The preliminaries:
1. Rented a truck and an appliance dolly from UHAUL in 2002.
2. I returned the truck and the appliance dolly the following day as agreed.
3. I attempt to rent from UHAUL again in 2008 and am told I owe them money.
4. Before letting me know I owed them this money, they allowed me to purchase boxes, moving help and even had the nerve to confirm my reservation the day before I pick the truck up.
The sunday before labor day, and with help of movers on the way, I go to pick up a truck. E-Alerts flags me. They tell me I owe 750.00 dollars. I ask for what, they hesitate and let me know that they do not have such information and that I would have to call back after the holiday and speak with collections. He then told me I was not renting a truck from them and hung up after I kept asking him what the charge was for.
At this point, I was stranded and had moving help on the way. The uhaul agent, as nice as they were, could not do anything for me. I had to cancel my move, tell the movers to come back another day and tell my landlord that I would have to stay at least until after the holiday. Meanwhile, I'm paying the rent in my new apartment AND my old apartment. Gee, thanks UHAUL!
Now, with those troubles aside, a 4 days later - I ended up going though Budget who have way better service and actually know what they are doing. I spent more but it was worth it. I called UHAUL back only to be put through a maze with some representatives not knowing why this money was owed.
I finally got out of them that it was because an appliance dolly was rented for over a month.in asking for more details they said it was accounted for in South Carolina. I didnt go to South Carolina to drop a dolly off in 2002. I moved in yes, but intrastate. And I did rent a truck and an appliance dolly which I returned the next day without any problems from the agent. Obviously, this was an error on their part or their agents. The agent certainly would have informed me the dolly was not on the truck because they do check. Yet, I am the one responsible?
When my problem was 'elevated', I finally got ahold of Louis, the E-Alerts manager. He was no help. The only thing he said was that I owed them money. I asked for the contract where you sign that you owed UHAUL the money, Louis insisted they did not have that information and that it was too long ago to provide it. So, then I asked if they wrote the information off. What was I thinking? Louis was basically like a dumb terminal, only relaying what he knew. He asked me what that had to do with this? From what I understand, corporations can write off such 'losses'. Louis was clueless with what I was telling him. Basically, I feel UHAUL should not be able to throw records away that prove they have done business with someone that subsequently fails to pay them, when they end up writing off the loss. But, let me restate: I do not owe them this money. I did not drive 3 states south just to drop an appliance dolly off, over 1 month after renting the thing.
To this end, I do not know the specifics of the contract stipulating that I owed UHAUL this money. Yet, how can UHAUL blacklist me like this? Is there any law that says you have to prove an account is invalid to keep it on your records or something? And what about MY losses?
I have experienced a financial loss because of UHAUL and they still want more of my money? What a joke of a company: cant provide proof just dollar signs. That is ashame because they seem like they could be a good company if they fixed their business model.
I'll close by reiterating the point: UHAUL has an obligation to prove we, as consumers, OWE them money.in my case, UHAUL felt they had NO obligation to prove anything. They think they should be able to arbitrarily charge their fees when their agents screw contracts up. That is clearly what happened in my case and they insist it was my problem. Why?
Eric
Bensalem, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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