U-Haul, U-Suck

[wdfifteen]

Effing U-Haul.
First, their description of their rentals is misleading. A 15' moving van is only 12'3" long unless you measure it at the ceiling. We needed 13 feet, and fortunately I discovered their shrinking 15' trucks after I reserved a 15 footer, but before we left to pick it up, so we had to change it to a 20' truck - for an extra charge.

We needed the truck because MrsWD bought a sewing machine that was 490 miles away and we had to pick it up. The weather wasn't promising, but we thought we could leave Saturday in the Volt, pick the machine up in a rented truck, and have the Volt, the machine, and the truck home by Sunday night - if the weather held as forecast and there were no glitches in our plan.
We reserved a 20' U-Haul truck at our destination, to be picked up Sunday at 7:00AM. We could get to the destination by 9:00, pick it up, and be on our way home by 10:00, we could be home before dark. Ha!
The U-Haul place listed on the reservation didn't open until 9:00 on Sunday. The reservation didn't mention that. It said 7:00 AM. We waited around, but when they open they said the reservation was at another store.
"No, it says clearly THIS address - and it says 7:00AM!"
"Well we don't have it, you have to go the place across town. That's what's in the system."
I called U-Haul and their response was basically "Oops. We reserved it at the other place."
Drive across town only to discover that the other place isn't even open on Sunday. By now we should have been on the road home.
I called again talked to the same weekend manager, somewhere in Arizona, and roasted his ass. He found a truck at yet another place in town, but it was going to cost $98 to return it anywhere near our home because, "scheduling."
After forcefully pointing out how grotesquely inappropriate it was to charge me $98 for THEIR frikkin' mistake I got the all the charges waved, all the upgrade fees waved, got the rate for the 15' truck that should have been adequate if they didn't lie about the size of their trucks. And I got a free car charger for my iPhone. This was small consolation.
The drive home was brutal. Nine and a half hours in rain, freezing rain, fog, freezing fog, snow, and a forecast that it was only getting to get worse by the hour.
We made it home at midnight, exhausted and still pissed at U-Haul, but it got even better. When I returned the truck this morning they wanted to charge me a cleaning fee because there was snow in the truck (I wouldn’t track snow into the truck if you cleaned your damn parking lot) and they tried again it charge me $98 for not dropping it at a place 110 miles from my home.
I had to make a third call to a manager to roast her ass before I finally got out of there paying what was on the original reservation. I'm just waiting for a customer satisfaction survey email.

[Sooner or later]

Their site clearly states truck dimensions.

[KFC911]

Then... nevermind ?

[dad911]

15' long sewing machine?

[herr_oberst]

U-Haul. Geez, is there one single franchise of that company In all of America that doesn't suck? Does corporate do any investigation of the chain of stores AT ALL? They've limped along like this for years. Service as bad as that starts from the top. What's their motto? "Not as expensive as Penske and it shows"?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

Their site clearly states truck dimensions.

Their site does. Their reservations people don't. I was lucky I went to the site after reserving the 15' truck.

[Dantilla]

Penske trucks are much newer and nicer.

U-Haul is a franchise. I've rented enclosed trailers a couple times
One place has stellar customer service, another time they sent me to another location across town. The second place's customer service was lacking.

I found it much cheaper to rent the trailer locally, tow it empty one way and bring it back full than a one way rental.
One way rentals are expensive. "Local " rental is $30/ day.
$60 for two days was far less expensive than a long distance one way trip

[ckelly78z]

So you drove the Volt down and got the sewing machine, but wanted to drive home with the Volt, and the sewing machine inside of a box truck ?

[Scott Douglas]

Sounds like she bought a quilting machine frame.

Having worked at a gas station that also rented U-Hauls a long long time ago, I feel for you. We had it pretty good as not many one-ways going out back then. I also moved my soon to be wife home to her folks house using U-Haul over 40 yrs ago. That was an adventure. At least we didn't have to put up with crap weather like is happening back there now.

We need pics of the sewing machine...

[DonDavis]

Patrick, I hear you. But gotta be honest, it’s no secret their trucks are measured that way. I learned that back in the early 90’s.

And I’ve used U-Haul many times over the years successfully. I guess I’ve just kept my expectations a tad below “excellent”.

Glad you’re home safely with the wife unit. And nice job clearing up the slick added billing, those wankers.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

U-Haul. Geez, is there one single franchise of that company In all of America that doesn't suck? Does corporate do any investigation of the chain of stores AT ALL? They've limped along like this for years. Service as bad as that starts from the top. What's their motto? "Not as expensive as Penske and it shows"?

Originally Posted by DonDavis

Patrick, I hear you. But gotta be honest, it’s no secret their trucks are measured that way. I learned that back in the early 90’s.

And I’ve used U-Haul many times over the years successfully. I guess I’ve just kept my expectations a tad below “excellent”.

Glad you’re home safely with the wife unit. And nice job clearing up the slick added billing, those wankers.

I'm not discounting anyone else's experience but I've used U-haul more times than I can count and never had a problem. Just rented a box truck for a local need a few weeks ago...no issues. Their open car trailers are the best on earth, really over-built and I've towed cross-country w them many times. Excellent trailers and very affordable depending on the exact timing and destination, etc. Their pricing is elastic based on demand like a rental car company.

[Arizona_928]

I don't like uhaul, but can't really complain about how they do business. You'll have to go to the big stores in a big city to get rentals. Especially last minute rentals.


I've had good experience with them reversing fees. Now i just take my trailer....

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

So you drove the Volt down and got the sewing machine, but wanted to drive home with the Volt, and the sewing machine inside of a box truck ?

Yeah, it's a big sewing machine.

[1990C4S]

I've had decent experience lately at U-Haul. Aside from telling me the keys were 'in the cab', but after 15 minutes of searching I went back inside and was they magically appeared on the counter.

Their small enclosed trailers are dirt cheap to rent, and the remote drop off is also cheap.

I was unaware of the measurement method for a 15' truck.

[Joe Bob]

The schizzle I went thru for a trailer hitch on my Mercedes. I said the Phoey word maybe twenty times.....

[P@nelBilly]

Typically they charge a huge per mile fee, their trucks run on gas and get terrible mileage. I've had rigs that only get 4MPG! Penske is my first choice

[HardDrive]

NEVER use U-haul. They are awful. Penske all the way.

[chapo]

Rented a UHaul to move the home. AC, automatic, freeway speeds, no problem.

[Nostril Cheese]

You would be surprised at the level people clean a U haul truck after taking it to burning man.

[mattdavis11]

I had one years ago that was a duesy. The speedometer worked, but the miles racked up with the tachometer. We rented on miles, one way.

Of course we were way over on miles. This was a 26ft, manual trans. When I returned it, I had a chat with the local U haul, mom and pop place, Sunday morning. They were very nice. They checked the mileage and laughed. I told the guy to crank it up, see what it does. I think he put 5-6 miles on it sitting still. He told me that it wasn't supposed to leave town, we drove about 250 miles. Kind of fun with 4 on the floor to be honest. I had a blast with my brother that day.

Penske since.