A Moving Experience - UHaul vs Budget vs Penske
Great Experience U Haul I was suspicious of uhaul after reading others' reviews on this site. But let me say that my personal experience with them was excellent. I ...
UHaul=Terrible U Haul Just had a terrible experience with UHaul. My "confirmed" reservation also turned out to be a sham. I could choose from a truck located 2 ho...
Our oldest daughter recently graduated from Nazareth College with a master’s degree in Secondary Ed (Social Studies) and Special Ed. She decided to flee New York and accepted an offer for a teaching position in Greensboro, North Carolina.
So how to move an apartment’s worth of furniture from here to there? Originally our plan was to use a cargo van rented from Enterprise. Since another daughter works for Enterprise, we were able to take advantage of the employee discount, which was quite a savings. Enterprise doesn’t do one-way rentals for these vans, so we’d be driving it there and back. As the date got closer, I went to the local Enterprise office and did some measuring. Unfortunately, the queen size mattress and box spring wouldn’t be able to stand up or lie flat in the van … it looked like it would fit flat in the middle of the van, but this would reduce how much additional furniture we could fit in. So on to the truck rental alternatives.
I estimated that a 10′ truck would hold the beds and the furniture, along with miscellaneous boxes. I also liked the idea of the smaller profile for ease of driving. Having used UHaul before, I went to their site and booked the truck for a pretty good rate. I had done a quick comparison with Penske, which even with a AAA discount, still came out more expensive than UHaul. After making the booking, I heard a horror story from a friend about their experience with UHaul, and began to get concerned. Apparently a “reservation” with UHaul is only a request, and it’s not until the day before that you really find out what you’re going to get and where. Our friend , who was originally told there was nothing available the day of their rental, ended up driving over 60 miles to pick up a truck from another city that they found on their own. As I thought back on my previous UHaul experience, I remembered that I got a larger truck than I had asked for, but since my rental was a local (picked up and returned to the same location), I think they were more aware of their own inventory. A little googling of UHaul led me to several articles including a recent one by the LA Times, confirming problems with their ability to provide rentals, and more worrisome, questions about the maintenance of their equipment. Since we’d be driving about 750 miles, and on a strict timetable for move-in, I wanted reliability.
In my googling, I saw that not only was Penske a competitor, but also Budget, which I hadn’t realized offered truck rentals. Both companies had much better fleet replacement rates, meaning generally newer trucks for rental, as well as more stringent requirements on the capabilities of their rental dealers. I got online quotes from both, and went with the Budget truck as it was less expensive than Penske. Actually since the rental was now less than a week away, the rates were not as good as my earlier reservations, with the Penske reservation up at least $200 over their earlier one.
An interesting note on the Penske web site and their lead follow-up process … as part of your request, and prior to getting your quote, you have the option of entering email and telephone information so that you can be informed of deals. Apparently they monitor quotes that don’t result in a booking, and follow-up. I got a call from a very helpful rep trying to get me a better deal. She indicated the rates can vary greatly if I have some flexibility in the pickup or dropoff locations. After a little checking, she was able to provide a rate about 1/2 of what my budget rental would cost if I could return the truck to a town in Virginia about 42 miles from my real destination. I thought about this for a little bit, but decided that after 12 hours of driving and then unpacking, another hour drive to the dropoff and then back might not be worth it. But it was interesting that the rates could vary so much.
A few days before the rental, the local Budget truck rental office called to say it would be difficult to get a 10′ truck, and would I mind a larger one? Hmmm… shades of UHaul again? But she assured me that she had a 16′ truck, but 10′ ones were hard to come by in this area. The day before pickup she called again and said no luck on the 10′ truck [apparently August is one of the busiest months]. But at least I got the feeling she had really tried to locate one for me. As it turns out, the 16′ truck was probably a better choice anyway. It had the pull-out ramp in the back, which made loading and unloading easier, and we didn’t have to worry about filling all the vertical space in the truck.
We split the drive down into two segments, stopping overnight in Beckley, WV, which apparently is a hotspot for something. Much busier area than we were expecting. The next day we made it to Greensboro, and with the aid of a few kids in the new apartment complex, got the truck unloaded very quickly. The return location was close by, and unlike the hours listed on the web site indicated, was actually open saturday afternoon for a checkin.
So what lessons did I learn from this?
1) It’s definitely worth booking a reservation early - the rates DO go up as you get closer to your date.
2) I would use Budget again, but Penske also seemed good - and we noticed a lot of new looking Penske trucks on the road during our drive.
3) Be sure to use any and all discounts possible. Each site offered discounts up to 15% for using different types of credit cards, AAA memberships, etc
4) Talk to a human being. If we had a little more time, I would have taken up the Penske offer to return a van 42 miles away and saved several hundred dollars. I didn’t see any way to find attractive alternatives like this via the web site only, so I think you need to call the customer service group to ask, or in the case of Penske, let them contact you!
A total nightmare U Haul They changed the size of the truck and location pickup FIVE times within three days, expecting me to pay mileage far from my home. When ques...
We’ll take your reservation but we don’t guarantee you a truck! U Haul Would you go through the hassle of coordinating a weekend of moving if you knew there might be a possibility of not having a moving truck? ...
UHAUL WHERE ARE YOU?? U Haul Yesterday someone was supposed to call me with pickup information for today. I am moving across country and need to move all of my belongin...
DROP U HAUL AND GO BUDGET U Haul Their customer services is terrible. I read the review from other people talking about the lies of U-Haul and that's exactly my experience. ...
Terrible Service, use Ryder or Penske U Haul I went to U-Haul simply rent a trailer(6x12) for a move. The condition of their trailer beds was not good. They were dented, and I wondered ...
UHAUL SUCKS! U Haul The worst company I have ever dealt with in my entire life! That is what I can tell you about UHAUL. We had a truck reserved for Sat. 7/30...
U Haul, easier than Ryder or Penske U Haul
Tags: packing, truck rent, truck rentals
You must be logged in to post a comment.