me. She said I would need to fill the car up with gas if it wasn't full when I returned it.

She refused to call corporate or anyone for that matter so I did and made it clear I was NOT paying for any $9/gallon charge. I'm still not sure why I was on the hook for Budget's mistake. She was so snide and condescending afterwards. If this is how they treat customers, it will be worth it to pay extra to not have to deal with Budget ever again.

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Don't Risk Your Life With a Budget Truck!
By -

DON'T RISK YOUR LIFE WITH A BUDGET TRUCK!! Budget rents out un-maintained, unchecked vehicles, and doesn't care about the fact that their vehicles are risking lives. I rented a 24-foot truck and car-trailer to move from Vallejo, CA to Tucson, AZ.

I flew out my brother to help me drive back. The first thing he did was to check the brake fluid on the trailer (in case the trailer comes loose, it has its own automatic brakes), and OF COURSE it was empty. LIVES RISKED NUMBER ONE. If the trailer had come loose, it would not have stopped and would have seriously injured or killed other people on the freeway.

U-Haul advertises that they have the lowest decks. I thought that it wouldn't be that much of a difference - but it sure was. U-Haul's decks are lower than waist level. The Budget back deck was almost neck high. The ramp they provide has very little traction. We almost couldn't get the washer & dryer up the ramp. MASSIVE INCONVENIENCE NUMBER ONE.

After the truck was loaded, it had a HORRIBLE shudder between 45 and 65 mph. My brother said that there was clearly something very wrong with the front end. Given that the max speed when towing a trailer is supposed to be 55 mph, and there's no way I could go under 45 on the freeway... We shuddered along. By the time we got to Tucson (20 hours later), we were beyond sore. MASSIVE INCONVENIENCE NUMBER TWO. The AC vents had broken flaps. You couldn't turn them off of one person and on the other. MASSIVE INCONVENIENCE NUMBER THREE.

Now the good part. It got dark, we turned on the lights, and were shuddering merrily along. Suddenly my brother says, "What happened to the running lights?" We were completely dark on the sides & back of the truck & trailer. We checked the fuses (I happened to know exactly where they were, because the cover kept falling off onto my knees). It was clear which fuse was bad, because it was burning hot. Literally burned my fingers.

Of course, there was no fuse diagram, so we couldn't just pull one of the "extra" fuses and plug it in - even if we had, it probably would have burned out in a second, because there was obviously a short. Driving down the freeway in an invisible-dark truck? LIVES RISKED NUMBER TWO.

My brother asked me to be sure to find the fire extinguisher. I looked around the whole cab, and couldn't find it. The next day, in the bright sunlight, I found it, completely inaccessible, WAY behind and under the driver's seat. It's a law that there has to be a fire extinguisher in a truck like that, but, of course, it doesn't have to be ACCESSIBLE! What if the short had caused a fire in the dashboard? LIVES RISKED NUMBER THREE.

I tried to call Budget's Roadside Assist, but I was on hold for about 25 minutes. Finally, my cell phone ran out, and we couldn't risk using up my brother's cell, because there might be (and WAS) a real emergency. So, we went the rest of the way with the hazards on. Have you ever driven with hazards on? TICK. TICK. TICK. TICK. For hours. And hours. And hours. MASSIVE INCONVENIENCE NUMBER FOUR.

Still, we continued. We had been averaging about 100 miles per quarter tank. We were approaching Phoenix, and I asked my brother (he was driving, thank goodness!) how much gas we had. Just over a quarter tank. We decided that we'd play it safe and get gas at some truck stops just the other side of Phoenix. About 10 miles later, we were just the teeniest amount under 1/4 tank. That should be enough to go another 12 to the truck stop, right?

WRONG. As we're driving along, my brother WATCHED the needle drop from 1/4 to zero. Then below zero. Then it ran out of gas. 1/4 tank in 10 miles. When a truck like this runs out of gas, it loses power steering & brakes. My brother is a big, strong, strapping guy, yet he was fighting with all his strength to stop this beast. I was TERRIFIED! We literally almost ran off the road. We would have flipped over, and been seriously injured or died. If I'd been driving, I wouldn't have been able to safely stop the truck. LIVES RISKED NUMBER FOUR.

There's more of a long story about how we unstrapped my car, got gas, but the truck wouldn't start due to a lack of a priming button, and then my brother sent me to Tucson while he waited for roadside assist. They did show up (after 90 minutes) and get him on the road again - that guy was great. Meanwhile, another semi almost ran him down (LIVES RISKED NUMBER FIVE) so he had to go sit outside of the truck, at 4:30am, in southern Arizona, in the dark desert, by himself. (Animals, illegals, and drug-runners...) LIVES RISKED NUMBER SIX.

The next day, when we called customer service, we were proudly told that they always do a 10-point inspection before renting the trucks. (Whee... so, the brake lights and blinkers work. What about the ALIGNMENT, the FUSES, and the GAS GAUGE???) Do you think Budget is offering me any sort of fair compensation for RISKING MY LIFE? Not a chance. Bottom line? RENT A U-HAUL, AND BOYCOTT BUDGET!

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Driver could have died in desert heat waiting for service
By -

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY -- At 8.30 AM I arrived to pick up a moving truck, which I rented more than a week prior, as I was moving some personal belongings to AZ. As soon as I walked out to the vehicle I noted that it had a flat tire. The attendant told me that the truck I rented (and he had saved for me all week) was the only truck they had of that size, which was good enough for a cross country trip. He spent 45 minutes on hold with the customer service line as he didn't have a clue what to do about the problem.

When customer service finally answered, the representative told him that because the truck hadn't left the lot yet, it was the responsibility of the dealership to fix the tire. The attendant called his boss/the franchise owner at home and asked what he should do. The owner told the attendant to instruct me to drive the truck across the street and then I should call for road-side assistance.

In utter disbelief I commented that he had just spent 45 minutes on hold, so I probably would be subjected to the same. I asked, if I drove the truck across the street, how long it would take to get someone out to replace the tire? He responded "Some time this afternoon". As I was planning to start my trip that morning, I had no intention of wasting the day in the hot sun waiting for that truck to be repaired. He offered an older truck which already had 80,000 miles on it, and was not an optimal truck for the trip. I felt I had no choice but to take the truck.

Before hitting the above 100 degree temps in Oklahoma the air conditioning stopped performing. A little later the truck started to overheat. The truck wasn't capable of speeds over 55 MPH, so I slowed to around 35 MPH to bring down the temp. I drove in these conditions for the next two days. I called customer service and spoke with a very indifferent chap named **.

** didn't seemed appalled that the customer was asked to drive a truck in disrepair out of the lot then spend his days taking care of repairs that should have been addressed prior to the customer arriving to pick up the truck. ** also felt that because I took the other truck I was responsible for the overheating on that truck and I should have called for roadside assistance in the middle of my move. This is an example of the customer being held responsible for the lack of maintenance and other issues that should have been addressed by the originating rental center before renting trucks.

The loss of time and aggravation of the customer being expected to wait around for repairs on Budget vehicles is unacceptable! If I had rented a wagon train, I could have expected to suffer in a poorly air conditioned vehicle traveling across the desert at 35 MPH. However, I paid over $700 expecting a properly working vehicle, suitable for the trip.

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Budget truck rental systematically inadequate
By -

COLORADO -- It appears to me that Budget Truck Rentals have a policy of providing inadequate customer care in order to force renters to find a way to cope. I rented a 16' truck for a move from one end of Colorado to the other (Fort Collins to Durango). If you know Colorado, you know this means climbing over a couple of mountain passes.

As soon as the truck started to climb outside of Denver, it overheated. I figured something was wrong with the cooling system, so I called the roadside assistance. After being on hold for 10 minutes, I got through to an operator, who couldn't locate me on a map, and so couldn't send anyone up to help. Why not just send them up the highway? How many 14' Budget trucks could there be by the side of highway 285, 10 to 15 miles out of Denver?

So I walked along the highway until I found an intersection. In the meantime, we were disconnected, so I had to call back, and sit on hold, with music fading in and out, interrupted by "All our operators are busy" every 30 seconds, for another 15 minutes. When I get through, the second agent asks if I can drive the truck back into Denver. Thinking that they could actually provide roadside assistance, I declined, as the engine temperature was barely below redline.

But when the mechanic finally called, he also wanted me to drive back down into Denver. By this time, nearly two hours had passed, and the engine had cooled down, so I did drive back to the city. When I finally met the mechanic, 3 hours after I first called for Roadside assistance, he inspected the truck and concluded that there was nothing wrong with the cooling system. The truck just couldn't handle the climb.

So they rented me a truck that can't climb a hill without overheating, for a drive with multiple passes over 10,000 ft. The mechanic offered a different truck from his Budget fleet, but it would take a full day for me to unload the whole truck and repack a new one, assuming that I could even fit it all back in, as it had been professionally packed. Budget certainly wasn't offering to help move my belonging, or ever offering to warrant that the new truck would be any better.

So I altered my route to go over passes that were less steep, and I drove off into the mountains, hoping the cool night air at high elevation would keep it from overheating again. The truck, thankfully, had a gauge for temperature, not just an idiot light. So at the first pass, I kept slowing down as the temperature climbed. As I crested the pass at 15 miles per hour, the temperature had just started to redline at 260 degrees. It was midnight, and the next pass (Wolf creek) was steeper.

I debated a 4 hour detour into remote northern New Mexico, but I didn't want to risk a breakdown where cell phone coverage is limited, so I kept going. This time I slowed down to 15 mph as soon as it got steep. It took some time, but we crested the pass (at 10 mph) without overheating.

I asked the Budget office in Durango not to rent the truck to anyone heading to the mountains. I'm trying to imagine the perils of going up Vail Pass or up to Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 at 10 mph, or worse yet, trying to merge back into traffic at 5 mph after pulling over to let the engine cool.

I suspect that this type of adventure is not what most people have in mind when they rent a truck. I also believe that Budget deliberately understaffed their help lines, deliberately have limited mechanics on call, and so deliberately provide inadequate roadside assistance, in the expectation that exasperated customers will find some way to cope.

Everyone at Budget was helpful - they just kept repeating that there was nothing they could do to help. Even when the truck wouldn't start after I got to Durango, the guy at the local Budget shop told me that, by policy, he couldn't come out to jump the truck until I'd contracted the 1-800 number. Instead I found a new neighbor who could give the battery a jump.

At the end of all this, I called customer service. They offered a 15% rebate for my trouble. I asked the customer service fellow if he thought a $47 rebate was reasonable compensation for this hassle. He just kept repeating that it was their policy. I have to agree with him.

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Budget Rental In Greensboro NC
By -

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA -- I reserved a truck online... Got a good price for a one way reservation. The reservations dept via the 800 # were super sweet. I then went to the pick up location in Greensboro NC (321 N. Chimney Rock Rd. to be exact) to get the truck and my car tow. I was advised that I had to upgrade to a 16' truck since I was getting the car tow. So, I upgraded. When I went to get the 16' truck, they didn't have the car tow attached and I was advised that I'd have to attach it myself for legal purposes. WELL... my sister and I couldn't figure it out so the Public Storage lady hooked it up for us.

I took the truck home and began to put my truck on the car tow. The car tow was broken and wouldn't go down at an angle so my truck could get on it without damaging the bottom of my truck so I called back to the Public Storage/Budget Rental location. I called 13 times and got NO answer. I had to call another Budget location in that city and they called back to 321 N. Chimney Rock Rd. and told that representative to call me back.

When she finally called, I told her my issue and she said, well, bring it back. ** will be here to assist you and hitch it up for you. Well, when I brought the rental and my Jeep back (I had to have someone drive my brand new truck back to the Budget office for me), as I was driving... the hitch came undone!!!

Keep in mind that this is still the setup that the Budget Rental sales lady had hooked up for me although they "legally" can't. The car tow was swinging in and out of my lane into the next lane ALL DURING 5 O'clock TRAFFIC!!! People were swerving trying not to collide with the tow. When I FINALLY made it to the rental office I was so pissed. ** came out to fix it (he didn't speak, say kiss my foot or anything). I told ** and the sales lady that I didn't want their truck tow and they'd have to get me a car dolly. They said they didn't have one and basically said "screw you"!

I rented the truck for a one way, but it looked like I'd have to leave my truck behind and take the rental and then COME BACK (400 miles) and get my truck!! They removed the car tow charge (I still haven't seen that credit on my credit card statement) and I had to change my drop off location to something closer (still haven't seen that credit either). I finally get to my old residence to pack up the truck. They told me that I had a 16' truck, but I couldn't get my 12' solid oak entertainment center in the truck! Guess what...YUP!!! I had to leave that behind too!!! $3000 entertainment center gone down the drain!!!

So, after this fiasco, I told the rental company and they advised me to tell customer service after I drop the truck off. So I called customer service after I dropped the truck off and began to tell the lady on the other end ALL of my problems. She transferred me to some Customer Satisfaction Dept. or something like that. I spoke with a guy named ** (operator # **) and he showed NO empathy for what I had gone through. He raised his voice at me and even yelled at me. He talked over me, clearly at this point I was livid!!!

I asked for his Supervisor and he said "they're" busy right now. I asked for the Corporate # to Budget and he yelled "This is Corporate Ma'am!" Needless to say, I got nowhere and still haven't seen my credits or even a freaking apology. I was told that his supervisor by the name of Nicole would be calling me back and that they're in the Texas call center. Still waiting...

Hopefully this blog gets the attention of consumers and management at Budget alike. If I could save anyone else the time, frustration and finances I'd tell them to pay the extra money from U-Haul and go with them. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET!!!

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Budget Rent-A-Car Truck Rentals Rating:
Star Empty star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.0 out of 5, based on 7 ratings and
40 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Budget Rent-A-Car
Customer Relations Mgr, PO Box 111580,
Carrollton, TX 75011-1580
800-214-6094 (ph)
www.drivebudget.com
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