No Brakes, No Equipment, and “You People” U Haul

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I reserved a UHaul truck for my move from NJ to WV. Let me just say up front, that it’s a result of prayer and of God that I’m alive today.

First, my reservation appears to have been somewhat meaningless, as I’d asked for Morristown NJ, the closest to my residence in Madison. The night before I was to pick up the truck, I received a message from Central Reservations that I was to pick up the truck in Parsippany, NJ — approximately 15 miles away. Given that I was driving a rental car at the time, and was to drop it off in Morristown, that was going to result in a taxi ride out of my pocket to pick up the equipment. Fortunately, however, Hertz allowed me to change the drop-off location of my car in time, and I was able to get to the Parsippany location. It did concern me that they could have sent me much further away, and that apparently if I could not have gotten to Parsippany, I would have been obligated to pay cancellation costs associated with the reservation.

Problems with rental itself:

1. Kwik Stop Enterprise, the UHaul dealer to whom I was assigned, refused to rent appliance cart, furniture cart, box dollies, furniture pads to me, even though I had reserved and agreed to pay for them. They were available, but according to the rental agent “you people never bring them back and I need them for local customers.” As a result, I could not move my refrigerator, and it was left behind where it may or may not be purchased by future tenants of my apartment.

2. The truck’s battery light remained on throughout the rental. A breakdown ticket was filed, and per UHaul’s instructions I took it to M %26 W Towing to swap out with another truck. The employee with whom I spoke (the owner) refused to swap out the truck, and became verbally abusive almost to the point of physically striking me when I asked why not. He said that the light was always going to do that on a Ford, and if I wanted to tell him he did not know what he was doing, to come back the next day. He applied some sort of gel to the truck’s alternator or some other wire, saying that would solve the problem. It did — for about 3/4 of a mile. I had to use 30 miles to make a round-trip nonexistent swap of equipment. As a result I was several hours behind schedule in being able to have guys load the truck, and did not get on the road till 11 pm.

3. Upon returning the truck to the local store in Elkins WV, I asked them to look at the , as I noticed the emergency brake did not seem to work well. The person inspecting the truck said that essentially there were no on the truck, and that it is a miracle that I arrived at my destination, particularly considering the mountainous interstate route I had to take.

It is unfathomable to me how you could rent someone a vehicle in such an unsafe condition. I cannot conceive the total negligence for safety displayed by that company or parties associated with it.

I have been calling their regional office for about ten days, typically being placed on hold for up to 90 minutes at a time, or being promised “we will get back to you today.” Dorothy, apparently the person in charge of customer relations at that regional office, first offered to send me “VIP coupons” to be used on a future move. Sorry, but I’m staying put — and were you not happy you did not kill or maim me the first time I used your service?!? She then said she would adjust the amount paid on my credit card, but I have consistently gotten the runaround since.

A separate complaint was filed via email at the UHaul site. The email I received in regard to that complaint mentioned the name of an Anthony at the NJ regional office, who will make the final determination of what happens; I was told during a phone call that he is not someone with whom I will be able to speak, for whatever reason.

My next step apparently will be to contact the state Attorney General’s office, and to take whatever recourse I can in small claims court.

Update on 7/30/03:

I am to be given $100.00 refund. I suppose it is that or nothing … but I will still be filing reports with consumer protection agencies. I am both heartened by reading other customer experiences, that I am not alone in how I perceived UHaul to treat people, but on the other hand I wish it were isolated and they treated folks better. Still no explanation or definition on who “you people” are, however …

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Tags: brakes

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