Throughout my life I have encountered very few companies and products that were so awful that I had to resort to the drastic step of boycotting the company. One such company is U-Haul. Now the boycott ends tomorrow (unfortunately), but I wanted to put it on the record the PRIMARY reason why I am boycotting U-Haul. For those of you that are aware of my history with U-Haul you can skip this entry, but for those that are not, the journey starts here.
After graduating from college I decided to move to New York City. In preparation for my journey I decided to rent from the most beloved rental company in the world – U-Haul. Knowing I would be moving in May, I reserved my truck about two or three months before that. Knowing I would be driving into the Queens I wanted the smallest truck possible so I could easily maneuver without worrying about driving an oversized truck.
I didn’t have many possessions to move so the 14” truck seemed perfect to me. Well, the big day arrived and when I showed up the fine people at U-Haul explained that they didn’t have a 14′ truck available. The amazing part was that not only did they not have the 14′ available, but apparently they also were out of the 17′ and 24′ trucks as well!
One of the more disturbing aspects of all this is that I drove by the gigantic U-Haul parking lot each and there was always plenty of truck available. It’s almost as if on the day I went to pick up my truck they took every single truck that was in the parking lot away and hid them……every truck except the fleet of 26 footers!
They actually insisted that I take a 26′ truck. For those of you unfamiliar with the 26′ truck it’s approximately the size of Rhode Island. After complaining for a while they found a 24′ truck. Apparently they have a hidden supply that they keep at gas stations.
After I went a little more crazy they decided that they had a 17′ truck available and I could conveniently pick up at a gas station by my house. I suppose they were an authorized U-Haul station, but my mother lived by that U-Haul station for a good 2 years and at no point were either of us brave enough to stop there. I had noticed a U-Haul truck there from time to time, but it just looked like one of those gas stations you don’t enter without a bullet proof vest. It was quite the eye sore in an otherwise nice neighborhood.
Well, I went and the nice people explained that the 17′ truck had only one minor defect. It was a “hot start.” As someone completely unfamiliar with how vehicles work I had no idea what that meant. As it was explained to me, this meant that after the truck had been running for awhile you would have to let it sit around for 15 minutes before it would start again. (i.e. it wouldn’t start hot)
Although I wasn’t excited about the news it hardly seemed to be anything worth arguing about since my other optiosn involved driving what amounted to a tractor-trailer to NYC. I eventually packed the truck up with about 15′ of space in the back still available and began my journey East.
Now, here is a small list of problems I found with this truck:
First, the driver’s side mirror was useless. It just flapped around kind of aimlessly and wouldn’t remain in a stationary position which made it completely useless.
Second, the “hot start” actually means when you turn the truck off you have to wait at least an hour or two for the truck to start – not 15 minutes.
Third, the brakes didn’t work. Well, that’s not entirely true. They worked okay for the first part of the drive, but I guess with breaks the really important part is that they always work…..U-Haul wouldn’t agree, but I guess that’s just how they do business.
Certainly the other problems were kind of annoying, but this was sort of a major problem especially when driving down the Long Island Expressway. Only through some miraculous driving was my life spared (luckily the emergency lane was clear of debris or else I wouldn’t be around to write this).
Now, the REALLY amazing part of this whole story is that even after arguing endlessly with U-Haul for hours about how
dangerous this truck was they still didn’t feel like they should have to pick up the vehicle. They actually wanted me to drive it to the nearest U-Haul station. They also didn’t feel like this problem was worth an entire refund. After arguing for about 4 days about the fees they eventually went from giving 10% off (after day 1) to around 50% off (after day 4) before I finally gave up and accepted the partial refund.
The whole thing was astonishing from start to finish.
Now, I’m telling you this story because tomorrow I will entering a U-Haul truck for the first time in YEARS and quite frankly I’m a little concerned I may die. Accordingly, I want this account in writing since I firmly believe that U-Haul may be trying to kill me. Since money is tight and U-Hauls are dirt cheap, I have decided to utilize their services for a local move.
My hope is that when you stay local U-Haul actually tries not to kill their customers since the word would probably spread quickly.
I have many other second hand accounts of trouble with U-Haul, and I’ve seen more than my fair share of U-Hauls broken down on the side of the road, but I’m not going to take the time to list it all now. Just know, that if I die tomorrow, and there is a decent chance that I will, I would like my friends to avenge my death.
ronniedigital
tonyf75
Posted by Laura on June 29, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I hope you guys are surviving!
Posted by debbiedigital on July 1, 2009 at 11:03 pm
They’re not even that cheap, it turns out. They charge a boatload for mileage so it ended being more than a Penske would have. Very upsetting all around. At least we didn’t die.
Posted by matt h on July 7, 2009 at 7:11 am
I haven’t used Penske but Ryder is just as bad as U-Haul. Maybe there is an opportunity for Digital Truck Rentals?