Like a cheap motel with free HBO, I keep returning to U Haul U Haul
Cheap price for a cheap service U Haul If you need a truck but you have time to loose this is the company. They don't have all the equipment available and usually the truck is not...
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Yes, I realize there are high end hotels out there, yet I keep returning to the cheap motels. There are also better truck companies out there, yet I keep returning to the punishment that is U-Haul. Let’s take a look at why.
My tales of woe are numerous having used U-haul 10 or more times, but I’ll talk mostly about the latest experiences as they are fresher in my mind. Nothing has changed.
Oh, this line is killing me
Once, and only once, in my entire adult life have I not had to wait in an obscenely long line at a U-haul center. (That one place was U-haul in Fremont - kudos to you). I don’t know if they deliberately understaff or it is just to hard to find semi-skilled labor, but there is just no way that one or even two counter people can handle 20 morning pickups, 20 evening dropoffs, and the multitude of phone calls coming in (See "don’t try this on short notice", below).
As the most absurd example, when we dropped off a truck recently in San Francisco, the line was huge. Maybe 10 or 15 people. They had one person handling this line. Then a second guy came in. When we finally got to the front, the representative said "wait outside, the person out there will check you in". That’s right, one person outside to do all check-in’s and send-offs. But wait, there’s more. That one person apparently decided that a huge line buildup was the perfect time to go get some chips and soda without telling anyone. They could tell we were stressed and angry, because this wait was making me late to the first ever epinions get together in San Francisco.
So, after 25 minutes (yes 25 minutes) of waiting for him, one of the two counter reps started checking us out. This, of course, didn’t help the 10 or 15, now 20 people standing in line inside the store, who now only had help from one person. While we were getting checked out, the outside guy sauntered back with his chips and soda. We got out of there, but I felt sorry for those still waiting.
The "local" one-way
A couple weeks ago, my sister (srisch, also of my Marie Callender’s review fame) needed to move a bunch of stuff from my house to San Francisco, about 45 miles. The mileage at U-haul was going to be a ton (see below about U-haul pricing) but we were just far enough to get a "one-way" rental. This was good, as the price was only $65, and it would have been a lot more for a "local" trip, because it was 90 miles round trip.
Here’s the downside - for one-way, they don’t hold a truck for you, they wait until another one-way truck comes in from somewhere else, and then they call you (or you call them) to find out your pickup spot. Well, our pickup spot wound up in Fremont - across the bay, over a bridge, and 20 miles from my house. ugh. They said "call back and maybe one will come in closer" - yeah right - not a chance. So, we schlepped over the Dumbarton Bridge on a Friday afternoon, in rush hour, and picked the thing up.
To U-haul’s credit, however, we were able to get our mileage allotment (on a one-way, you get a fixed number of miles and days, rather than a daily rental fee) increased and they didn’t make us fill the gas when we got back. This was actually a real money savings at $1.85 a gallon for a gas hogging truck.
The drop-off for a one-way U-haul is supposed to be easy - just take it to your closest center. In reality it is not. When we called in to drop off, they told us that the closest centers didn’t "need" our truck, and so they sent us to a center much further away. Why is it, now, that on both pickup and delivery we had to go further. Shouldn’t one of them been closer because they are "arranging" the truck "needs" at each location? I guess it doesn’t work that way.
Don’t try it on the short run
It looks like everyone else likes the cheap motels as well, and they are booked way in advance. It is very, very, very difficult to get a U-haul (or any other truck for that matter) on short notice.
Finding an office
There are the usual, big ones, which you can find in the phone book or at the web site, and they usually answer the phone. But then there are the smaller ones that are run out of mom and pop operations. The problem here is that you must Call these when you are desperate for a truck, and they are often disconnected, routed to the big ones (that you have already tried) or there’s no answer.
The truck quality
The trucks are actually OK, even though the price is cheap. I drove a 10′ van from Colorado to California, and it worked well. No breakdowns, and the speed was good (alas, I even got a speeding ticket in it). The air worked, as did the radio. Your mileage may vary - the truck we used to move my sister had so many dings and scrapes that we marked on the damage report the parts of the truck that weren’t damaged. Even that truck drove fine, though the suspension was so bad that when we hit a bumpy highway I thought the engine was sputtering because the truck jerked back and forth so much.
So why take the punishment?
Simply put, there’s none cheaper. They have 14′ vans for $19.95 a day, and even the super big trucks are less than their competitors’ trucks. That’s pretty cheap. Now, what U-Haul does is charge way more than other companies for the mileage, but even so, you have to drive a lot more miles to hit the same price.
Also, they are often the only company with trucks available, especially on short notice. They have so many locations that someone, somewhere will have a truck. Nonetheless - pay attention to the section above called "Don’t try it on the short run" - Even U-haul runs out of trucks.
So, that is the sordid tale of my hate/tolerate relationship with the company that is U-haul. I don’t recommend it, but then again, I recommend it.
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