My husband and I moved a bunch of our furniture from Austin to Portland in 2004 in a Budget Truck and it was a great experience. But never again after the latest experience with them in Feb of 2009 to drive to San Francisco. We reserved a 10' truck and my husband arrived on a Friday late in the afternoon to pick-up the truck we reserved. He signed all the paperwork and paid with his credit card only to find out once he walked outside to retrieve the truck that 'all they had available was a 15' truck! The representative, Zack, failed to mention this piece of valuable information until after my husband signed and paid for the rental; Zack later denied this to the 1-800 representative when I was complaining and she asked him about the circumstances. What is the point of making a reservation if they 'can't guarantee your reservation.' By the way, Uhaul guarantees their reservations. We already bought airplane tickets back to Portland and the whole move pivoted around the fact that we had a truck to move the furniture in, so my husband begrudgingly took the truck feeling taken advantaged of. Since we didn't have enough stuff to fill a 15' truck, our stuff shifted in an unexpected sudden stop on the freeway in California due to a car deciding to take a last minute exit, and caused our stuff to shift around in the truck considerably. Later we found out that an irreplaceable family heirloom, an Italian mirror my mother purchased in Italy over 30 years ago was broken in the shifting incidence that probably would not have occurred if we had the 10' truck we reserved. Not to mention the 15' truck gets only 7-9 miles per gallon compared to the 10' truck gets 12 miles to the gallon, so we had to pay more in gas for the truck that we did not want in the first place. They only charged us for a 10' truck as a courtesy but I still feel that doesn't compensate for the cost of the gas alone. I feel very unhappy with my experience with Budget and will never rent with them!
Pros: NONE
Cons: No guaranteed reservations; Rude, arrogant customer service representatives
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