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I Hate U-Haul Truck Rental (And So Does Everyone Else)
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U-Haul is, in my personal opinion, quite possibly one of the most poorly managed businesses still in business and the only way they get away with it is because they’re almost the only game in town. The U stands for Unreliable. Ask anyone if they’ve ever had or heard of someone having a bad experience with U-Haul and prepare yourself for an intricate story about how U-Haul screwed them This is exactly what happened to me this weekend. (I added to the title because everyone else hates U-Haul too!)
I was to help my girlfriend and her roommate move out of their apartment in New Jersey starting at 10am on Saturday. The night before, her roommate called and confirmed (the guy said they had the truck on site and she could pick it up at 10ish the next day) that the truck they reserved was ready for us tomorrow. She calls the next day right before she is supposed to leave – truck isn’t there. Truck was never there. In the general area, there were no one-way trucks available for rental because it was the end of the month and they were all booked (reserved! ha!). We didn’t get a truck until 7pm, didn’t depart until 11pm, and worked all through the night until 6am unpacking.
One year ago, when my roommate and I moved out of our apartment (and into another), we too ran into the same situation. The U-Haul site had decided, even with our reservation, to rent our truck out to a walk-in customer because they didn’t know if we would show up. We didn’t get a truck that day until 2pm. This year, we opted to use a minivan from a reputable rental agency.
U-Haul is unreliable and dishonest. While they’ll gladly take your cancellation fee, they won’t give you any money if they screw you and rent out a truck you need. Most of the time we’re talking about end of the month moves where you need to follow a strict schedule in order to check out of the apartment, complete the final walk-through, and get on your way. If we didn’t move, we would have to continue paying a rent because of U-Haul’s unreliability. Don’t call it a reservation if you don’t reserve anything.
My fellow bloggers who read this, write a post about how U-Haul has screwed you and trackback to this one. Non-bloggers, send this to a friend and have them comment and/or pass it along. Spread the word, like a virus, that U-Haul is a business that should go down the tubes.
If you need to move, use these alternatives (I haven’t used them but U-Haul has screwed me two out of two times, so I’d use any of these before U-Haul ever again):
- Budget/Ryder – Ryder was acquired by Budget, so try Budget for your moving needs.
- Penske – I see their trucks all the time and the drivers are always smiling, so they can’t be all that bad.
- Hertz – Word on the street is that Hertz rents trucks as well.
- Public Storage – Storage companies typically will let you use their truck if you rent from them and with the smallest storage closets running about $30 a month, this is a great deal for in-town moves.
From the comments, it also sounds like even if you get a truck (the “lucky” ones), they aren’t reliable (surprise!) and could die on you.
U-Haul CEO’s Cell Phone Number
Courtesy of the Consumerist:
The CEO of Uhaul gave out his cellphone number last night on an episode of Inside Edition, inviting consumers to call with complaints or questions. Joe Shoen explained saying, “People can’t get this organization to behave, I can.” That number is 602-390-6525.
Let him have it!
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I agree.. U haul is shameless in business … I am going online just now to get a truck and i will pay more just to not give them money. They lie and probably treat their employee poorly. They say the truck you paid for 2 weeks in advance has been rented from the location of which you need to pick up… and that you must travel to another city to get one and then to a totally opposit city to get the trailer for your car… and then laugh at you when you plead for them to help you… however, if you drive to the location where you had the reservation … there could be 20 trucks like you reserved.. then, if you call and try to make a reservation right there on the spot for that moment .. they say “Sure, we have one for you” … then they have no explanation as to why they have put you through total hell in the mean time. DO not give them business… we need a revolution.
The Payment is not taken when you reserve the equipment ( unless you reserve on-line, then there is a $5.00 fee), for a local rental, you pay when you return the truck. One way rentals are paid in advance.
i’m gonna get it i’m sure! i just left a crap msg for the guy at uhaul… i said some bad things… then i told him he can call me if he wants…
i hate what u haul did to my last move…. they suck pretty bad.
Oh please you people should try working on the other side of the counter. I’m a GM of a corp owned U-Haul. Try dealing with customers that come running in on a busy end of the month weekend and demand a truck “I see some one your lot” yes but they have reservations on them. Or how about when I ask them “how long will you need the truck?” and they tell me “oh i’ll be back by 2pm” then i book the next customer at 2:30 but then guess what the first customer calls and say “Oh I’m going to need it till tommorrow” When I explain about the next customer they reply “not my problem” or how about the customer who drives 200 miles drops my truck off at night with no gas and then when we go to charge there card its declined.
I work with every customer that walks into my store. If I dont have a truck for them I’ll find them one. Things do happen to our trucks but we cannot foresee them just like if your car broke down on the side of the road. How am I suppose to know if the fuel pump is going to go out at that moment. Did you know your fuel pump was going to go out no I don’t think so.
I know I’m going on but everyone has something bad to say about every business. Some supermarket has higher prices then another. I could go on and on about Wal-mart and there nasty cashiers and floor people but thats for another blog.
As a Uhaul Dealer I see the other side also
For example, Two women came into my shop, in Pittsburgh Pa. at 5:30pm on a Friday in August. They wanted a 17 ft truck. The only one available, had a prior reservation at 11:00 am Saturday, when I informed them of this, they assured me it would be returned by 10:00 am.Fast foward to 4:12 pm Saturday, after repeated unanswered calls, I finally get a breakdown report about my truck, it is in Montgomery Alabama, with a dead battery.
The truck was returned, 3 days late,at night, no gas, dirty in the cab and the box, damaged mirror, and over 1800 miles on the meter. I missed 4 reservations, and their credit card only cover $250 of the $2000.00 they owed.
Remember this; Uhaul is a BUSINESS not a charity.
I’ve rented from Uhaul 3 times this year and had major problems 2 of those times. I spoke to the regional manager this last time and he could hardly care less. All he did was feed me a ton of excuses. I will never use them again!
UHAUL OPERATES LIKE ALL RENTAL COMPANIES. RESERVING EQUIPMENT BASED ON ITS RETURNING FROM PREVIOUS RENTALS. IF A RENTER DOES NOT RETURN ON TIME (EXPECIALLY ON A BUSY WEEKEND) YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY EQUIP TO COVER RESERVATION.(EXAMPLE AMERICAN AIRLINES LIKE ALL AIRLINES DOUBLE AND TRIPLE BOOKS ALL FLIGHTS AND CANCELS ADDS AS NEEDED) SOMETIMES WITH CUSTOMERS SPENDING HOURS EVEN DAYS WAITING. IF YOU WERE SMART YOU WOULD HAVE USED THERE MISTAKES TO YOUR ADVANTAGE AND GOTTEN THE RENTAL DISCOUNTED AND OR FREE HAPPENS EVERYDAY WITH ALL RENTAL ,AIRLINE,HOTEL ETC. IT IS PART OF RENTING.
wess you are an idiot who more than likley works for u-haul
chucky shamroci i dealt with you personaly & i also know you personaly & i think you are the rudest idiot i have ever knowen
Did you even finish elementary school? You cannot even spell known! hahahahaha. You are the loser
Uhaul took my money for boxes and moving help then refused to rent me a truck the day I went to pick up the truck they confirmed with me, because they allege I rented an appliance dolly for over a month and traveled 3 states south to drop it off, in a different truck that was not mine. Clearly, the UHAUL agent lost the dolly and the truck ended up in South Carolina. I rented a truck and a dolly for ONE day. Now, UHAUL is saying: “its too far back for us to go in the records to prove you dont owe that money. just pay it”.
Mr. Shoen is getting a call from me. I had to pay 4 days rent to both my landlord AND the place I moved to because UHAUL screwed me so bad. UHAUL is INCONSIDERATE, NOT VERY POLITE and IRRESPONSBILE. Hopefully, Mr. Schoen can tell me otherwise. I also filed my report on RipOFfReports.
ive rented from uhaul once, i moved my college belongings to my parents house 150 miles away, and i got the in town trailer cause it was $18 instead of $77 for the one way and i was gonna be staying in the college town at a friends for another week. That was perfectly good and this is the center in Chico, CA
However, when i wanted to move all my shit BACK from Napa to Chico, i went to the gas station in napa on the corner of imola and freeway dr, and the guy says he doesnt have any 5×8 trailers, so he redirects me to a liquor store on the other side of town, and its $75 so i go fine thats still less than it would cost to make 2 trips with my pickup truck
so then my dad sayas hes gotta go up to chico anyways and he also has a pickup, so i call the liquor store to cancel the reservation, he does it no cancellation charge says its all good. Uhaul then calls me 2 hrs later to confirm my reservation and i said i cancelled it and the liquor store said it was all good
uhaul ended up canceling
but anyhow, im likely moving from Chico CA to Phoenix AZ in January with my new girlfriend, so my pickup and a 5×8 likely isnt gonna cut it
so for a 16′ truck budget is $732 while uhaul is over a grand … so no uhaul is not the cheapest game in town anymore … and this doesnt make sense seeing as uhauls headquarters are in phoenix!
I have rented with Uhaul 5 times and I have never had a problem with them. I always put my reservation in 2 or 3 weeks early and they always have the truck and the “tow”. Hopefully everything goes well next week when I move from Tampa to St Louis. But I would always refer my friends or family to U-Haul.
I work for U-Haul. U-Haul is the biggest SHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT truck company
Then why work there? You don’t seem very smart at all!
THIS SITE IF WONDERFUL. WISH I HAD READ IT BEFORE WE RENTED THIS U-HAUL
I HELPED MY DAUGHTER’S FAMILY MOVE FROM GAINSVILLE FLORIDA TO
PALM COAST FLORIDA. NO PROBLEM GETTING THE U-HAUL. HERE IS THE
HITCH. THEY RENT OUT THESE U-HAUL TRUCKS TO US HARD WORKING CUSTOMERS AT A QUARTER OF A TANK FULL. NOW, YOUR RENTAL CAR COMES FULL, CORRECT? NOT U-HAUL.
THIS IS TO U-HAUL’S BENEFIT. HOW MANY OF YOU OUT THERE CAN GET
IT RIGHT BACK TO A QUARTER OF A TANK? U-HAUL HOLDS THE $35.00
FEE OVER A RENTERS HEAD IF THE GAUGE IS NOT WHERE IT WAS WHEN IT
WAS PICKED UP. SO THERE IS SOME GUESS WORK INVOLVED AND I WOULD
VENTURE TO SAY THAT THE MAJORITY OF US GO A LITTLE OVER. (MULTIPLY
THAT TIMES THE AMOUNT OF TIMES THAT VEHICLE IS RENTED OUT AND WE’RE TALKING QUITE A CHUNK OF CHANGE AT THE END OF THE YEAR FOR JUST THAT ONE U-HAUL TRUCK ALONE.) THE NEXT MORNING ON THE WAY TO DELIVER THIS U-HAUL MY SON-IN LAW STOPPED AT A GAS STATION TO PUT MORE GAS INTO THE TANK, IN ADDITION TO THE GAS HE PUT IN ON THE TRIP OVER SO THAT THE GAUGE WILL BE UP TO A QUARTER OF A TANK. $35.00 WORTH OF GAS AND THE NEEDLE IS NOT MOVING. HE FIGURED HE’D GO A LITTLE FURTHER TO SEE IF THE GAUGE WOULD REGISTER. NOTHING. SO HE STOPS AT A SECOND GAS STATION TO GET YET MORE GAS. THE DROP OFF SITE IS ABOUT 7 MILES FROM HIS NEW HOME SO WE’RE NOT GOING ON A LONG TRIP HERE. THE ADDITIONAL $15.00 WORTH OF GAS AT $2.79 A GALLON SHOOTS THE NEEDLE UP FROM BELOW !/4 OF A TANK TO 1/2 OF A TANK! NOW WHO GETS THE BENEFIT OF THE ADDITIONAL 10 GALLONS OR SO THAT WE PUT IN? I’M GOING ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT SINCE WE WERE TOLD THIS IS A 40 GALLON TANK, EACH 1/4 INCREMENT STANDS FOR 10 GALLONS. I REALLY FEEL CUSTOMERS GET SHAFTED BY U-HAUL.
I TALKED TO SOMEONE ABOUT THIS-NOT AFFILIATED WITH U-HAUL. I WAS TOLD THAT SOME TANKS ARE ROUND. WHEN THAT HAPPENS IT IS
VERY LIKELY THE GAS WON’T REGISTER UNTIL A CERTAIN LEVEL.
WELL, ISN’T THAT NICE—FOR U-HAUL.
WE’VE CALLED THE PICKUP SITE IN GAINSVILLE. THEY’LL GET THE MANAGER TO CALL US BACK. HE’S UNAVAILABLE ON SATURDAY MORNINGS I GUESS. WE CALLED AND SPOKE WITH ‘MELANIE’ OR ‘MELODY’ AT “GO U-HAUL” AND SHE’S GOING TO HAVE SOMEONE CALL US BACK WITHIN 48 HOURS SHE SAID. I GUESS THEY HAVE A RUN ON COMPLAINTS.
ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS OUT THERE?
wes, from sept 23 2008
Give me my $50 since you sound like a Uhaul employee. When I reserve a truck, I expcet it to be there. When I waste an entire day trying to get one with my “reservation” and have to drive 50 miles to another location to get one, more than $50 is at stake.
On top of not getting this $50 you mention, how about the rent for not getting out on the specified date? How about the all nighter when it was planned to do it during the day? How about the money from the missed day of work the next day because we were still moving because of Uhauls mistake?
Stay away from Uhaul.
just like to say that i would recomend penske over u-haul (u-junk) any day! the problem i had was unfriendly people at uhaul. i had to move from n.carolina to michigan. well penske hooked me up. no problems no hassle no headaches truck availible when promised. way to go u-haul you must be penske best ad!
YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH PENSKE! We got the same size truck PLUS AN AUTO TOW AND DOLLY for $250 less than UHaul! And the truck was new.. Uhual has crap… good luck to them!
After being screwed on our reservation my girlfriend and I are using budget rentals. I will never consider uHaul again.
UHaul customer service sucks in Winnipeg, MB -
Not so much the customer service hotline or email, but the manager of the store at 175 Mcphillips St. has the ABSOLUTE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE skills I have ever experienced. His name is Michael Risk, and he is a straight-up uneducated, ignorant, a**wipe. This guy hung up on me after I called him with a complaint that UHaul triple-charged me for my rental (which was attributed to a computer glitch). After not taking responsibility and hanging up on me when I demanded restitution, I travelled to the store and he tried to kick me out of his store because he didn’t want to deal with me. UHaul eventually refunded me without acknowledging responsibility.
I will never use this company again, and I hope that Michael Risk ends up at the end of a very long unemployment line… what a prick.
Please, Please, Please, If I have done anything on this earth worthwhile let it be the fact that I have warned anyone from ever using U Haul. Do your research. They cost lives, limbs, expensive repairs. I was involved in a roll over from pulling a U Haul trailer with my SUV. My vehicle was totalled and I had to recover from a back injury. I just thank the Lord my children were not in the vehicle with me. The side of the SUV that recieved the most damage would have killed them instantly. When I researched the company they are notorious in roll overs, deaths, and permanant bodily injuries leaving some wheel chair bound. No ONE is putting a stop to this company. Not only did I lose my vehicle I ended up losing my battle with the company to pay them $1,500.00 to repair their trailer. BAN U HAUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why would you have to pay them to repair their trailer??? Unless of course, the cause of the accident had something to do with you. Speeding perhaps, talking on your cell phone? Was it possibly weather conditions? Did you pay for their coverage? If it was no fault of your own and in fact U-Haul’s why wouldn’t you sue them? I am sure there is a police report that would support your claim wouldn’t there? Oh wait, I am sure all the evidence points away from U-Haul, that would be why you had to pay for their trailer. Wow! I cannot believe you expect people to believe you were in an accident and it was all U-Haul’s fault. I am pretty convinced that as horrible as this must have been for you, you were in this accident at no fault of anyone’s but yourself. Just saying is all.
I “reserved” a 5×8 trailer to move from Massachusetts to NYC. Not surprisingly, when I went to pick up the trailer the morning of my reservation, it wasn’t there. They offered me a larger one but I drive a small pickup and couldn’t pull (and more importantly, stop) more weight than the 5×8. So they send me 40 miles away (no gas reimbursement) to get a 5×8 from another dealer.
I get to the new location and the lady working there I don’t think has ever done this before. I help her figure out the U-Haul computer system (I’ve never seen it before but the questions were really pretty simple) and we go to hook up my trailer. She has NEVER hooked up a trailer to a car in her life, good thing I happen to know how. The trailer was also parked in a very muddy area and if I didn’t happen to have 4 wheel drive I would have never gotten it out of there.
I get it attached and go to hook up the lights, only to find that the trailer doesn’t have a connector for the lights, only wires. I try to figure out which wire goes where (I am an electrician!) for 10 or 15 minutes before deciding to drive home 40 miles with no brake lights so that I can get from my house the necessary tools to fix the trailer wiring myself.
After figuring out THEIR computer system myself, pulling the trailer out of the mud, hooking it up with no instruction, and fixing their trailer lights, I was beginning to think that the company maybe owed ME some money but I never fought it, I just wanted to get moved and get it over with! But never again…
I am aghast to admit that at one time a few years ago, my UHaul truck’s brakes went out while in the middle of a move and the clerk, when I drove back to the store (after waiting for triple A to pick me up and take me home since they couldn’t haul a truck anywhere) that he didn’t rent bad trucks and I had done something to it and therefore, they weren’t going to give me another truck and it was my responsibility to get it back to their facility. I am a criminal lawyer and was lucky enough to have some criminals helping me move my stuff so I happily told him that these thugs will happily whip your butt and I will gladly represent them for free if you don’t give me another truck now. (it was about 98 degrees and humid). He saw the light and I never rented from that group again. Talk about criminals. The real thugs are the UHaul clerks.
Thanks for the heads up!! I’m researching for my one-way move and this helps me decide!
Call penske!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are doing a oneway from NC to FL
16″ truck plus Car dolly $365 total tax and everything
Public Storage trucks are great for local moving. They also have great suspension as I found out when I jumped one over a set of railroad tracks. Only broke one lamp! Just make sure to get the insurance!!!
I have used U-Haul over a dozen times with NO problems. I recently moved from Michigan to Texas and everything was great. I even needed to add a trailer (when everything wouldnt fit in the 26′ trailer) and got one quickly – the manager at employees where excellent, friendly and quick.
Not sure where you all have been renting from. Maybe most of these blogs are from employee’s of the competition, not real customers.
Well I have read most of the stories on this site and all I can say is that you will find problems with any large company and you will run into equiptment problems when you rent equiptment that others have rented and abused. U-Haul does its best to make sure that every truck or traier that is rented is in the best shape possible. They are not in the business to rent damaged equiptment. If they was they would not have been in business for over 60 years now. U-Haul has more equiptment then all the other rental truck companies conbined. They have more locations and more places to store then anyone. So for a company that rents to 100′s of thousands people each year you will expect a few problms. But I have yet to be treated bad as long as I keep my head and remember they are only human too. Most of the people behind the counter. Do not know you and deal with 100′s of people in a stresful time in there lives. I bet if someone put a site out there to hear the good things u-haul has done to people it would far exceed what we see here.
Dave, you goof, despite how large a company is, they should still offer good service. Especially a company that deals with a large portion of customer service. I’ve had run-ins with Uhaul too and they totally suck. Unfortunatly, they will always be around until another competitor becomes large enough to threaten their market share. That’s when they will pull their head out and get things in order. “Only human too” are you serious?? I’ve never dealt with a u-haul employee that had a shred of compassion for the situation they caused. Also, you seem to be a U-haul cheerleader, why don’t you put up a “Hooray for u-haul” blog and go to town. Good luck with that.
Hmmm, the Person above makes a point, we all deserve & want sincere, respectful & proffesional help, unfortanatly I have never gotten that from uhaul, I have waited for my truck, had to buy their “adapters” to make their eqpt hook to mine etc etc…but the worst to happen yet was the MORON who rented a piece of shit uhaul truck which was missing the rear license plate that actually RAN Me & my motorcycle over on the freeeway & left me for DEAD on the side of the road!!!!! spent Two weeks in ICU & past Three months in PT, Still messed up & will be FOREVER!!!! Soooooo, all you U-haul employees, THINK before ya send an inept IDIOT down the road in One of your big orange Pieces of Shit!!!!!!
as I was lying on the freeway, unable to move, or breath due to my busted ribs, legs, shoulder & crushed lung….the last thing I saw was a Big uhaul adventure truck slip away into the sunset………the only thing missing was a wave goodbye.
Sorry to hear that happened to you but why is that UHAUL’s fault? No accidents have ever happened to anyone while driving a rental car? Come on now, think twice before you blame the company not the person who was driving. Lets see I’ve been in an accident who should I blame dodge or chevy?????