U-Haul® Reviews
"Reserved" a 20 foot truck to pick up in Cortland NY on a Saturday morning. Received phone call late Friday (445pm) to "confirm" my appointment with the representative saying no trucks were available locally, only in Vestal NY. Was transferred to another rep who said the one in Vestal was already gone and the only ones available were in Geneva or Penn Yan. After getting very upset about needing to travel on early Saturday for 1.5 hours out of my way because this company clearly doesn't understand what a "reservation" means, took the Geneva truck. Will be following up with the company, believe they should be owing me for the extra time and distance I traveled to get this vehicle due to their shoddy business practices. Will not be using ever again. Only saving grace was the guy in Geneva who was very good and couldn't understand how this had happened. Truck was in fine condition and worked for what it needed to do.
Getting the U-Haul was fine. Returning it was a huge pain in Philadelphia. The 13th St. location had nowhere to park a truck. Another location had closed, apparently. I eventually dropped it off in a not-so-great part of town far from where I was going. The truck itself was fine, as always, but U-Haul returns have always been dicey.
Our interactions with UHaul were EXTREMELY frustrating! We needed two 26-foot vans and a 20-foot van, as well as 4 car haulers and a utility trailer. We reserved all equipment 3 weeks in advance. Two days before our move, a UHaul rep called us and said that there were no 26-foot vans available anywhere in northern Colorado. The other equipment was scattered throughout the northern half of the state and we would have to drive to many different locations (Longmont, Broomfield, Windsor, Fort Collins, and Northglenn) to pick it up. (We live in Loveland.) When we went to pick up the small van we were told that one of our trailer reservations had been cancelled. We did ultimately manage to get one 26-foot van (not two, as requested/reserved), but had insufficient room for all of our belongings and ended up having to leave patio furniture and an expensive, fairly new grill behind, at an estimated cost of about $1,000. We attempted to extend the time we would have all equipment since it took us 3 days to collect it all, but some locations weren't able to get the extensions to "take" in the computer and had to write hand-written notes on our contracts to extend the time, which of course was questioned when we returned the equipment. Just yesterday, when reviewing our credit card charges, we found we have been charged nearly $500 extra--no explanation why. This has been a MISERABLE experience and we will NEVER use UHaul again!
Our truck was ready on time. We also received a call the day before to let us know everything was set to go. We were upgraded to a 20 foot truck (from 17 foot) at no charge and it just so happened that we DID need all that room! U-Haul seems to underestimate how much truck a move will take. Service was excellent all around every time I have used U-Haul. FYI my next move (if ever!) I am selling everything and just packing a suitcase. (consider that as an option, too!) I hadn't moved in 25 years so I didn't know what a pain it was. Travel light and travel fast.
The price to rent the 26ft truck was reasonable to transport a 3 bedroom home furniture to 1900 miles away. The bad part was that the truck would only go 35-45 mph, and it took forever for the speed of the truck to get up to 60 mph on flat land. What should have taken 37 hours ended up being about 57 hours total because the engine could not support the weight.
Side mirror was loose and wobbling around. We were charged $25 because we didn't sweep the truck out. I realized much later that it was in the contract, but no one mentioned it when we rented the truck, and I didn't read the contract until it was too late. This is a warning to those who use U-Haul. Sweep out the truck. There will be no verbal reminder.....(who has time to read contracts on moving day???)
