U-Haul U-Box® Reviews
I would not recommend U-Boxes to anyone. 1) I was unable to order them on-line due to too many limitations in their program; 2) Order arranged with a man at their 800 number . . . all seemed well . . . I knew when my pods would arrive near my destination and the day they would be delivered to my new house . . . I was to expect a call a few days prior to set up the exact time; 3) The pods were to come with 12 furniture pads each, but there was only one set initially, and finally, they provided us with 3 of 4 sets saying there was a shortage in the Texas Panhandle; 4) I ordered 4 pods - 3 were recommended (3 bedroom/1330 sq ft home) . . . I just went back to the site so I could document their exact recommendations, and there is new information . . . they now recommend 4 boxes for an average 3 bedroom home, which I would say mine is . . . what didn't fit in the pods? - and my husband who loaded them has worked as a professional mover . . . 2, 2 foot wide tall book shelves, 2 living room chairs, 2 decorative chairs, kitchen table and chairs, dinet table and chairs, 2 children's desks and dressers, queen-sized box springs, my stans-up writing desk, all the kitchenware boxes and many more small boxes. We were never planning to bring our old couch, so that wouldn't have fit either. Lawnmower, dishwasher and chest freezer didn't make it either. 5) Now, we have rented a truck from Budget so that we can drive the rest to California ourselves; 6) The day the pods were to be delivered, I had not yet received a call as to the time. I called U-Haul, and they wanted to know where in Pomona they were delivered to, and all I had been told was Pomona. When I was connected to that facility, they could neither find me by my name nor the contract number. They had no knowledge of the pods let alone the fact they were to be delivered. Finally, they located my pods and said they could be delivered the next week. UGH! I work out of state every other week, and I had timed everything to coincide properly. I told them I would pick them up myself; 7) I had to make 4 separate trips to retrieve the pods one by one, and they had to be returned the same way; 8) Now, I have to check my invoice . . . though I could not find it the last time I looked, because I opted to pay extra for delivery to my home, and I need to know whether I was charged for a service that was not provided. What I see is failure, in this 3-step delivery process is that one end does not communicate with the other end, and the one who gets left with the problem is the customer. I gave them a Below Average Rating because they at least got whatever fit into the pods from Texas to California when they said they would. I will never use UBoxes again, and though I have used U-Haul Trucks many times, Budget now has the opportunity for my current and future business. Alos, I was supposed to complete an On-Line Gypsy Moth Survey which I was told was very important, and I could never get the form to submit. Tried it about 4 times in total over the time of the move. No one ever mentioned it again.
I was moving from the Philadelphia area to Charlotte and didn't want to get a UHaul truck and drive 600 miles myself. Additionally, I needed my car to get there. I chose the UBox method and it worked out extremely well. They delivered the UBoxes (2) right my driveway. We had them loaded and ready for the next day. The driver didn't arrive until 9pm on Saturday night to get them which was fine with me. They squeezed me into their schedule and committed to getting the boxes picked up on that day in order to get the boxes to Charlotte on time. They arrived in Charlotte with no issues and no damages to our furniture and contents. It was a great way to move our belongings!
Do not recommend for larger households. Estimate for number of U- boxes required is based on questions asked by the 1-800 u-haul phone number personnel. Questions are not detailed enough and individuals moving are generally not equipped to estimate how much room they will need to move. Service was often slow but at times was good with various individuals. This turned out to be an awful move for us, and the size of the you boxes caused us to have to rent a 26 foot truck and drive many of our belongings to another state. It was awful and costs keep climbing.
Ubox worked well in getting the empty pods to me for pack up and shipping out. Getting the filled pods delivered to my new residence was a huge hassle. Uhaul missed their guaranteed delivery date by two days, and were disorganized and unprofessional as I tried to confirm with them when the pods would actually be delivered. They never reached out to me to explain the situation or give me a new date; I always had to call them (many, many times) to figure out what was going on. I doubt I will ever use Ubox again.
Uhaul-U-Box has many good part - price for one. You have to pack VERY well. They and their transportation company can be pretty aggressive with the handling of the cubes. That said, the only things broken were because would have been avoided had I done a better job of packing and protecting. UHaul - U-Box does not have their lines of communication totally worked out so they weren't always clear on where my boxes were or when I needed access. But, all-in-all, for the price, it worked out OK. I would have been a LOT happier if U-Haul had their communications problems worked out, though.