Wednesday, July 06, 2005

U-Haul SUCKS!

We just moved into our new house over the weekend. While everything went pretty smoothly, one company U-Haul almost managed to screw everything up. Whenever possible I use the internet for my commerce needs. I bank via the net, window shop, setup utilities, etc. So when it came time to rent a truck for my move, I of course used the company's web site to make the reservation. On the receipt it stated that someone from the company would call me within 24 hours to confirm my reservation, and my pickup location. Fair enough. Roughly 36 hours after making the reservation, I got a bit nervous since I hadn't yet heard from the company. I decided that I better call them to confirm that there weren’t any problems. After being on hold for 60 minutes I was told that they were behind and someone would call me soon. At this point I was less than 24 hours from my scheduled pickup time so I decided that I better call the local U-Haul office and see if there was anything they could do for me.

My local office told me that the reservation that I made online wasn't valid until someone called me back, which may or may not happen in time for me to get a truck. Furthermore, even if I did get the truck via the reservation, I could not have it for the amount of time that I requested. When I asked what I should do to insure that I did in fact get a truck for the day I needed, I should make a new reservation with the local office and cancel my existing one with the corporate office.

This is what I did, thankfully. Considering the number of upset and confused people at my local U-Haul office when I went to get my truck, I can tell I wasn’t alone in my troubles.

The moral, don't use U-Haul, ever! If you have to, do so through your local office, not the corporate reservation system. What should have been a simple process was made almost impossible by a company that clearly cares little for customer service.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are so evil. Even though there's a cost difference, ever since college I've used Penske exclusively. I will never give another dime to U-Haul. I honestly can't think of anyone who's said to me, "Gee, I really liked U-Haul." :)

Demian said...

I should have gone with Penske, or anyone else, but I got suckered by U-Haul's lower price. Never again!!