Budget Truck Rental Sucks

On August 14, 2010, we rented a 16-foot truck (No. 664450) in Harrisonburg, VA with the intention of being in Payson, UT on the 22nd of August. On the Sunday the 15th, as soon as we got on the freeway and reached 60 miles per hour, the truck began swaying from side to side in a violent manner. I was fighting to keep the vehicle upright and trying to stop the harmonic motion with compensatory steering, but it was almost a losing battle; braking seemed to make things worse. Rolling a fully-loaded van at 60 on a busy freeway would have been death. As it was, we just about had heart attacks anyway - but we were thankful to have been spared death or disaster. To say the least, this was terrifying.

After we got pulled over and calmed down a bit, we called Budget Roadside Assistance, and got the answer that a dispatcher would call us back in 30 minutes to tell us what to do. We decided to trundle ahead to the next exit - slowly. On the way, we found that keeping the truck at 45 or below made it possible to control the swaying, even though any uneven pavement would begin the rocking again. Budget's dispatcher called back in an hour and a half, and told us that there was really nothing we could do until Monday morning. We chose to continue at minimum speed, andd made it as far as Moorefield, WV that night.

The following morning we got on the road and slowly continued northward toward Keyser, WV, where we stopped for lunch and called Roadside Assistance again. We asked them to arrange for a repair stop along our route Northward; sadly, our request was ignored, and an hour later we were told we could take the truck for repairs to Truck Enterprises, Inc. in Burlington, WV, which was South of Keyser. When we arrived – after 90 minutes and 45 miles of trying to find the place – we were told that

a) they wouldn’t be able to help us because they were too busy - and they had clearly explained this to the dispatcher on the phone, and
b) they don’t even work on moving vans – only semis.

Why in the world would your dispatch team send us to a repair shop that they knew couldn’t assist us? This makes no sense at all.

Dismayed and disgusted, we called Roadside Assistance, and asked for a repair location Northward on our route. We were once again told we had to wait for a dispatcher, and continued on our way. By the time we had phone connectivity again, we had passed through Maryland and were back in West Virginia at the Bruceton Mills rest stop. At that point I called once more and was told there was a repair shop 60 miles behind us – again our request for a repair shop on our route was ignored. We chose to carry on, overnighting in Pittsburgh and heading the next morning for Detroit, where we had friends with whom we could stay while the vehicle was being worked on. Roadside Assistance set us up an appointment with Budget of Livonia, where we arrived at 8:15 AM on Wednesday morning.

A brief examination by the people at Budget determined:

a) The rear left and right springs were completely de-arced.
b) Right and left radius arm bushings were worn out.
c) All 4 ball joints were loose.
d) Front tires were worn as a result of 1 and 2.
e) The rear left and right spring rear shackle bushings were worn out.

Based on the service sticker in this vehicle, it was maintained in June. None of these problems had developed overnight, and all of them should have been caught at the last scheduled maintenance. In addition, the brakes were extremely soft and I had to stand on them to get the truck to come to a stop. This truck should never have been let anywhere near a road, let alone rented out. It was both un-roadworthy and unsafe.

The people at Budget of Livonia are to be commended. They bent over backwards to make sure we were taken care of, and determined that the truck could not be repaired. Once again we began dealing with Roadside Assistance to arrange for a load swap team. We returned to our friends’ home in Wyandotte, and were told by the dispatcher that a load swap team would be on-site at between 2 and 3 PM.

At 3:41 I was called by Moving Staffers and told that they could only be at the truck at about 7:00 PM. I told them that this was too late, and asked if they could arrange for another team to come help us. When they called back at 4:08 they said that a two-man team was on its way and would be there at 5:30, so we headed off for Livonia again. And, their fine two-man team arrived at about 7:00 PM, claiming that they were lost and unable to find the address, even with a GPS. Once the two got to work, they were able to swap our load in about 2½ hours. I’m so grateful for our friends in Wyandotte who shuttled us back and forth and put us up – if not for them, my wife and I would have been stuck at the Livonia Budget outlet from 8:30 AM until 10 at night.

For what it’s worth, the 24-foot truck they put us in had problems of its own. At idle, the entire cab would vibrate loudly; on certain types of pavement the truck would buck like a stallion, making it impossible to rest or read; the interior cargo lights were broken; the air conditioner would cut out at random intervals; and the headlight switch would fall into the dashboard, making it very hard to extract.

We contacted Budget and reported our experience. They offered to pay our expenses for the three days we were delayed, and refund 30% of the rental price. Despite letting them know that this was unsatisfactory for having put us in a truck that could have killed us, that's all they would do. They made their choice - and now we're going to tell everyone we know to stay far away from this frightening company.