U-Haul® Reviews
I rented a small enclosed trailer. The tongue of the trailer was waaay to long. It did not have a wheel to drop in case I had to take the trailer off the hitch of which I had to on a few occasions. I had to purchase a jack in order to take the trailer off my trailer hitch. I have a fairly large truck and a trailer with a 6 foot tongue (waste of parking space) made it difficult to park/back up in a fairly tight driveway. Had the tongue been shorter, parking/backing up would have been so much easier. The gentleman that I rented the trailer from complained that he had thrown his back out on a number of occasions having to lift the trailer to put on the truck hitches. Being of small stature there is no way I could lift the trailer without the jack I had to purchase.
The rental truck was confirmed for pick up in Castroville, California in the early afternoon of July 7. However, late that day I was notified by phone that the truck would be ready in Gilroy the next day. When I got to Gilroy, there was no truck. After much time spent on the phone talking with management, I had to drive to Fremont, a 3-hour round trip from my home, to pick up a truck. All of this caused me not only a great deal of stress, but it also delayed my move by over 24 hours, which caused me additional problems. I will never use U-Haul services again.
The U-Haul location was pretty mom and pop. Nothing fancy. Facility grossly unkept. Reservation system was terrible. My reservation (despite doing check-in prior to arrival) had to be cancelled and re-done because the U-Haul location didn't have an updated system. I waited almost 30-minutes to get out the door despite me doing the check-in before arrival.
Truck was in great condition, I was able to pick up on time. Only negative was-my truck pick up location was switched on me and I was not informed; I found out moments before pick up when I called the company I was under the impression that I was renting the truck from and the owner informed me that she was closed for the day. I had to call Uhaul to get the updated information.
I had a bad experience with UHaul about 20 years ago (their truck literally caught on fire) and I have not used them since. But they were the only truck rental company that would let me haul my boat behind the truck. The truck was awesome and did a great job of hauling our 25' boat. The checkout process was so easy as well. All in all it was a great experience.
U-Haul has no regard for their customers. The truck was in good condition. Customer service through U-Haul (800 number) is terrible. Local customer service at independent operator was alright. I chose U-Haul because they are well known, but I probably will try to use Ryder or Penske next time. During the ordering process on the web, U-Haul tries to get you to hire helpers. This (eventually) takes you to MovingHelp.com (powered by U-Haul). That site is terrible. For example, there is no contact phone number. The guys I tried hiring there never showed up. That let me to HireAHelper.com which worked out well.
This worked out really well for me. I rented a truck, loaded it with help from my parents, then they drove it while my spouse and I drove my car. At the end I hired helpers to unload, which was a good idea because carrying things upstairs is much harder than carrying them downstairs! Everything about U-Haul goes smoothly -- the boxes and packing material is great, the trucks are great. Note that the U-Haul packing tape is inferior to Scotch packing tape.
This was a 26' truck for a 2-bedroom apartment (largish apartment), but was way too big. Lots of leftover space when loaded, but ok. Uhaul changed the pickup location the evening before I went to my desired pickup location (at 7am) only to find out that the truck was at another dealer 7 miles away. They sent an email the previous night, but didn't call. I was busy packing not browsing through emails then, so I didn't see the change of venue. To his credit, the manager at the preferred store was cleaning out another truck for me to use, but I had already gotten on the phone to get a ride from the one location to the other and didn't hear him say he would to that for me. The official truck was a big "screw you" to whichever location got it. We did the walk-around, and the guy told me to note any locations with damage that weren't already marked with an "X". Well, there were several hundred X's on the truck if not more. There was one long scrape along the top edge on one side that wasn't marked, and we noted that. What I didn't see and he didn't remark about it was that the top of the truck was damaged and patched with aluminum tape, and that it would leak. Well, one rainy drive later, and I found water on my stuff. Luckily, we bagged the important and delicate stuff, but the road grime on it all wasn't too nice. I found his note on the backside of the form and his comment that I had been told about the patch. Nope. We also couldn't get into the yard of the receiving Uhaul dealer since they were not open at the time I was supposed to return the truck, but luckily there was a broken gate in the back and ultimately, we returned it ok, but not without lots of phone calls and "I can't help you's" from friendly staff and after-hours customer service agents. Anyway, all's well that ends well I suppose, and the move was fine, but lots of details were not very well handled. We usually do a Uhaul trailer, but our cars don't have trailer hitches now, so the big truck was our option both ways on this trip. We just picked them because we always seem to use Uhaul when we do it ourselves. An interesting tidbit: when booking online, pick a backwater drop-off location where Uhaul doesn't want to receive a truck after a one-way trip and they'll offer you a very good discount to drop it at a more reasonable location (one that you'll most likely prefer too). A little experimentation may save you 30% like it did for us.
Customer service was excellent when I booked the truck but I was called the day before I was to pick up the truck that the size had been upgraded and would have to be picked up at another location. Not too big of a deal until the charges were increased and not at the agreed upon price with the original booking person. The person at the pick up location was polite about it and had to call his supervisor to get the matter straightened out and the price corrected. Drop off was fine. Gentleman even called the car rental place for me. I didn't have any problems with the truck except one. With my bad knees it was hard to get up into the cab. Poor guy at the pick up location had to get a stepladder for me to use. I had to bring a step stool to use during my 6 hour trip and rely on the kindest of strangers to hand me the step stool once I got back in the cab. All rental truck companies might want to think about adding that extra step to these high cabs. Some of us aren't as young and flexible as we used to be. I was leaning towards two companies and U Haul was selected because of the great customer service when it was booked. I'd probably use them again but I hope I never have to move again.