Budget Car Rental Reviews 

Simple. Next time you send an email confirming the availability of the truck 48 hours prior to pick up.... to make sure it is available. I called the local Budget truck place to confirm... they stated that there is no coordination between local dealer and online store. So they cancelled my reservation w/o any other option. So now I am stuck w/o a vehicle... I can provide confirmation order number, if Budget is interested as well as the their emails...

I was trying to rent a 26' truck from three different Budget locations in NJ (Bayonne, Lyndhurst and Matawan). The Bayonne one didn’t have any trucks EVEN though I placed a reservation in advance. The one in Lyndhurst, where I was sent by the Bayonne employee on the same day, told me I was on a DO-NOT-RENT list. After sending 2 hrs on the phone with budget and after I was already at home in a different state, the company rep told me it was a Budget's mistake and if I still needed a truck, I could go back (drive 1 hr one way) and rent one. Ridiculous! Of course, I didn’t return to that pathetic "establishment". In two days, I gave them the last chance and went to their Matawan location. The rusty truck that they had for me was about 20 years old with cracked windshield, bare tires and extremely worn out in general. It is simply dangerous to ride in it. I am now seeking reimbursement for my wasted time and money I spent on workers, who were waiting for me at home to help load the truck.

Worst truck rental experience in my life!
First didn't actually have truck I rented. No calls emails or texts. I show up - no truck. They send me to another location that has the truck. Took 2 hours to "move" reservation. Call customer service 2 hour wait for someone who can make decision. I reserved and paid for truck for 2 days, Budget changes it to one day and then charges me for an extra day. Then after dozens of calls refuses to fix their mistake. Also truck was a POC.

Provided me with a nice clean car with full tank, reasonable customer service. After I returned the car - with a full tank, having been run through the car wash and vacuumed, so that it was in the same condition as I received it - the company refused to refund the full amount of the hire deposit I paid. Not impressed.

Miserable experience. The call center is just as bad. Like make your day and week worse kind of bad. After this cluster I ended up going with Enterprise and was surprised at how much easier it could be.

The car was not cleaned before it was rented to my family. In the current times with Covid, this is unacceptable!
Also, no one at the lot upon taking deliver of vehicle. I had to inspect the mini van myself, walk back to the airport terminal, with my cell phone of the pictures taken, front end damage, multiple dings, marks, scratches that I may have been held responsible for. In contacting Budget on the phone, 2 times, over 40 minutes on hold, could not wait for a live person. Delayed my vacation. Was told by manager and counter representative that some form of a credit will be issued onto my credit card, (5 days so far and nothing) I have requested to be contacted by Budget, to be continued , but I will be updating online reviews where ever I can. As of now, I will not do business with this company again.

This is for Budget truck rental do yourself a favor and a headache and stay FAR AWAY from renting a truck from this company I made reservations ahead of time to rent a truck going one-way. I'm moving out of state and since I put in notice I have to have all my stuff out on a certain date. Days went by I'm thinking everything was going smoothly I'm already to go they (emailed me) saying they don't have they checked inventory and they don't have anything available for me...WHATTTT????? Who does that? Now since it's so last minute im out of luck because there are no other truck available or any other movers because it's so last minute. These people have me in a very BAD POSITION ! Now im screwed and there's nothing know one can do about they don't even care. They should keep up with there inventory before they let there employees make reservations. This is ridiculous I never been so disappointed and upset in all my life!! Do yourself a favor don't end up like me look elsewhere for a truck all you'll get here is your time wasted

Horrible customer service. You can't add an additional driver after the contract has been opened. Something came up in the middle of the move and we needed to add another driver but couldn't do it. It's against their policy. Ridiculous.

The worst customer service ever! 1st off, I get to the location for my rental and they hand me a questionnaire full of insurance coverage questions that there is no way any one would know the answers to. Since I was on a time constraint as most people are, I had no way to answer these questions. So, they gave me no choice but to pay for their $60 insurance. When I get the truck, it was missing its front end and was absolutely filthy inside! The customer service is even worse than the truck was. When I told them of the problems they were rude and snarky. They are only concerned with their bottom line, not making customers happy. Hell! It wouldn't have even taken that much to make me happy, just not giving me a broken down truck and doubling the cost of rental once I'm actually at the pick-up place. They did not seem too bothered at the fact that I was given this junk truck to use and forced insurance upon when it was already practically falling apart. I sent in pictures and they offered me a measly $5 refund! I just seems like a great deal until you actually get there. Spend the extra money which will only end up being a few dollars more and go with U-haul or literally any other truck service! Trust me!

ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE experience. I spoke to a customer service rep and 10 minutes into the call he just faded away and crickets....I called back and got somebody else where I had to start all over from scratch but this person had such a strong accent and spoke so quietly I had to hang up and get a THIRD person. This time they were able to book my reservation. Five days before my move the owner of the auto garage where Budget keeps their trucks called to tell me that nobody will be there that Saturday the weekend of Memorial Day. Now I had to scramble where I was able to book a ENTERPRISE TRUCK. AVOID BUDGET!! They are not reliable, professional, or thorough on the details.

Arrived at counter to get vehicle and the line was very long at 11pm at night. All other rental companies were not busy at all. Long wait and Budget must've been the cheapest because that's where literally everyone was to rent a car. Car was nice. Then when it came time to return the car the line was extremely long again and had to park it way out in the lot along with everyone else. Then charged another $50 for something they didn't send or explain what the charge was for and no receipt was given.

Worse experience for our Budget Truck Rental booking from Costco- DO NOT USE Costco online services and Budget Truck.

--> We booked Budget Truck Rental with pickup at 4:00PM from '10220 Palm River Rd ,Tampa, FL, 33619'. This address also showing 'EMBASSY SUITES BY HILTON '.
-->There was very small sign board for Budget which is not easily visible. Specially when you look for Budget truck or U-Haul Truck, you do not expect some truck rental location inside such hotel. So we passed the address and took some time to reach exact location. Possibly 10 min late then pickup time of 4:00PM. When we reached, we show rental office is inside hotel. And when we reached, office was closed. And Hotel receptionist informed they just left couple of minute before.
We were totally lost what is going on. We tried to call all possible number to connect with Budget from reservation confirmation page. Even we tried calling number which was posted on door. But some number was even not working or going on voice message etc. and customer service from Budget's answer was, "this is Costco booking and we do not have such booking. Contact Costco".
We tried calling Costco and we did not got any support to get hold of Budget truck rental. Even they hang-up phone instead of transferring to manager or supervisor.
Somehow one person could got our reservation. And he told, if office is closing at 4pm, he can not do anything.
finally we took help from local Costco warehouse manager, they ware trying to help us but Budget and online Costco travel was not helpful to them either.
After 2-3 hours of our struggle, we finally came to home and booked U-Haul in night for Saturday pick-up at 10:00AM. I am very impressed with U-Haul, they called 9:45am on Saturday that our truck is not available at our choice location but they will arrange as soon as possible. And they provided confirmation for 2:30PM pickup. And they even texted earlier that truck is ready and we can pick up earlier.
When we were talking, some customer service people were acting like we are speaking some Greek language. This time we felt they are doing purposely to give hard time.
During all such calls, some customer service person even cancelled our reservation instead of getting truck from other location or asking same location to give truck early in the morning.
Somehow we got truck and reached to destination to pick-up our stuff. We stayed overnight whatever hotel we got near destination. So in morning half we can load our stuff in truck. You know, how you get last minute hotel booking etc.

Absolutely horrendous experience. I rented a 26’ truck for a cross-country move, and both doors failed to completely close. The passenger side door, where my 7 yr old was seated, swung open on a left-hand turn. Luckily he was buckled in, but this truck was an extreme safety hazard. After getting our 2000 square ft house loaded into the truck, the “check transmission” light came on, and we weren’t about to cross-load our entire house on to another truck.

I ordered a car dolly to tow a car, and was “upgraded” free of charge to a car hauler. They parked the 26’ truck and trailer across the street in another parking lot and left me to check all of it by myself. Obviously I had to wait to get home to check the brake lights on the trailer with my son, which did not work. The wiring harness was severed, so I had to fix that myself, and even then, only one brake light worked. During the drive across the country, one of the ratchet straps for the tires continued to unwind by itself, leaving my car unsecured for stretches at a time.

I called and documented all of these issues with customer service, to which I was told they couldn’t do much until the order was closed. I called back 1/4/21 to talk about the issues since I have returned the truck, and was hung up on 3 times by customer service, and then left on hold to talk to a supervisor for 4 hours. I finally hung up and called back immediately, and customer service is closed. They left me on hold and then closed for the day.

From a military family and several military friends that have moved extensively, this is by far the worst experience we’ve ever had and the worst customer service we’ve encountered.

This is the worst company for customer service. No one wants to take responsibility for anything or do their job. I rented a truck in Orlando FL to drive to Kingsport TN. The truck broke down (transmission) in S Carolina at 10:30am. I called the emergency service number on my contract. Took me forever to get through to a human. They told me they would be out to repair it in 20-30 min. 30 min later they call me to tell me they would just send out another truck instead and a professional moving team to transfer my belongings from my original truck to the new truck. They said it would be 60-90 min. At 2 hours I called them they gave me a 3 hour ETA. I waited a total of 5 hours before the truck got there. Still no moving team. They got there a half hour later. Looking like a couple of drug addicts. They started throwing my stuff from 1 truck to the other breaking all kings of my stuff. I had to yell at them a few times. Next thing I know the 2 of them break out into a fist fight in the back of the truck while there in the middle of transferring my stuff. So I call the police then I call the budget company. When I finally get through to them they tell me if I want them to stop moving my stuff they can send someone else out in about 2 hours. It's already 5pm. I just want to get home at this point. They tell me they will refund me my money when I return the truck due to all the trouble I went through. All I had to do was talk to the people at the return site. I held up to my end of the contract. Even though I was held up for over 7 hours, I returned the truck on time with a full tank of gas. But no one was there to recieve the keys. No one was there for me to talk to about the refund. I had to put the keys in a drop box. I tried to call the company today and just got a run around. I don't recommend this company to anyone. Very bad customer service from the start.

I’m not surprised that this business has 100% negative reviews, and they don’t seem to care – I don’t know where to begin… I rented a van to move house from the Preston site in Melbourne. I was told that a $400 bond would be taken and that this would be refunded within 10 business days. A bond of over $500 was taken, as well as the fee for the hire, both on the day I rented the van. The bond payment was returned the next day, giving me the impression that all payments/refunds were done and dusted. A week later, Budget helped themselves to another payment without warning, putting my bank account into overdraft. I called the Preston office to discuss, and spoke to “Steven”. He was extremely rude, wouldn’t allow me to speak, then after raising his voice at me and talking over me, he actually HUNG UP ON ME!!! I called back and Steven answered again, admitted that he had in fact hung up on me, then continued to be rude and argumentative. And this is a frontline staff member representing the brand??? I tried to submit feedback via the website feedback form but conveniently, the form does not work. I then received a call from the “admin office” who gave me another email address to send my feedback to – no response. I then called the call centre and waited in the queue for 20 minutes, but nobody answered. I was on my lunch break and couldn’t continue to wait, so no joy there either… a message sent via facebook has not yet been answered… Is there anyone there who actually cares??? Customer service wise, this is the most disgusting, appalling experience I have ever endured.

Then there’s the vehicles themselves. The van I hired was dirty inside – crumbs all over the seats, and the whole time I had it, there was a door alarm going off ( I checked the doors a few times – definitely all closed!)

Needless to say I will not be wasting my time or money with budget again. I’d rather pay more and not have to go through this experience again!

Please people, avoid this company.
Police have confirmed, that this car has been hacked by using some machine with the codes.
I assume this company is cooperating with some gangs, tracking a customers and then stealing everything. Especially when you drive from the airport.
Useless, poor customer service- shambolic company.

They also like to add some extra charges when you bring the car back- with no explanations. We have received also some bill for £150 and until now I have no idea for what, even when I paid extra insurance for damages, crash etc.

This company is criminal breaking the law!

Please avoid. You will be hacked at some point or charged for nothing!!!!

Missed my move window because they didn't have a truck that I reserved two weeks out. dumb$$$ at the front just blamed her computer.

I was lured into Budget Truck Rental by an advertised rental rate of $19.95 per day. Before leaving the office I had paid $127.81, which included insurance and an appliance dolly. About a month later, I received a bill from Budget for an additional $425 in damages to the truck. First of all, I had the truck for six hours and returned it in exactly the same condition I received it. Secondly, I purchased insurance, which I tend to think is specifically for covering damage, which again, there was none. I’m deeply disappointed in Budget’s mode of operandi. It is truly sad when a business resorts to deception and then attempt to pilfer their customers.

The biggest nightmare ever.My nightmare stared out from the minute I picked up the Budget truck,the truck was filthydirty,cooffee cups left inside candy wrappers,crumbs all over and dirty everywhere[I sent a bunch of pictures earlier] ,but i needed to get to Flordia to close on my house by Moday 11am so I took it anyway.I packed my stuff Saturday after I got the truck and left Sunday morning at 4am. After 3 hours into my trip my phone went dead which was plugged into the ciggarette lighter my phone was what i was using for navigation .I got off the road and got another chargerout of my car which was on the trailer behind the truck and plugged it in didn't work then I plugged them both in my car while it was running and they both worked fine the ciggarette lighter outlet in the truck DID NOT WORK now my phone was dead and i had no way to navigate.I finally found a gas station that would let me plug my phone and called your 800 number and was put on hold every time I tried this 5 times I.m sure you have call recors from 8-12-18 because it said that calls would be recorded.After wasting 45 minutes I finally found a gas station that sold maps.I don't know if you have ever driven a 16ft truck while pulling a car carrier trying to read maps NOT SAFE and almost impossiable.After driving 20 hours and only making it to Macon Georgia because I had to stop constantly to read and check maps so I didn't get which I did a few times I came to the realaztion that I would never make my closing .According to google maps the whole trip should have only taken 24 hours. I checked into a hotel in Macon .In the morning I got up and it took me 12 more hours of driving to reach Cape Coral Flordia.I missed my closing and had to wait till friday 8-17-18 to close on my house and had to stay in a hotel for 4days just great.I could not move my stuff in until Saturday and returned the truck on Sunday and showed the gentleman there that the ciggarette lighter outlet did not work but I still got charged for an extra day on top of all the mess you created for me.Thank you very much for nothong a very very very very UNHAPPY customer.Scott Rufer

If I could give negative stars to Budget, I would. I've never, ever been treated so rudely, met so many people who were incompetent, didn't give a single crap about their job, or were just plain a-holes.

I booked a budget truck about a month ago. About an hour before pickup, a guy from my original location (Chapel Hill, NC) calls me and tells me that "oops, the truck broke down, and can I pick it up at this other location", which was 35 minutes away from where I was. I didn't mind getting it elsewhere, but asked him to please move the reservation closer to where I was right now. And then proceeded to give him the exact location (a dealership), road we were on, and the region of nearby city of Raleigh for good measure. Guy calls back and tries to send us to another location even further out of the way. So we tell him that the first place was preferable and that we'll get there about an hour later than the original pick up time. He says the truck will be waiting for us.

Skip to that time... We just drove the extra 35 minutes to the Northgate, Durham location, get there, and the guys there have never heard of us and don't even have that kind of truck in the inventory. I try to call the Chapel Hill guy, but he's already closed, apparently without ever checking whether the other location had the truck actually available or making sure his client would be attended to. After trying to reach him for awhile, we finally reach a dispatcher. At this point it's 4:30pm, peak traffic hour (the original reservation was for 2).

The dispatcher sends us to another location in Raleigh, J&R Auto Group, 30 minutes away, saying that we need to get there before it closes at 5... we ask them to make sure that this person is ready for us, and they say that they are waiting. We literally get to this place at 5:00. (To boot, this place is literally like 5 minutes away from where this whole journey started, so we could've avoided all this driving if only the guy from the original CH place had actually spent twenty seconds looking for a convenient pick up place). Anyway, we pull in and see that the place is already closed down and the guy is walking away to his car. He sees us pulling in and starts walking faster. I jump out of the car and run to him, at which point this a-hole, I kid you not, runs to his car, jumps in, and tries to speed away ACROSS THE GRASS to get away from the customers he has to serve. He can't pull into the road, though, because of all the traffic, so I catch up to him running and he pulls down his window. I explain how we've been sent all across town, it's been hours, and we're desperate... can't he please please help? He's been told about us and asked to wait, how could he leave now? The guy basically says "I close at 5, it's 5. I have someone to pick up. Sorry." And drives off. Who the hell does that? How can you care so little about your business?!

So at this point we're left at this dinky closed place, still with no truck. I try to call the dispatchers again, literally wait 20 MINUTES for them to pick up. I start to tell the guy that "I've had the most frustrating experience with budget today", and the dude sighs and HANGS UP! I didn't curse at him or yell at him, although I probably sounded plenty frustrated, so what gives? I mean budget, how low are your standards that you hire people who hang up on the customer to work in customer service? It's just beyond belief.

Now we're at a loss for what to do, and we decide to turn around and go back to the Northgate place, since it had the only two decent human beings working at budget. We get there and they actually now have the truck we need, but can't pull up our reservation because it's been marked as "not picked up in time". Skip another 40 minutes and a supervisor in cust. service... We finally get our truck at 7pm. That's 5 hours and 3 dealerships late, if you're counting. Budget offers us $40 off; I later realize half of that gets slapped back on in fees that weren't on the reservation before. It's just cherry on top of the sunday. Glad you value 5 hours of your customer's time and horrible stress with $20, which we've already spent on gas driving back and forth... Can't wait to spread the word about budget on every possible platform and make sure no one has this experience with them, because no one should be subjected to this treatment when they're already going through the stress of moving.