Budget® Reviews
They were pretty awful to work with. I had a pick up scheduled for 7:30, but the place didn't open until 8, so I was stuck hanging around on the street for 30 minutes. Then, they didn't have the furniture pads that I had reserved, so I was left without those. Once I arrived at my final destination, they tried to charge me an extra day, even though I was two days early, and made me jump through a ton of hoops. Just a terrible experience.
1. Truck was filthy, not even touched since the previous rental. Old food all over the floor. A roach crawled on my leg when I hit the gas pedal the first time. 2. They gave me a broken auto trailer and weren't sure they could find me another - huge amount of stress the day before my move. They ended up getting one towed from Wyoming (~1.5hrs away) for me, so I appreciated that... 3. until I dropped the truck off in Sacramento. The people at the location downtown there were rude and gave me crap about dropping off a day early (???), then told me the truck wasn't full of gas. I told them the gas gauge was at the same level as I got it, and it had been stopping there all trip long when I filled it. They then told me that the gauge was not functioning correctly but despite this, it was still on me to make sure it was "filled to the brim." I refused to drive the truck back across town and blindly pump gas into it with a broken gauge, so they charged me a $30 service fee plus the gas. Overall, terrible experience. Two stars because the truck itself actually drove and they found me a trailer, otherwise this would be a hard 1.
Went with Budget since got a good deal through Costco Membership. Wish I'd gone with someone else. The truck was very old and barebones. If I had been doing a longer trip, it would have been miserable. The truck was exceptionally loud which was ironic given the outside of the truck touted the 'Quiet Comfort' of the ride.
We made the move in three trips with 16' and 26' trucks. The first 2 rentals went smoothly, but the third truck was not available until 3 days after the scheduled rental. Be aware reserving a truck ONY means you are reserving for the price, it is NOT a guarantee for the day you want it. Speaking of smoothly, the 26’ foot truck was horribly bouncy and rough in comparison to the 16’ trucks—you might want to wear a kidney belt. I don't remember rental the totals, but I rented through the Costco truck rental program.
Got a call the morning of stating I would have to go elsewhere for my truck rental, had the reservation made for 3 weeks. The truck I eventually was rented was loud, like painfully loud and quite frankly I'm surprised it didnt break down. Check engine light came on 15 minutes after leaving the office.
Budget Rental is just that, budget friendly. I rented a 16' truck to move 600+ miles for almost half the cost competitors wanted to charge. The truck didn't have anything fancy, but the heat, air, and radio worked and it towed a fully loaded car trailer right along with it. I'm very happy with the cost and reliability of Budget. I've used them before and I will use them again.
I am floored at the service from Budget. I reserved a truck for a move well over a month in advance. I happened to call a few days before to ask if we could pick up at 8AM instead of 10 AM per the reservation. They told me to call day before. I called again the day before and was told that a reservation only guarantees the rate, it does not guarantee a truck will be available. If there is no truck available in the city, we cannot give you what we don’t have. I am completely in shock that they could do business this way. Who can take a crap shoot until the day of a move and hope that a truck is available? How can you take a reservation for a truck not knowing whether there is one available? Long story short, they had no truck for me. The close was a 2 hour drive away so I called Uhaul and they guaranteed they would have a truck available the next day and they did.
I rented a 16 foot truck and a car hauler trailer -- the trailer had a flat tire before I got out of town and the truck's engine broke down just 5 hours into my trip. I had to spend 2 days in an overpriced motel waiting for Budget to get me back on the road. To date, they are refusing to reimburse me for either the tire repair or the motel room.
Hired Budget truck rental for a local move. Budget had the lowest rates for local move with a 16' truck so I went with them. What can I say, lowest cost, clean truck, decent condition - the truck was as good as any other I've used. Fine truck for a move. Quick and courteous check in and check out... I would definitely use them again in the future.
THIS WAS THE SINGLE WORST EXPERIENCE I'VE EVER HAD WITH A SERVICE. To start the experience we received a phone call from budget telling us that there are no car haul's available for the day of our move. Keep in mind that we booked this reservation months in advanced and were planning on driving from CA to TX. The night before the move we receive a call that they have one available, but were forced to drive 200 miles to pick it up. We arrive in the morning and no one is at the budget location to open up and attach the trailer to the rental truck. When someone does arrive about an hour later, they don't know how to install the trailer. We wait for another hour until someone who can attach the trailer shows up. The trailer is half busted and one of the straps doesn't fit completely over the wheel which is required to secure it properly. He assures us that the rest of the restraints will do its job and we shouldn't worry. About 5 hours into the drive, our car overheats in the Mojave Desert, because no one from Budget bothered to check if there was any engine coolant in the truck. We were stuck on the side of the highway for about 3 hours. We spent an hour waiting for 24/7 emergency roadside assistance to answer. Once they did, they transferred us and then hungup the call.... We had to call the fire department to help bring us fluid to put into the car and get it off the highway. The entire fiasco cost us about 6 hours and we were forced to stop every 200 miles to check if the engine coolant was leaking, which it was. Overall renting from Budget was a MASSIVE mistake. I'd recommend looking at any other possible option before using Budget. Shipping your car and belongings would have been better and the cost wouldn't have been that much different in the end when you calculate your time, gas, etc.
Local office now has very restrictive office hours which made it very difficult to conduct business (no weekends and weekdays close at 1PM). Had a fabulous diesel 26' truck last time but, this time they have gone with a ridiculous gasoline engine that only gets about 5 MPG and you have to plan excessive fuel stops starting every 200 miles. Enormous waste of time and the fuel cost was approaching that of the rental cost while driving cross country!
My wife became very ill in California so I had to turn around about 100 miles east of Phoenix to return to Ca. I contacted the issuing office who said to call the destination office. When I contacted them they said to call customer service. To make things worse I got into and accident. I called Roadside they told me to call customer service. I got the incomplete RUN-AROUND by budget. I did get one Customer Service Agent by the name of Dianne who made every attempt to help me out so thank you for your dedication. I was passed on to 6 different departments and given 8 different phone numbers to call with no success. I think I did report the accident, I was suppose to turn the truck in to a distributor in Waco Texas on Sunday the 14th. I called all over the company and country to get my contract extended because I was with my wife in the Hospital, told if I ever left I would not be able to return. I thought my wife's daughter was taking care of the truck issue but she told me that the issuing office required me to come in and sign a authorization of some kind for someone else to drive the truck. I was in the HOSPITAL with my very SICK wife. This location in Murrieta showed no compassion, no empathy, and just kept telling me that "they issued the trucks and that is all their job ended". I got to the Hospital on March 10th, my wife was moved from the hospital to an apartment to enter Hospices Care on March 13th. I made every attempt, with no help from anyone in Budget Truck Rental, to get the truck unloaded into a storage unit and turned in to the Murrieta location. My wife passed on March 16th. I made arrangement with Get Moved Now for a friend to drive the truck from La Jolla to a Murrieta storage unit. My friend drive it to the storage unit, gave the keys to the guys there to unload the truck. A friend that didn't think his actions through. Yet another day wasted. I finally decided to take care of the truck on my own so once again I hired a couple of guys from Get Moved Now, met them at the storage, unloaded the truck, got it filled up with gas and parked it at the Truck Rental Location: 38372 Innvovation Court, Murrieta Ca 92563 on the evening of Friday March 19th. I HAVE HAVE NOT HEARD A WORD FROM THE WORKERS AT THAT LOCATION ABOUT THE TRUCK. This whole company needs a lot of help with Customer Service and the customer being directed to a single point of contact.