U-Haul is seriously messing with my moving plans

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/26/2018 at 11:48 • Filed to: None

Everything related to my move from Wisconsin to Maryland has been going swimmingly until today. You, the great people of Oppo, even took some !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! off my hands. But today, I got a call from U-Haul about my reservation for this weekend. Uh oh.

I had reserved a 20 foot moving truck and a car trailer. The plan was to pick up the truck on Saturday, have movers load it on Sunday morning, then pop back over to U-Haul on Sunday to hook up the car trailer and put my wife’s car on it, and hit the road. But today, U-Haul called me and said none of the stuff I reserved was going to be available at any of the U-Haul locations in Madison. This was a bit of a WTF to me but my wife FLIPPED. THE. FUCK. OUT.

The first solution they proposed was to pick up the truck & trailer from a U-Haul location in Reedsburg, which is a good hour and change north of Madison. That wouldn’t work, especially if we wanted to do the car trailer on Sunday. Oh, but they’d knock 90 bucks off the price.

Then they came to the idea of picking up the truck from a U-Haul location in Janesville, about 45 minutes south of Madison, on Saturday, and then getting the car trailer from the Madison U-Haul on Sunday. They split the reservation and sent me confirmation numbers.

A friend graciously agreed to give me a ride to Janesville to pick up the truck, so my wife could stay home doing final cleaning and stuff, rather than waste almost 2 hours round trip to Janesville just to give me a ride.

I tried to call each of these locations to confirm the stuff would be there. The Janesville one is actually a tire store that also does U-Haul and they have the truck there ready and waiting.

The Madison location is the U-Haul store and while I called the local number, I got transferred to yet another call center, where I learned that there’s a car trailer that a customer is supposed to return sometime between now and Sunday. Will it be there in time for me? Maybe it will, maybe it won’t!

In theory, we could still do the Sunday car trailer pickup in Janesville, because they have car trailers, and it’s on our way out of town, but they’re not open on Sunday.

So now I have to keep checking in with U-Haul between now and when I go pick up the truck in Janesville, because if the car trailer that’s supposed to be returned to Madison might not be ready in time, I’ll have to get a car trailer in Janesville, pull it back to Madison, and I might actually drop it off at the Madison U-Haul overnight. Because that way it’s not in the way of the movers loading the truck, and on Sunday the U-Haul people can make sure the car is properly loaded on the trailer and the trailer is properly attached to the truck.

UPDATE: I called U-Haul again. The Janesville tire store where I’m picking up the truck doesn’t have car trailers. A different Janesville location has 5 of them though. I’m keeping my name on the car trailer that may or may not be available in Madison in time, and calling back Saturday morning to check on its status. If it’s not going to be there in time, I’ll switch my reservation to one of the 5 car trailers at Janesville location #2. But I can’t put my name on one of those yet unless I take my name off the one that might be in Madison. The U-Haul dispatch lady said she highly doubts all 5 trailers at the second Janesville location will be gone by then. Fingers crossed.

Le sigh.

DISCUSSION (50)

Future next gen S2000 owner > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 11:54

Penske?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 11:54

I hate booking UHaul trucks. I got screwed during my move a few years ago. Wanted a 20 footer, ended up with an F150 long bed and a trailer.

That was a long day and thank god I was only moving 8 miles so I could do laps.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 11:56

U Haul sucks. similar thing happened to me. Reserved the truck and got a call later saying that the location doesn’t even carry trucks that size and had to go half an hour away. They wouldn’t even give me a break on the mileage which went from what would have been a total of 10 miles to 50 or so. O and don’t lose the keys, they don’t keep spares. (i ended up finding they key)

shop-teacher > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 11:59

Try Penske or Budget. They have better maintained trucks anyways.

crowmolly > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:01

Well, it’s U-Haul. They’ve fucked over a bunch of us on here, myself included. The exact same thing happened to me. My move got torpedoed with an unscheduled 2 hour drive.

Seems like this is their MO:

Customer: Hey, U-Haul. I need a truck for my move. It’s 30 days out, and I’m leaving Tampa, Florida and driving to Miami, Florida.

U-Haul: No problem! We have your reservation and you’re all set. Just pick the truck up at the location 2 miles down the road.

28 out of 30 days later

U-Haul: Sorry, but there isn’t a truck available. Your truck pick-up location has been moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Thank you for choosing U-haul.

Joking aside, I’m sorry to hear that this happened to you and I hope the move goes well without further issue.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:06

Can you just drive both the truck and car to Janesville, hook up the trailer, load the car, and be on your way? Surely that would be easier than driving the truck down and back.

CompactLuxuryFan > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:06

Getting the trailer from Janesville sounds like a safe bet! These stressful days will be over soon and you’ll be enjoying your new Maryland life!

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > shop-teacher
04/26/2018 at 12:07

Uhaul has actually really modernized their fleet and upgraded their maintenance practices compared to a decade ago, but their scheduling system still carries the risks that the OP is running into.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:08

Sounds like a typical U-haul experience. Here are some of mine:

Reserved truck 2 months in advance. 1 week before they switch it to a location 30 min away with no explanation or apology

Truck breaks down immediately after parking it to load up. Takes them all day to fix it and they use a quarter tank of gas doing so. No reimbursement.

Truck breaks down as I am pulling into the parking lot. Gas gauge was broken so while it read full it was actually empty.

Go to pick up car carrier. Internet is down, no trucks, carriers, or dollies at this location. Waited about an hour and they sent me to a sister location about 20 min down the road.

Go to pick up truck. Inspection reveals lots of damage fixed with foil tape and extensive water leaking on the inside. Upgraded to whatever the largest truck is. (This turned out to be a good thing, actually)

Try and rent a car carrier and must enter vehicle information. Proceeds to insult my vehicle (are you sure you want to tow with a 1999 !?) and refuse rental for unspecified reason. (Turns out a N600 is allegedly too narrow to fit on a carrier.)

So yeah... I’ve never not had a problem with them, but they’re the only ones that allow you to rent a car carrier so....

shop-teacher > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
04/26/2018 at 12:11

I’ll take your word for it, but I’ve been burned bad enough to stay away forever.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:15

The risks of their scheduling system that you’ve run into always sucks. I would just pickup the car trailer at the same time, park the trailer and detach it at your place to get it out of the way for the movers. There isn’t much to reattaching it up to the truck and loading a car properly. Uhaul has made their equipment really, really easy to use. Tighten up the coupler, hook up the lights and hook up the safety chains. For loading, lower the left fender, lower the ramps, drive the car up the ramp to the stops on the front of the trailer, tighten down the ratchet straps over the front tires, attached the secondary chains to a tow point under the car if you’re so inclined to do so, put the fender up and slide the ramps back in place.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > shop-teacher
04/26/2018 at 12:22

That’s understandable. I know some folks locally that once had a uhaul truck break down on a cross country move and had to transfer their stuff themselves into another truck on the side the interstate. I would certainly do some inspection myself on a moving truck from any company before loading it up for a long-distance move.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
04/26/2018 at 12:27

Exactly what I was going to suggest - get them both at the same time and just drop the trailer in a convenient spot while loading the van. This is exactly what I did when cleaning out my mom’s place last year.

Textured Soy Protein > shop-teacher
04/26/2018 at 12:31

They either have 16 or 22 foot trucks. The cabs of the 16 foot trucks are too small for us and our cats and the 22 foot trucks are on a larger box truck chassis vs. the super duty pickup chassis of the U-Haul 20 foot truck. The neighborhood I’m moving in to has some tight turns to reach my house and that box truck might be a challenge.

gettingoldercarguy > shop-teacher
04/26/2018 at 12:31

U haul is now just as reliable as VWs.

Textured Soy Protein > crowmolly
04/26/2018 at 12:32

You described exactly my experience.

Textured Soy Protein > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
04/26/2018 at 12:33

The Janesville locations aren’t open on Sunday. And yes I said locations because one place there has the truck and another place has 5 car trailers.

Textured Soy Protein > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
04/26/2018 at 12:35

The car trailer is actually at a different location in Janesville from the truck. But if the trailer that’s supposed to be in Madison isn’t available by Saturday morning, I’m picking up a trailer at that second Janesville location on Saturday. I may actually just drop it at the Madison location and then go back over there on Sunday with the truck and our car.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:42

Oh, I misread then. Sorry about that.

Textured Soy Protein > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
04/26/2018 at 12:46

I didn’t include that detail in the original post, because I didn’t know it was 2 different Janesville locations until just now. I called them *again* and they clarified. If I absolutely have to unhook the trailer to load the truck myself and reconnect it, I will, but just to be on the safe side I’d rather have U-Haul do it if that’s an option.

punkgoose17 > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:47

The Uhaul idiots should transfer one of the 5 trailers to Madison for your pick up.

Textured Soy Protein > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/26/2018 at 12:49

They knocked 90 bucks off the price for me and added 100 miles. But this is still a big pain in the ass to find out a couple days before moving.

Textured Soy Protein > CompactLuxuryFan
04/26/2018 at 12:49

See the update I posted. It may happen that way.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:52

Le sigh, indeed. That is super annoying. Can you press them to transfer a trailer?

TorqueToYield > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 12:52

U-haul reservations don’t actually reserve you anything - it’s still first come first serve to what’s there.

The reservations system just gives them some idea of demand I guess.

Textured Soy Protein > punkgoose17
04/26/2018 at 12:54

Apparently they don’t do such things, but since I’ll be in Janesville to pick up the truck anyway it’s not a huge deal to grab a trailer from the other Janesville place.

Textured Soy Protein > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
04/26/2018 at 12:55

They might transfer a trailer if it were at a real U-Haul location but it’s at some random other place that isn’t an actual U-Haul store. Like the place where I’m getting the truck is a tire store.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 13:05

Oh ok. I think you said that. I need more coffee haha

shop-teacher > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 13:26

I’m sure if you’re careful, you can get a 22' truck where you need to get. Good luck either way! I’ve never moved cross-country. Moving across the state was stressful enough!

shop-teacher > gettingoldercarguy
04/26/2018 at 13:26

Soooooo .... might as well go play roulette.

shop-teacher > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
04/26/2018 at 13:27

It was the only truck left.

As Du Volant > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 13:41

UHaul is fucking garbage. They pulled this on me once and I went to Budget and never looked back. Always have used Budget for my moves ever since and never once had any hint of trouble. Rates are comparable and their trucks are actually in better shape too, not those clapped together 300k mile POS trucks that UHaul uses.

Textured Soy Protein > As Du Volant
04/26/2018 at 14:24

I checked Budget just now and at this last minute there’s no suitable trucks available. I’ll chalk this up as a lesson learned for next time.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 18:15

why not find a Uhaul place along the way in illinois thats open on sunday?

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 18:21

Have the wife reserve one of the Janesville trailers maybe so you’re covered?

benjrblant > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 18:37

Penske man, Penske. I did a cross country move with a Penske truck, easy and no hiccups. Moved cross country with a uhaul trailer and it was unavailable despite my reservation. Had to drive almost 3 hours roundtrip to a different state to pick up a trailer of the same size.

Textured Soy Protein > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero
04/26/2018 at 19:13

We have 3 cats we’re moving with us so we’d rather have them and us all in the U-Haul rather than have to drive 2 vehicles some distance with cats in each one. It’s not impossible to do that caravan for a while but I’d rather avoid it.

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW
04/26/2018 at 19:14

It’s more expensive to reserve a trailer if it’s not an add-on to a truck.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 19:18

Thats fair. How do your cats handle car rides? We have one who loves them and the other 3 just yells from the time we leave to the time we stop

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
04/26/2018 at 19:20

Leave it to UHaul to add creative ways to fuck things up. Hope it goes smoothly!

Textured Soy Protein > benjrblant
04/26/2018 at 19:21

The Penske 16 foot truck is a good deal smaller than the 20 foot U-Haul, but the 22 foot Penske is a big box truck instead of the 20 foot U-Haul still being on a super duty pickup chassis. The Penske 22 foot is $600 more than the U-Haul 20 foot, and I don’t think the Penske 16 foot will cut it for us.

Textured Soy Protein > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero
04/26/2018 at 20:41

We have 2 females that are mother and daughter, and they are going to ride together in a big carrier. They were my wife’s before we got together and they’ve handled cross country moves with her fine. My male who I had first hasn’t really been on any long car rides but hasn’t enjoyed the shorter ones he has been on. He yowls but eventually gives up. We got some meds from the vet to chill him out, and that pheromone spray. But getting them all situated in one vehicle setup, then doing the car trailer somewhere down the road and re-situating them, is just more hassle.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Textured Soy Protein
04/27/2018 at 08:40

I was shocked at how much I could get inside a 16 foot Penske truck, but then I was only moving myself, and not a whole house either. I also packed the small, light things in my car on the car trailer, including for some reason, a teddy bear sitting on a bunch of books in front of the steering wheel.

I still haven’t lost my weird sense of humor.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > benjrblant
04/27/2018 at 08:42

Penske, or Ryder, or Budget. Basically anyone but U-Haul, since their reservation system is based on promises rather than “Something is actually there, and we see it parked outside the window”

Plus, you are more likely to get something that has been maintained better. U-Haul can be pretty hit or miss on their maintenance.

Textured Soy Protein > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
04/27/2018 at 10:32

We’re moving a 2-bedroom townhouse with 2 people’s worth of stuff. We’ve gotten rid of a decent amount of furniture and made many donation runs to the thrift store, and we have movers helping us load the truck so hopefully they have a good system for getting the most amount of stuff into the smallest space in a truck.

But it’s still not a small amount of stuff. The 20 foot U-Haul feels like the best balance between capacity and maneuverability. Because the street I’m moving to is kinda tight for getting in and out of. It wouldn’t be impossible to get a 22 foot box truck in and out but smaller is better.

Kinja'd!!!

(My wife’s car is an Impreza hatchback so if we need a little extra space we can flip the seats down and make a half decent amount of room in it.)

Mercedes Streeter > Textured Soy Protein
04/27/2018 at 11:16

Oh my, that’s one crazy saga!!! I hope it gets resolved soon!!! :(

Surprisingly, I guess I’m the only Oppo that’s not had issues with U-Haul? I only do online reservations and only do reservations with corporate stores. I’ve never had a problem in my several times doing it. They’ve even given me brand spanking new one-way trucks when they were out of local trucks.

My parents still do the old fashioned call-in reservation method and I’m not surprised that they always have problems.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Textured Soy Protein
04/27/2018 at 11:44

16 foot would be a bit of a stretch for a townhome with two people.

Last time I moved from a 2 bedroom apartment to my house, I had the same maneuverability issues. Penske actually rented me a 18 foot Isuzu NPR Cabover with a liftgate instead of the 16 foot residential model. Of course, I was at one of their commerical locations, and I asked if I could do that, even though it’s listed as commercial.

That was much easier to get in and out of the apartment complex.

Textured Soy Protein > Mercedes Streeter
04/27/2018 at 12:21

This was an online reservation with a corporate U-Haul store.

Mercedes Streeter > Textured Soy Protein
04/27/2018 at 12:26

Damn...I guess I’m not surprised that even the corporate locations lack consistency. :(

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
04/27/2018 at 13:24

Yeah, and Penske were all like “canz you handle teh diesel stick” and you were like “bruh”.