Monday, January 4, 2010

The U-Haul Saga

I don't know why I bother with U-Haul for our moves. When we had moved up here 6 years ago we had reserved a U-Haul, but never got it. We ended up having to get a Budget truck instead. Little has changed with U-Haul in six years.

I had hoped I wouldn't have to post about our move. I was hoping all would go off without a hitch and I wouldn't have been totally stressed out. But I went with U-Haul for our moving truck.

I had reserved a 17 foot truck for 10 a.m. on Saturday at our local U-Haul. Everything seemed fine when I did it Monday. We got to the U-Haul location shortly after 10. They were supposed to open at 10 and close at 6. There was no one there. We tried every single door to the place, but nothing. And of course neither Joe nor I had our phone on us. So we had to drive home to get our phone and try calling. I couldn't find the number in the phone book so I called the number on the door, but it was a fax number. So I called 1-800-GO-UHAUL. I was on hold with them for a while. I explained that no one was there and checked to make sure I had the address right. I did. They tried calling the number and they got a busy signal. So they were assuming someone was there. I said there is no one here we have tried every single door. So frustrated and already cutting deep into our move time I asked if there was another location near by that had the 17 foot truck. There was and they were transferring our reservation. So over to the other U-Haul we went. They were actually open. We went in, but they DID NOT have a 17 foot truck. It was reserved for noon so we couldn't have it. Grrr! All they could give us was a 14 foot truck. I was ticked. But it was a truck. So we took it. It was smaller though so therefore wouldn't fit as much. And you have to pay for mileage. So needless to say I was frustrated to no end at that point. But we had a truck. We went and loaded the truck and ended up doing the moving well into the night. So late into the night that our refrigerator did not make it up the stairs because everyone was too exhausted to do it. So we went to return the truck with the hopes of renting an appliance dolly the next day. However, the battery was dead. So we had to go get jumper cables and jump the U-Haul with our van. Then we were able to return the truck.

The next morning we got up all sore from our exhausting move. Went to get something to eat and then called the U-Haul place to rent the dolly. No answer. Hmmm, so I called 1-800-GO-UHAUL again. I found out that the place we were trying to rent the dolly from was open, but only for 15 more minutes. I asked why they weren't answering then. The lady didn't know. She said she'd try to reach them on three way to see if they'd stay open a little later. I guess she couldn't get anyone because the next thing I knew I was back in the automated system. I got a new person who told me they don't rent just the dollys without the truck. I was getting a little ticked off at this point in time. This lady felt the need to tell me she's worked there for 12 years like I care how long she's worked there. Whatever. She ended up transferring me to the regional office. There I was told if they aren't open they aren't open. Uhhh, that's just it they are open. Or at this point they were open when I called, but they weren't answering. I lost it and told them they didn't know how to run a company because of all the trouble we've had and I simply would like to rent a dolly so I could finish my move. Well, I got put on hold again. Then the person came back and told me I could go to this other location and gave me the number. They are open until 2 and if I called the guy would work with me. Well, we ended up going with someone else for the dolly entirely after this because I was just too fed up. All of the big stuff is now up. I have a few things left at the other place. But because we lost an hour of our move and 3 feet in our truck we are going to be making a lot of trips with our mini van to get the rest of the stuff here. I guess you get what you pay for with U-Haul. Next time I move maybe I'll have enough money to just hire movers to move us.

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