Latest Rant - Uhaul Bait and Switch

[andyzee]

Ok, I'm moving tommorow. 3 weeks ago I made a reservation online to rent a Uhaul truck. Recieved a phone call from the local dealer to confirm they will have a truck for me. Yesterday I recieve a phone call from Uhaul and they tell me the truck will not be available tomorrow morning, instead, I can have one at 4PM. I tell them this is unacceptable. They state that they can't do anything that's all they have, unless I go to a differnt dealer. I tell them that this would be fine if the dealer is not too far away. They tell me they found one in the next town that would have a truck for the desired time. I state that this would be great and accept. Now they need to call dealer and confirm, say they will get back to me. I wait an hour and a half, no one calls, I call them. They tell me the truck is available, I ask about the time. They say I need to call dealer and set it up my self, I say, thanks for letting me know

I call local dealer, he states that he did get my reservation and he has a truck available. I ask how much and what time. Originally truck was supposed to be 39.95 for 12 hours plus 1.99 a mile. This guy tell me he only has truck available for 4 hours. I say that's not enough. He says they can bump the guy ahead of me and give me the additional four hour, (nice operation) I ask how much, now, since I'm getting two "rental periods" it's 39.95 x2 plus insurance 28.00 x 2. Here it is Thursday end of month I'm moving Saturday, I take truck and then ask what the cancellation policy is figuring I'll look elsewhere. Guy tells me I wouldn't be able to cancel, I know Uhaul's policy is 24 hours and I call main line to confirm. I find truck at Penske for $79 and .79 a mile. I take that truck, call Uhauls reservation line and cancell. Never do business with Uhaul again :roll:

My original confirmation letter:


-----Original Message-----
From: auto-confirm@uhauldealer.com [mailto:auto-confirm@uhauldealer.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:40 AM
To: ANDYZEE@XXXXXXXXXXXX.COM
Subject: Your U-Haul Reservation #24838XXX

Dear ANDYZEE,
We have a 24' Moving Van, Furniture Pads and Appliance Dolly reserved for you and guaranteed Saturday, 5/31/2008 at 10:00 AM, returning Saturday, 5/31/2008 at 10:00 PM. We are located at 830-844 BROADWAY, NEWARK, NJ 07103 and our phone number is (973) 485-3446.
If this does not work for you, please call us or reply at:
https://mit.uhaul.com/secure/aspnet....aspx?id=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX==
Sincerely,
U-HAUL CENTER OF NEWARK
830-844 BROADWAY
NEWARK, NJ 07103
(973) 485-3446
Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Do not reply to this message. Thank you for choosing U-Haul.

 

[Greg]

You are a bad luck magnet. Stay away from me.

Lemme guess - the whole time during this you were formulating your AZ post about it.... :lol:

 

[wa-loaf]

That sucks. But I've never had a problem with them. I often rent a trailer from them for trips to Home Depot and whatnot. Depending on what I get it's only $10 - 20 for 24 hrs. Always there when I want it.

 

[ckofer]

You inspired me. See attached. I think stuff like this happens with professional movers too.

 

[mondeo]

U-Haul sucks. My junior year of college, our Formula SAE team used a UHaul as transport from NNY to Michigan. Wheel bearings were shot, and there was a rag for an oil cap. Truck died at competition, so we had to move all our crap from the 26' truck to the replacement 24' truck. And we had packed the 26' truck pretty full.

Next year we used a Budget truck. Not nearly as ghetto.

 

[andyzee]

Well the thing is they know they got you by the @##@s. Why did they have to wait until yesterday to let me know they don't have a truck? On good side, got my FIOS installed today at the new place!:beer:

 

[hardline]

always us Penske. we where once moving a buddy and had the rear axel break going down the highway.

 

[Moe Ghoul]

Well the thing is they know they got you by the @##@s. Why did they have to wait until yesterday to let me know they don't have a truck? On good side, got my FIOS installed today at the new place!:beer:

Because most customer service sux these days, nobody gives a shit. LL Bean gets my highest marks for service, its always a pleasure doing biz with them.

 

[Hawkshot99]

My PT was living in Rhode Island, and was moving to NY, so he called UHAUL and reserved a truck, and got all the conformation crap. The morning they went to pick it up they were informed that they were all rented out and couldn't help them. Wouldn't even give him a discount when there was one available.

My sister just moved from Charlotte back to NY and she used Budget. Everything worked great. Truck is currently sitting in my drive way goin back tomorrow.

 

[andyzee]

Because most customer service sux these days, nobody gives a shit. LL Bean gets my highest marks for service, its always a pleasure doing biz with them.

OK, gave me an idea for another thread, after all of my rants, here's a change http://forums.alpinezone.com/28805-best-customer-service-awards.html#post269201

 

[Greg]

Not nearly as ghetto.

I'm so glad you said it so I wouldn't have to. You get what you pay for sometimes....

 

[cbcbd]

I thought I saw a sign at Uhaul today saying that if they don't have a truck when you reserve it they will give you $50? Of course, I was thinking that $50 would not be nearly enough payment for fudging a reservation and screwing you out of a truck when you take a day off (sometimes from work) to move stuff. But you could try to get that $50 if you're ambitious.

Yeah, I'm renting a trailer from them when I move in two weeks and I am glad I don't have to get a truck, I've heard some bad stories about them.

And if you haven't, take a look at this site:
http://dontuseuhaul.com/

 

[andyzee]

I thought I saw a sign at Uhaul today saying that if they don't have a truck when you reserve it they will give you $50? Of course, I was thinking that $50 would not be nearly enough payment for fudging a reservation and screwing you out of a truck when you take a day off (sometimes from work) to move stuff. But you could try to get that $50 if you're ambitious.

Yeah, I'm renting a trailer from them when I move in two weeks and I am glad I don't have to get a truck, I've heard some bad stories about them.

And if you haven't, take a look at this site:
http://dontuseuhaul.com/

Their $50 guarantee is a joke:

1. The Reservation Guarantee does not apply to the initial intake of a customer’s reservation regardless of how the customer makes their reservation.
2. After the customer makes an initial reservation, the U-Haul rental location ("rental location") for the customer’s city and state will be in charge of the reservation.
3. The rental location will contact you the day prior to your requested pickup date to schedule the equipment and actual pick up time, date and location.
4. Once the rental location representatives speak with you and agree with you on a pickup time, date and location, the reservation will then be considered “guaranteed” (the agreed upon equipment will be at the agreed upon location at the time scheduled). If U-HAUL fails to fill your guaranteed reservation, it will pay you $50 as liquidated damages. If you fail to pick up the equipment at the agreed upon location within one hour of the time scheduled for pick up, U-HAUL may cancel your reservation and it will not be obligated to pay you the $50. Regular cancellation policies may apply.

 

[BeanoNYC]

Complain to consumerist.com. The bloggers will eat this shit up. Don't forget your executive email carpet bomb either.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

AndyZee post the phone number of the U-Haul dealership that screwed you over..and us AZers will have some fun..

 

[deadheadskier]

I have an interesting UHAUL story.

Five years ago I was moving from WV to MD. I made the reservation etc. and had two days to do the move and I had to do it by myself. I was to pick up the truck on Sunday and return it on Monday. The distance between the two locations was about three hours drive.

I left at 6AM and drove my car the three hours to Uhual place in a town about twenty minutes away from where I'm moving to. The plan was to leave my car at the UHUAL place, pick up the truck and drive three hours back, load up the truck, then the next day roll out and go to my new place, unload, return the truck and grab my car. I had to be at my first day on the job on Tuesday.

I get to the UHUAL 'store' at 9 AM and it's a farm/animal feed store. NO ONE is there and there are NO trucks. I wait a half hour...no one shows up. Another half hour goes by...no one shows up. I call UHUAL and they don't know what to tell me. After going ballistic on the customer service people at UHUAL corporate, they finally give me the store owners home phone. I call them and they say sir, brother so and so who had the truck prior is Amish and finished up late with the truck last night, his religion won't allow him to drive the truck to the store today and we're normally closed on Sunday so we didn't come in. I'm SORRY, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to get the truck. WHAT!!!! So I'm supposed to drive three hours back to my old place, sleep, come back in the morning, drive three hours back with the truck, load up, then drive three hours to my new home, unpack and get my truck in one day? Sir, Brother so and so will not drive on Sundays

SIR are you Amish? Well no. So you can drive a car on Sundays? Yes. Well you best be going to brother so and so's to pick up the truck or I'm going to lose it and make damn sure whatever money you make renting Uhuals goes away forever. If you don't get here with my truck within two hours, I will make damn sure you never rent another one again.

This three toothed hick rolls in with my truck an hour and half later. He says to me, young man, 'God must like you, you are truly blessed to have this truck here today'. At this point, I had been waiting four hours in their parking lot for my truck to show up. I said I'm sorry sir, I hardly see how I've been blessed to sit in your parking lot for four hours why you go get the truck from Amish brother so and so.

In my mind I was thinking, no sir, you're the one who's blessed that I haven't kicked you and Amish farmer brothers ass.

True story.....and yes, I made to work on time for my first day on the new job on Tuesday.

 

[ckofer]

Well the thing is they know they got you by the @##@s. Why did they have to wait until yesterday to let me know they don't have a truck?

Sometimes the reason is worse than just poor service....

 

[andyzee]

You are a bad luck magnet. Stay away from me.

Lemme guess - the whole time during this you were formulating your AZ post about it.... :lol:

FU, that's the thanks I get for trying to warn the AZ community about crappy vendors!













(Winkie specially put at bottom of post)

 

[deadheadskier]

Oh....and my bad luck continued with moving trucks when I moved from Maryland back home to Vermont. The day of the move it was raining like crazy the whole drive. Apparently a previous user had tried to drive the truck in area where they didn't have enough clearance and there was a dent in the cab right over the drivers seat. That dent had a small whole in it which resulted in a steady drip right on my head. I tried to duck tape it, but the water would eventually beat the duck tape. Yep, 10 hours in the truck with a slow drip on top of my head the whole way. I was completely soaked about an hour into the ride and for the remaining nine hours.

I talked to Budget after the move and they offered zero compensation. They said they would've sent me a replacement truck. I figured they might of, but I wasn't going to wait for however long on the side of the road until the new truck showed up only to have to unload my stuff from one truck to the next.

Man, I have to move in three weeks. I hope I don't have an issues. This time it's only an hour away and I simply can't rationalize paying a moving company for a two bedroom condos amount of stuff.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I'm lucky that when I eventually move into a steezier apartment..I can use the delivery truck from work..which has a steezy liftgate