Uhaul Story

Who haul ? You better haul when you go with U haul ! U Haul

With a relocation from Washington to California recently, we’ve spent our share of time in-line, in-cab, and in the box of U-haul facilities and equipment.

With the exception of the dealer in our originating location of Lacey Wash., the other 3 U-haul stores I’ve had experiences with have been so poorly run, with long lines, surly help, and grouchy customers it’s a wonder that they can still be #1 in their field. (0 Name recognition and nothing more) The U-Haul store in Olympia Washington (on Martin Way) is locally famous for it’s glacial-speed lines, gruff employees, and inconvenient equipment pick-up points…thank goodness for the dealer 3 miles away on Lacey Blvd, and “Del” who works there for fast service and customer-oriented approach.

When we arrived at our destination of Temecula California on two separate occasions, and ATTEMPTED to drop off our equipment at the U-Haul store on Pala Road, the women was SO rude to us, we were amazed. The first time we tolerated it, the second time we drove 11 miles to a diffferent (still poorly run, long lines, and gruff service…but still tolerable) location to drop off our un-needed equipment. At Pala Road, we were told that “we needed an appointment” to drop off….you see, the independant dealerships don’t receive a commission on the intake side, just on outbound equipment! So needless to say, they don’t want to see you coming in to leave a trailer or a van….but hey, if I wanted to keep it, I would’ve purchased and not rented, right?

Our final trip to California required a 26′ truck, vintage ???. It was the biggest they offer…but it was old…a stick-shift and a until we got the box mostly loaded which took three days, we discovered that the tie-down rails were basically not connected to the sides of the cargo box…a major inconvenience…but we worked around that.

To make a long story shorter than the trip…we had several bouts of mechanical failure, and had to cool our jets for approximately a day and a half while their mechanics worked for several hours in a church parking-lot, and rectified the situation. We hammered our way into Temecula (700 miles) and finished our move.

However, AFTER settling and the trauma of returning our U-haul to the dealer ( the least objectionable of the two) I went to U-haul’s website and fired off a nasty e-mail. We were contacted within 24 hours by a representative from corporate and ultimately received a 68 credit against the rental cost AND a 100 dollar gift certificate for future use.

So, the moral here is: Try to patronize a U-haul COMPANY location…NOT one of their indepandant dealerships, AND approve the actual piece of equipment they plan on renting you BEFORE signing the rental agreement, and if you don’t get treated decently, let corporate know! Good luck.

Tags: relocation, rental agreement