Reader Shane writes in with not one, but two, disastrous experiences with U-Haul’s reservation system. Personally, we understand his frustration, because despite 3 attempts we have never actually been able to rent a U-Haul truck. The price is always different than quoted, the truck is not there, or we are told we need to show Military ID or a car registration. Yeah, we don’t know either. Anyway, Shane was trying to rent a U-Haul so he could move his crap to college. He called U-Haul and was able to get an estimate and a reservation.
- I spoke with an incredibly helpful and polite female rep who helped me with my quote, which was in the neighborhood of $225 including unlimited miles at the time. I made careful notes while on the phone, referencing her name, my confirmation number, and all the other pertinent information for renting the truck.
- …Friday evening rolls around and when I arrive to pick up the truck, the rep behind the counter tells me my total is almost $480, so I ask for an explanation. He goes over the “quote” with me stating back the same details I had prearranged on the phone with the first rep for $225. After talking to that rep, who was the manager on duty at the time (I know, isn’t it convenient how there’s no other higher-ups to speak to as soon as you’re upset?) and making no headway, I decided to retire for the night and come back in the morning to speak with the branch/location manager directly. When I returned in the morning, it was clear that the previous night’s supervisor had filled in the manager on the situation, and that they had agreed on keeping a united front as far as my total of $480.
Shane’s dad agreed to pay the difference in the interest of getting Shane to college, and Shane vowed never to use U-Haul again. Until he needed to move home from college.
- Using the same process as before (including the confirmation call) I reserved a trailer for my father to pick up before driving up to get me and my things. When he arrived at the U-Haul branch, the rep behind the counter informed him that they in fact did NOT have the trailer I had reserved, and would not be able to help him.
Shane’s dad eventually had to drive about an hour out of his way to pick up an available trailer. Nice going U-Haul. Shane hates you with the fire of a thousand suns for your awful reservation system and your singularly hostile and unhelpful staff. —MEGHANN MARCO
Shane writes:
- Dear Consumerist,
A little more than a year ago I had a very frustrating experience with U-Haul, which then repeated itself a few months later. I’ve been back and forth with myself whether or not it’s worth my energy to write this, but I’m finally inspired to share my story and tell the world what U-Haul thinks of it’s customers.
August 2005 I called U-haul (1-800-GO-UHAUL) to make a reservation for a small truck because I was moving two hours north for college. I spoke with an incredibly helpful and polite female rep who helped me with my quote, which was in the neighborhood of $225 including unlimited miles at the time. I made careful notes while on the phone, referencing her name, my confirmation number, and all the other pertinent information for renting the truck. She explained that I would receive a confirmation email by default, and that I should also get a confirmation call from U-Haul the day before I was scheduled to pick the truck up, and that if I did not hear from them that I should call them. I waited for the call and didn’t receive it, which wasn’t a big problem because I had the information I needed so I placed a call to them to complete the confirmation. The rep on the other end helped me to confirm, verifying my information and the location the truck was to be picked up from.
Friday evening rolls around and when I arrive to pick up the truck, the rep behind the counter tells me my total is almost $480, so I ask for an explanation. He goes over the “quote” with me stating back the same details I had prearranged on the phone with the first rep for $225. After talking to that rep, who was the manager on duty at the time (I know, isn’t it convenient how there’s no other higher-ups to speak to as soon as you’re upset?) and making no headway, I decided to retire for the night and come back in the morning to speak with the branch/location manager directly. When I returned in the morning, it was clear that the previous night’s supervisor had filled in the manager on the situation, and that they had agreed on keeping a united front as far as my total of $480.
As an aside, I tend to be very patient to a point with service reps, but I do not like being bullied by corporations and don’t have a problem being pretty fierce when necessary—but let me be clear, I’m not that guy you see at WalMart arguing a $1 discount that wasn’t applied, I choose my battles carefully and only fight back when I feel I’ve been wronged.
At this point my father stepped in (nearly getting himself on the wrong side of this battle w/ me) and told me he would pay for what I couldn’t afford just for the sake of completing the move. I grudgingly accepted and from that point forward the move was smooth.
Fast forward to the end of the semester (hated it up there, decided to move home) and I’m in need of transport again so this time I rent a small enclosed trailer figuring “hey, there is absolutely no way they can screw this up, right?” I’ve never been more wrong.
Using the same process as before (including the confirmation call) I reserved a trailer for my father to pick up before driving up to get me and my things. When he arrived at the U-Haul branch, the rep behind the counter informed him that they in fact did NOT have the trailer I had reserved, and would not be able to help him. Dad calls me to confirm he was at the correct location and that he had the right date, and I tell him that he’s correct, the trailer should be waiting for him there. Since this is the second time U-Haul has tried to screw me, I tell my dad to put me on the line with the rep, so he hands the rep his cell phone (aren’t dads just precious?) where I proceeded with my stern inquiry as to where my trailer was and why it wasn’t where they said it would be. The rep on the other end’s response was that he was really sorry that it wasn’t there. I asked where a similar trailer could be found nearby, because I live in a decently sized city with plenty of U-Haul locations, and he said he didn’t know and that I would need to call the corporate offices in order to get it straightened out. I thank him and hang up.
I immediately dial the call center, because my dad is still waiting at the U-Haul location to find out what the story is. After explaining the situation to the rep on the phone, he immediately tells me there’s nothing he can do and that the reservation system is automated. Only after I ask him to start looking for other trailers nearby does he bother to do so. The next thing I know he’s telling me that my dad is going to either have to drive an hour one direction or 45 minutes the opposite direction in order to pickup a trailer. Bottom line my dad went to pick up the trailer, only after I made him swear to me that U-Haul would never get another dime of his, or my money.
This is one of those experiences that is very hard to relay via written word because a lot of my frustration came from the way I was treated and spoken to throughout this ordeal. It was made clear to me from the beginning of this situation that U-Haul knows that it is the largest company of it’s kind, and believes that consumers will always come back, no matter how bad the experience was. I will never patronize U-Haul with my business again, and I have and will continue to actively campaign against this company.
I just wanted to share my story in the hopes that someone may be able to avoid a similar problem in the future.
Sincerely,
Shane
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I’ve had to use UHaul more then a few times. Every time my reservation is there as requested, I feel as though I just got very lucky. It just feels like UHauls management strategy (or lack there of) is to wait for something to go wrong and go into damage control.
I finally had to break my silence and make a first post on here.
While in San Diego, I told a friend I’d help him move. We called u-haul and made a reservation, we got a date, time, price, reservation number, etc.
On the date of the move, we drove to u-haul but we couldn’t find it. We drove up and down and it was no where to be found. There was a Budget truck rental in the area (which was closed), but no u-haul store.
So we called the customer service number only to be informed that the location where we were supposed to pick up the rental had closed a few days earlier.
No one had called us to let us know this. They told us that our only option was to get a smaller (13′ instead of 24′) truck, late in the evening (around 9 pm), a far drive from our area, and with no discounts of any kind.
We tried to speak with other “managers” but no one was willing to work with us. We were even willing to take them on their deal if they at last took some money off the cost of the rental or mileage costs, but they wouldn’t budge.
I’ve been involved in 4 other moves since, and not once have I ever given u-haul my business.
Quick U-Haul story, basically in the vein of what everyone else has said:
My parents were moving, I was going back to college, they had a bunch of furniture they didn’t feel like moving, my roomates and I needed a bunch of furniture so it seemed like a win-win. Rented a U-Haul, loaded it up drove it about 30 miles, steam is pouring out and it’s overheating. Let it cool down a minute, take a look and the radiator cap is missing. No big deal, better than a busted radiator, because as you know once your truck is loaded, the last thing you need is to switch trucks. My dad calls U-Haul explains the situation and asks what they want him to do. They say sit tight, they’ll have roadside assistance there as soon as possible. Okay, he asks for an estimate they say 45 minutes. We wait, no one shows up for an hour. We call to get a status update. 4-6 hours.
Really, 4-6 hours? Knowing that it’s just a matter of getting coolant and a radiator cap, he offers to just drive to the nearest gas station, get coolant and a new cap himself and give U-Haul the receipt for reimbursement. The guy flys into a tirade about how stupid an idea that is, we’re running the risk of damaging the engine, U-Haul is not responsible, blah blah blah, etc. etc. Anyway, guy is told to pound sand, we drive to the nearest gas station (3 miles) without destroying the 1978 Ford engine powering this beast. Top off, get the new cap and move.
Had there been the time to let the engine cool down after our drive back I’m sure my old man would have reposessed the radiator cap that U-Haul refused to reimburse him for.
oh, I’m late to this party.
about a year ago I got customer service so bad from uhaul that they threatened to call the police and arrest me, and later sent me $100 in coupons that I’ll never use.
They sent me off without finishing the paperwork, then called me to make me drive back to finish it, I refused to pay for the mileage, since it was their mistake. They threatened to have the police come put me in handcuffs, so I just walked out. Of course, I got charged the $50 cancellation fee. I complained online and somebody local called me back and eventually accused me of stealing the truck after going back and forth for 20 minutes.
I sent another email, saying that if it’s always going to come down to uhaul accusing me of theft, I’d at least like it in writing so I can share it with friends.
I got a an email back from the regional traffic manager and a letter from “the Marketing Company President” with the $100 in “VIP certificates”
I’ve never used them.
After I left their lot, I had a really great experience with Penske.
UHaul sucks big time… I wrote about my bad experiences two years ago on my blog and it’s collected more than 80 comments of people who hate the franchise. It’s unbelievable that they’re still doing business.
I’ve moved or helped my family move at least 5 times over the last 4-6 years. We’ve always used U-Haul and never had a problem. I’ve always made sure to call the local company that’s providing the truck to confirm equipment and price.
My only complaint w/ their online reservation system is that you don’t enter an address, so you may have to drive across town to pick up a truck.
Sorry for a quick second post, but in addition to the above I’d like to give a good service experience I’ve had w/ them.
I moved from IN to TN and went about 50 miles over the allotment given at the time of pick-up. I mentioned this to the rep in TN and he just added miles and didn’t charge me extra. He easily could have just said, “Tough, pony up the extra money.”
Isn’t this already known by everyone. I recall two or three other “Uhaul sucks ass” vents in the past few months alone.
Ventman, you’re going to really hate Consumerist if your standard for worthy posts is ‘something that noboy’s heard before’. Consumerist reports on issues that are ongoing on a pretty regular basis. Look at the ‘nazi t-shirt’ issue. They’ve reported on that so often the poor dead horse has no intact bones.
I believe the idea is: Consumerist will report things more than once if it shows an ongoing behavior. Or Ben finds personally interesting. Or if it annoys someone. Or if they don’t have 18 posts yet. But mostly if it amuses Ben.
59 comments. Wow, pretty bad. Same here…
Made a res for a truck that was just a mile from where had to move a load from a storage locker to an apartment. Was like $29.95 plus mileage — which would be almost nil.
Got to the designated place and the owner not only had no trucks but claimed he never got notified of the reservation. Showing him a reservation printout didn’t help. Then he just went about his business and tried to ignore us.
So we insisted he help us “make it right” so he disappeared for 10 minutes and came back and said he found us a truck 25 miles on other side of the city. After bitching about how we’d get nailed for mileage due to not being our fault, he said they’d credit us for the mileage difference.
So we drive out to the other u-haul place and, of course, no one there knew anything about us and claimed they never got a call and oh, by the way, they don’t have a truck either.
So at this point, after I wanted to kill someone, he *found* a truck for us but when I asked about credit for mileage he reminded me I’m damn lucky they had any at all and not to push my luck — seriously.
Never again….
Times like this makes me wish I was criminally minded, because I swear I wanted to fire bomb that first place.
Last time I moved I rented a U-Haul from a local outfit (used the online reservation system) They did not have the size truck I needed when I got there but gave me a larger one at no cost (after waiting for an hour and a half), I did have to get some gas in it for them (she gave me $20 out of her register and had me run the truck to the gas station down the street to fill up stressing the importance of bringing her a receipt)This was after getting lung cancer from breathing all of her second hand smoke.
Pretty professional outfit, hope to god I will never have to move again!!
I’ve never rented from U-Haul, but it seems that if you entered into a contract with them through an online reservation, I’d print out the reservation itself, for the type of truck I agreed to pay for, then after using what they’d provided for me, I’d mark it off of my credit card, citing that I had not gotten what I’d paid for, and I never agreed to that package, which is %100 true. I have a feeling that if everyone reacted in this manner, U-Haul would be up shit creek without a paddle. If they decided to take you to court, I’d counter-sue, re-state what I’d written on my “charge-back” citation, and add punitive damages for my time, Professional liability, and product liability – (consult your lawyer).
UHaul: Adventures in Moving.
I don’t know anyone who wants an adventure in moving.
I stopped renting trucks from them quite a while back, because of nightmare scenarios. I have had good luck with Penske a coupe of times.
I like going to UHaul when I need to buy moving supplies though.
I never make a reservation online. I always check for location places and then go into the local office to make the reservation. Everytime our trailer has been there. One piece of information the csr told me was that they jack their prices up during the summertime as that is when they are the most busiest. They do this around May. Which would explain why I paid over $200.00 more for a one way move from Oregon to Alaska in June then when we moved back two years later in April and with a bigger trailer.
Clearly I need to check this site more than once a day so that my comments don’t end up all the way down here.
UHaul is like something out of a Seinfeld bit: I don’t think they understand why they have reservations. They know how to TAKE a reservation, but they don’t know how to HOLD a reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the HOLDing. Anyone can just TAKE them.
And yes, I myself have had a similar experience with a truck not being there when it was supposed to be there. It took several phone calls and much frustration (over almost a whole day) to find a truck, although it was of a non-optimal size. I could spend a few hundred words telling the story so as to better communicate the frustration it caused, but really, it’s not that different from the other stories on this page.
Moving is a big pain. Scheduling around a move, and then doing all the things one needs to do, is very hard and very stressful even when it all works smoothly. So the last thing anyone needs is for a company in the helping-you-move business to be so unreliable. I wonder how they stay in business. Well, they do a good job of making their trucks very noticeable on the road…
Here it is:
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Studio/5280/reserv…
U-Haul stinks. Who’s in charge? How can a customer escalate to get results when the organisation is made up of cells with no accountability to each other or to the customer? Who owns the corporation? How can they be made to understand that their bottom line will be hurt by this behavior? will it?
DO not ever use Uhaul. They are 100% unreliable at your time of most insane stress.(Moving) Last time I made a reservation they simply never called me to inform of where to pick up my truck and their customer service lines were never picked up around the 1st of the month. So I had to come up with other means the day of the move, and I HAD to move. Additionally they charged me $5 on my credit card for reasons unknown and I was unable to get it refunded. I have decided it was a $5 never use us again fee. I won’t. They may be cheap, but that doesn’t mean they need customers apparently. As if moving wasn’t terrible enough…
I suppose a faceless company makes up for it by having alotta balls.
I’ve always had problems with U-Haul; however, none as bad as Shane’s. In the past, the truck I reserved wasn’t there when I arrived to pick it up. This happened at least twice. One of those times, they wanted to send me to another city to get the truck. The last time I went with U-Haul (I know, I know, you’d think I’d have learned), they told me up front they would take the reservation (and my cc number), but they couldn’t make any guarantees about the truck’s actual availability. I told them to shove it. Even though U-Haul calls it a reservation, it’s actually not one. It’s just a lucky coincidence if you get the truck you actually reserved. I’ve since gone with Budget Rent-A-Truck twice, and the truck I reserved was waiting for me when I went to pick it up. Hooray for Budget (at least in Chillicothe, OH)!
I’m helping a relative move this weekend, and I am trying to convince her not to go with the cheap choice (U-Haul), but pay $40 more for a Penske rental for her local move.
I used to be what is known as an Area Field Manager in the U-Haul system. What I did was to find existing businesses (self storage, gas stations, etc…) who may be interested in making a few extra dollars by renting U-Haul trucks and trailers as “Dealers” to the public. Our job was to support Dealers by providing equipment, training in the system, on the computer and to perform minor repairs on those vehicles.
To be honest and fair to the U-Haul “system”… reservations, training and so-on… the system itself is quite good. It’s the execution, or the lack thereof, that causes most of the problems.
At the root of the problem is Joe Shoen (Reference:
“Birthright: Murder, Greed, and Power in the U-Haul Family Dynasty”) and his entourage of executive directors I like to refer to as “Hit Men”. Although U-Haul is publicly traded (UHAL), most of the exec’s and board members share the same last name. As in any business, the final word is money and regardless as to what his methods may have been, Joe has certainly brought U-Haul out of the ashes. The problem is that Joe “rules” U-Haul with an iron fist and everyone within the U-Haul system fears the wrath of Joe.
Every entity in the U-Haul system has a profit goal and typically it is ten percent over whatever last years profits were. In the truck rental business, that is nearly unobtainable depending upon your location and what events occurred in your area may have been the year before. In major cities that can include the World series, the World Fair, the Olympics, whether or not you have colleges in your area, etc… which all have a major impact on the end line. This is why there is an outrageous attrition rate in the General Manager (U-Haul corporate owned store managers) positions and below.
The Customer Service Representatives… usually the guys that bring your trucks to you and help you at the counter, give quotes, answer the phones… are part time workers that need to make a little extra money each month and really don’t care about what the “program” is. They come and go as often as some people change their underwear and are barely trained by the time they quit. Most don’t even know there even is a program. Although the hiring of part time people as customer service rep’s is “discouraged” in official U-Haul memo’s, it is done to keep the bottom line up, however bad the impact on customer service.
The “Reservation System” U-Haul has in place is rather efficient, actually, if used properly. Overbooking is done because of the pressure to perform and bad customer service occurs because of the attrition rate.
Salary (full time) employees are expected to work sixty plus hours per week and when you break their salary down, it will come out to approximately seven to eight dollars per hour; even after years of service. With one holiday a year (Christmas day), they hate being owned by the Company (which is the usual attitude) and it is reflected in their customer service.
If anyone cares to contact me about how rates work or that sort of thing, they can contact me here.
By the way… I quit working for U-Haul and have no interest in their business whatsoever. I presently work in a totally unrelated field now.
Here are some tips for the customer:
1. Rates change all the time. If you are moving near a holiday, make you reservation as far in advance as you can. The rate you will be given will reflect the current rate and not what it will be during the holiday (peak) season.
2. If you are quoted a rate you like, make the reservation over the phone using your credit card or at the store using cash. MAKE SURE TO GET YOUR REFERENCE, or RESERVATION NUMBER (same thing). You can always cancel later, but make sure there is no cancellation fee (charged at the Managers discretion; usually $50 during summer months). Have them note that on your reservation and have them print and send your reservation to you in the mail.
3. Call soon BEFORE (within a week)your reservation date and see if the rates have changed (act like a new customer). If the new rate is better, either the General Manager will honor the better rate, or you can cancel your current reservation and make a new one if they have what you need when you need it.
4. Call or do business with the U-Haul Center nearest you. If you call the 800 number, you will be speaking to some lady sitting in Phoenix, AZ. Get the name and phone number of the “Marketing Company President” when you make your reservation.
6. Get the name of the person you are speaking to and the Dealership or Center number (it’s a six digit number) and write it down.
7. If you call the “1-800-gouhaul”, your conversation IS BEING RECORDED! This can work for or against you if you start making claims about what was said that aren’t true.
8. Insist on the location where you want to pick up your truck/trailer. If you’re told that you can’t get it there, call the “Marketing Company President”.
9. If your equipment is dirty or not in good mechanical condition, insist it be fixed or replaced.
10. If you have ANY problems, and the Marketing Company President does not help you, call Joe Shoen in Phoenix – Office:(602)263-6805 Cell: (602)390-6525. Just have all the information in reference to your reservation available when you do call.