Uhaul Story

Misery and Hardship With U Haul U Haul

Like a nightmare you can’t wake up from… U Haul I've rented trucks three times from U-Haul. The first was a local move and all went well. The second was a cross-country from L.A. to Wiscon...

More like "They Haul" than U Haul U Haul This is a long and drawn out story so let me try to make it as brief and painless as possible. I was 23 years old and leaving college for t...

For your most stressful and overwhelming moment = moving, hear our U-Haul story and please, please beware:

1) The 1-800 reservation is meaningless: there was no truck available at the scheduled pick up location, the second truck was broken down, the drop off location was closed at the scheduled time, and had to drive to a second drop off location. We nearly incurred additional fees and charges for their mistakes.

2) 11:10 am, Saturday we drove 5 miles to the 1st location to pick up a scheduled truck that was not there.

3) 11:30 am, we were then told by 1-800 that we had to drive 15 miles further to the 2nd location to pick up the truck (note rising gas prices).

4) 12:15 pm at the 2nd location, we waited in a long line, took 30 minutes to finalize the paperwork, and went outside to pick up the truck

5) 12:45 pm, my father and I left my boyfriend to drive the truck back, we needed to make up for lost packing time.

6) 1:25 pm, fifteen minutes after getting back and resuming packing, I get a call from my boyfriend that the truck they had for him is broken down. They had no more available.

7) We were told we had to drive to another location back in the other direction for the truck.

They would not give him a ride.

9) 1:45 pm, I had to drive 20 miles to pick him up.

10) 2:20 pm, we drove 20 miles back to the 3rd location.

11) 3:15 pm, after 30 more minutes filling out paperwork, and 4 hours later, we had the truck.

12) 2:10 pm Sunday, the scheduled drop off time, we discovered the location was closed.

13) 2:20 pm, we called the local customer service number, and the woman (Pamela) put my boyfriend on indefinite hold.

14) 2:25 pm, I called back and she told me we had to drive 7 miles to the next location to drop the truck off.

15) I began to express my frustration to her, and explain how we literally had no more extra time to be driving all over the place, she said I was raising my voice at her and she hung up on me.

16) 2:35 pm, I called the national customer service number, and they said the same thing. I said we should not be billed for another day when we return the truck because it’s not our fault the location was closed. She said I had to contact the local district to resolve that issue as each area is different. She would not help beyond that. She gave me another number to call.

17) She said we must drop it off at this next location, or we would be billed for another day.

18) 2:50 pm, we called the new number and got Pamela again, and she said we would be billed another day unless we drove it over the new location.

19) 3:10 pm, we arrived at the 2nd drop off center, and the man behind the counter was (thankfully) very nice.

20) 3:30 pm, he said we could be billed an extra $70 for dropping the truck off at a non-scheduled location. He said we should have left the truck at the 1st location, and put the keys in the drop off box. He did not charge us the $70. He could not understand why the customer service women we talked to told us we had to drop it off at this place.

In short, as a customer you have NO rights, expediting resolutions is not a priority, and the more you feel you need to be heard is in direct proportion to their unwillingness to listen. Our upfront registering, planning, and reservation did not prevent our fiasco. U-Haul’s lack of corporate/national informational organization clearly reveals their objective: to take your money when you are extremely taxed and vulnerable on your last days of moving.