OK, yes, I procrastinated, but not that bad.
Dateline: Tuesday Afternoon
On Tuesday afternoon I go to U-Haul's web site, and reserve myself a 17' truck for my upcoming move. I put in on the form that I will pick it up on Friday, 9/23, and will reserve it for 24 hours. I get a note back a short time later saying basically "reservations are not confirmations, you should hear back from us within 24 hours to confirm. If you don't hear from us, call our regional office and we'll sort it out."
Dateline: Wednesday Afternoon
I still haven't heard from U-Haul, so I call the regional office. They're closed. They open at 7. I'll call them tomorrow.
Dateline: Thursday 9:00 a.m.
I call the 800 # to the regional office. Give them my confirmation number. They pull up my reservation. Yup, there it is, pick up on Friday, for 24 hours. All I have to do is call the local pickup site to arrange what time.
Dateline: Thursday 10:00 a.m.
Call the local office. They can't find my reservation. He's having some computer problems. "Let me find the reservation and call you right back."
2:30 p.m.
Still no word from the U-Haul site, so I call them back.
Me: You were going to call me back about my truck reservation. How late can I come by to pick up the truck tomorrow night?
U-Haul Dweeb: Well, you have the truck reserved for tomorrow morning, you can pick it up at 7:30 in the morning, and bring it back in the afternoon.
Me: Ummmm, no. I reserved it for 24 hours, with the intent of picking it up tomorrow night, starting the loading process, and then having a group of people help with more stuff on Saturday, and bring it back to you when I'm done.
U-Haul Dweeb: We don't rent in-town trucks for 24 hours on weekends, we only have them for six hour time slots.
Me: Well, that's not what I reserved, I reserved 24.
U-Haul Dweeb: Who did you talk to?
Me: I didn't talk to anyone. I went to "uhaul-dot-com" and made a reservation there.
U-Haul Dweeb: Well, you have the truck from 7:30 tomorrow morning until tomorrow afternoon.
Me: Except, of course, that that time frame is completely useless to me, and not at all what I asked for or needed. Meanwhile, with roughly twenty-four hours to go, you've completely screwed me by leaving me in the lurch now with no truck when I actually do need it.
U-Haul Dweeb: On-line reservations aren't confirmations. Nothing was guaranteed.
Me: Did you call me within 24 hours like you were supposed to?
U-Haul Dweeb: Excuse me?
Me: The reservation. It said you, the local site, were going to call me within 24 hours to confirm. Did you call me at all yesterday, to perhaps tell me that you couldn't provide what I reserved?
U-Haul Dweeb: Sir, reservations aren't confirmations.
Me: Right, but if you had called me yesterday then I could have told you that what you had was completely useless to me, and I'd have had an entire extra day to line up a replacement truck. Instead, you're screwing me over in the eleventh hour.
U-Haul Dweeb: If you want to look at it like that, sir.
Me: How else could I look at it? Should I take it as a personal favor that you happen to have a truck at a time that's completely un-useful to me?
U-Haul Dweeb: If that's how you want to see it.
Me: What would you suggest that I do? I asked for something from you guys, nobody called me to tell me there was a problem, and I only find out about it because I'm literally chasing you down to get the info. I have people coming over Saturday to help me move, and I need a 17' truck. Exactly what should I do at this stage of the game? What is U-Haul going to do for their customer?
U-Haul Dweeb: There's nothing I can do for you, sir, other than give you the truck tomorrow morning. The only other possibility is to contact the Regional Traffic Office, they're the ones who put trucks where they're needed, perhaps they could do something.
Me: What's their number?
U-Haul Dweeb: ####
Me: *scribble scribble* Thanks.
*dial dial dial*
Regional Dude: U-Haul Regional Traffic.
Me: Yeah, I need to sort out what's going on with my reservation? (insert info here)
RD: OK, yeah, I see that you're scheduled for tomorrow pickup for 24 hours.
Me: Right, except that the truck that the local site is willing to give me is only available tomorrow morning for 6, not tomorrow evening for 24 like I asked for. It's pretty much useless.
RD: Yeah, I see that.
Me: So what am I supposed to do?
RD: Well, reservations aren't confirmations.
Me: Right, but here's the deal. I made this reservation on Tuesday... the site was supposed to contact me before the end of Wednesday, but never did. I called somewhere - I think this office - this morning just like I was supposed to, which told me to call the local site. I did that. They said they'd call me back. They didn't. I called them back a couple hours later at which point they completely blew me off. I think I've pretty much done everything a customer can be expected to do except jump backflips. Near as I can tell, the uhaul-dot-com web site dropped the ball by letting me reserve - and achieve a modicum of expectation for - a 24 hour period. The local site dropped the ball by not calling to confirm anything with me -- heck they didn't even SEE my reservation this morning.
RD: Well, you could try speaking to the site manager.
Me: I did. The guy I spoke to was the manager and he was completely non-sympathetic. In fact, almost a complete dick. Who does he report to?
RD: He reports to $NAME and $PHONE.
Me: Sweet. Thank you.
RD: There is one possibility. Maybe there's a chance that there would be some one-way equipment we could redirect into the right place. Can I put you on hold?
Me: Absolutely.
Hold... Hold... Hold... Hold... Five Minutes .. Hold .. Hold. ... Disconnect.
Me: dammit.
(As I'm doing this next call, I'm already instant-messaging D who is looking for local "guys with trucks" companies in the Woodstock Times, as well as surfing through Budget's web site and making a new reservation with them. They can apparently supply one for me. D has also located a "guy with truck" who is our fallback option. D has also floated the idea of "going renegade" ... just rent the truck tomorrow morning, return it hella late, and deal with the penalties).
*dial dial dial*
*hold*
Me: Yeah, so I was on-hold with someone who was trying to find a one-way truck to use to fill my 24-hour reservation request?
U-Haul Chick: One sec.
*hold*
U-Haul Chick: I can get you a truck, you'd have to pick it up in Poughkeepsie instead of Kingston, though.
Me: Would there be any free miles included with that rental?
U-Haul Chick: Free miles?
Me: You know, to account for the fact that you charge $1.39 a mile and that's about 40 additional miles round-trip?
U-Haul Chick: No, sir, you would be responsible for all miles.
Me: I couldn't just get you to relocate it to the Kingston location on your own dime and then I'd be responsible for everything just like I expected?
U-Haul Chick: No.
*click "Submit" on the Budget rent-a-truck rental reservation
Me: Let me call you right back?
U-Haul Chick: OK.
*dial dial dial*
BudgetGuy: Budget Truck Rental.
Me: I just made an online reservation and I wanted to confirm it?
BudgetGuy: I won't see that for an hour in my system here. What'd you ask for?
Me: 16' truck, pick up tomorrow night, keep it til Saturday night.
BudgetGuy: Yeah, I can do that. It might be tight if someone returns late, but I could just upgrade you to a bigger truck at the same charge, if that happened.
Me: Sweet. Thanks!!
BudgetGuy: No problem. See you tomorrow.
*Ring*
Me: This is Derek
CSR: Hi, this is Bubbles [or some other meaningless name] from U-Haul, calling you to confirm your reservation
Me: Are you fucking kidding me?
CSR: Sir?
Me: The only reason you're calling me to confirm is because I've been rocking the boat and that's finally kicked loose whatever hole my reservation fell into.
CSR: Ah, I see. Well, I have you down for 7:30 tomorrow morning until mid-afternoon.
Me: (deciding to have some fun) What if I return it late?
CSR: You can't return it late, it's going back out tomorrow night on a one-way to New Jersey.
Me: But, you know, speculate, if I was to come back late, what are the penalties?
CSR: You can't come back late. The truck is going elsewhere.
Me: If say I was to have a heart attack and didn't bring the truck back on time or something, what would the penalty be?
CSR: You have to bring the truck back on time.
Me: Right. You can go ahead and just cancel the entire reservation, because frankly you guys are pretty much useless.
CSR: Are you sure, sir?
Me: Yep. I've already reserved a new truck with a better company.
CSR: All set, sir. Have a great day.
Me: Blah.
*click*
So the lessons we learned:
- U-Haul Sucks Ass, and I don't think I'll ever be giving them any of my business again.
- Near as I can tell, Budget Trucks rule.
Damn, I wish you'd mentioned you were planning to rent from U-Haul; I would have told you go run screaming in the other direction. (I nearly didn't make it to Seattle because of a bad U-Haul truck, and I've heard some horror stories about the condition of the trucks in the nearly four years since.)
Insane. Corporate crapitude at its finest.
Do you tend to attract these people more than the average guy? Or do you just write about them more? :-)
I'm sure I probably just write about them more. Most people will grouse to their friends and then leave it be, whereas I try to make the crapitude public and archived, for future generations. :-)
2400 little U-Haul boxes in a bright yellow Budget truck. Can we get a photo and send it to U-Haul?...hehehe
I'll never rent from U-Haul if I can possibly avoid it. Besides the stories I've heard from you and others, there's also the fact that most U-Haul trucks, especially the larger ones, are all worn-out pieces of crap and probably unsafe to drive at any speed.
I remain amazed at the effectiveness for the UHaul brand: a clever name and good advertising. UHaul hasn't gone downhill. My observation is that they've been at the bottom of the hill for about 10 years. They'll generally charge you more than competitors for equivalent or worse product along with mediocre-at-the-very-best service. I've a bunch of experiences of my own as well as hearing those of others over the past decade. But UHaul still seems to be the first and favored call for most people. I've had good experiences with Hertz-Penske, Rider, and Budget. In my most recent experience with Budget, the people that were supposed to return the truck I needed didn't. So, the Budget guys drove a bigger, available truck from the other side of the city and gave it to me at the local location at the same price as my reservation for the one-size smaller truck. Exactly the type of great service that UHaul wasn't going to do for you.
U-Haul... Sorry you had to go through that. In my days of moving to and fro across the state of Virginia, between school and the happy world of JC Penney, I learned that U-Haul sucks- hard and fast. The mother of all of my self-moves, from Roanoke, VA, back to NY was with Ryder. They gave me no crap, but the move itself was a hard and long journey. I too vote for the professional mover option.
I had the exact same experience with UHaul, except I was able to move my schedule around in order to get the truck when it was available. I had the regional office in Columbus, OH call and confirm the wrong truck at the right time, then the local office called to confirm the right truck at the wrong time. "Double you tee eff, mate!" I exclaimed. There's nothing quite like a company whose right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. For my next move, I'll give Ryder a shot.
Wow. You have shitty luck with service, don't you? I assume it's luck that causes you to have more bad contacts in a month than I do in a year. What else could it be?
PS: http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=%22bluetooth+trackball%22&btnG=Search+Froogle
This is pretty much exactly what happened to me, except that I had made my reservations months (months!!!) in advance. I did so knowing that the end of the month is a bad time to move and because I was moving one-way. What was worse with us was that we walked into our local u-haul, where we were supposed to pick up our truck and they had just rented it to somebody who had come in off the street (please read as with NO reservation!!!). They then wanted to know if a 14 foot truck would work.
Um... if a 14 foot truck would work I wouldn't reserved the mother-fucking huge truck now would I?
When we finally got a truck, the promised air conditioning didn't work. This would have been ok, except that we were driving through central/northern CA in JULY!
Possibly the worst moving experience ever. Budget is way better!!! (and they tend to have nicer trucks).
U-haul's business policies are entirely bafling to me. We had similar problems the one time we rented a truck with them. In fact, everyone I've known has had similiar problems - I have no idea how they can stay in business.
I have never heard anyone talk about a positive experience with U-Haul. They suck harder than I thought possible.
And it depresses me, because they've sucked as long as I can remember, and the much-vaunted word of mouth doesn't seem to be doing them any damage.
This just echoes the experience that friends and family have had with U-Haul. But hey, it could be worse. At least they haven't threatened you (see: http://accordionguy.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/29/1086759.html).
Dude, I rented a truck from those douchemonsters a few months ago for a one-way from Kingston (the site of my lovely ex-storage locker) to Brooklyn and was informed after a double-confimation (I was paranoid, knowing full well how much they suck) and 2-hour drive that they had nothing but their apologies to offer me. After much wrangling and cursing and a couple calls to the regional office they redirected me to Poughkeepsie to pick up the truck, drive it back to Kingston, etc, etc. While that all totally sucked and wasted God knows how much of my valuable moving time, the manager at the Poko office said he knew I was gonna be somewhat unhappy so he went a logged a complaint before I even asked to do so, and somehow that got me a shitload of free miles and a cool 20% off the whole deal, to pay for the extra gas.
Uhaul is an absolute joke of a company! I had a VERY similar experience to yours this past May. They had no truck. Could not get me a truck and I was basically screwed.
So I called Ryder. They hooked me up, were super about the entire thing and totally saved my move!
Here is my tale: http://arcticpalace.org/blog/article/feast-or-famine
Back in 2000 I moved from Ann Arbor, MI to Brooklyn, NY. I reserved a truck with U-Haul and then went to pick it up. After 5 hours of loading my brother and I set off for Brooklyn. We'd traveled less than 20 miles when the truck died and refused to move another inch. This was around 7:00 PM. After calling their 1-800 number and waiting 3 hours for a tow truck to tow us back to Ann Arbor, we realized we'd have to get a new truck and stay in a hotel that night since my old apartment was empty and I'd already turned in the keys. The next morning I took a taxi to the U-Haul place and demanded they give me a replacement truck that had less than 5000 miles on it. Four hours later, transferring everything to the new truck we were on our way. When we arrivd in NYC and went to return the truck, the U-Haul place refused to reimburse me for the $30 in gas I had put in the old truck and the $150 hotel in Ann Arbor. They claimed that I would have to sort it out with corporate. After much arguing and making a very large scene at the U-Haul place in Brooklyn, they finally deducted the reimbursement amount from my rental fees.
I have since used U-Haul several times but I will only rent the small vans, as they tend to be newer and in good cndition.
You shouldn't have cancelled it.
You should just said, "Ok, I'll be there at 7:30" and left them in the lurch.
Then, when they called to complain, you could have said (say it with me) "Reservations aren't confirmations".
-ajb
Hi Derek:~
I cannot help but insert my two cents in this incident. As a UHaul dealer in Missouri, of course, I'm interested in items pertaining to a company I represent. I'm wondering what state you are in, first of all. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the town you mentioned in your blog.
It is my belief that UHaul has a national rate, and the mileage you quoted was far beyond what we actually charge. Also, I've never heard of 6 hour time slots? I am, however, interested in learning which dealer was trying to do this to you. Every piece of equipment our company has ever rented out for the UHaul company has been for 24 hour increments. We even go so far as to allow an additional 4 hours, should it be needed.
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
~ dawn ~
Dawn,
The location in question was in Kingston, NY.
This location right here, actually:
http://finder.uhaul.com/location_map.aspx?entity=797050
So yeah, they tried to screw me, I didn't put up with it and went elsewhere. I certainly appreciate that not every site is run the same way, but the way everyone involved here didn't care obviously has probably soured me on U-Haul for some time to come.
Cheers,
D