Budget Rental is the WORST company I have every had to do business with and I recommend to everyone looking for a truck rental to go anywhere but Budget!! This review is for 2 locations - Budget Colima Rd., Rowland Heights and Budget S. Citrus, Covina.
I should have known this rental was going to be bad from the first phone call I made! I went online to review prices and locations. The website says a 10" truck rental is $19.99 plus mileage. So, I called to make a reservation rather than online. The rep argued with me that the 10" truck was $29.99, not $19.99. I told her I was looking at it on the website. She told me I was wrong, put me on hold, and came back with an offer for the 10" truck discounted to $25.99! I told her never mind...I decided to do the rental online for the advertised $19.99.
I went online and made the reservation. All went smooth. I decided to upgrade the truck to a 15", which was priced at the $29.99 the rep was trying to pass off for the 10" truck. My reservation was made appx. 5 days in advance of my pickup date, which was a Saturday. I had a crew hired to move furniture at 8:00am the morning of my reservation and since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, I requested an 8:00am pickup time at the 18750 Colima Road, Rowland Heights location, which was 1/2 mile from my home and 2 miles from the location the furniture was moving. This was to be a very short distance move...appx. 5-7 miles total round trip travel.
On the day before my reservation, Friday, at 2:00pm, I received a phone call from Budget Rowland Heights that my truck was not available for Saturday. It had been involved in an accident. They had no other trucks available. I was frantic and told the agent to please find me another truck at another Budget location. She actually did not offer to find another truck at first and I had to get stern with her and explain the urgency of this move on Saturday before she agreed to help find another. She located one at the Budget Covina location, but it was going to be a 24' truck! This was huge and would not fit in the parking areas I was needing to go but I knew that on a Friday afternoon, at the end of the month, finding anything else would be difficult. Also, the Covina location is over 10 miles one way from my location which meant more time and mileage driving just to get and return the truck. She agreed to honor my original price for the 15' truck and would discount the mileage.
She called me 3 times that afternoon to confirm the truck was available and my pickup time was still 8:00am. BUT...at 6:00pm Friday evening, I received a phone call from the Budget Covina location informing me the truck would not be available for pickup until afternoon! This was UNACCEPTABLE!! I had a crew hired and it was going to rain in the afternoon, which it did! I explained this to the agent but he would hear nothing...just ended the conversation with "that's when the truck is available, are you taking the truck or not?" I was so upset and stressed. This was a necessary move that MUST be done that day, as my mother had just passed away the weekend before and I was required to move her belongings out of her nursing home apartment by the last day of the month to avoid another month's rent. Now everyone else was closed and I had no alternate options. I called back the Budget Rowland Heights agent and told her the situation. She was shocked, said she just received a call from the Covina location that the truck was available at 8:00am and did not understand. She put me on hold, tried to call Covina, but they did not answer. She then said I would have to wait until the morning to find out more. I could not do that!!!
I decided to call UHaul truck rental, appx. 2 miles from my home. Although it was after hours, someone still answered! I told the agent how frantic I was and he calmly said he could give me a 10' truck for the next morning at 8:00am, "NO PROBLEM!" He was a blessing!!! Later Friday evening, I received an email from Budget informing me of a $50 cancellation fee if I cancelled the truck or was a no show. I then had to call their 24 hour service line and argue the point...claiming they breached their contract with me and it was not my fault I was cancelling. The agent finally agreed to waive the cancellation fee...but we will see on my next credit card statement whether that is true.
On Saturday morning we went to UHaul, City of Industry, received EXCELLENT customer service, were treated like their favorite customer, which they did to all that were there, and got our move completed by noon, before the rains. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH BUDGET AGAIN and recommend anyone else to go to UHaul to conduct their future business. I hope Budget Corporate Office sees this posting and does an investigation to the incompetency and laziness of their personnel. read more