Budget Truck Rental

I received a coupon for Budget Truck Rental in the mail from the US Postal Service when I changed my address. The reservation went through, and then the Oakland location called at the last minute to tell me that they don’t have a rental for me and they are «very sorry». The reason was they got some other large fleet customer. I tried to call their 800 number, and couldn’t understand a darn thing an overseas call center «customer service» dude was saying, and he ended up hanging up on me. Never ever again.

Never. Again.
I haven’t had this bad of an experience since I can remember. I get it, part of it is not the shop’s fault… it seems as though the Budget online reservation system doesn’t really communicate with each individual shop. Be warned that inputting your credit card info and a confirmation email mean absolutely nothing. This all would have been somewhat tolerable had the staff not been mind-​blowingly rude.

Absolutely never rent a truck from Budget. I was scammed on insurance. They told me it cost $ 26, which was absolutely fine. I have never rented a truck or car before so I didn’t think anything of it. Turns out it was $ 26/​day and I had the truck for 8 days! He knew all of this and took advantage. After a phone call to corporate who did not care at all, I am completely disgusted with this company. Who rips off a student? I can’t pay my rent, but oh, their hands are tied.
NEVER AGAIN!

Do NOT EVER rent from Budget, ever. «Sorry sir we’re overbooked we don’t have your truck.» Not a great sentence to hear on moving day.

My experience was not as bad as the other one star reviews, but I can see how it could have been. The office was closed when I arrived so I waited a little. Everything else went well, but I can’t get over the fact that while this is a Budget location– it is a franchise and the owner invests nothing in it. They seem to think that even hiring someone to answer the phone is an unnecessary extravagance.
It appears the owner is the only employee really– gives the the whole thing a Faulty Towers feel to it. And I feel that if something went wrong the Monty Pythons joke would be on the customer!
Not recommended– this business just can’t back you up if something goes wrong! Added a star for the convenient downtown Oakland location.

I’ve rented from O’Neill 3 years in a row for Burning Man and never had any problems. They keep my camp’s name on file and give a discount for repeat business, and the structure the rate around mileage rather than time for the event, which makes sense because the trucks go there, park for the duration, and return.
O’Neill also offers a convenient no-​questions-​asked cleanup rate of $ 99, which seems pricey, but after 10 days in the desert, an eight-​hour drive home, and unloading everything, it’s pretty nice to not have to clean and detail a vehicle full of and covered in pernicious dust and who-​knows-​what-​else.
Sure, the location could be less sketchy and the operation could be more professional, but ultimately this place is reliable and inexpensive and services an event that’s often shunned by other businesses.

After making my reservation online with Budget, I was called back and told «We won’t have a truck for you.» I had to scramble and checked other locations so I could keep my rate. My initial phone calls to O’Neill to get a rental truck in July were challenged by the question «Is this for Burningman?» When I said that it was not — I was informed that «I’m sorry, I can’t help you — I have to keep these for people going to Burningman.»
WHAT?
We chatted a bit more and I explained my predicament — and promised that if he could get me a truck, I would take good care of it. The man made good and called me back a week or so later and said «I can get you a truck!»
When I went down to pick it up before my planned departure on 8/​19, I confess — I was skeptical. Just trying to figure out where to go was a challenge. I thought it was some sort of junkyard with a lot of non Budget vehicles that were parked in this large lot — including a crazy two part articulated bus! I called several times and finally — the vendor came out and we conducted our transaction. As mentioned by other reviewers — yep — he’s on the phone ALL the time.
Finally, after about an hour from the time we arrived to driving away — I had a rental truck. The truck was clean and had no mechanical problems on my 2400 mile one-​way trip to Cleveland.

Rented a small truck for Burning Man, which is usually a PITA as you know. I’ve used many «regular» rental places in the past 10 years.
This is *not* a regular rental place. I can imagine people having a bad experience here, but I did not.
Turned up, waited around a little while until owner returned (yes, to his converted hot-​dog stand, but there was seating and free water)
He rented a van to the folks in front of me in line, and it appeared to have an issue with the battery. He sent his guy off to get a new battery for it, but this did not seem a good omen.
Our turn came, he pulled out a perfectly fine looking Budget Truck, just as described. We walk around it to inspect, he says «I don’t care about minor scratches at all, but keep the interior and vents clean» and some other stuff. Reasonable.
We start the truck, it’s in good condition. We pack our shit, drive to the playa, have a great week, drive back. No mechanical problems with truck at all; just a regular rental in perfectly good condition.
We cleaned it (we do a good job, it was sparkling) and returned it full of gas and he was welcoming, friendly and happy with everything. He offered to drop us off @ Bart also (short walk actually)
While I have yet to check my bank statements for any bad news, our experience with a Burning Man 2011 truck rental was flawless and he was a nice guy.
I can’t guarantee your experience will be good and it seems like others had a bad time, but the truck we got was fine.

I got scammed here.
I rented a one way truck rental from Los Angeles to Oakland.
couple of days later, I see an unreasonable charge on my credit card of $ 129.20 from Budget truck rental Oakland, CA.
I called the customer service and they told me I went over my mileage allowance (469 mile) and it was recorded I drove 667mile (end millage record: 129 802). I told her that’s impossible and to google map the milage from los angeles to oakland but she just kept telling me they can’t do anything since next person who rented the truck had same starting mileage as my ending mileage. I asked to talk to her supervisor and she didn’t connect me to the supervisor.
I check my receipt and the Oakland employee’s hand written millage recording clearly saids 129 510 mile.
The employee from Oakland was also very unprofessional beside the shady hotdog stand office under the freeway. He was on his cell phone the whole time having a personal conversation while he was checking my truck, didn’t say a word to us so I asked if we are good to go, and he just waved his hand suggesting «leave».
I have a receipt that he wrote down the ending millage as 129 510.
the last three digits are completely different. Total SCAM.
I’m still dealing with this problem with the company to get my money back.
Don’t do business from here. I also recommend different rental truck company since over the phone customer service is bad as well.

I’m glad I rented a truck from here before I read these horrible Unilocal reviews.
I made a reservation for renting a Budget Truck at Oneill’s because it was the closest rental place to my house and close enough to Bart that I could get there without a car.
Yes, it’s under the freeway overpass and you meet the business owner at his hot dog stand and on the surface it’s kinda shady. My parents and I were a bit weirded out because there wasn’t a check-​in counter like one would see at an airport rental car place, but he seemed very nice, and we did see several 16′ or 20′ Budget Trucks parked on the lot, and I needed a truck, so I stuck around. He was showing another customer how to operate the lift on a truck while we waited. Then when it was my turn, he had to go get the truck from another parking lot. It took maybe 15 minutes for the him to come back with my 10′ truck. It was newish, only had 8000-​some miles, and was in decent shape. I signed the papers and drove off.
No problems with the truck, returned it this morning and was charged what the contract said (base price + miles), and it came out to a little under $ 90.
Besides the wait when he had to get my truck from the other lot, my rental went very smoothly.

AVOID ONEILL Trucking/​Budget Truck Rental at all costs.
The truck that they gave us for Burning Man 2010 was in horrible shape – misaligned, screwed up brakes, faulty electrical system – and would die on the freeway going 70 mph. Or at stoplights. When the brakes were applied going downhill, the truck would shudder and lurch out of control. As you know, once you load your camp’s stuff into the truck and hit the road, you’re locked in, with no time to source a new truck, transfer stuff, etc., so we were stuck.
The icing on the cake was four months later, getting a letter from Budget’s legal offices claiming that I’d damaged the truck and that I owed them $ 1,200. If I hadn’t saved all of my paperwork showing that they had identified that damage before I drove off, I’d have had to pay it.
For your own safety, please pay attention to this and the other bad reviews of these guys… I’ve never driven a worse, scarier vehicle. If you DO end up using them, save your paperwork so they can’t later claim that you damaged their vehicle.

This is a review of ONIELL RENTALS DOWNTOWN located at 651 7^th Street in Oakland. I was in a hurry and made the mistake of not checking these reviews before choosing Oniell to rent a truck.
I made an online reservation a couple of days in advance to pick up a truck at 12:30 the following weekend. I showed up at 12:15. There were no employees or anyone there to help customers (the office is literally a converted hot dog stand in a large parking lot). There were actually already 3 parties waiting there — either to drop off a truck or rent one, but no one was there to help. Thinking that the employee may have briefly left for a bathroom break or some other valid reason, I decided to wait a little bit.
The operator of this Budget location merely left a phone number for people to call. I didn’t notice the number pasted on the window until about 12:30, the time of my appointment. I called the number, and to summarize, the guy was totally unprofessional. He asked me to wait until 1pm. He never showed up.
I would avoid this location at all cost. At the end, I’m relieved I didn’t get to rent a truck from this place because reading all the other reviews on here seem to lead to the conclusion that this place is a scam. Seems like this guy overcharges credit cards regularly, and does not guarantee a truck even if you have a reservation.

This guy is an A**hole. I have mistakenly used him twice. Both times he has over charged me for more days than I rented because I quote «I am taking an early day but I will only charge you for today». Then come to find out he charged my credit card for 3 days when I only rented it for a few hours. He runs the truck rental out of a hotdog stand and underneath an overpass. DO NOT GIVE THIS MAN YOUR BUSINESS! I hope he falls victim to the economy or rather victim to people refusing to give him business. I will never waste another second of my energy with this thief.

This is a review of Oniell rentals. If I could give this place negative stars, I would. I rented a truck from them one day for moving. Since they close early on the weekend, they told us to return the truck after-​hours by parking it on the street outside the gate and dropping the keys in the dropbox. We did as instructed, returning the truck later that night. A week or so went by, then I found a charge from Budget on my credit card statement for over $ 400! For a one day rental which should have cost $ 80!
Of course I immediately called them to ask what this charge was for. I got some evasive non-​answers from the guy who answered the phone, saying his «boss would call me back later». I never got a call back. After calling them several times in the next few days and never managing to speak with «the boss», I finally called my credit card company to dispute the charge.
It’s now been several months since that incident. I still haven’t received any answer from Budget stating what they are charging me for, and I am still fighting this charge. Not worth it. My advice: absolutely do not rent from this place. Also, I don’t think I’ll ever use the after-​hours return option at a rental company again, since it leaves you with no legal way to prove the time of return or vehicle condition.

We rented a 15′ Budget Truck from this place (O’Neill Truck Rental in Oakland) after they were advertised through the Burning Man newsletter ‘resources edition’. Hey, great, a truck rental company that caters to Burners AND is cheap?
Sure, it was cheap, but we got a scary deathtrap truck that I’m REALLY surprised we made it home safely in. BEWARE this place.
The 15′ Budget truck we rented was plagued with scary electrical problems: anti-​lock brakes shuddering and jolting the truck from side to side all through the Sierras whenever we hit the brakes (TERRIFYING), the truck randomly dying at idling speeds AND at freeway speeds– many many times during our journey… random trouble lights coming on and off, the engine racing madly for no reason whatsoever, pings and chirps from various warning systems going haywire.
It was a nightmare. The kind of edge-​of-​your-​seat, constant-​attention-​to-​gauges, grasping-​steering-​wheel-​and-​praying-​to-​any-​god-​you-​might-​believe-​in-​atheist-​in-​a-​foxhole, total bullshit that I would NEVER again pay good money to rent. You couldn’t pay ME to drive that truck again.
I would NOT recommend renting from them. It’s one thing to advertise having cheap trucks and renting to Burners, it’s another thing to send out trucks that are scary and unsafe. I’d rather pay the extra $ for peace of mind and a safe truck where we’re not scared as hell rolling through the Sierras.
When we returned the truck, the dude at the sketchy lot who works out of the hot dog cart ‘office’ gave us a song and dance about not knowing of any problems, this is the first time it’s happened, yadda yadda, and gave us some $ off. But it still was NOT worth it.

Honestly, I expected the worst case scenario after reading past reviews. Here’s how it played out in my head: the guy would no-​show for my 12:30 reservation, get there 45 minutes late, give us a truck that would break down on the Bay Bridge, and when I was finally done with it, I’d get charged for mysterious mileage that appeared after I returned it.
It was even worse when I phoned ahead of time to ask about the deposit and return policy, since it first went to a full voicemail box. Then after a few tries, the guy who answered was a little dismissive, and it sounded like he wanted to get off the phone ASAP.
But all went well! Yes, the office is a little shack. At least my truck was functional… somewhat. The right side mirror kept wiggling out of place and I needed my copilot (Charles L.!) to be my eyes on the right side. But all in all, O’Neill got the job done, in maybe the most discomforting way possible.

This review is for Oneill Rentals in Oakland. The rental was for burning man and not for a move. The playa takes a toll on trucks going to the playa and most companies will not rent to burners. Oneill Rentals made it easy on us and helped with special cleaning services to reduce the headache of planning a trip to the burn. We had to wait a little for service, but overall it was a great experience compared to other rentals we have taken in the past.

This was my first time moving without the U-​Haul headache. It was a one way trip so my options were limited to the big name rental companies. After getting estimates Budget was the cheapest. After reading the reviews I was a little worried that I had made the wrong decision but it was great. I never understood why renting a truck was so complicated and now looking back I think U-​Haul takes pleasure in making people suffer.
I got there an hour late for my reservation, went up to the shack/​office, gave them my driver’s license and credit card, signed the paperwork, they pulled the truck out for me and that was it. I was in and out in like 10 minutes.

I rented a Budget 16′ Moving truck from here. It’s actually listed at «Onell Rentals Downtown». I wasted so much time here! literally, time.
I «reserved» a 10′ truck 2 nights in advance through
. I never got a confirmation email so I had to call in to make sure my reservation was done. I get there 15min EARLY (9a pick up). I get to this «dump yard» lookin parking lot and the rental «office» is a taco truck/​hot dog vender looking cart! Which I thought was pretty funny. BUt there is only 1 guy working a line of about 3 customers. I wait for 45min to get to the window and they don’t have a 10′ truck becuase no one returned theres. They do give me a 16′ for the same price, but there were others behind me that went home empty handed cuz they didn’t want a 27 footer…
Move goes fine. I return the next morning ON TIME AGAIN. And of course, it takes another 45min to return the damn truck! AND they messed up on the mileage counter so I had to wait around for some boss guy to show up… he doesn’t show up after 10min so I call him and he fixes the problem over the phone… WHAT A WASTE OF TIME!
Horrible horrible horrible. I wuda reserved a Uhaul if they weren’t all taken that day. Ugh. So frustrating!

I can’t in good conscience give a moving-​related business five-​stars. These are people making money off of my misery. But I can say, that in comparison to U-​haul, Budget rocked my world. I rented a truck for the day to finally remove my furniture from my local public storage (otherwise known as «my parent’s garage») into my new apartment. It cost $ 19.99/day and $ 0.87/mile.
Reasons why my Budget experience was better than my U-​haul experience:
1) Budget’s truck was relatively new. The U-​haul had 150,000+ miles on it. This truck had only 26,000.
2) The ability to use the side view mirrors without rolling down the window and holding the mirror in place.
3) This truck didn’t break down. No transmission issues, speedometer actually worked, side mirrors stayed locked in place, no ABS lights coming on.
4) When I got the truck, the tank was full. That means when you go to fill the tank before returning it, it is easy to know how much gas to put in. I got the U-​haul at 3/8^th’s full. This means you’re either going to get charged for not filling the tank enough, or give U-​haul more gas than they deserve. A$$holes.
One downside — the truck’s max speed was 75 MPH.
Gas rating: 2
One point for being related to moving. One point for regulating the max speed on the truck.