Budget® Reviews
Rented a 26ft Budget diesel truck through the Costco Portal. It was really beat up and had missed its 130,000 mile maintenance. The Budget customer service person at pickup lied to me and said the truck had just been serviced when I asked why the check engine light was on. They also said not to touch the DEF fluid and that they take care of that, which maybe makes sense for an in-town move but for someone driving cross-country it is absurd. Well, after we loaded our truck and got started on our 2,000 mile journey, the truck's brake warning light came on about 1/2 mile down the road. Budget Roadside Assistance was very helpful and sent a mechanic, who later confirmed the truck had missed its last scheduled maintenance and we had to drive the truck to a mechanic shop about 30 minutes out of our way. It got fixed and they sent us on our way, about 8 hours delayed in total. On our 3-day drive, the brake warning light came on 2 more times but went off again after restarting, and ultimately we didn't have any issues with the brakes. However, on one occasion the truck had trouble starting--maybe it was too hot? After a 10-minute break under the canopy of the gas station, it restarted and we were on our way. On a different occasion the truck broke down and would not accelerate because we were out of DEF fluid. Again, we would have been keeping it topped off if the Budget agent had not told us explicitly not to touch it. We called roadside assistance but after talking to another trucker we decided to just fill the DEF fluid and that worked & got us on our way again. All in all, it was fairly harrowing experience but we made it safely and it was dirt cheap. We probably saved $4-5k by driving our own Budget truck vs hiring full service movers. We used HireaHelper.com to book movers to load and unload the truck on each end for about $400-500.
So many problems with the truck - very dirty, crack in windshield, driver door holding on with one hinge, super loud inside, door wouldn’t close completely, window wouldn’t close completely, filthy windshield so very hard to see out at night, alignment so off that you constantly fought to hold the steering wheel in place, shook pretty bad when it got to 50 mph. Was worried the whole drive if the truck would make it.
After reserving my 16' truck on May 26th to be picked up on my moving day of June 30th, I received multiple confirmations of my rental and impending pickup date. THEN, on the morning of June 30th- moving day- I received a call from the Budget Rental center that I was supposed to get the truck from and was informed that NO trucks were available!! ONE HOUR prior to my pickup time after one month and 4 days of being reminded of my move by them!! THEN, I obviously canceled and had to scramble to find a U-Haul I could get that day and Budget CHARGED me $75 for NO SHOW!!! I am having it refunded, but this was a HORRIBLE experience! I wouldn't recommend Budget Truck Rentals if you were moving across the street!
There was nothing positive about our experience with our Budget rental truck. The biggest issues included smoked cigarettes in the car that where from the last person who rented, very dirty interior that had not been sanitized prior to our rental and our rental truck was missing the lining in the roof on the passenger side. Water was pouring through the truck and we drove 11 hours completely drenched. Customer service was terrible, very inconsiderate and very inconsistent. We will never rent from budget rental again.
The pick up and drop off sites were no problem at all people were friendly. HOWEVER, thirty minutes into the drive, it started to barely rain and the cab started leaking! As the rain picked up, so did the leaking! I'm not talking a few drips here and there, it was unbearable! My whole back and ass were soaked for the first three hours of the drive. This needs to be fixed right away!
All the people I talked to and worked with were great. The truck was fine. No bells and whistles, but it did what I needed it to do. My biggest problem was with the reservation. I reserved a truck at a pickup center within walking distance to my house. The night before pick up they called to tell me there was no longer a truck available (because the people who had it that day decided to keep it longer) and that it was up to me to find one at another location. Several calls later, I finally got a reservation at another location that was a $60 Uber ride away. Not sure why after paying $1300 I was the one responsible for finding a new truck.
Arrived and found out that they did not have a truck for me despite calling two days before to confirm. I had to scramble and call all the locations in the area to find a truck. The woman at the counter was incredibly rude (and wasn't even there for the first 10 minutes, just a sign saying that she would be back) and all of the customer service agents were unhelpful as well. Would never recommend.
Booked budget truck bc it was a better deal than other companies but the AC wasn’t working in the truck which made for an uncomfortable 14 hour drive. Customer service for budget was helpful and they tried to arrange a repair of the AC but the wait time for the truck to get looked at was 5 hours so we decided to continue our drive without AC. Also the back door wouldn’t latch closed all the way so when we had to drive through two rainstorms, everything within 5 feet of the back of the truck was soaked and covered with debris.
I am only giving a one star because I have to. First I made a reservation for a truck days in advance for 9 am on June 29. I get to the budget rental on E Colonial Drive in Orlando, Fl at 9 am and I didn't get a truck until 10 30 am. I stood in line for an hour and when I was finally helped the lady said I did not have a reservation. When I showed her my confirmation e mail with my confirmation number she shrugged and told me to contact customer service. I said that wouldn't work and she told me if I was going to get mad that I needed to leave. I once again told her no ma'am that is not going to work and she rolled her eyes sighed and said she had a bigger truck I could rent for the same price. I said fine and took the truck. I will never rent from budget again because of the rude service. The lady working the desk at this budget had zero customer service skills and had no idea how to do her job which is why everyone was waiting an hour and a half just to get things rented.
Budget gets a 5-star rating because they were the cheapest company I could find in my area for a 1-way move. The truck didn't get great gas mileage (about 300 miles per tank) but it got the job done. Also, the service at the rental truck office was great and they were very accommodating enough to offer assistance before I went over mileage. Would rent from them again.
Equipment needs to be maintained better. The trailer that I had wouldn't tighten my vehicle down to the trailer as much as I wanted. There was an uncomfortable amount of slack. I wasted way too much time because the first Budget truck that was hooked up to the auto transport didn't light up the lights on the trailer. So they had to grab another Budget truck. Hook up to it, then check the lights again. Also, once I went to drop off the equipment. The desk clerk asked me why didn't I have safety chains connected to my vehicle. When I picked up and left with the truck, no one mentioned any safety chains. So the staff may need more training on how to chain vehicles to the auto transport.
The truck was fine. However, I reserved furniture pads and was informed when I arrived that morning to pick up the truck that none were available. I had to scramble to find enough blankets to cover my furniture because my movers were arriving in less than 1 hour and I had zero notice to make other arrangements. It would have been better to receive a phone call to notify me ahead of time that I needed to buy or rent furniture pads elsewhere. The cost of the truck was very reasonable but the cost of the insurance was exorbitant. Checking in at Prestige Rent-a-car in McKinney, TX was not the smoothest, but drop off (at a different location) was extremely easy and Randy at Eastex Rentals was very accommodating for us.
The price was great, which is why I went with this company overall. When I arrived to pick up my truck, however, it seemed that they don't always have trucks available at the site you reserve, which seems crazy to me. I had reserved a 12' truck to move a lot of large furniture pieces, but they almost gave me a van (not big enough). They ended up giving me a 16' truck without extra charge, which ended up being fine for my job. Just be aware that you may not get what you expect.
