Uhaul Story

CSS Productwatch series: U haul: Only $19.95, plus your firstborn children U Haul

Driver Beware U Haul My children rented two U-Hauls for their move to Pennslvania from the Tampa/St. Pete area of Florida. They made it across Florida without in...

Moving the slowest way possible U Haul I had a friend of mine a few years ago ask me if I would help him move.Being the great friend I am I said yes. We headed down to our loca...

This is part of my Productwatch series. Look all over my review list, and you’ll see many companies and products listed that provide horrific customer service and inferior products. All are critiqued under my watchful eye.

Just two days ago, we rented a U-haul van to move some cabinets to the cabinet restorer’s workshop. Something told me not to trust these guys (a sixth sense of mine), but we were really out of options. One year ago, we used Budget Rentals for moving some refrigerators, and they also tried to con us (see my review on Budget by looking at my profile and by viewing all of my review).

The actual van was alright. No significant problems. We returned the van two hours late. The man behind the desk, looking like a demented, poor man’s Robert DeNiro during his portrayal of a pedophiliac in “Cape Fear”, hemmed and hawed and told us how he had to charge us for an extra day, plus extra mileage for one day. We were told we would be reimbursed for whatever extra mileage that we pre-paid for, but this was mysteriously forgotten about.

So we did what any red-blooded American would do. We exercised our right to rent it for an extra 24 hours. The fact of the matter is, these guys just wanted to take the van from us, charge us for an extra 24 hours, and then rent it to somebody else moments later. Sort of like the lawyer who has 3 clients at the same time at a courthouse, and charges all three of them for one court day each, while hopping from courtroom to courtroom like a dazed lunatic. Charging in this manner is not only a violation of ethics, it’s also a violation of the space time continuum!

So today, only one hour ago, we return to the U-Haul in Huntington Station New York 45 minutes before we would be charged for an extra day, and the man recognizes us by sight. He is on the phone with someone, and he slams the phone down like a maniac. He screams at us that if we were going to be late one more day he would call the police.

Umm, hello? We were here yesterday and it was confirmed we would be charged for an extra day.

He left the office, checked out the van, saw everything was in order. Saw he couldn’t charge us for gas, so he went after this one TINY dent that was never pointed out to us (I sure as heck didn’t put it there). About two centimeters roughly, and we are charged $15 dollars for this.

And keep in mind, I bought insurance. Just a few months ago, I rented a car from Enterprise, there was a small scratch on it, and the nice salesperson told me “That’s what insurance is for”. I asked the lunatic salesman why my insurance didn’t cover the microscopic scratch and he just said “because it doesn’t”.

After this, the guy told us “don’t come back anymore” when asked why, he replied “because you’re not satisfied”. Or perhaps because we were wise to their con-artistry ways.

We were harassed, yelled at, and overcharged. I guess this is what U-Haul is all about. I watched an episode of “60 Minutes” once where they told the U-Haul Story. The founder of the self-moving empire died and left several sons. They fought hard, verbally, and even breaking out in physical fist-fights over it. I suppose this anger and rude way of life is trickling down all the way to the sparsely-paid, underachieving salespeople in the various franchises.

You need to move? Several suggestions. If you’re doing an in-town move, rent the van/truck from a locally owned company. Then you vitalize your home economy rather than giving your money to a bunch of snake-like con-artists. If you’re moving coast-to-coast, support the trucker transport industry by having a driver do it. NEVER patronize U-Haul. You have been given fair warning.

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