U-Haul

I lived in NYC but for personal reasons, I reserved my truck out of Newark, NJ. They were very polite, very understanding, and they really went out of their way to help me find the size of truck that I needed for my move. But what really took me by surprise and made it all worth the minor inconvenience is that after I got to Florida and sent an email to their customer service, within 3 hours, Mr. Nick **, I believe a supervisor, judging by the way he was talking, was on the phone with me.

He explained to me that because so many people are moving out of the NY/NJ area, and very few people are moving from Florida to NY, they have to depend on their customers for when they will be dropping their trucks off and at which location and etc.. Obviously, that made a lot of sense but I was not aware of that when I wrote my email. Nonetheless, he was very apologetic about the inconvenience that I had experienced and he went out of his way, to make sure that I was happy with the resolution - and I was!!! Thank you Mr. Nick ** and it was a real pleasure talking with you!

I have used them successfully several times, in & out of state. My sons use them when they were in college, & job transferring. We have never had a problem, & we saved a lot of money by packing & securing the truck & driving ourselves. You will have several companies, within your area to choose from. Everything is done online. Tipping is left up to the customer. I always did, because I felt like they earned it.

I am submitting this complaint against the Uhaul Corporation. In October of 2020 I rented a trailer from Uhaul and I was moving from Sacramento California to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My first leg of the trip was from Sacramento to Reno, Nevada. After pulling the trailer over one of the highest mountain passes in California, we got a hotel room because something was definitely wrong with the trailer. My 20 year old son was following me in his BMW Z4 and we got like a Go camera so he could videotape the drive just in case something went wrong. Well it did.

The next morning we went to a local Uhaul dealer in Reno and explained to them what was happening. They in turn told us we must have loaded it wrong and to repack it. And assured us this was a normal thing and they were sure that was the problem and that the trailer was safe to pull. So my son and I spent all day repacking the trailer and then hooked it up to my truck again and took it for a test drive. The trailer was still bouncing all over the road and I felt like it was going to go off the road and take my truck with it. So we thought okay let's try it again but this time I discarded more of my personal belongings in hopes that would help to alleviate the problem.

Please note; I had already left behind almost every piece of furniture I owned because this was not a large trailer. So now I am just discarded items that were things that could not be replaced by any monetary amount offered. But now day 3 in Reno and I had a job I was suppose to start in less than 2 days. We had to get to Sioux Falls soon. So now after discarding my personal belongings and please note I was not even close to the maximum weight allowable. So again we do a test drive and the trailer was still bouncing all over the place and I was terrified of pulling it with my truck. Well another night in Reno and the next day I told my son I could not bring myself to pull that trailer. I knew something more than way I packed it was wrong.

So I had paid extra for coverage on the trailer if something happened. And I called the number on my contract with Uhaul and told them that I was unable to pull the trailer and Uhaul sent a mechanic out from another company they subcontract with. The mechanic checked under the trailer and in no more than 5 minutes stated it must have been in a crash or something and he could see where some things were repaired but the leaf springs had not been touched and that there was no way Uhaul and inspected or safety checked this trailer.

I have videos and pictures of everything he had pointed out and he confirmed how lucky I had been while pulling this trailer and he was not even comfortable to pull it less than 2 miles a way to another business subcontracted with uhaul where I was suppose to pick up a different trailer. (Please note in the pictures I have there Is a brand new sticker on the trailer that said it had just been inspected within the last 10 days.) Anyhow now I have proof of a video of me pulling the trailer with my truck and it bouncing all over the highway. You can literally see truck drivers passing me and actually driving on the outside on the far side of their lane because of how dangerous it was. Now I have a mechanic's testimony and pictures of all the mechanical failures of this trailer.

So now we go to this lot and of course wait and wait and wait until finally someone returned a trailer. Which of course the people at this business treated me and my son so badly, I mean terrible disrespect because the had promised that trailer to someone else and now uhaul I'm sure knowing they had extremely screwed up forced them to give us that trailer. Well it was almost closing time for them and in no way were they going to help us empty or reload the other trailer. They actually told us we had less than an hour to do this or the trailer with all my belongings would be locked in the yard and they would not give me any promises regarding the safety of my items and had even made statements how the yard had been broken into numerous times and it was in a very bad area.

So my son and I had less than an hour to empty and repack and it was 98 degrees that day. I want you to know those business owners and employees were nothing short of monsters and I suffer from Afib a very high risk heart condition and I thought I was going to have a stroke and my son literally killed himself to make this happen and to protect what little I had left.

So another day and finally on our way. Now the reality of that I could never make it in time to secure the job I was late to start. But now we had a problem with weather. If everything went as planned I would have had 4 days before the 1st South Dakota snow storm. But not only that my son absolutely cannot drive his car safely in snow or ice. But because of the delay now it's snowing in Rapid City, South Dakota and the main highway is closed. So now we had to go around the storm and get to Sioux Falls, South Dakota by going way out of our way thru Nebraska. Again more hardship and more financial costs with extra gas and hotels, etc. It took us over 7 days to get to Sioux Falls. By that time I had no job, and now had no options of renting a townhouse we had setup. No employment. I can also provide proof of losing the job with a written or verbal statement from the manager who had hired me.

So now I have to find a hotel to stay at that would accept 150 lb dog and my cat. Not easy and not cheap. I ended up completely spending everything in my savings on just surviving until I could find another job and then move into the townhouse. It took almost 2 months and all my savings almost $10,000.00. I had to rent 2 storage units for my personal belongings and 1 for my son's vehicle which could not be left in the snow. The townhouse we were to rent had a garage. All these expenses and all the loss would never had happened if Uhaul would have done what they are contractually and legally liable to do is to safety check and inspect the trucks and trailers that I paid 4X their normal amount to rent.

Not only did they falsely claim to have inspected this trailer, they had raised their rental fees 4X more than they had just 6 months prior and I can prove this they took advantage of having the monopoly on this business and price gouged all the customers that were leaving California at that time by the thousands. Also to rent a trailer from South Dakota to California was like said 1/4 less than going the other direction or go to South Dakota from Arizona and the cost was 1/2 or less than they were charging people leaving California. People leaving because of quarantine and the riots and the danger. How nice for this company to go to the utmost extreme of taking advantage of people during the pandemic. I have no doubt they ignored and/or shortcutted their safety policies because they were making 4X more profit.

So to make matters worse I finally was contacted by an employee from Uhaul after emailing them about what happened and wanting a refund, etc. I have voice mails to prove they did contact me. They gave me $200 for me and my son having to reload the trailer since their policy is to have their staff do this. But the woman I spoke with promised and again I say promised to call me in a few days and we would come to a financially benefitting settlement. She never returned my call at all, NOTHING!!! I tried to contact her, unable to. I tried to speak with someone who knew what was going on. I must have had to tell this story 20 times and all I got was more empty promises and lies.

At this point I had to focus on just surviving. And it has taken almost 11 months to get on my feet. It has not been easy. And my son and I still suffer hardship because the money in my savings was suppose to buy furniture. My kid sleeps on a couch from the thrift store and we barely have furniture at all. No kitchen table, no dressers, etc. I am still experiencing loss because Uhaul did not safety check a trailer they rented to me and also promised to make it right financially and just blatantly lied and lied.

I worked with the local mover anyway because I had to be out of my apartment. I rented a truck and a storage unit and the truck rental guy said he'd met several other people who needed to rent trucks short-notice because U-Haul didn't have the equipment they had reserved, and most of them had found out the day of their move! Even though I couldn't see my movinghelp.com reservation, I was still able to pay the local mover through the website's system. Cut to a month later, I discovered that the second half of my reservation was never cancelled when a different mover from the same company called to tell me they couldn't find my U-boxes.

In summary, U-Haul let down a bunch of people moving in Wisconsin, my local movers, and me. As far as I know, they did not proactively reach out to any customers affected by the "error." Their website deletes reservation information without cancelling the reservation. I also couldn't send a review to U-Haul corporate without an active reservation.