UHaul, I Heave

So I'm finally moved into my new apartment, which was a very smooth process thanks to the help of a number of friends. Their efforts were impeccable, so UHaul naturally had to step in and provide some moving day stress.

Three weeks ago, I reserved a UHaul from an Oakland office through their website, and confirmed a pickup time of 9am on 6/30. I was sent a confirmation email that stated only that I had a truck reserved on 6/30, but didn't think much of it at the time. So at 8:45am on 6/30 I'm at the UHaul office, which is packed with people waiting for trucks. The employees answering phones are turning everyone without a reservation away. After a 15-minute wait in line, I'm all set to check in. I hand my printout to the woman at the counter, who seems friendly enough and proceeds to punch some numbers into a computer.

UHaul Employee: "Well Mr. Steplooski, I see you have a reservation for a 17' truck. Would you be ok with using a 14' truck today instead?"
Me: "No, I will need that 17' truck, please."
UHaul Employee: "Well, we don't have any 17' trucks in our lot right now, and my reservation system has you listed for a 6pm pickup, keeping the truck overnight and returning tomorrow morning."
Me: "What? No, that's not my reservation. I booked a 17' truck for 8 hours with a 9am pickup three weeks ago. I talked to someone here on the phone to confirm it."
UHaul Employee: "I'm sorry sir, that's just what our system says."
[I look at my reservation paper and it occurs to me there might be a premeditated reason why UHaul didn't include an actual time for the reservation on my printout: This left me with no evidence of their "error"!]
Me: "I have a dozen people waiting for me to bring this truck to them at 10am to get started on this move. I was under the impression that making a reservation would get me a truck... Alright, for the sake of getting things rolling here, how about those 14' trucks you mentioned? Can I just take one of those?"
UHaul Employee: [clacking away on her keyboard] "Hmm... well, we have four trucks in our lot right now... and five reservations for them today. If you'd like to wait, we can see if any of them don't show up..."

#P$Y#{*Y#${*Y**#$$#!@!!! I couldn't believe the lack of professionalism at this place! This woman was telling me, with a smile on her face, that reservations - which cost $5 to make and $50 to cancel, by the way - were completely meaningless! I asked for a list of phone numbers for other places I could call, and told her to hold onto my 6pm reservation for the moment. What else could I do? It was the end of the month and nobody seemed to have anything available. As I was making futile, half-hearted calls to other UHaul locations, the same conversation seemed to be taking place with a couple who had just showed up at the counter behind me.

Kristi gave me a ride back from the UHaul dealership, and I nearly called off the morning move in frustration. Fortunately, friends came to the rescue by volunteering jeeps and SUVs, and Arvind miraculously found the last full-size rental truck left in the Bay Area: a 17' Budget sitting in an odd lot under the 980/880 interchange in Oakland. I canceled my UHaul reservation and now I'm just waiting for those jackasses to charge me a $50 cancellation fee so I can refute it.

Moral of the story is: When you have to move, don't use UHaul. I heard so many nightmare stories talking to people at the Budget pick-up desk and elsewhere last weekend that I'm convinced UHaul runs an unacceptably unprofessional booking system, where your $5 reservation fee really doesn't guarantee anything, and any technical problem or late return from one customer will slap another customer in the face. The most puzzling part of all this was how cheery everyone at the UHaul office seemed to be in telling me that they'd essentially screwed up: Were they just that accustomed to these problems?


Anyway, here's a link that you may one day find interesting, with absolutely no explanation as to when or why. I'll be posting more drawings as soon as my desk and computer are up and running in my new place. Go Ratatouille!