Budget® Reviews
Our Budget truck rental went well. It was well-maintained and simple to use. Their customer service was great - I ended up changing my mind about the size of truck I wanted to rent after we had completed the paperwork and they did a work-around so we could switch things up. I would definitely use them again.
I will never use Budget again. I arrived and the truck was ready, but I had to pick up the car trailer from a city an hour away. As I drove the truck home, I found myself covered in ants from an infestation that had not been taken care of. The truck worked fine for the drive from CA-SC, but I wanted to report an issue with the gas tank fill indicator and with the odometer, which inexplicably reset itself several times throughout the trip. But when I dropped off the truck and trailer, the man was so rude and refused to help me - and charged me $52 for cab cleaning AND wouldn't give me a new receipt for the new total. I spent 4 days on the phone with Budget corporate while beginning my new job just trying to straighten out all the issues, bills, and receipts.
I rented a 16 foot truck from the Sodo Budget Truck Rental. I had read some pretty bad reviews, but I found that all truck rental companies have bad reviews. Moving is stressful. And if things don't go according to your plan, you can get frustrated pretty quickly. But I had nothing but good experience from this location. The truck was in decent shape. They said it had new tires on it. It had 135k miles on it, so at least it wasn't on it's last leg. I would say the major pitfall of the whole thing was the power of the truck. I literally could no go over 45 mph up any hill. When the speed limit is 75 and semi trucks are passing you, the truck is weak. There didn't seem to be a spedometer limit, like where it doesn't let you go over 65 or anything. The engine sounded a little raspy the higher I go to 70 so I tried to stay below 70. But, otherwise, it was what I needed to get across the country. Oh, the truck would "pop" when the pressure would change. I thought all my stuff was crashing down, but when it was happening over and over, I realized it was the pressure change was causing the metal to pop in and out. Oh, and I tried to go without their insurance coverage because I have full coverage insurance. We called and Progressive only covers rental cars. The difference was if you can reach into the back seat, they'll cover it. If you have to get out of the vehicle to reach your items, they won't cover it...it's called something else. So if you're just getting like a van, they'll cover it, but if it's a truck, they won't. The truck was $650, the insurance coverage was $475, so with tax it was $1185.
The drop of spot in Conyers ga was really unprofessional I had a little misunderstanding about were to drop of the truck instead of the employee just verbally telling me were to park he insisted on pointing at the glass and vebaly telling on me what he wanted me to park then as I finally understand what he want he gose back in to the store and must of said something to the guys who came out and the first thing he said to me was so you had a little Situation with coworkers so at that point I was very mad then we go to the truck and tell him I had rented 12 pad for the move and he then turned to me and said do have a broam and dust pand they I lost it I was very agresive to him and I got out of control wich I know it was wrong of me but I will never use them again
The truck has seen better days. We received the truck below "E" and had to find the nearest diesel gas station for a 26' truck, which wasn't as easy as you would think. Was the truck as nice as a competitor truck? No, it had tape all in the side covering or holding broken parts and feared the engine was pieced together the same way. Did the truck serve its purpose? yes it did. The truck got our items moved from point A to point B without any issues and we did save $500 by using budget opposed to a competitor. Was it worth using Budget? You decide.
They messed up my order by re-entering it into their system. Charged me for extra day because they changed it to 1 day from 2 that I had booked. Budget charges for after-hours drop off too - watch out for that. Just a bad experience. I paid more for after hours and could have used another Budget dealer and not paid the extra $10. When I called the customer service 800#, their answer was, "What do you want me to do about it?".
We made reservations about 2 weeks before the move. When we went in to pick up the truck they initially said they had no trucks at the size we made the reservation for. They said each Budget location is a franchise and that the corporate company doesn't share information with the individual locations. Fortunately they were able to track one down and after about an hour we were in the truck we reserved. My one complaint would be have the reservation system work company wide. That way you know you will get the truck you rented.
The Cons: The truck was three years old. No branding anywhere and a gas guzzler. I added a trailer to transport my vehicle and the tie down straps for the wheels and the crank lever seemed a bit old and would loosen up if you went over big bumps on the road. The Pros: The office rep i picked it up from was courteous and addressed every concern i had. On the equipment side, everything worked well enough to make it happen comfortably from one state to the next.
I reserved the truck a month in advance. Went to pick it up the morning of the move and they had no clue where the truck was, all they said was the order was cancelled. I wasn’t notified of any cancellation. I had to drive 28 miles to pick up another truck which they wanted me to pay mileage on. The truck was sufficient and no mechanical issues but I don’t personally think inwould use them again simply because one hand didn’t know what the other was doing. Total lack of communication. I don’t blame the people manning the counter, rather the budget organization has some serious issues to correct before I’ll use them again.
I paid for an extra day on the rental truck but did not need it when we arrived in Aurora and got all unpacked. I ask Budget if I could get a refund for the extra day and they said that was not their policy. Not happy about that as I beleive it would go along way in up good relations with their customers.
If there was a rating less than poor I would use it. I had nothing but problems from the time I picked up my truck (when I had to re-arrange their yard to get the trailer I reserved and clean the truck I reserved) until today a day and half later than my planned arrival. Later because (even though I tried to talk to someone through customer service about a very questionable front tire) of a tire blow-out 5 hours into the first day of travel. And after calling roadside service 3 times in over 5 hours they finally sent someone out who I fairly certain was either drunk or high, mostly likely both. This put me an entire days travel behind. I tried calling customer service about being refunded or compensated but so far I just getting passed around the phone tree. Bottom-line unless you're moving to a house down the street...Budget still isn't an option. Total cost (according to plan) `$2000. Actual cost (blown-out tire 1.5 extra days of travel) $3000
I was charged $255 for 2 days rental. The fee advertised was $23.99 per day. At sign in I was given options of insurance at no insurance, &7.00 and some outrageous cost of $60.00 or thereabouts. I chose $7.00 thinking some is better than none. I dropped my jaw to the ground when at check in I was presented a bill for mote than $200 dollars. I was told by the manager it was because of the coverages I chose and he had the paper with my initials on it. I said I'd chosen the $7.00 coverage to which he said it was $7.00 less than the highest rate. This company are deceitfull, dishonest, and untrustworthy. I'm going to seek damages for erroneous charges only presented at the end of the contract. Use this company to your own peril!
