Complaint Review: Budgt Rental Truck - Wichita Falls Texas

Leter to Budget which helps sum up everything:

To whom it may concern:

My husband, Pierre , and I rented a Budget truck and trailer on August 3rd, 2006. We had several problems with the trailer which I will explain. The brakes on the trailer were bad and were locked up the entire trip, therefore we got 3 miles to the gallon from Portland, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona. All this started when one of the tires was completely blown so we waited for Budget to come and change the tire. We then continued on our trip and two more tires had blown with the fourth one just about to. At that time we were located on I40 between Barstow and Needles with 60 to 80 miles in either direction to the nearest town. This was is in the Mojave desert. We called at 10 am to have the tires changed. It took two hours for someone to come and change them. At that time the man who changed our tires noticed the brakes were rusted out and locked up. So Budget had repeatedly told us they were sending someone on their way to replace the trailer. We let emergency roadside assistance and customer service know we had no water, no food, 3 cats, and it was over 100 degrees outside sitting in the Mojave desert on the side of the freeway, which is very unsafe in itself. We were told that we would receive a phone call in 15 minutes. Every few hours we were told someone will be in contact with us in 15 minutes. That was very much not the case. We waited patiently and after no phone call from Budget and a many hours later, we called Budget again to find out NO progress has been made. We were not allowed to leave our location because we were told that if we damage the trailer we are responsible for it, which could incur a cost of $4000.00. We do not have that financial ability so of course we did not risk it. Hours went by and at the 10 hour mark of being in the desert stranded with no water and 3 cats we decided to call the police. They were very efficient and said they could get help out to us immediately but it would cost us several hundred dollars. Again we are unable to fulfill that financial responsibility, besides the fact at this point it was not our responsibility it was Budgets responsibility. So at the 12 hour mark of sitting in the desert, we called again and were told that it would be morning time before they could send out help because they had stopped working on the problem. By this time we were hungry, extremely thirsty, and livid beyond expression as you can imagine with our life and our cats lives in danger. We had no choice but to drag the trailer 80 miles to the next nearest town to get shelter, food and water. We had to wait till the next day and spend more money and time on food and lodging. We have spoken to numerous customer service people at Budget since then that have expressed their shock that we were treated in this manner. We have been told that the truck and trailer, gas, lodging, and food will be reimbursed. This is the most immoral treatment I have ever experienced with ANY company. We have printed out our bank statements and have highlighted gas, food, lodging, and the truck expenses. At this point we expect full reimbursement not only because this was complete neglect of your customer but also because we have been promised by several customer service representatives that we will be reimbursed in full. All of our calls and requests have been documented in our file with your company with not only the road side assistance but the customer service department and the police local to the area we were stranded.

Please contact us as soon as there is further information as to the next step needed to be taken regarding this matter.

Thank you for your time,

Cheryl

phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.

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