Man.... U-Haul is such a steaming pile of CRAP.

[Codewiz]

I can verify that Penske trucks KICK ASS. I just moved and rented one of the penske trucks. It was clean and in good running order. The people were nice and helpful. It was a hell of a lot better than the Uhaul trailer I rented last year.

Penske was about $20 more than Uhaul for me but Penske also includes unlimited mileage which was a must since I had to go out of my way during my move to buy some furniture.

 

[optoman]

Penske is the bomb. I have used them twice before and they were excellent with their service. They even saved my ass when Ryder called me the day before I was to pick up the truck to tell me there wasn't a truck to be had within 500 miles. Then he told me I was first on the list of about 10 people he had to call. WTF. First thing I did was call Penske and they found me a truck about 40 miles away. She started at the closest one and worked her way out until she found one.

Penske will not let you reserve truck unless there is one scheduled to be there. If the truck isn't there they will ty[ically give you a huge discount or even let you have the rental for free.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

My sister rented a Uhaul trailer a couple of years back. The wiring on the hitch burst into fire on the highway. Intelligently, she pulled into a gas station.

 

[Garion]

My sister rented a U-Haul truck for a trip from Vermont to Montana. It broke down and totally died somewhere in Mitchell, South Dakota. They had to transfer everything to another truck. Talk about a disaster.

On the flip side, when we moved from Boston to Seattle, we got a truck from Budget. Little 15' Mitsubish diesel, TOTALLY loaded and pulling a big car on a flatbed. It ran like a top the whole time and we had no problems, other than the hills at 15 MPH. Budget was cheaper than U-Haul for this rental, too!

One word of advice.. It's usually not that much more expensive to get a bit larger truck, and often ends up being worth it. Think about something a bit larger than you really need, if you're making a long move. We could have spent an extra $50 and gotten a 25' gas, and would have saved us 5+ hours of puttering up hills at walking speed.

- G

 

[z0mb13]

I reserved a uhaul truck a week before, only to find out later that the uhaul person didnt have my reservation

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Windogg
I rented a UHaul to move one. All the modern conveniences:

Anti-Stop Brakes
0 - 60MPH in 7.2 minutes
Racing slicks (No nasty treads on those bad boys)
Oil light to tell us there was oil (Hey why else would it stay lit?)
No distraction from the dead radio
Aerodynamic kit (one window didn't roll down and the other only rolled down part way)
Olfactory activated gas gauge (If you stopped smelling the gas fumes, time to fill up.)

Anti-Stop brakes? :Q

Is that safe?

 

[Linux23]

Originally posted by: Windogg
I rented a UHaul to move one. All the modern conveniences:

Anti-Stop Brakes
0 - 60MPH in 7.2 minutes
Racing slicks (No nasty treads on those bad boys)
Oil light to tell us there was oil (Hey why else would it stay lit?)
No distraction from the dead radio
Aerodynamic kit (one window didn't roll down and the other only rolled down part way)
Olfactory activated gas gauge (If you stopped smelling the gas fumes, time to fill up.)

LMFAO!

Nice one Windogg.

 

[NorthRiver]

I rented a 28 footer one year. I was pulling out of the complex and the bumper hooked onto a ford probe. I picked the car up and moved it about 6 feet. I got out laughing my ass off, and the guy who owned the car was watching out the window

Uhaul tried to make me pay for the damage, eventhough I got their crappy insurance.

 

[Ferocious]

Originally posted by: Windogg
I rented a UHaul to move one. All the modern conveniences:

Anti-Stop Brakes
0 - 60MPH in 7.2 minutes
Racing slicks (No nasty treads on those bad boys)
Oil light to tell us there was oil (Hey why else would it stay lit?)
No distraction from the dead radio
Aerodynamic kit (one window didn't roll down and the other only rolled down part way)
Olfactory activated gas gauge (If you stopped smelling the gas fumes, time to fill up.)

Oh man, that was good!

 

[dman]

Same bad experiences w/ uhaul. Next time will be Penske or Ryder or some other co.

Could be that it's the numbers (more people use uhaul so more problems), but, I believe UHAUL Has the worst Cust.Service and Trucks.

 

[rudeguy]

I had a very bad experience with uhall as well...when I moved into my apartment I rented a truck, supposedly 29 bucks or something like that (this was six years ago). Total worked out to over $80 and thats for one day, in town, only about 5 hours and 20 miles. Anyways, the guy who was working the counter was an ass, the truck smelled like there was a dead hooker stuffed in the seat, and the things power steering was shot. So what did I do?

What any good decent person would have done. I beat on that truck like a readheaded step child.

 

[Codewiz]

Oh yeah on the penske truck rental I had. I had reserved a hand truck. They didn't have one for me. They gave me $50 off and provided all the insurance for the truck for free. That was above and beyond what the had to do. It is nice having good companies around.

 

[jw791]

I swear U-haul has no maintenance departement whatsoever.

I rented one with some buddies to move from Arizona to Texas (the I-10 in west texas is the nastiest drive in the world)

So we blow out a tire in BF nowhere Texas, have to drive at 30MPH for 20 miles to find something resembling a service station - and of course, no foreign-sized tires there ("Hmm, that's one of dem' foreign jobbies? Not americuhn..(spit).. well we'll see if we can make something fit")

So after that fiasco, we get going again, and lose all interior lights due to a blown fuse. Can't read the spedometer or anything on the dash. Plus the grill got banged up from a feather or some other highway debris we hit on the way.

When we returned it the guy said "good thing you took out the insurance" otherwise I woulda had to pay like $2000 in damages that they most likely would not repair anyway.

So if you rented a U-haul from texas with bald tires, a dented-grill, and blown-out fuses, that was mine!

I had my same friends move me from SF to AZ, they insisted on a Ryder this time. Clean, well-maintained truck...no problems whatsoever and friendly service!

 

[Linux23]

from all of these horror stories, how the hell can U-Haul stay in business for so long?

i'm so curious to see if most of these stories are true, i might rent a truck next week and find out for myself.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: CrazyPerson
sorry, got tired after the second line

Not tired enough to post I see.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: DeathByAnts
My sister rented a Uhaul trailer a couple of years back. The wiring on the hitch burst into fire on the highway. Intelligently, she pulled into a gas station.

LMAO

 

[BCskunk]

Originally posted by: pyonir
ryder worked good for us too. I've heard nothing but bad things about u-haul.

 

[Trevelyan]

Geez I thought it was weird with our experience. Moved some stuff from my house to my bro's in Virginia... it was fine picking up the truck (even though it had holes in it which were "repaired" with duct tape), but man... it took TWO HOURS to return it because of the idiots in the store...


SCREW U-HAUL!

 

[EXman]

I actually use AVIS pretty cheap and nice stuff.

U-hall is sh!t

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: guyver01

Originally posted by: aphex
For some reason though, Penske wanted to charge $799 for a one-way rental, whereas U-Haul only charged us $160.

you get what you pay for i guess..

sorry to hear about the trouble ya had.

Ditto

 

[MrCodeDude]

Ryder > *
-- mrcodedude

 

[psianime]

They went bankrupt.

 

[jjyiz28]

Originally posted by: Windogg
I rented a UHaul to move one. All the modern conveniences:

Anti-Stop Brakes
0 - 60MPH in 7.2 minutes
Racing slicks (No nasty treads on those bad boys)
Oil light to tell us there was oil (Hey why else would it stay lit?)
No distraction from the dead radio
Aerodynamic kit (one window didn't roll down and the other only rolled down part way)
Olfactory activated gas gauge (If you stopped smelling the gas fumes, time to fill up.)

OH MY GOD THAT WAS HILARIOUS!!! hahahahahahahhahaha

you are good, real good.

 

[Kelvrick]

U-haul does indeed suck. I haven't had one die on me yet, but they've been steaming piles of crap.

Curiously though, I'm gonna move in september and am wondering what experience you guys have with Budget? Their trucks look a lot newer and I have this preference to their blue paint and stick figures. I'm in Davis so choices are limited. They're only 5 bucks more on the standard charge, but are 4 cents cheaper per mile. I'll probably use it for a total of 70 miles.

 

[yakko]

U-Haul has sucked for years. Their trucks are cheap because they only really replace them when they can't be fixed anymore. Ryder/Budget and Penske replace any truck at 5 years of age. At least they didn't when the VW shop I worked at rented Ryder trucks. My shop was a few blocks away from the big U-Haul dealer in town and I saw all the old craptastic trucks they had behind the place. I swear some of those trucks were older than me.