Budget Truck Rental

Do not bother with renting from THIS company. Budget’s principle is lacking. They’re unethical + just darn crappy. Made a booking online for a certain amount. Got to their ‘rental office’ and was charged over four times the original booking. After I signed, I noticed the discrepancy and alerted the agent. She said since she’s about to close she’ll deal with the correction when I return the rental. Well, when I returned the rental, I was told it was too late to make any changes. I called their c/​s to try to rectify the issue, but was given the run-​around + later told the same thing. Suffice to say, I didn’t get a resolution. I’ll never use budget. What a dupe by a so-​called business.

My husband and I had a 5:00PM pick-​up scheduled and arrived at 4:45PM. After being heckled by the homeless/​wasted/​high riff raff that surround the place, we were told that it was now «after hours» so to get the truck from them we would need to pay a «fee.» The fee had to be in cash and on the spot. After arguing with the owner (?) we finally threatened to call the police at which time we were finally given the truck and could get the heck out of there. THIS PLACE IS SCARY AND FULL OF THIEVES, DO NOT GO HERE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A SINGLE WOMAN.

I should have paid more attention to the Unilocal reviews, but the online reservation process was easy and cheap.
I should have suspected something wasn’t right when my confirmation calls on Monday and Tuesday went unanswered and transferred directly to Budget’s main line, which informed me to try calling back the next day.
I should have been uneasy when I called to confirm on Wednesday and the man answering the phone said to call back the next day after 9:00 and that no one was there.
When my first call on Thursday went unanswered, I figured I’d call back and get someone later in the day, but no big deal. After all, confirmation calls are basically a courtesy, right? I called again about 30 minutes later. Here’s the script:
Budget: Hello this is Budget truck rental.
Me: Hi. I’m calling to confirm pickup for a sixteen foot truck tomorrow morning at nine am.
Budget: No, we don’t have any trucks.
Me: Excuse me?
Budget: We don’t have trucks.
Me: There must be some mistake. I have a reservation form sitting in front of me that says I’m picking up a truck tomorrow morning at nine.
Budget: No, we don’t have a truck. You can call customer service.
So I called customer service. After spending a short while going through automated menus and then waiting on hold, I got through. It’s now about 10:30 am. After being told that the reservation is only ‘subject to availability’ and in no way a guarantee of the truck actually being there, I was told that their people would look for another truck in the area and get back to me within two hours. I explained that I had already hired movers to help me load the furniture, so it was very important that they let me know as soon as they could whether they could honor the reservation.
Two hours later: no call. Back to customer service. Same menus. Same hold. This time the customer service agent was very apologetic. She didn’t know why they hadn’t called me, but assured me that they would get back to me within two hours from that point, and that while they were looking everywhere, there was really no guarantee there would be a truck of any size at all, let alone one big enough for me to move my entire apartment. Also, because the reservation does not constitute a contract (see small print below emailed reservation), Budget is of course not liable to pay my additional expenses incurred by their error, and in fact has not made an error at all, merely a good-​faith effort to find me a truck that may or may not be the size I reserved, may or may not be available at the rate I reserved it at, and may or may not exist within walking, biking, or public transit distance of my home.
I called Penske and got a truck for tomorrow morning in about fifteen minutes. It’s a little more expense than budget was, but the price is locked in and they confirmed that it will be waiting for me at noon. I’ll still need to work around changing my appointment with the movers, but at least Penske has my back. Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks the savings at Budget DC are worthwhile. They are not.
Do not rent a truck from Budget.
In closing, I’d just like to point out that the headline of the email Budget sent me two weeks ago was: «Thank you for renting at Budget Truck! Your truck is reserved!» To paraphrase a wiser man than I, I don’t think they know what the word «reserved» means.

This place is a sorry excuse for a budget rental agency. After the Silver Spring location didn’t have my truck I reserved 3 months earlier, they transfered me to this location to get a truck. After finding the place through the streets of NE DC, I was in for a surprise. The truck rental place is located in a hybrid grocery store consisting of bulletproof glass, a cell phone store, a sorry excuse for a convenience store, and budget rental… all in one big room. After speaking with the budget guy (who sucks btw), he kept trying to convince me to get insurance and finally he stopped asking after saying no about 10 times. Then he gets the truck for me… going through the inspection, he doesnt mark all of the places I say there are damage saying that it isn’t significant enough. He then gives me my receipt and goes back into the store. I climb into the truck and it is full of dust and cigarette ash. Worst budget experience ever…

This is without exaggeration the worst retail experience of my life. When I returned the van I had rented, in the condition I had rented it, the two grifters who work here began to accuse me of having damaged the vehicle. The paperwork I had indicated that the damage was preexisting, but they shouted at me, calling me a liar, saying I was stupid, refusing to close out my rental and demanding I leave the premises. I immediately called the national office who got back me to a week later to say no damage was reported and I was charged the THREE DAYS I had the van. I DID NOT HAVE THE VAN 3 DAYS. Their grift was to think I would be relieved that they didn’t charge me for damage I didn’t do and allow them to over bill me.
After multiple calls to the national office I got my money refunded. I am upset that the national office did not offer me anything in return for this experience. Under no circumstances should you rent from this location.

Absurdly bad. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a reservation, but they have a room for him?

The absolute WORST rental truck experience I’ve ever had, and we were just dropping off the truck. It took us nearly 2 hours to just get someone to help us. This is after both my car and our truck was struck by another truck trying to park in the street. There are no parking signs along the street, but the employee told us to wait there after he yelled at us for pulling into his parking lot. The employee also straight-​out refused to help us after the accident and had no idea what to do.
In addition, I broke up a fight between one of the employees and another customer who had been standing in line for longer than us. It was complete chaos.
AVOID at all costs.

Too tired to write a long review but I think everyone should know this before even thinking about renting from this Budget Dealer:
My letter to Customer Service:
«Hi there,
Please do follow up with me in regards to the complaint and any actions which may be taken. In addition to the dealer being dishonest about insurance being mandatory at $ 28, I wanted to let you know that he did not have any signs posted within his liquor/​convenience store that read BUDGET. I also had to enter behind the cashier’s register and through the plastic bulletproof doors for him to check me in. I thought this was very strange and unprofessional.
My boyfriend and I both truly believe he was trying to take advantage of us by nearly tripling the price we received on the internet. I would not be surprised if he has done this to several other people before.
Thank You»
If you are looking to rent a truck in the area, go with U-​Haul which is just a few blocks up the street. The Budget dealership is NOT worth your time.