Wow, maybe Uhaul should be on the bracket of the worst companies.

either that or they should just change from Uhaul to Ugetyourowntruck.

Just call their CEO [consumerist.com]

So what's the alternative? Who do you rent from if you're moving?

I'm not surprised. COmpanies keep making promises and guarantees that are full of holes and conditions or simply are lies. What a ripoff.

@SportsCentre: Try calling a local place. We ended up renting a large van to move me from college (big enough for a queen size bed) because U-haul's prices were insane for driving out of state and back. It was a great deal and a great experience.

For my last move, I ended up just paying a local moving company with a good reputation in my area. It cost me about $200 to move all my things and I did not have to play any games with U-haul. When you're moving out of an apartment, you can't afford to be unsure if a reservation is going to be kept, so I've never used them.

Destroy the truck. Grind out the clutch or something. Crash it into another truck when you go to deliver it.

This *just* happened to my friend with his Budget truck rental reservation as well.

Glad to hear, when I move I doubt I'll be reserving the truck. Or perhaps I will, and I'll make sure to bring the agreement along with me so I can get my $50.

@SportsCentre: Who do you rent from if you're moving? Penske? Hertz? Budget?

Anyway, this sounds like a breech of contract. The customer agrees to pay a price; Uhaul agrees to provide the (from TFA) "equipment size, location and pickup time as agreed to in the scheduling contract." At the very least, Greg should have gotten the $50.

@SportsCentre:

In my town there is a Penske and some other companies. You just have to look around!

One of my friends was moving out of his apartment in a college town in the Midwest. He rented a U-Haul truck at the local place and was told it was guaranteed. Me and a couple guys from our hometown made the trip up to help our buddy move out and then follow him home and help him unload the stuff too.

Well, when we got to the U-Haul place, they told us that they didn't have any trucks and that we would have to go to the next closest U-Haul store, which none of us even knew how to get to. They gave us the worst directions I've ever had to follow and after about an hour driving around trying to find the right roads to turn on in a busy downtown area, we finally found it. We got there and they didn't have the size of truck he reserved, so he was forced to upgrade to a bigger truck.

Needless to say, none of us will ever deal with U-Haul again after they wasted tons of our time and money because they blatantly lie about their "guarantee".

Uhaul has done the same thing to me before. I had to drive to another location for a smaller truck.

You could always buy the insurance waiver and then completely trash the truck. It won't get you your $50 but it will cost U-Haul a lot more than $50.

I'm moving from Baltimore to Chicago in September, and after spending hours researching mini-movers and calculating truck rental and gas prices, I determined the cheapest and by far the easiest solution is to ... load up my car with everything that will fit, ship a bunch of stuff that won't, and buy what I need when I get there. Now, I'm moving in with someone who already has a bed and couches, and I don't exactly have a Bill Gatesian amount of stuff, but it's still worth looking at for people moving long-distance from one apartment to another.

While I didnt have an issue with Uhaul and their "awesome" guarentee... i did have an issue when returning the truck.

They have the whole gas policy of "receive it at this much gas, return it at this much gas". Easy right? I do just that and the guy has a freaking fit that it wasnt returned with MORE than the original amount.... Wtf?

Guy wouldnt allow me to return it, and was going to instead charge the company amount of gas ($4/gallon plus another $50(I think) to then go fill up the moving truck).

Was so fuckin pissed at such a shitty thing.

Uhaul is the quintessential American experience. People in other countries don't move cities/apartments at all like we do here.

So why does Uhaul have to suck so bad? Why does every other rental car company manage to get their fleet logistics down correctly, with the car you reserved generally waiting for you when you expected? Why is every Uhaul station staffed and run as if it's about to fall apart and every request for a truck causes a panicked response? Aren't they tired of this script?

What is the problem? A bad piece of software that isn't getting trucks where they need to be? Not enough investment in maintenance? WHAT?? These are problems that can be solved in this day and age!!

UHaul let me book a truck for a move on a Sunday.

When I showed up to the UHaul location I was told to visit to pick up the truck, I found that it was CLOSED on Sundays.

They clearly have major issues with their entire reservation system.

@MonkeyMonk: Don't do any of this passive aggressive bullshit. Uhaul doesn't repair their trucks so you're only making life difficult for the next poor soul to rent the truck.

@The Count of Monte Fisto: You could also consider doing a one-way rental from a car company. Rent a minivan and use a discount code from your credit card, insurance, XXXXX membership, etc. You'll get dinged on the one-way, but it might still be cost effective. You also get unlimited mileage so you don't have to worry about the per mile charge. The only catch is that you have to be a bit more gentle with the interior as they'll charge you for any major damage.

I've rented from U-Haul a number of times, it's always a crap shoot getting what you actually reserved, although normally they upgrade me to a larger truck for the same price. That said I have a truck that's harder to drive and maneuver and gets worse gas mileage than the one I reserved, hardly a value.

My worst experience was moving cross country, I reserved a 17 foot truck months in advance, they 'upgraded' me to a 24 foot truck. Had fun parking that in downtown Washington DC. Also had to go to a second location to get the tow behind for my car and neither location had the dolly I reserved.

I'm a big fan of Penske. Take a look in your town to see if you have one. I rented the biggest truck they had that didn't need a CDL to drive. VERY VERY affordable and the equipment was top-notch. The service was fantastic, as well.

@ARP: Interesting, I'll definitely look into that. Even though it's the money-saving way, it's tough to leave my stuff behind! Thanks for the tip.

@SportsCentre: Thrifty I found painless to deal with when I needed a cargo van. Ryder is there too, but they cost notably more than Thrifty, the van wasn't in as good shape, and they were much more of a pain in the ass overall, including forcing me to take insurance I already had. Either one beats U-Haul by a mile.

I have never had the misfortune to deal with any of the nationwide truck rental chains.

In Minneapolis (St. Louis Park), we have a company called Reddy Rents that I have used twice to move.

I made reservations a couple of months in advance, when I arrived they had the truck I ordered (gasp!) in stock and ready to go.

The gave me 50 miles free (still had to gas it up when I was done) which covered my in-town move, so the whole thing cost me about $125-150.

I definitely suggest going local.

Uhaul definitely ranks up there as one of the worst companies. The last time I used them about 5 years ago was and still is the last time I use them. My wife had scheduled a reservation much like this guy, received a confirmation, etc. When we go to pick up the truck on the day of the reservation, they of course do not have one. After waiting another hour and exchanging some heated words, the clerk finally finds us a truck at another location. Unfortunately, our friends that were helping with the move were stuck waiting around while we traveled around town to get our truck. Never again will we use Uhual!

Happened to me once too, but as part of the deal of getting a smaller truck, they did offer me double the mileage and more hours of rental for the same price for my trouble of needing to make more trips. Must have been one of the nicer franchises.

This story does not surprise me in the least. I had a similar incident 2 years ago. I rented a 14' truck over a month in advance, and even called 1 week before and the day before to confirm the reservation, and was told everything was ok.

When I showed up to get the truck the next day, surprise, surprise, it wasn't there. They offered NO alternative. I then spent the better part of 3 hours calling every single U-Haul location within a 50 mile radius and FINALLY located a truck at a location near where I was moving to.. 55 Miles away from my current apartment! I was then told it was reserved for the next day, so I could only have it from 6pm that day but had to have it back by 6AM then next morning.

Needless to say, I owed my friends and family a HUGE debt as I had to have them help me move until 3AM.

I complained to their "customer service" (I use that term loosely), and never recieved a credit, nor an apology.

U-Haul has such a bad name here in Ontario that on the long weekends when the police do safety blitz's, U-Haul has their mechanic located at the same stop because almost every truck gets pulled off the road for safety violations..

I will never use U-Haul again, 2 years and it still gets my blood boiling.

@MonkeyMonk: Yeah, because anytime you don't get what you want, it's perfectly acceptable to go around breaking stuff.

/sarcasm

Choose Penske. Seriously. They almost always have great reviews, and I personally used them last September to move. They were about as expensive as their competitors, they had the right truck ready when I got there, and the staff were very courteous. Plus Penke buys new trucks, uses them for a few years, then sells the trucks to U-Haul or Budget or whomever, so they have the best equipment.

I actually moved last weekend and got a 16' truck from Budget. I made all the reservations online, which was very quick and got to use a coupon code that knocked 15% off of the daily/mileage fees. Service was good when I picked up and returned the truck, and the truck was in great condition even though it had 55k miles on it. It had AC too which was a life saver here in the DC area last weekend...

Other than Budget I've never used any moving companies. I did call Uhaul to get a quote, and when I called back 20 minutes later their quote went up by $0.20 / mile!! That's what made me choose Budget and I'm glad I did.

@SportsCentre:

Penske! I've rented from them with success in the past.

I've had great experience with local (SW Mpls suburbs: Prior Lake Rental). Also, when the time comes to bring our daughter home from college after graduation next year, I'm going to try Enterprise. I've had reasonable experience with them renting cars & minivans, I see they also rent full-size cargo vans. Last time I talked to them, U-Haul wouldn't rent me a trailer because I was going to use a Ford Explorer to tow it (remember, the underinflated Firestone fiasco...). It's the tires, stupid (actually, the idiot who's supposed to inflate the tires to the proper pressure, stupid).

You can file a complaint with the BBB. I would hope that UHaul would rather shell out $50 than have a complaint on file.

You'd think that they gave themselves big enough holes (big enough to drive a truck through) in their small print that they wouldn't have to flat-out refuse the "guarantee".

Here's the kicker : In the T&C - even though the big print says "When you make a reservation, we guarantee ..." the small print actually says the the guarantee doesn't kick in until "the day prior to your requested pickup date." So all they have to do is call you and say about that "reservation you thought you made 3 months ago ... well so sorry, no truck for you tomorrow, go pound sand" - and they can't even manage to do THAT!

So the local office doesn't even know (or can't be bothered to figure out) how many trucks they will have available THE NEXT DAY.

I used U-Haul the last weekend of March when I moved. I made a reservation and I had no problem getting what I wanted when I wanted it. This also considering that it was the last weekend of the month and probably when they get the most business because most people move then.

This story doesn't surprise me in the least. I had a similary incident 2 years ago.

I rented a 14' truck over a month in advance, and confirmed it a week before, and the day before.

When I showed up to get my truck on the day of the move, surprise, surprise, they didn't have my truck. They also didn't offer any alternative.

I then spent the better part of 3 hours on the phone calling every U-Haul location within 50 miles of me to find another truck, as I had already put down a deposit.

I FINALLY located one, 55 miles away, and around the corner from my destination location. I decided I was fed up and just wanted to get going, so I drove out there and picked it up. AFTER I arrived there, I was told that this particular truck had been reserved for the following day, so I could only have it from 6PM until 6AM.

Thank goodness I have such great friends and family, they helped me move until almost 4am so I could have the truck back by 6am, otherwise I would have been dinged for another full day of rental charges, even though I wasn't using it the full day.

U-Haul has such a bad name here in Ontario that when the Police do roadside "Saftey Blitz's" here, U-Haul sends a mechanic set up next to them because EVERY truck gets yanked off the road for being unsafe.

I complained to their "customer service" (I use that term loosely), and never recieved any credit, nor even a basic apology.

2 years later and it STILL makes my blood boil. Next time, I'm hiring movers..

@Darascon:
UHaul: "Would you like the damage insurance"
Customer: (with evil grin) "Why yes, yes I would...muahahahahahah!"

I've had this experience with UHaul as well. Next time I move, I'm just selling/giving away my possessions and buying new ones in the new city.

Oh brother, not this again. Uhaul is terrible. It's always been a crapshoot, always will be. That being said, I normally get what I asked for because I move on odd days, like Tuesday mornings (i.e. Not weekends).

But I've worked for rental car companies and that's pretty much a crapshoot as well, just that they have a larger inventory. Rental car companies don't hold your car, they just work on the assumption that they'll have your car available when you come in. I swear the rental system doesn't even communicate with the active inventory system, or at least it didn't when I worked there.

Tell the story to the media. Then you will get the 50 bucks. And file the complaint as well.

I agree with the folks recommending Penske. A few years back I reserved a big truck from Uhaul to move my mother across country. The Uhaul that I reserved from (and called to verify the day earlier) did not have a truck for me on moving day. They told me that I needed to go to anothe Uhaul that was 25 miles away and that was my only option. I went to the other Uhaul place and they were going to rent me a huge broken down vehicle with bald tires and no passenger seat. This was not a safe truck for travelling from one side of the country to the other.

Long story short, I made a call to Penske and was able to have a brand new truck (of the size I requested0 the next day.

I would never use Uhaul again and will tell everyone I know to reserve through Penske.

All my moves in the last dozen years have been from one apartment to another in the same city. I talk to people for like a month before the move to find a reputable moving company that I hire two weeks in advance. I could never load all my crap myself. I get three guys, a truck, and packing services for about the same or less than it would cost to get boxes and packing supplies, pack myself, hire a truck, and hire a couple college students to load and unload boxes for me.

Penske all the way. Moved from Phoenix to Buffalo NY. Truck was ready and clean when it was supposed to be. Truck had air and they had the car carrier hooked up and ready to go for us. Equipment was clean and everything worked. Drop off was easy and no gotcha charges after it was dropped off. A friend moved with them and they even were able to get a second truck at the last minute for their multi-state move.

You know, this is a prime example of a company using its branded website to suck money from consumers, without any actual benefit.

BUT, THERE IS A WAY AROUND IT (you just have to use a telephone).

About a year ago I went through the same process of making an online reservation-- convenient, reassuring, ready for moving day.

When I showed up at the garage in Long Island City, the old-time New Yorker with mechanic's hands shook his head sadly when I showed him my reservation slip.

"You know," he said, "you didn't have to do that. Next time, just call me, tell me when you're coming, and I'll have the truck ready for you. This internet thing doesn't even mean anything."

Thanks, New York mechanic dude: sounds like the franchise isn't doing too much for you, either.

The only moving truck company I have ever had a good experience with is Penske. They have a really high consumer rating, and the sales staff is always courteous and helpful. Every truck of theirs I have seen has been in good working order, unlike beat to death U-Hauls. They also give online discounts and AAA discounts, so I have found them to have very good pricing.

Charge it on a credit card, and then do a charge-back on $50. Document the chargeback with their contract, their failure to provide equip/time/location.

I had this same problem when I did a move in Atlanta. Reserved at a location near my house, showed up the day off and they looked at me crazy. Claimed that someone from U-Haul was supposed to call me the day before to tell me my truck wasn't available. I wound up having to drive to a location far away from both my old and new apartment. Through off my schedule and my friends were pissed. I would never ever ever rent from U-Haul, especially once I read how they don't maintain their vehicles and how many have had mechanical failures and caused accidents. Most likely I'll hire a professional moving company when I move in a few months.

I have used Penske with success.

One warning about renting from a legitimate truck rental place (i.e., not U-Haul): get the truck back on time. There are often hefty late charges.

They make you agree to this when you rent the truck because, oddly enough, they may have committed to rent the truck to somebody else after your time is up, and they want to make sure that they have a truck.

What a concept!

It's the same thing at Budget. I reserved a truck online in advance. Went there in the morning to pick it up, and they didn't have it. They gave me a free upgrade to a bigger truck that was ready to go.

That was pretty cool and all, but it was kind of a pain to drive. And if I hadn't come in 15 minutes before my scheduled pick-up time, I'm sure that truck would've gone to someone else and I would have to wait around until another truck came back in.

FYI: Same reservation issue with Budget - except once you show up and find out there's no truck reserved for you, they'll still charge the fee to your credit card - forcing you to call to have it removed.