On Tuesday July 18th I rented a 24 foot U Haul truck to drive one way from Virginia to Jacksonville, Fl. When I picked up the truck I was told it had a full tank of gas, it didn't, their comment was, " Oh, that was the one that was in the shop, we will re mark your paper work." So I take the truck home to load it up so we can leave.
Two of my brothers came from Georgia to help me load the truck on the same Tuesday that we picked it up, also on Wednesday and we finished on Thursday. My two brothers, myself and my sister and my two dogs left Virginia about 8:00pm Thursday evening heading to Florida.
We made several stops for filling up with fuel, and at the same time we were checking tires, looking for leaks, bulbs not working, and just generally checking out the truck. As every other time we headed on down the road.
At this point we've made our last gas stop and we're maybe 50 to 60 miles outside of Jacksonville. Well we decide to switch riding places, I'm going up in the U Haul for some sister to sister talking and bringing one dog with me and then were putting our two brothers in my truck with the other dog and let them follow behind us for awhile.
We get onto the expressway comming into Jacksonville, there is alot of road construction going on, there are jersey walls on both sides of the road, the roads are very narrow, people are flying and there's alot of traffic, all of a sudden my sister says there's something wrong with this truck, and I'm like, what do you mean? She says I can't hardly make it turn I think something is wrong with the power steering on the truck. So she's now fighting with the truck to get it to turn and she starts screaming at me, now we have no brakes! There's absoutely no where to pull over, we're in the middle of morning rush hour traffic with no steering and no brakes in a 24 foot U Haul truck fully loaded. I immediately get my brother to put my vehicle in front of us so at least we don't damage any thing that doesn't belong to me, and I call the 800 number, they tell me to pull the truck over, I explain there is no where to pull over, so they tell me to leave it in the road and they will send someone out to get it as soon as they can. So where are we supposed to go, my other vehicle is also fully loaded, the two of us and the dog won't fit in there, its to dangerous to get out on this freeway and walk, and its probally even more dangerous to leave the vehicle in the middle of the two lane road in rush hour traffic. So, we decide to procede cautiously with fingers crossed and holding our breath verly slowly behind my vehicle to get off the expressway.
Well, we finally managed to make it to a housing development off the expressway, that was a nightmare I hope I never go through again. A lady was kind enough to let us sit in her garage out of the 95 degree plus heat while we waited for repairs. I again called the 800 number at 7:15am to tell them where we were at, they said they would have someone come out to look at the truck. I told them I had to have my brothers on a plane at 6:00pm that evening and we had to get the truck unloaded as soon as possible. Finally at 10:00am somone shows up to look at the truck, he says the hydrolic pump went out and he will have to go get one. I ask him how long this will take as were are running short on time. He won't give me an answer. I ask if they can have the truck towed to where I need to have it unloaded, its only 3 miles down the road. Still won't give me an answer.
Its 12:00, I call the 800 number, where is the mechanic you sent out to work on the truck, I haven't seen him since 10:00 this morning, I need to get this truck unloaded before my help has to leave. Oh, he will get back to you when he can.
Its now 1:00, no mechanic. 2:00 no mechanic, 3:00 no mechanic, 3:15 he finally shows up, and he has an attitude, he gets into an argument with my brother about how long it took him to get the part. He said he had to wait for the part to come from somewhere else. I ask to see his paperwork for the part, the dumbass shows it to me and I get the phone number off of it. I go call the number and ask about the part for the truck, they said they had it in stock and that it was a normal stock item, so the guy has out right lied to us. At this point I'm just thinking get the damn truck fixed, how am I going to get it unloaded, my brothers have to be at the airport at 6:00 this evening, that leaves me and my sister and we sure as hell can't do it by ourselves. I am really pissed off now.
4:45pm the damn truck is finally fixed, it only took since 7:00 this morning, thats almost 9 hours, we could have had the damn thing unloaded, as it was we had just enough time to park it at the apartment 3 miles down the road, unload my vehicle, put the dogs in the apartment and take the guys to the airport. That leaves a 48 year old handicapped female and a 49 year old asthmatic to unload a 24 foot U Haul in 95 degree plus weather, really commendable on your part U Haul!
We knew there was no way we could do this, so I started calling moving places out of the phone book, I finally found one that could come out that same afternoon and unload the truck, so thats what I did. It cost me $247.00 cash out of my pocket, but what else could I do. Besides I had to turn the truck in the next day.
When I turned the truck in at the U Haul Center in Jacksonville they were very apologetic and told me to call the 825 Marketing center and speak to Jackie, and that they would probally reimburse me for the movers. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get in touch with Jackie, I was always directed to Wade, I was told he was the manager and he made the decisions.
Well, Wade told me that mechanical breakdowns were not there problems, they would fix the breakdown but not any problems it caused you. Guess I should have taken a chance and tried to walk on the expressway like they said, and left the vehicle in the middle of the road where someone unsuspecting may have ran into the back of it and I could have lost all of my possessions, or worse gotten someone killed.
I would not recommend U Haul to anyone, their equipment is very unreliable and someone is going to get seriously hurt or even killed unless someone does something to stop them from their shoddy business practices.
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