Budget Truck Rental Consumer Reviews - Page 3

Absolutely do not EVER rent anything from Budget!!! To say you will end up screwed in the end is an understatement. For starters, I found out accidentally one week before my pickup date that my rental location went out of business, yet no one at Budget notified me. Then, after about ten calls to customer service, they moved my rental location to a city about 85 miles away.

To add insult to injury, the rental tax rate for the new location went up over $200!!! Then they give you this crap about how they have no control over that, that your reservation is just a reservation, no guarantees, no contract. AKA you're screwed!! NEVER do business with either Budget or their parent company, Avis. You will regret it. They cannot be trusted!!

EVANSVILLE, INDIANA -- I ordered a truck and had a confirmation number. I was to pick it up the day after Thanksgiving. When I went to pick it up, they said they did NOT have it even though they had confirmed with me. I was on a very tight schedule... coming up from Texas to clean out a storage unit and making it back during Thanksgiving vacation. Budget not only did not have my truck, their representative who called me told me there were no trucks for me within 100 miles of my location!!! I ended up having to find a U-Haul at the last minute costing me about $300 more than what the Budget truck I had reserved three weeks in advance.

No truck. No attempt by Budget to make things right. Just "sorry, we don't have a truck available." I didn't get the U-Haul until later in the day, and it totally messed up my schedule and plans. I will NEVER try to rent from Budget again. They are HORRIBLE, and I am making a report against them to the BBB.

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA -- I suspect most of us have the same definition of “Reservation”; apparently Budget Truck Rental has a different dictionary. Reserved a truck to move my son home from college in Bloomington, IN. Three hours before scheduled pick up I get a call from Goober (name has been changed to protect the not very bright). “Sorry, ain't got no trucks today.” Tried to call store, no answer. Shocking, I know. Basically, 8 hours of my life I'll never get back. Had to call around in a panic and drive to Indianapolis to get a vehicle. In fairness, U-Haul was very responsive and helpful.

Update: To add insult to injury, I got charged a $50 “No show” fee. Really? Way to piss people off. I would also note that it took them 1 day to apply the fee, but I have to wait 5-7 business days to “process” the refund. All-in-all, a great big “** You” to Budget. Never going to rent a car from these Bozos, much less a truck, ever again or Avis, Budget's sister company.

GLENDALE, ARIZONA -- Budget Truck Rental is a horrible and unorganized company. They have horrible customer service and roadside assistants are rude and not helpful at all. The daughter, her husband, and my 1 1/2-year-old grandson were left in the side of a road with a broken down truck for 5 hours in the evening. They say they're waiting for it to get approved to tow the truck. After towing them to a hotel the next day they waited 8 hours for them to get approval for another truck to be sent to them, a truck was towed to them from Flagstaff which made no sense. They were broke down in Gallup, New Mexico.

Supervisors for roadside assistant only fluffed their answers to make you feel better. They are all scripted to tell you anything. As big as a company that they are they are absolutely one company I will never refer anyone to. Funny for their own company several of their employees said that they can't believe how we as being treated and said, "The company should reimburse you because of poor customer service." Even their own employees know that this is totally wrong. NEVER, EVER USE BUDGET TRUCK RENTAL!

Reserved truck week in advance. Picked up in horrible rain downpour, get to me house open up back to load and raining inside truck, huge hole in ceiling. Call them, "oh yeah they didn't mention that to you?" So they knew and let us drive away. They had no other trucks, had to do our move, no choice. Had lift gate that we needed for items weighing 400 lbs ea. get to place we are unloading and lift gate doesn't work. My stuff is sitting hostage in the leaking truck. Call them again, they say "we aren't mechanics - why are you calling us?"

Call roadside service. 3 hours later they show, said truck should have never been rented, was unsafe to drive, battery cover missing, melted wires and electrical parts ** rigged with Staples. We had to use a makeshift ramp to unload our stuff, not fun and required getting extra help. Budget customer service couldn't have cared less. Still expected me to pay. I disputed credit card charges with my bank, Budget responded saying rude sarcastic comments about me and refused refund. Bank reversed charges during dispute and then Budget turned me to collections. Didn't even finish the dispute process.

They can KMA, I will not pay a dime and willing to risk my 839 credit score to stand my ground. More than happy to see them in court. Worst company ever. Do yourself a favor and stay clear. Incredible business model, no apologies from any of the 5 different people I talked to and then to be rude on top of it. From reading all the other reviews sounds like it's a nationwide policy to rent unsafe vehicles, screw everyone over and sit back and smile about it.

TEMPE, ARIZONA -- I reserved at 10 foot moving truck for local use last Saturday at 9 am. My friends said they'd meet me at my house at 9:30 to help for the day. When I arrived to pick up the truck, the door was open but the office was closed. i.e. someone must have forgot to lock the door the night before and didn't arrive to work the next day. I called several times in the morning and there was no answer. At 11 am I called another dealer and told them what happened. They put me on hold for 10 minutes and I finally hung up.

I called the corporate office in New Jersey. They said they'd try to locate a truck for me. They also said they spoke with my dealer. The dealer supposedly said he offered me a 16' truck because a 10 foot truck was not available. That wasn't true. Even today, there is no answer at that dealer's location. Today is Monday afternoon. During the weekend, when I called corporate, they said they'd compensate me for my expenses and time. I paid my friends a $100 each because we wasted most of the day. Plus I treated them to lunch.

I called corporate today. ** was the most pleasant representative I spoke with so far, but she made Budget's policy very clear. When you make a reservation, you're not reserving a truck! You're merely reserving the rate. There is no guarantee that you'll have a truck when you arrive. However if you don't show up to pick up a truck, they charge you $50. ** said they don't guarantee a time and they don't guarantee availability. Over 2 days later, they still haven't found a truck. Ironically there were a dozen trucks at their dealer's location - but no one managing the store.

** told me Budget could not compensate me for losses because a truck was not available because they are a 'self serve' moving company. I asked if they would provide me with a free truck for a day ($30 value). She said, 'that's not going to happen.' At that point I asked if Budget is concerned with their online reputation and bad reviews. ** was very pleasant. She said Budget doesn't care at all. She said, 'Go ahead and say whatever you want about us. Have a nice day.' I wished her well and got off the phone.

Budget has offices all over the world. I believe that each office is independently owned and it's a franchise but I haven't researched that. They really don't care and don't feel that consumers can affect their profits when they tell the world about how Budget operates. This is valuable information for potential Budget independent dealers and for people needing a moving truck. I recommend that you always rent the truck first and give your friends the heads up that you might have a truck. Once you have a truck then invite them over to help you move.

I spoke with 3 or 4 Budget employees at corporate so far. ** seemed to be the most knowledgeable. Everyone else was clueless with an 'I don't care' attitude. No one apologized. No one said they're sorry. No one said they understood. And no one cared, - especially the company. The employees were just following company policy. Even on this site, as of today, with over 150 complaints and a 1 star rating, Budget hasn't responded to any of the complaints. They don't care.

After writing this review I called corporate one more time to confirm their correct address. I told them I was online writing reviews about their company and wanted to make sure I was complaining about the right company. She said, 'oh OK, a huh, no problem, thanks for calling.' Here's budget's corporate headquarters. She said they have offices in Canada too. Avis Budget Car Rental, Parsippany, NJ 07054 U.S.

When reserving my truck, the agent quoted me a rate of $176 for a 3 day rental, plus an $18/day youthful driver surcharge, plus tax, for a total of $230 plus tax for my rental. Because my drop-off location was closed on the drop-off day, the rental was extended for an extra day with no extra charge. I specifically asked if I would be charged an additional $18 for the extra day, and the agent said no. I also asked if there was the potential that I would be given a truck larger that 10', and the agent said no, I would receive a 10' truck.

It was important for me to know what size truck I would be driving, since I needed this information to establish coverage on the Budget truck with my insurance agent. The rate I was quoted, combined with the guarantee of a 10' truck, were the deciding factors in my choosing Budget over another rental agency. When I picked up my truck, I was surprised to find a 16' truck waiting for me. I was also surprised to see that my bill included 4 days of the $18/day surcharge, not 3 days like I was quoted, along with a $3/day "Cost Recovery Fee" that had never been mentioned.

Upon arriving at my new apartment complex, I parked the truck in the visitors section while filling out paperwork with the landlord. After finishing the paperwork about 15 minutes later, I went to move the truck to a new parking spot within the complex. The truck had very little power behind it this time and I had a great deal of trouble negotiating the parking lot of the hilly apartment complex, but the engine trouble didn't appear until I was already stuck blocking the entrance to the complex with a truck 6' longer that I had been expecting to drive. I was finally able to get the truck into a parking spot, though not without a great deal of trouble and inconvenience.

Later we determined that the truck was experiencing vapor lock, and was drivable again given sufficient time to cool down, though the temperature gauge never rose beyond its midpoint. The truck vapor locked again after I gave it a final fill-up before dropping it off; luckily I was already close enough to the drop-off location that I was able to make it.

Following this experience, I called customer service to complain. The agent eventually offered to refund 5% of the $176 rental cost for the inconvenience of the truck's performance. Though I feel like I deserve more than an $8.80 refund for this, I accepted because the agent angrily insisted that this would be the only offer, and that she didn't even have to give me the 5% discount. The customer service agent did nothing to address my other issues. The extra $18 was not refunded, even though I specifically asked about it upon making the reservation.

The agent stated that the "Cost Recovery Fee" was particular to the individual dealers, and the central office did not include this in its quotes. First of all, it would not be difficult for Budget to keep tabs on the fees of its dealers, so that this price could be included in the quote once pick-up and drop-off points are established. Furthermore, if Budget was unable to quote what this hidden fee would be, Budget should have at least warned me that some dealers will charge an extra fee, and that I should contact the dealer with any questions concerning this. The customer service agent made no apology for this surprise on my bill.

The agent also told me that Budget does not make guarantees about the size of its trucks. Clearly some of Budget's reservation agents think you do. Throughout the phone call, the customer service agent kept saying that I had already received a good deal--a 20% discount had been applied when I made the reservation, and I got the truck for 4 days at the cost of 3 (sort of). However, because of all the extra fees I had to pay Budget, I could have gotten a better deal with another rental agency.

Additionally, because the other agency was up-front about their fees and the uncertainty of truck size, I could have made better arrangements. Instead, the lies I was told by Budget led to added frustration in this move. Overall, my experience with Budget has been very bad. The dealers with whom I spoke when I picked up and dropped off the truck were very friendly, helpful, and apologetic, but everyone else was disappointing.

The reservation agent lied to me. The customer service agent was unfriendly, talked over me, and angrily told me that no managers would accept calls and that this would be the final resoltion to my issue. I find it hard to imagine that Budget gets many repeat customers with this kind of business practice.

On Monday, July 18, 2005, I rented a 16' truck and car carrier #361659 at Allen Tire & Battery in New Britain, CT, and returned both items Friday, July 22, 2005, at All Safe Mini Store It in Waukesha, WI. Our total bill was $1,429.53 (Customer Reference # **) paid by credit card. We are extremely unhappy with the condition of the car carrier we received.

We arrived at Allen Tire & Battery on Monday and spoke with **. In order to rent us the truck we were looking for, he needed to close that particular truck rental in the system. This told us that it was not inspected after the previous rental and before ours. He also rented us the only car carrier he had on property. Upon arriving at our Storage Unit with the truck and car carrier, we noticed that the strap that is placed around the front driver side tire was rotten three-fourths of the way through.

At 5:55 A.M. on Tuesday, July 19, my fiancé and I began our long drive from New Britain, CT to Waukesha, WI. Within four minutes of merging onto I-84W in Hartford, CT, the passenger-side front tire of the car carrier blew out. In the emergency lane of the highway, I dialed Budget's Roadside Assistance and spoke with ** who informed me that he would return my call as soon as he was able to locate a service to change our tire. After a half hour, ** did return our call and told me that service was located and would be at our location within the hour. We waited patiently for one hour and 15 minutes for a service technician to help us while rush-hour traffic continued to build.

As frustration set in, I dialed Budget Roadside Assistance a second time and spoke with ** who placed me on hold for 10 minutes. When he came back on the line, he informed me that the service technician had gotten stuck in traffic and would be there within 20 minutes. After 30 minutes, my fiancé called Roadside Assistance yet again and also spoke with ** who informed us that the service technician should be there “any minute." We questioned ** about the location of the service technician, and he informed us that the technician was coming from East Hartford – only 10 minutes from our location.

As we began to tell ** that sitting on the side of a MAJOR highway in a MAJOR city for two and one-half hours is unacceptable, the service gentleman pulled up behind us. When we questioned him about the amount of time it took him to reach us, he informed us that he was not stuck in traffic but had only received the call 10 minutes prior to his arrival. Upon changing our blown-out tire, the service technician informed us that the tire – along with at least two of the other three tires – had severe rot damage. Unfortunately, he only had one tire with him to replace the blown-out one.

It is unacceptable that we were both lied to and had to wait in the emergency lane of a MAJOR highway in a MAJOR city during very dangerous rush hour traffic for two and one half hours. It is also unacceptable that we were given a car carrier with tires in that condition. According to the Budget Truck Website:

"Budget Strives For A Well-Maintained Fleet:
Budget Truck Rental prides itself on its established safety and inspection process. Before any rental, Budget Truck rental locations are expected to complete a full 10-point inspection of the truck, which includes checking for the proper fluids, tire pressures and other necessary elements for a smooth rental."

It also needs to be mentioned that upon return of the truck and car carrier, we informed the gentleman at All Safe Mini Store It in Waukesha, WI, that the car carrier's tires and straps were in need of attention before the next rental. He acknowledged our comment with an “uh-huh.” This is only the beginning of a list of issues that we had with Budget Truck Rental.

On Wednesday, June 29, 2005, we rented the first of two 16' trucks and car carriers at Southern Transfer Service in Orlando, FL, and returned the truck and car carrier #108755 on Thursday, July 7, 2005, at Allen Tire & Battery in New Britain, CT. Our total bill for our first trip was $840.35 (Customer Reference #**) paid by Discover credit card. Upon returning to our house to pack up the truck, we found we were unable to disconnect the car carrier from the truck.

We phoned Roadside Assistance and waited two hours for a technician to arrive. He informed us that all he had to do was stand on the bumper of the truck and “bounce the car carrier off the ball,” which could have been explained to us on the telephone.

Upon attempting to reserve a second truck and car carrier in Connecticut, we called Budget Reservations at 10 A.M. on Sunday, July 17. We were informed that there was one location that had both the 16' truck and car carrier. We were told we could pick them up at 2 P.M. and that this location closed at 6 P.M. Upon our arrival at Storage USA Rocky Hill in Rocky Hill, CT, we were told that they had only received the truck reservation information ten minutes prior to our arrival, that our reservation was for pickup at 2:30 P.M., and that the location closed at 3 P.M. We were also told that they only had a 15' truck and no car carrier.

The gentleman at Storage USA Rocky Hill phoned the District Office to inquire about the reservation. After several minutes, he handed the phone to my fiancé who was told there were no other open locations, that it was our fault for making the reservation on a Sunday afternoon, and that if we desired we could take the truck currently available at that location and pick up a car carrier at another location the next morning. We explained to the woman on the phone that this was not acceptable. We were told the equipment was available; therefore, it was not our fault for making the reservation on a Sunday.

We also explained that because we were told our reservation was made, we went ahead and made arrangements to pack that afternoon and leave the following morning. This had now caused us to lose an entire day and a half. We asked what she could offer us for the trouble, and she informed my fiancé that we were not “at the negotiating stage yet.” This is not an acceptable way to treat a customer that is going to spend over $1,500 on your equipment.

In the end, we canceled the reservation and waited until the following morning to return to another location, Allen Tire & Battery in New Britain, CT, because we had dealt with the gentleman earlier and he had informed us he could offer us a better deal.

I would also like to mention that on the Budget Truck Rental website and on the reservation system printed papers it says that Budget Truck Rental rents 16' trucks; however, on my receipts and on various posters hung throughout Budget Truck Rental facilities, it states that the trucks are 15'. If I have reserved a 16' truck, I expect to receive a 16' truck – not 15'.

As outlined in this note, I am extremely disappointed with our experiences with Budget Truck Rental – both the equipment and Budget associates. Upon our arrival at our final destination in Waukesha, WI, we phoned customer service and spoke with ** who informed us she could only offer a 10% refund on the car carrier based on Budget's guidelines. When we stated this was not acceptable, she had us speak with **, her supervisor, who informed us he could only offer a 20% refund on the car carrier.

When I told him that this was also unacceptable, he informed me that was all he could do. He said he would make a note in our file that the customer declined his offer and proceeded to give me Budget Truck Rental's Executive Offices address to which I wrote a three-page letter - dated August 2, 2005 - with the information just described here.

To resolve my complaints, I requested a refund of the cost of the second car carrier, a total of $344.50 ($325 for the car carrier and $19.50 for the 6% tax), based on the fact that the equipment was in such a state of disrepair as to jeopardize the safety of my fiancé and myself, along with other drivers on state and federal highways. Also, I feel I am entitled to an additional refund of 10% of the total bill for both trips ($2,269.88), which is $226.99, as compensation for our inconvenience, wasted personal time, excessive cell phone usage, and the numerous misleading statements made by their associates.

I enclosed all receipts and paperwork from both truck and car carrier rentals and photos of the rot-ridden tires and straps. I requested return information by September 1, 2005 before filing a complaint with and seeking help from the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection, Connecticut and Florida Departments of Consumer Protection, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Better Business Bureau.

On Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at approximately 5 p.m., I received a phone call from ** (Employee ID # **) at Budget Truck Rental (Phone # **). He informed me that he was unable to give me any information even though I had written the letter and all the charges were placed on my credit card. He would only speak with my fiancé because his name was on the truck rental reservation information. Unfortunately, my fiancé was not home from work at that time but did attempt to return **'s phone call 15 minutes later.

We were told ** had already left the office. On Thursday, August 25, my fiancé called ** during his lunch hour. ** explained to him that he was the Case Manager handling our case and had come to a settlement amount of $167.50. When we informed him that this amount was considerably less than we requested and felt we deserved, he stated that was all he could do. When we asked for his supervisor, he said he was the last person we could possibly deal with - no one was above him.

We informed him that we felt we deserved a better offer and would proceed to file our complaints with the above mentioned organizations. As a courtesy gesture towards Budget Truck Rental, my fiancé placed one more phone call to ** during his lunch hour on Friday, August 26 to be sure that was the best they could offer. ** again stated that was all he could do.

TRIP FROM HELL and all due to Budget! I reserved a 16' truck and tow dolly to used to move from Denver, CO to Seattle, WA. My dad flew into town and we picked up the truck on 12/5/10. They didn't have a tow dolly, so they gave us a tow trailer instead, which was fine with us. We put my car on the trailer and left Denver 12/6 A.M. About 200 miles into the trip, the gauges on the truck stopped working. Couldn't tell how fast we were going, how much gas we had, or anything else. But the truck seemed to run okay other than that so we kept going until we could find a gas station, where we pulled over, got some gas, and tried to restart the truck, and it wouldn't start.

It didn't even try to turn over. So I called the Roadside Assistance number and was on hold for at least 30 mins. before someone answered. I told the woman our situation and said we needed help so she told us she would have dispatch call us back with info. We waited almost an hour, and no call from dispatch. We were blocking a gas pump, stuck in a snowstorm with no heat, and my dad was on crutches due to a knee problem. So I called the Roadside Assistance number AGAIN, and was on hold AGAIN for at least 30 mins. and rather than wait for dispatch to call me back, I told the person on the phone that I was not going to hang until I had info on what was going to happen.

She came back on and said a tow truck would be there within 30 mins. Tow truck came and tried to give us a jump start and it wouldn't start, so the tow truck driver called Roadside Assistance and HE had to wait at least 30 minutes on hold before someone answered and he finally got permission to tow our Budget truck and trailer to a place that would fix it. It was about 4:45 P.M. by that time so we were stranded in Rawlins, Wyoming that night. Got a call the next morning that the truck had been fixed so we went to pick it up and the man at the repair shop asked us about payment and we said "Well, we figure that will be Budget's responsibility."

So then HE called Customer Service and was on hold for 45 mins. and was getting transferred to this person and that person before he finally got authorization for payment from Budget. So we think we're good to go, walk outside to hop in the truck and noticed that one of the wheels on the towing trailer was bent/askew and it was unable to be towed. Not sure how that happened; we honestly think the tow truck driver may have done it while backing it into the service facility because it was fine the day prior to that when we were driving.

The service facility told us they wouldn't be able to get parts to fix it so I AGAIN called Roadside Assistance and was AGAIN on hold for 30-45 minutes before someone came on to help me. We were told dispatch would call back with a directive, and AGAIN - no call from dispatch in an hour. So I called Roadside Assistance AGAIN, on hold AGAIN for 30-45 mins. and tell them I'll hold while they're figuring out what we can do because dispatch had never called back.

She finally came back on the line and told us we would have to drive to Laramie (100 miles back the way we came from) or Casper (120 miles north one way and completely out of our way because we were heading west) to pick up a new trailer. I told her there was no way we were going to drive that far out of our way to pick up a new trailer because we had already been inconvenienced an entire day because the truck had broken down and now we were expected to drive way out of our way to get a new one. HORRIBLE customer service. If anything, a new one should have been brought to us.

Then I suggested we go pick up a U-Haul trailer because there was a U-Haul rental company in town and asked if Budget would pay for that and she transferred me to a Customer Service representative who said "I don't know why she transferred you to me because all I can do is tell you that you're breaking your lease agreement if you get a U-Haul trailer."

She LITERALLY said that. So I hung up from her, called Roadside Assistance BACK to get "authorization" to just drop the trailer where it had broken down, was on hold for 45 minutes AGAIN, was told dispatch would call me (and they never did), so AGAIN I called, was on hold AGAIN for 30 minutes and FINALLY got authorization to just leave the trailer where it was and was told Budget would go pick it up. My dad drove the Budget Rental Truck the rest of the way and I followed him in my car the ENTIRE way to Seattle - almost 1,100 miles.

But to be honest with you, I was just happy to be rid of that trailer and be done with customer service and get out of Wyoming. I will NEVER rent from Budget again and I am going to go on all the review websites and give Budget a scathing review. My move to Seattle was the trip from hell and it was all due to Budget. Never again. I wish I had read the reviews before renting from them and now I've learned my lesson.

EULESS, TX -- I set up a truck rental last Friday August 6th, 2010. I was told by the employee ** when I rented the truck on Friday morning that I could leave my car at the Budget Facility overnight and that the truck had to be back at the facility by 8:00 am the next morning otherwise there would be another day rate charge. She told me that her manager would be opening the facility at 8:00 am the next morning but that he was sometimes late.

I had the truck there at 8:15 the next morning -- Saturday, August 7 but the gates were locked. I waited. As I had just moved there were many things I had to do. At about 8:30 I called the corporate number and spoke to a woman who suggested I drop the keys in the box and, seeing that my car was locked in the facility, I should call a cab. She had no name or number for the manager. At 8:45 a car pulled up and the driver reiterated that the facility should have been open at 8:00. He was a repeat customer and didn't know why it wasn't open. He also told me to park the truck and put the keys in the box. I told him that my car was parked inside the facility.

He was on first name terms with the manager -- he said this man '**' was the owner or manager. He called a number from his mobile phone and after a brief conversation then told me that the person was on his way. When ** got there he opened the gates. I asked him if this was Budget way of treating their customers -- telling them to bring back the truck at 8:00 am but not bothering to open the gates until after 9:00 am. He told me he didn't have to take any ** from me and that if I didn't like it, I could talk to the corporate office.

Then he told me this lie: "The girl who was supposed to open the facility had car troubles and she had called him to tell him she couldn't be there at 8:00 am." I told him to process my papers and that I couldn't believe a national rental company would act so unprofessionally. He was very rude.

Then he checked the fuel and said that the tank wasn't full. I told him that when ** and I had checked the fuel gauge on the morning when I rented the truck it did not go all the way to the 'F' mark. When I asked her about this she told me that fuel gauges on these bigger trucks were often not accurate. I had actually filled the truck just before returning it. The manager said I would have to wait and then drive with him to the has station. Needless to say I left.

I am shocked at the treatment I received from this company. There was total disregard for me as a customer. I was made to waste an hour of my time. I was lied to and the truck's fuel gauge was faulty. Plus I found out from their corporate office that he had charged me $49.00 to fill the truck up anyway, this borders on criminal intent. I will not only never do business with this company again, I will attempt to dissuade everybody I know from doing business with this company. I'm sure one bad apple won't harm Budget's reputation but I would give this facility a miss.