Hot or not? Depends on perspective. U Haul
U Haul A Differing Perspective U Haul First, let me say this -- I work with U-Haul every day, as manager of a self storage facility that offers U-Haul trucks for rental. Am I bia...
UHaul Rocks My $hit !! U Haul Our story is pretty short, and unlike a lot of the Epinions Reviews I've read, more-or-less non-venomous. We got Evicted. Needed a truck. W...
Last month, I had the distinct privilege of moving my belongings from a U-Haul storage unit in Baltimore to my new home in Miami. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a manageable pain. Last month’s voyage turned out to be a nightmare.
I rented a 10-foot truck, the smallest of the trucks in the U-Haul fleet. The cost for taking this truck to Miami one-way was $520. So I flew into Baltimore, took a taxi to the U-Haul storage facility where they also rent trucks, and loaded up my truck with my belongings.
As I was closing the driver’s side door to the truck so I can drive off to the land of orange juice and unpunched ballots (did I mention my roommate’s name is Chad?), I noticed that the door doesn’t close all the way. I reentered the office and showed the problem to the clerk who informed me they had no other trucks of that size, and although I probably could have pushed the issue and forced them to give me another truck, I was hardly in the mood to move the heavy furniture a second time.
When I had signed all the corresponding documents, he walked me around the truck to show me it was in “perfect” condition, but the door was open at the time, so I didn’t notice that it didn’t close all the way, and took it for granted that, like most other cars, it would do so. Nonetheless, I took the truck and began my journey.
Briefly, to explain the door issue more thoroughly, it’s not that the door didn’t close, because it did. It was bent slightly on the top part of the frame, so while the door was perfectly secure when it was closed, the driver’s side mirror which was attached to it rattled furiously when I exceeded 25 miles per hour. Of course, driving around the block a few times did not reveal this flaw.
Fortunately, I didn’t discover it until I was on the highway. Essentially, the mirror was shaking so much I couldn’t use it to see what cars were to my left. Of course, if I wanted to open the window and hold the mirror by pulling on the bar that connected it to the door, then I could hold it steadily enough to be able to see momentarily.
I resolved to continue my journey anyhow. Two hours later, I noticed that my feet had this burning sensation. I figured maybe I was having some acute form of athlete’s foot … you know, itching, burning … wrong! After a while, I realized the floor of the truck was about twice as hot as it should have been. I’m guessing that it was about 140 degrees … you may ask what makes me make that estimate? How about, it completely melted the heel of my shoe … a 1-inch thick sole (oh yeah, the heat reduced a chocolate bar I had in a bag on the floor to thin liquid … all this with the “air conditioner” on)? So, I spent 18 hours driving in which I had to have one of my feet up on the seat so I wouldn’t burn it, and the other foot pressing the pedals while making sure not to let my heel rest on the floor.
Beyond those two most pleasant issues, I also discovered that only one of the two speakers for the radio worked, and whenever I turned the engine off to get gas, the radio (and no, there was no tape deck) would “forget” the stations I had preset. Fortunately, I had brought a portable boom box with me in case a problem such as this arose.
Finally, while I was in the motel the first night, I was browsing through my rental documents, and sure enough, I found hidden a statement that said that there was a hole in the truck and that I knew about it and was responsible for any water damage to my belongings. Do you think they ever mentioned that to me? Of course not! In fact, he hid it in the documents so I wouldn’t see it until it was too late.
I could continue on with this story for quite a bit, but I think I’ve conveyed my point. If you’re going to rent from U-Haul, I’d recommend that you make a VERY thorough examination of your truck before you even consider driving or loading it. I will not use U-Haul again after this experience.
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