I don’t normally air my laundry in public, but I’m going to make an exception with U-Haul and hopefully save some others from the trouble I faced. If you don’t want to read the story, but want to know why you shouldn’t use U-Haul… scroll to the bottom.
My girlfriend recently moved from one side of Toronto to the other and rented a U-haul 17-foot truck three weeks in advance of the move. She did this over the telephone and reserved with a credit card, specifically requesting the U-Haul location closest to her previous residence (this request was acknowledged). She was told that they would call her the day before the move to let her know when to pick up the truck. They never called.
The day of the move, we called them early in the morning, and they said that they didn’t have a truck available yet, but would have one shortly and would call us. At noon, we called again and heard the same story. At 1:00 p.m., they called to “offer” us a truck in Fort Erie, Ontario, which is at least a 4-hour return trip (perhaps longer, it was a long-weekend). We refused and asked if there would be one available closer to us. They said “Oh absolutely – we’ll call you when one is available”. At 3:00 p.m., we called back and got the same rhetoric as before. At 5:00 p.m., they called and offered us a 14-foot truck (which likely wasn’t big enough) in a small town North of Toronto, which would have taken at least 2.5 hours return. Again we refused, as we had “helpers” waiting patiently and felt that this was too long of a drive for a truck smaller than we wanted.
We never heard from U-Haul again. Literally. There were no further offers of trucks. No calls to apologize. No explanations. We ended up borrowing a cube van during the evening and made multiple trips (thankfully, it was only 30 minutes between each house) throughout the evening and into the wee hours of the morning.
The following day, I called U-Haul to “inquire” and was told that our reservation was for THAT DAY, not the previous day, so we shouldn’t have expected to receive a truck. I asked her about the previous offers and she didn’t have an answer, and changed the subject. I told her to cancel our reservation (after all, they had the credit card number). Since then, I’ve been treated in an extremely rude manner by U-Haul (and to clarify, I have never been rude with them). They have called me a liar. They have called me stupid for not taking the truck in Fort Erie. And they said there is no way in hell that they will compensate us for not meeting the reservation. Since then, I’ve discovered that this is an all-too-common problem with U-Haul. There is a site (
http://www.uhaul-sucks.com/) and message board dedicated to horror stories – many of which are worse than mine (unsafe trucks, stranded loads, no customer support, etc.). I’ve decided not to pursue this any further with U-Haul, but rather to inform people of my experiences and hopefully discourage others from using them.
If you rent from U-Haul, you should know that:
· They make an unlimited number of reservations, regardless of how many trucks they have available. Therefore, these reservations are never guaranteed.
· They cannot guarantee a pick-up location, or city, or even district. This is part of their “contract”, which is not given/or explained to customers.
· There are many, many reports of ancient, faulty, or damaged equipment and very little service if something happens to break while you are using it.
· Their customer service staff will make promises that they simply cannot keep – evidently, this is their business model and they are non-apologetic about it.
I will never, ever use U-haul again. End of rant.
