Budget Truck Rental: Worst Company Ever

So my wife and I had to move all of our stuff from NYC to the DC-area for our upcoming move. Using movers to do this would have been insane (+$2,000), so we decided to do it ourselves, save some money...

We spent about 3-4 weekends packing our stuff into boxes, being very organized and about a month and a half before our move, "reserved" a 16' bed moving truck from Budget Truck Rental. I'll explain the quotes around reserved later...

I decided to go with Budget because I've heard horror stories about U-Haul (one friend of mine had a truck just die on him mid-move), and Budget was a couple of hundred cheaper than U-Haul (in hindsight, that should have been a warning sign!).

So our well organized plan was to pick-up the truck on Friday in Queens (I took a half day), pack the whole afternoon and evening, wake-up the crack of dawn to bypass any crazy city traffic/closures and take our stuff to a nice storage unit in the DC area... well... that was the plan.

As I mentioned, I "reserved" this truck from Budget about a month and a half ago, and called twice to confirm with the actual place, something I don't think many people do... but I figured that if I was on top of this everything would go smoothly.

So I get to this Budget Truck Rental place in Queens Friday afternoon, and I am immediately worried... only 10' trucks were there, with ~40% of cubic space as the 16' trucks... no way that will work for me. But where's my truck, that I reserved and I confirmed???

Well the guy who worked there (in a wooden shack in some terrible industrial back-lot off of northern blvd) explained to me that all of the 16' trucks were leaving NYC (mass exodus??) and budget wasn't supplying enough trucks... he had one local rental for a 16' truck that a lady was supposed to return at 3/3:30pm (it was 1:30pm at this point, and I was in the middle of queens without a car!)... or he would be glad to offer me a 10' bed truck. I explained to him that there was no way a 10 footer would work for our stuff and we were leaving tomorrow... where the hell was the truck that I reserved!

So then I call Budget truck rental (BTR) custom service... the first layer of customer service told me that he could provide me a list of number to call of local BTR branches to see if they have a 16' truck. WHAT?!?!? YOU MESS UP BY RESERVATION AND NOW I NEED TO CALL AROUND LIKE SOME LUNATIC TO GET A DAMN TRUCK RENTAL?!?!?!?!

He then explained something hidden in the fine print that no one reads:

A reservation only guarantees the rate once confirmed with a credit card deposit, and shows a customer's preferences for a pick-up location, drop-off location, time of rental, date of rental and equipment type.

The pick-up location, drop-off location, time of rental and date of rental selected in a reservation is a preference only and, if a preference selected is not available, Budget Truck Rental ("BTR") reserves the right to offer a customer alternatives.

All equipment selected in a reservation is subject to availability at time of pickup. If the equipment requested is not available, BTR reserves the right to substitute equipment at no additional charge to the customer.

So basically, you aren't even getting a reservation, even though the email I got twice from Budget says "Budget Truck Reservations" and "Summary of Your Reservation"

He went on to explain to me that I reserved a "rate" but not a "truck." Oh, well that's the issue, okay.... WHAT THE HELL IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR COMPANY THEN???? The cherry on top is that if you fail to cancel on them, they'll charge you $50! So where's my $50 from them???

Needless to say, I was upgraded to a customer service manager, who took my details and promised to help me. 1 hour (in this crap whole in Queens) later, he called back... "'great news! I found a 16' bed truck for you, it's only 10 miles away... in Brooklyn!."'

For those of you not from NYC, going from Northern Blvd in Queens on a Friday at 5pm to Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, on a Friday, in the summer, at 5pm, is probably one of the worst things you can try... And of course, this service agent couldn't set the reservation, I had to call this auto repair shop in Brooklyn (3 times, because they put me on hold for 10 minutes) to know if they really had the truck and if I could have it.

Lucky me, out of all of the off-duty taxi cabs on northern blvd on a sunny 90 degree day, one was nice enough to pick me up... Jean, from Haiti, my guardian angel! It took 45 minutes, and I will try to bill and/or sue budget for the cab ride, but he got me to the Brooklyn auto-body shop with about 10 minutes before they closed... funny thing how it took another half hour to get the truck... but nonetheless got it, and brought it into the city.

Now this thing, was never cleaned... had to sweep out crap, dust, a sweater, a few coffee cups and a dirty vacuum cleaner bag (even the vacuum gave up I guess!)

Since we lost the whole day, we decided to put off the move by a day, take our time to pack and then leave. At least we wouldn't get screwed for an extra day, because Budget screws you up-front on out-of-state moves by charging you for 2 days, even if you just need 1! Got lucky here, thanks Budget! ;-)

More on the truck: front driver sun-shade, broken off latch and flailing around (kind of dangerous actually!), the wheel bolts were all rusted over... I guess they've never come off?

The thing... actually I should say, the shit-box would start rattling around 50-55, and the engine struggled even on slight hills (a lot of fun going up a slight hill on I-95 doing a robust 42 mph!).

So we left 4am on Sunday arrived +6 hellish hours later in DC, unpacked, got ready to drop off this bucket of shit. I am jumping over a lot during those 6 hours, but to be honest, I am trying to wipe them from my memory. Driving this thing for 6 hours was about as fun for me as watching a Real Housewives of New Jersey 6 hour marathon... yeah, hell!

I call to confer my drop-off location, just to make sure there are no more issues, I just want to get this thing off my hands, take a shower, nap and have a margarita... But of course, no one answers the phone number listed on the reservation.

We get to the place... it is actually a Budget "office" inside of a Peruvian chicken restaurant. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but the chicken smelled great... the place was a total dive btw.

So armed with my reservation #, keys, full tank of gas, shitbox neatly parked in the parking lot, I figure this is it. Here lady, here are the keys. Thanks for my receipt... goodbye!

But no, Budget isn't so simple... I am waiting about 15 minutes, getting pretty hungry, since it's now 2pm and that chicken smells great, but there's a problem. '"sorry, computer down, trying again,"' says the lady behind the bullet-proof glass. Okay... I go get some papaya juice to "cool off." Damn, that was a really sweet papaya juice... now I am more thirsty.

So the computer continues to do nothing and now I am agitated again. "Lady, the truck is outside, gas full, no accident, here is my reservation... let's go!"

She then explains to me that "computer down," and she needs to leave. She'll finish the return process tomorrow, but, I might be charged $30 extra... WHY?!?!? "Don't worry, I try to fix it."

At this point, I could care less about $30... I wanted to leave, I wanted to get away from Budget Truck Rental and NEVER EVER have anything to do with them again.

Checked my CC and so far, no "extra charge" from these bastards... Should I even both writing them a complaint letter, will they read it? Do they have like a 50 man department to handle all of the complaints they must receive each day?

More importantly, how does this company exist? How do they make a profit, revenue? They don't seem to have a reservation, logistics or CRM system... Forget about a maintenance system! There were 103,000 miles on my truck and I am sure it's never seen an oil change. How is that legal? These trucks are absolute death traps.

If someone can find a worse company than this, let me know, because it will be tough to find!

Rates reserved online do not include applicable taxes, fees, surcharges, additional accessories, protection plans purchased at time of rental, the required refundable deposit, moving supplies or other applicable charges. Charges will be provided at time of pickup.

If a customer needs to cancel or modify a reservation in any way, he/she must contact BTR at least 48 hours before the pick-up date and time listed on the Thank You page and in the confirmation email. A customer must contact either the BTR pick-up location provided on the Thank You page and in the confirmation email or call 1-800-462-8343. Failure to notify BTR in this time frame may result in a $50 Cancellation Fee being charged to the customer's credit/debit card. With a request to modify the pick-up location, drop-off location, time of rental, date of rental and/or type of equipment, the reservation rate may be subject to change.

A Trip to Vegas & Dinner for 2 in the Stern

Okay, now first off, I just want to explain why are we doing a blog about our customer service travails? Well, my wife and I both work very hard, and when we go out to dinner or on a trip and are spending that hard earned money... we actually expect to be treated nicely! But it seems that's often not the case these days. And while it bugs us that lots of people in the service industry act like they may be doing you (the customer!) a favor, we'd like to blog about some of the ridiculous "customer service-related" situations that we get into. Is it because we look really young? Is it because I mainly wears jeans out? (at least they're nice ones from Lucky Brand!) We really can't figure out why, but we tend to get that really crappy table in an empty restaurant more often than not... so let's have a laugh about it! So let's start off with our latest example... we were just out in Vegas this weekend, stayed at the always awesome Venetian Hotel, although a little warning to anyone reading: they now charge a $19/day "resort" fee... hello this is Vegas, not Hawaii, I am going down into your casino to give away my money, why would I pay a $19 fee for that??? Okay, back to my story... On our third night, after being up about $400 for the 3 day trip, we decided not to blow it all away at the now ubiquitous "fancy-pants" steak houses inside of all of the major hotels, but rather go to an old reliable of ours: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville We had an awesome time one year ago in Orlando, and were looking forward to a pile of nachos taller than our heads and tasty tropical drinks... Here's the process there: you can't make a reservation, but they do have priority seating... so we do that. We're waiting up-front, there are two lines side by side, one "priority" one not. Kinda felt bad for the people who were in the "not" line, because they take everyone from the priority side before getting to them, and it looked to be a 45 minute wait on that side... for a cheeseburger! So we are standing there, and then things get a little hairy... the staff isn't really sure what to do, there seem to be a dozen empty tables out there. So they ask the whole priority line (we are second in line, because some fat drunk guy cut us) to move 3 feet back behind a wooden pirate... god forbid we don't or this whole amazing process will just fall apart! Finally a lady comes up to us and basically asks us, "why are you standing here?, "these people are waiting." (pointing to the "not line.") Me: "Well, miss, we called in a priority seating for 8 (it's probably 8:30 now), and the lady in the front told us our table was ready?!?" The waitress grabs two menus and takes us... finally... into the promised land, Margaritaville! Now we are a young couple, married, together... we aren't straight out of college (too long ago to admit)... and she goes ahead and seats us at this table (out of all of the normal empty ones): Yeah, that's the stern of a boat, two seats, facing out! Just perfect for a couple of two!?!?! Well, we ended up moving to a nice normal table and had a blast... but come on, throw the drunk dude in front of us to the back of the boat, maybe he'll even catch something!