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Please Read: U-Haul Sucks!
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I hate you. Seriously. U-Suck!
I wouldn’t normally do this, but I’m using today’s post as an outlet for a series of frustrations. As most of you know, I officially moved to NYC this past weekend. It’s nice to officially be in the mix. However, as you can probably tell from the title and my tone, I had an incredibly awful experience with U-Haul. Actually, the saga is still going as of today. Let me share one of the worst customer service experiences that I’ve ever had.
So I went online to reserve a vehicle with U-Haul on or around May 13th. When I set up the reservation, I listed that I wanted a 14 foot truck for May 22nd at 8am at a location 5 minutes away from where I lived. I also hired movers through the U-Haul website that were scheduled to arrive around 830am that morning. Lastly, I purchased the U-Haul Safe Move insurance to cover anything broken or damage done to the vehicle. I’ll get to that later though.
Anyways, I received an email on May 21st at noon as I was going to hop on Bolt Bus back to Boston telling me that my truck would be available on May 22nd at 12pm at a location 30 minutes from where I lived. Yeah, I was angry. I called customer service and spent an hour (60 of my cell phone minutes!) trying to sort it out and find a truck closer to me. I asked if I could cancel the reservation if I found a truck elsewhere and was told that my card would be billed $50 because I’d be cancelling less than 24 hours before pick-up time. This was the case even though they notified me less than 24 hours from my original pick-up time that they were drastically changing my reservation. #wtf
I ultimately end up having to drive 20-25 minutes away to get the truck from another location. There were 2 other customers in there and I ended up waiting for about 20 minutes. I signed off on the moving insurance, which made no mention of a deductible, grabbed the keys, got in the truck, and left. Dude didn’t even come out to the truck to look it over with me, but I didn’t think about that until later.
Fast forward to me dropping the truck off in NYC and the headache continues. I wait in line with the truck for a total of probably 30-35 minutes. The dude marks that there is new damage to the vehicle. I tell him it wasn’t me and honestly wasn’t too concerned anyway because I had the insurance. Sounds cool right? Not really. That’s when the $150 deductible magically appeared and a charge of $8 for a furniture pad that was apparently missing. I end up disputing the deductible for well over an hour seeing that nothing I signed mentioned this deductible.
The store rep had me call customer service (Bare in mind he didn’t think I deserved to be charged but couldn’t clear it in the system), where I was bounced back and forth between U-Haul and their insurance company. This process has continued since Sunday. Nobody could answer my questions and I asked them to put the charges on hold. They billed me anyway. I’ve made multiple calls to U-Haul and their insurance company and nobody has been able to help me. This has been one of the worst experiences I’ve had with any comopany. The Better Business Bureau will be getting a call and someone at U-Haul will more than likely be cursed out by the otherwise articulate black guy.
I say all this to say that U-Haul sucks. The long lines, less than knowledgeable staff, and magical charges will forever be burned in my memory. And they had the nerve to email me asking for a review of service? Ha! Guess what that looked like?
So for today, do you have any horrible customer service stories that have been burned into memory or costs you a few years of your life? Does anybody know how I can actually get a response from U-Haul? Actually, can someone get Jack Bauer to give me a call?
Writing really is my therapy,
20 Responses to “Please Read: U-Haul Sucks!”
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Sorry for your bad experience… been there done that learned my lesson… I really do hope that you give them an ear full and insult them in such an articulate manner that they will have no way in having a reply to you other than pure dead silence.
P.s.
Corporate company is in AZ… go figure… boycott the summabitches… lol
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You don’t want to get me started on Sprint. I left them years ago and refused to go back until recently (because they had the phone I wanted, and I knew a person there so customer service wouldn’t be a huge issue). Oh, and the Financial Aid office at my school. I’m telling you, they have literally had me wanting to jump over the counter to know a heifer out.
I would recommend putting some reviews online about them, I know I always pay attention to reviews. I’ve only written one review online and that was when the customer service was so good that I felt I needed to say something.
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Wu Young Agent of M.E. Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Sprint’s customer service has gotten a lot better after the Nextel merger but they do screwy thing from time to time. I WILL NOT go into a Sprint store however. That is another complete realm of f***ery.
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SaneN85 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
If this is better, I can’t even imagine what they were like before the merger. Now all I do is go into the store, and only because that’s where my boy works.
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I have had a few customer service nightmares in my day but as a manager in a call center I learned best from my own customers how to handle those issues…skip the regular CSR’s and the “let me speak to a manager” BS and head straight to the corporate office – file a presidential complaint, get a number to their corporate headquarters and call repeatedly – never curse (most companies have a policy against hanging up on customers but draw the line at profanities) but you can express your frustration semi-loudly…I did a quick Google search and found this info (it’s about two years old {Feb 2008}, don’t know if the cell number is still the same but give it a try)
The CEO of Uhaul gave out his cellphone number last night on an episode of Inside Edition, inviting consumers to call with complaints or questions. Joe Shoen explained saying, “People can’t get this organization to behave, I can.” That number is 602-390-6525. Email joe@uhaul.com
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I work in the fraud/disputes department for a financial institution. File a dispute with the bank that issued the card that was charged. They will credit your account for the disputed amount, charge back the disputed amount to U-Haul, and U-Haul will have to produce documentation with your signature acknowledging the deductible. Since there is no documentation, U-Haul will have to eat the charge.
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i’ve had SEVERAL instances with Washington Mutual.. until they closed my account for me without telling me.. for a bank that had some fraud done against me every year i was with them.. they did me a great favor!!
i WILL say, i’m a BIG FAN of making the complaints/compliments to whoever i need to speak to.. i call the Wendy’s and Burger King surveys to get the free burger.. (yup!)
i remember when i just opened my account with Wachovia.. not understanding their whole “i’ll put the charge through and charge her the overdraft fee” policy.. i had put JUST enough money in my account to cover my cell phone bill.. not realizing that they took out 17.50.. so, after i walked to the bank that morning (in the heat) and went home to pay, only to have my card declined.. i THEN had to walk to the top of my street to use the payphone to call them.. fussin out people in the heat, i spoke so superviser after superviser until i finally said “look, you guys have a current promotion asking me to tell my friends and family about your bank.. i think you’d be trying to get customers, not lose a customer..” to which the response was “what can we do to satisfy you today?” and pretty much, i said, “seventeen dollars and fifty cents is all i want.. you’ll retain my business and i’ll be happy”
and done…
good luck Slim.. too many people don’t complain, thus U-Haul (and other ocmpanies) feel that their treatment of people is justified.. i hope you rake them over the coals..
but that’s just me…
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I’m in JFK airport bout to hop on a flight to LA. I can see there will be a lot of information sharing today.lol. Will check back when I touch down.
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The Honorable and Rather Articulate Award Winning RightCoastLexSteele, B.A., LLC, Affirm Dese Nuts Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 9:44 am
We’re not impressed mellow yellow.
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Please Excuse Your Significant Other Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 9:50 am
U at the fest this year? Im jealous
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sounds like a terrible experience. i really don’t know if i’ve experienced something this bad.
well 2 years my phone kept freezing when i wanted to send text messages so i took it in to sprint to be serviced. about 10 minutes later dude comes back with a smirk of his face. he was like i have bad news and i have bad news. he said that i now have the black screen of death. lost all my numbers, pictures, everything. to make matters even worse they didn’t have any loaners. being that it was 4th of july weekend i wouldn’t have another phone for 6 days. o_0 i called and complained. i wrote a letter. they gave me a $10 credit for my troubles. smh
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I’ve had several issues with Comcast and BOA and the only thing that worked was an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) Check out consumerist.com for more info. Look up the top executives for both U-haul and the insurance company. Send them an email with your issue. You should get a phone call/ refund within 2 hours. Good luck, grasshopper.
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Blast em on twitter. They’ll get the point.
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BoA is mad questionable. Comcast sucks but cable companies inherently suck.
I helped my friend and his wife move into their new house a few years ago and U-haul’s fleet of trucks never seemed not to have had proper maintenance. Shoddy breaks and transmission that had seen it’s best days pass. When we returned the truck the guy at the store and told him what was wrong he only uttered the words “ok” took the keys and paper work and walked away. Just terrible.
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MadScientist7 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
“Comcast sucks but cable companies inherently suck.”
that’s why i recommend anyone get dish. dish network specifically. their customer service is great.
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Capital One blows. I have never ended a conversation with them without being pissed and my issue still unresolved.
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BoA is the devil. My mom had her purse stolen. Of course, she calls BoA and closes her accounts. 2 days later, homegirl shows up at the counter to withdraw money. They cash the check. 1. where is the money coming from if the account is closed? 2. if there is a fraud alert on the closed account, why are you not calling the police or something? Why are these ninjas STILL cashing checks on this closed account? To the tune of $8k. BoA manager talking bout he’ll refund the money, from the closed account. WTF?
I dont mess with BoA at ALL. Comcast and Sprint have THEE WORST customer service EVER.
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SaneN85 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
This EXACT same thing happened to me two years ago with Washington Mutual (now Chase). I’m still fighting these bastards on the $6k or so that they are trying to claim is mine. Did I call and alert you to the situation 2 days before you let that fool cash a check? Yes. Uuuum, is that my signature on the check? Was that me in the security camera? Do you have any proof whatsoever that I owe you anything? No.
This post is getting my blood pressure rising.
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My worst customer service experience was with Comcast. I was in college, living in a co-op apartment and I was the only one willing to put up for cable so it was ONLY in my (lockable) room.
One month I got my bill and my usual $80 bill was over $200! I take a look and see that I had been charged for not one…not two…but TWELVE (count ‘em 12) adult movies, at the whopping price of $11.99 each!
So I called and of course I get the black girl w/ attitude as my customer service agent that day. She proceeded to tell me that she could only give me a “courtesy credit” for half of the charges but I’d have to pay for the rest…REALLY? So I had to speak to her manager, who was an OLDER black lady w/ attitude, to whom I had to explain that I would not be paying for any of the charges because I didn’t order or watch ANY of them. She tried to convince me that SOMEONE had watched them because there’s no way that they could generate those charges from their system, and unless I had a deadbolt on my door, I could not prove that someone hadn’t snuck in an watched them…So I informed her smart ass that my bedroom door did IN FACT have a deadbolt on it (it honestly did) and that NONE of my roommates had snuck into my room to watch porn, and that if I HAD watched the movies, I would have no problem paying for them (but why would I pay so much for porn?! $12 a pop…I can find it free on the internet!).
After about an hour of arguing and attitude, she finally knocked off the charges but insisted that I would not be able to receive anymore courtesies….interesting what’s considered a courtesy these days…
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Marie Palmisano apparently responds to customer service complaints that are made public. She is their P.R. queen. If you scan Rip-Off Reports web site (google it), they have over 200 U-HAUL complaints. She will put her two cents in the ones she thinks she can solve. However, from personal experience, she is not helpful at all. She listens but that is about it. U-HAUL should be dismantled. Their information systems are not legitimate and they regularly charge people fees that are not fair. I can’t wait for the day that I hear the FTC has fined them into bankruptcy for good.
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