Budget Truck Rental = WANKERS

What happened: I rented a truck from those wankers Budget Truck Rental a few months back for a trip and the truck died in the middle of nowhere, at night, in subfreezing weather. Not only did it take 15 minutes to get through the Emergency line (good thing the damn truck wasn’t on FIRE) but Budget’s bastard CSR belittled and threatened me and told me it was no big deal that I was stuck in the middle of a mesa in subfreezing temperatures. He even asserted that the truck’s lack of maintenance was Ford’s fault! Budget then offered me a whole 20% discount for my troubles via Amex’s lame ass customer service, which I’m not too fond of anymore, either. (Yah, I thought a fucking Platinum card meant better advocacy for Amex members… uh, guess not. Amex can also lick my ass.) They wouldn’t even consider refunding the hundreds extra I spent on gas due to the truck getting half the usual mileage. Oh, because that isn’t their fault, either. Wankers.

I took it up with the BBB Online and got results. If you EVER have trouble with ANY company, take it there. You will get results. I’ve used BBB Online many, many times and it’s worked every time. 8/09: Updated with the actual info: The BBB office that handled this complaint, oddly, was the Tulsa OK office:

Dan Wade
Dispute Resolution
BBB Complaint Department
dwade@tulsabbb.org

The BBB complaint finally hit the desk of a Budget corporate lady who called me and was determined to get my money returned. 8/09: Updated with the actual contact info:
Brenda Waggoner
Budget Truck Rental
2236 Airport Drive,
Wichita Falls, TX 76306
(817) 446-5643
(432) 699-6220 Alt
800-283-4382

Conclusion: I got the final volley from Budget Truck today. The very nice lady in the corporate office called me and sadly told me that all she could get was a 60% refund. She was not happy to report this to me, as she felt I deserved all my money back for the way I was treated. I took the refund, because with the previous one that brings us to about 75% off plus paying for the hotel stay. (Not counting the fuel costs, natch.) I sent Ms Waggoner flowers for doing so much on my behalf. I’m sure she’s been fired because she was FAR too good to work for such slimebags.

I just wanted to make a public post about how horrible Budget Truck Rental is and how badly they treat their customers. They do NOT maintain their vehicles (mine died because all the filters were clogged and the oil was like molasses – it had 36k miles on the original oil filter) nor do the individual Budget leasing franchises know if the vehicle has had maintenance or not. I’ll say this, though: Ford makes one tough as shit truck. That baby drove 2000 miles with clogged filters and low, thick oil. It got shit gas mileage, but it ran until the poor thing misfired from lack of fuel and air.

Budget’s Customer “Service” treated me with disdain, disrespect and threatened to sue me if I dared return the truck on the spot rather than drive it to my destination. When I tried to call Brenda at Budget, her office drones would not even take a message. When she called me back a few weeks later about the BBB complaint, she said she’d not gotten any messages from me. This wonderful lady is the only person at Budget with any sense at all, IMO.

Do NOT use Budget Truck Rental. Not for around the corner. Definitely NOT for cross country. Their trucks are not maintained and the company itself does not give a rat’s ass about you or your safety. They just want your money.

If you need a truck, pay the extra money and get Penske. Penske rocks the house for taking care of their vehicles (every Penske rental place services their trucks ON SITE) and even allowing me to inspect the vehicle’s oil levels and filters prior to rental. They will also pull the maintenance records for you to inspect prior to renting. You really can’t beat that, IMO.

That is all.