Not for nothing, but people looking to rent a U-Haul might be better served by this sort of thing...anything preventing the consumer from driving one of those poorly maintained death-traps is a good move IMO.

FWIW I have always had great experiences with Penske.

U-Haul is famous for overbooking trucks and expecting the local office to pick up the slack. The opposite is when you need an extra day, they will force you to unload and return the truck on time "or they will report it stolen."

No need to beat up on the local dealers for stupid actions that this company is famous for.

U-Haul story + Consumerist = all the favorite things we like to read about U-haul rehashed.

1. Why did the blogger even consider U-haul
2. U-haul truck broke down 1, 2 etc times
3. U-haul franchises are independent.
4. U-haul does not have an actual reservations system that means anything.
5. U-haul truck was returned and credit card charged for damage or extra days or fuel surcharge.

FYI: My new method of searching about a company is to enter 1. company name + consumerist, then 2. company name + scam, and then 3. company name + sucks. Sorts out the wheat from the chaff real quick...

Screw U-Haul and their "Mom's attic storage space" above the cab. As soon as you hit the gas, everything goes flying down to the truck's bed! Plus they restrict the number of miles you can drive for intercity moving. I've always had a much better experience with Budget. Their trucks are in better condition, aren't as expensive, and put no mileage limitations.

I've always rented from UHaul and never had any problems.

U-haul is great at taking reservations... keeping them on the other hand...

Again, a reason to NEVER USE UHAUL! (as if you needed another reason)

I find it varies by location. The folks in DC - awful. Amazingly awful, bordering on groin-grabingly awful. The U-Haul in Baltimore could not have been easier to work with.

My suggestion - use the U-haul in the nice area - as opposed to the one in the questionable areas.

@ekthesy: +1

I've moved across country a few times and dealing with U-Haul was a nightmare both times I used them. Someone suggested Penske and I never had a problem. Trucks were generally nicer as well.

Big fan of Penske and Budget trucks. Love enterprise vans, too.

@Mark Peterson:

You know, I put my mother up there, like the truck told me to do, and it was a bad experience! She said it wasn't as warm as her own attic, but a hell of a lot more bumpy.

@Bluth_Cornballer: Penske might be a little bit more, but it is worth every penny! I only use Penske! U-Haul had their chance and blew it with me a long time ago.

I had a similar situation when i booked their smallest truck (one step up from a cargo van) to move my apt. I never heard back from them, and when i called to see what was up, they didn't have any more trucks, and were going to substitute my truck i had "reserved" for a cargo van.... i asked about their $50 reservation guarantee, and they said that since they were giving me a "truck of equal value" (both cost $24.99) that they were holding up their end of the "Guarantee" even though that truck is significantly smaller and you end up making 2 or 3 times as many trips.

@ekthesy: I'm glad I'm not the only one that has had to experience the "poorly maintained death-traps". I swear, every time I am there, I, like I'm an Alzheimer's patient, walk around and look at all the nice, shiny, brandy-new Uhaul trucks on the lot, only to be brought to the one hanging out in the back, out of the public's eye, with a broken stereo, steering wheel that is upside down when the wheels are straight, and a top speed of 10mph.

@Mark Peterson: Penske is good IF you can move over a weekend, if you can drive a stick shift, and don't care about the dock height bed, to which I recommend getting the lift gate especially if moving in a city environment.

I rented last year to move and I wanted a 14 footer booked a 14 footer and got a 10 footer.

The explanation I got from the guy is the company just pushes through all rentals regardless if the place has it or not.

The guy was nice gave me unlimited time with the truck and extra blankets and stuff. It wasn't too bad just annoying.

Rented again 14 footer for this Saturday moving (into new house we bought yay)

We'll see what we get.....

@Shappie: please tell me who to rent a large truck from then? don't say budget they suck.

In my experience, the only way to deal with U-Haul is to go into the location IN-PERSON to reserve a truck. Their phone service is the worst thing in the world. The number you call goes to a central location that has no idea what's actually going on at the individual stores, and if you manage to get central to transfer you to a local store, the local rep mumbles something at you and takes the first excuse they can to transfer you back to central. There's a reason U-Haul is the cheapest; they skimp on employee pay and training.

@azsumrg1rl: Yeah, me too. I must just be really lucky. The last time I did a cross-country move U-Haul rented me a brand new truck. Literally. There were only 300 miles on the odometer when I picked it up.

Ahhh, U-Haul, is there nothing you can't screw up? Now I know who I'm renting from for my next Staycation.

U-Haul really needs to make it on the WCIA brackets next year.

U-Haul is the worst, and yet like a sucker, every move, I seem to come back for more because of price, forgetting how terrible the experience is.

The U-Haul experience:

1. Reservation doesn't mean reservation. It means that they will jerk you around leaving you by the phone for somebody to call you if they actually have a truck. It is so much fun having your buddies lined up to help you move "sometime within the next 48 hours!"

2. It is perfectly ok to assign you a truck over an hour away each way. In fact, I think they purposesly do this because then you get murdered with the milage charge.

3. Be prepared for nobody to call you back, to get hung up on, transferred to random extensions, and to have people be unspeakably rude to you. This is a big part of the U-Haul experience.

4. Be fully and totally prepared for the truck to be unmaintained and absolutely unsafe to drive. One experience left me broken down on the side of the road for 6 hours waiting for the U-Haul maintenance truck- pretty sorry for a 5 MILE MOVE! (U-Haul would not even consider refunding even a part of my rental fee).

Another time, they rented me a 24" stickshift truck that had a burnt out parking brake- Nothing but fun when the truck WITH ALL OF YOUR WORLDLY POSSESIONS kicks out of 1st gear and GOES ROLLING DOWN THE STREET.

There was someplace in Canada that took to safety inspecting U-Haul trucks and failing an absurd number of them, upon which they took the plates. Instead of fixing the trucks to get the plates back, U-Haul just requested new plates from Arizona (where company headquarters is).

5. I know their prices are lower than everywhere else. IT IS NOT WORTH IT. Go someplace else where you will be treated like a human being.

I did a pretty long move last fall, about 320 miles away, and had to rent a truck. I had issues with Uhaul in the past, and really wanted to avoid them this time. The last time I rented from them, I think it was in 2003-4 they seemed way more expensive, and their truck was a late 80's-early90's truck that seemed to barely be running. This time around I went with Budget, and was really pleased. The truck was almost brand new, the customer service was fantastic, and the price was a lot lower than Uhaul.

I rented a U-Haul trailer a few weeks ago to move some stuff for a relative. This was a 1-way, multi-state rental. I was expecting the worse, i.e. going to pick up trailer and it not be available, getting a bill for $4k after returning the trailer because they don't realize I returned it. Anyway, turned out to be a good experience, trailer was ready when they said it would be, it was in decent shape and crew at the drop off location was great.

I still wouldn't rent a death trap truck from them, now way. Go with Penske.

@Pibbs: In my experience, this is the way it shakes out.

If you're going one-way, you get one of the shiny new trucks.

If you're renting in-town, you get a crappy one that they don't think can make it across the country anymore.

Dear OP - if you haven't yet:

1). Call your credit card company to see if any charges made by Uhaul.

2). If not, see if you can block any future charges

3). Do NOT use a night drop off at Enterprise or anywhere - ever. If the truck is stolen off the lot, or damaged or vandalized, you are responsible. The condition of the return is determined when the company checks it in, not when you drop it off.

My car dealer provided an Enterprise rental during warranty work (they paid for rental). I dropped off on Friday at the dealer. Dealer didn't notify Enterprise till Monday. I have a 2 day charge (Saturday / Sunday from Enterprise). Since the dealer only authorized a 1 day rental and the car was not "returned" to Enterprise till Monday, they charged me.

Luckly I had demanded that the cashier at the dealer sign and date-stamp my paperwork to indicate the day / time that I returned the car and keys. I contacted Enterprise who promptly removed the charges.

I once rented a truck from U-Haul. When I went to pick it up, the clerk told me it had to be back by 8am (16 hours later). When I pointed out I had a 48-hour rental, he started yelling and screaming and threw me out of the store (later I found out he was using the U-Haul trucks to pick up inventory for his flower shop). The national office sent me to their main location for a truck...which promptly ran out of gas two blocks away on a busy highway. Just go to Budget or Penske and save yourself from a rage-induced heart attack.

I have a Uhaul reserved for the fourth of july weekend. I'm picking it up thursday, and bringing it back sunday, but am only getting charged for one day.

Sometimes I'm glad I have a pickup. Sure it might take more trips, but I do it at my leisure.

@mpaquette: Yeah, the U-Haul trailers are actually a pretty good deal. The car-haulers especially. I've used them more than I'd care to admit to retrieve project cars. The only trick is they won't rent a car hauler for in-town use, so you have to get a little sneaky and do a one-way between two nearby towns.

@Jeff Newman:

That explains why ALL the U-Hauls in Ontario, Canada have Arizona plates, trailers included. I just figured it was cheaper to plate them there.

Read all about U-Haul and their trail of tears (and blood): www.uhaulsafetyalert.org

@shepd: All U-Hauls everywhere have Arizona plates, actually. As far as I can tell they register everything they own in that state.

Oddly enough, last time I rented an in-town truck in the Seattle area I got an old Canadian one, with a speedometer in km/hr.

@Bluth_Cornballer: @ekthesy: I was going to rent a UHaul for a recent move until I found out that I would have to pick up either a day early and pay for the extra day, or I would have to drive a total of 45 extra miles to pick up and drop off even when there are two rental places a few miles away from my home. Called up Penske and got a truck for the same price and I got to pick it up when I wanted to and didn't have to jump through a ton of hoops to return it after hours.

@pmcpa4: Agreed on Penske. You get what you pay for.

@Pibbs:

steering wheel that is upside down when the wheels are straight, and a top speed of 10mph.

I'm sure by now everyone knows that the typcial U-Haul "franchise" is some hole in the wall named "Joe's Used Tires" that happens to have been stupid enough to agree to deal with U-Haul on a regular basis. They get matched up with customers through the General Reservation System depending on how they input their available trucks (or more accurately and usually, truck).

The reason they hate people returning trucks late is because then they have to deal with the next customer who they've probably already promised the truck. However, almost everyone returns them late. Any time you've been told that a certain location has your truck and then it turns out they don't, it's because someone returned it late and they have no good way to deal with it.

Be careful with enterprise - if you do a night drop, there's no one there to verify if the truck was undamaged when you dropped it off and you're therefore liable for any damage that's done in between when you drop it off and when they feel like officially checking out your rental. This happened to one of my co-workers, with 2 interesting twists - 1) it wasn't actually a night / drop box drop-off, and he had the signed receipt to prove it and 2) there wasn't actually any damage done to the vehicle, simply some scrapes on the underside of the plastic front valence which are completely normal for a car with 20,000 miles on it. Despite both of these factors, it took him almost 3 weeks to actually convince the claims people that either of these things were true, and get them to drop $400 in charges against him.

@Saboth: Yeah, that works great for in town moves, but what if you're moving 400 miles away?

@Saboth: Plus, you could always get a trailer (either buy or rent), which from what I can tell, is considerably easier than renting a truck.

@Mark Peterson: I have used Budget for my last 3 moves. It cost about $10 more than U-hell but itworked. My only experience with U-hell was when we needed their biggest truck. I got it all reserved and wen there to get it. I got in the cab of this old International truck with no AC and it was a stick shift. I have driven a stick shift before but not a 30' long truck. I had to downgrade to the next size down. (a 24' with 350,000 miles and smoke pouring out the back)

Budget on the other hand only keeps their trucks for 2-3 years. It had 20,000 miles on it and ran like a champ.

A few years ago, my brother rented a Uhaul truck to move some stuff from my parents house. After loading up the truck, they tried to slide the ramp back into it's grove, but instead it jumped it's track and took off part of the gas tank.

Now, the truck is sitting in my parents front yard, leaking gas all over, and it's full of my brother's stuff.

They called, Uhaul, who was nice enough to get another truck fro them, but they had to unload everything, load in onto the second truck, so that the first truck could be towed away. No to mention the damage that the gas leak did to my parent's lawn.

They really need to maintain those trucks better.

Budget is good, but if you're planning on renting one it's useful to know ahead of time that they equip their trucks with bucket seats, not bench seats like U-Haul does. The third person helping us with that move did not appreciate sitting on the floor, especially when I hit the brakes and something bashed into the wall behind them.

It cost me a month's pay to get movers to take my single room's worth of stuff from New York City to Virginia, but boy was it ever worth it. (Particularly As I moved from a fifthh-floor walk-up to a fourth-floor walk-up.) Never dealing with U-Haul again is worth good money, to me.

@David Brodbeck: I think the key is "Cross Country". It's the local moves that they rent the old dying trucks for.

@Etoiles: From what I've heard about professional moving companies, you're probably lucky they didn't lock your stuff up somewhere and demand another month's pay to get it back...

If you're set on renting from uhaul, the only thing which can potentially mitigate the brutal experience you're about to have is by going in person to the uhaul office you want to rent from and making your reservation that way. I know it's a pain in the ass, but there's a much better chance you'll get a reservation for a vehicle they actually have, at a time it will actually be there if you go speak to a live person that works there. Just calling the local office directly likely won't do it as every time I've been in mine they just let the phone ring off the hook as they're horribly, horribly, understaffed and have to pick between answering the constantly ringing phone, or dealing with the neverending line of people that populate the store. The absolute best thing you can do is rent a truck anytime other than within 3 days of the first of the month. Moving day is pretty much guaranteed to be a complete gong show.

I'm amazed consumerist didn't plug this article:
[consumerist.com]

I haven't tried it, but last couple of times I used uhaul I secretly wished I would have an issue just so I could call the number.

I've sold auto parts to local U-Haul franchises, which was very educational:
U-Haul buys trucks that are non-standard: e.g., Ford F-350s with F-450 brakes, Toyota pickups with larger drum brakes in the back than any Toyota listed in any parts book, engine/transmission combinations that don't make any sense, oddball clutches that need to be physically matched up, etc.

It makes it a lot of fun to fix the trucks, let alone "maintain" them -- so they rarely do the latter. Whenever I sold parts for a U-Haul truck, it was because the truck was completely dead; sometimes they couldn't even get them to roll out of the service bay. The primary concern on every U-Haul part sale was lowest cost. I was utterly shocked the first time I sold 3/16" compression unions for a steel brake line repair on a HiLux with Midget-Mom's Attic over top of the cab.

Face it, folks: the franchises lose money if they repair them, because U-Haul's reimbursement rate blows. The only reason the truck might be repaired is if it won't move. If a truck won't stop at all, the franchisee might look at the brakes; if they merely suck, it's going out on another rental.

Don't risk it. Rent from someone else. You really do get what you pay for.