Uhaul Story

If I had it to do over again… U Haul

…would I rent from U-Hell?

4/8/04 UPDATE… No, I will not rent from U-Haul. Never again. Why? See the bottom of this review.

I’d do some things differently to protect myself from the nightmare experiences of the past several months. Just a few, off the top of my head:

Use a backup credit card, and put a hold on it before returning the truck.

That way they won’t hit me with bogus charges after the fact, like the store on Shermer Road in Northbrook, IL did to me. They hit me with a $40 extra day charge, but I had turned the truck in the same day I rented it. And when I called their store repeatedly, no one answered the phone. I had to take it up with the regional office. I’ll post an update later on the status of this refund. 4/8/04 UPDATE: I have been told that this refund is coming. The other refund they owe me — $55 — is still being disputed. See below.

Rent from a big store where there is more than one truck to choose from. And don’t accept a truck until you’ve looked at it.

I made the mistake of renting a truck sight-unseen from a MATTRESS DEALER (!) in Tucker, GA. The man was nice on the phone, and when I told him I needed a decent truck that could go 800 miles, he assured me the unit was newer and in good shape. So I had him leave the key for me, and picked it up after hours. It was a heap of junk, and barely drivable. The lights and speedometer didn’t work, and it would barely do 45 MPH. I turned it in at another store. More nightmares ensued, but I’ll get to them in due time.

Refuse insurance, and make sure this refusal is clearly in writing.

The insurance is a ripoff. Especially when they tack it on without telling you, give you a non-standard contract, then put the burden of proof on you that you didn’t ask for it and didn’t want it and want a refund. Yes, this really happened, with the aforementioned mattress dealer. You’re probably covered by your regular auto insurance. Double check.

Check the mileage using Mapquest.

They underestimated the mileage of my last one-way by a couple of miles. There was no reason for me to pay for those extra miles. I should have told them to correct it before the fact. Before they charged me for those miles. Getting a refund out of these people is like pulling teeth.

Take a book to read while waiting in line.

I’ve used U-Haul 3 times in the past year, and every time I had to wait 20-40 minutes, with only one or two people in front of me. For some reason, renting a truck or trailer is like watching snow melt. I don’t know why it takes forever, but it always does.

Call customer service from a speaker phone.

Otherwise you’ll have cabbage-ear, because you’re going to be waiting a while.

Also, I’d ask to speak to a manager sooner. To get refunded for the bad truck (mentioned above), I had to talk to various people at the regional office about 6 times. They never called me with updates. Every time I called to get a status on my refund, I had to go through the whole story like it was the first time they’d ever heard of such. I think they had a file on me labeled “stall this dude as long as possible.”

4/8/04 update: They still owe me $55 for the insurance I didn’t ask for and wasn’t told about and didn’t see on the contract. I called them again yesterday and finally got ahold of the person for whom I’d left three messages over several weeks. She told me there was a pile of sticky notes on her desk and my message was probably there. Does this sound like a customer service professional? As I calmly went through my case with her, she began to interrupt me, and became dismissive and impatient. The bottom line for her is that she has made a decision not to refund me the charge that we disagree on, and my only recourse is to take it up with Mastercard. You can bet I’ll do that.

Meantime, I recommend against using U-Haul for anything. They are disorganized and rude, and they don’t care about you and me, so they don’t deserve our business.