We made it back to Savannah.
But along the way it was far from a sure thing.
We rented a little truck like the one here in the photo. Only ours wasn’t as nice.
To quote what the technician who checked us back in at the U-Haul store here in Savannah told his Assistant Manager,
That truck is a real clunker.
Yep. That’s me and Gorgeous. We live on the edge.
We’re just the type to rent a clunker to drive a bunch of prized possessions 1300 miles or so across country.
We specifically requested a newer vehicle when we reserved our truck weeks in advance because we were driving so far. Then we took the clunker they offered because I didn’t want to take the time to argue about it. We were working with a deadline to get back to Savannah.
Here is a partial list of what we discovered was wrong with the truck after we got it loaded and started heading South.
- Passenger side door didn’t close properly. Gorgeous had to stuff paper napkins in the door seal to cut down on the whooshing racket so we could even talk without yelling. Good thing we didn’t see much rain. The napkins fell out every time she opened the door.
- Passenger side mirrors kept needing adjustment. We had to slam the passenger door so hard that it messed up the mirrors on that side and we had to keep re-adjusting them.
- Right fender was loose and shook. Gorgeous thought it might come flying off the truck the whole trip.
- The hood flapped loosely. We had this feeling that the hood might fly up and blind us at any moment.
- Passenger side rear breaks and turn signal didn’t work. We didn’t find this out until Gorgeous followed me back to turn the truck in. Probably explains some of the looks we got driving in Chicago traffic!
We talked to the folks at the U-Haul place where we turned the truck back in. They agreed with us that that particular vehicle should have only been rented for local around town moves and not for long distance one-way trips.
Something about a 20+ year old truck that is just not conducive for long hauls.
This isn’t the first time we’ve rented a less than fully functional U-Haul. We moved to Charleston I had to stop at a truck stop and buy a fuse to get the windshield wipers working when it started raining. Gorgeous and I even talked yesterday about starting an upscale truck rental company with a quality vehicle guarantee.
If you ever get a truck for a one-way move from U-Haul, here are a couple tips that might help make your experience better than ours was.
- Check the truck out thoroughly before you leave the lot. Seems like a no-brainer. Once you leave the lot it is harder to switch trucks. Had I done this it might have helped, at least with the turn signal thing. Unfortunately the truck we got was the only choice on the lot I got it from and was only there because I reserved it weeks in advance.
- Rent one-way trucks from a U-Haul center not from a business that rents U-Hauls on the side. I never realized there was a difference. But the U-Haul centers usually have more trucks to choose from. And they differentiate between one-way trucks and local rentals. It makes sense that businesses that are renting U-Hauls on the side have less incentive (and ability) to manage the quality of vehicles rented.
The Assistant Manager told us that we rented an ‘E’ model and that that store normally only rents ‘K’ and ‘L’ models one-way. So apparently the U-Haul centers understand that there are quality issues with the older trucks.
The thing is the garage where we rented the truck was tied into U-Haul’s computer system. They told us the trucks were managed logistically from a regional center.
That means U-Haul positioned that particular vehicle in that location for our 1300 mile trip. Someone at U-Haul knew they were sending an old vehicle on a long trip.
Gorgeous will be sending a letter to U-Haul. We’ll see how it goes.
I promise I’ll be doing some research on what other options are available before I rent another truck. I’ve had too many junky 20+ year old U-Hauls over the years to stick with them.
If they don’t do something in the way of compensation.
Good job getting back home, even in a rickety bucket of rust.
I’m definitely not a U-Haul fan, precisely because of their clunker trucks. A friend of mine has now abandoned them and only rents Penske, because they have newer trucks.
Take care,
Andrew
Andrew, I found another recent fan of Penske when I was poking around this morning. I think I’ll look into them next time around.
I’ll never rent from U-Haul again since we used Penske for our last two moving adventures. Not only were the trucks better and the service more reliable, but they were cheaper as well. Glad you made it back safely and that the garage sale was a success!
Hey Randa! Penske seems to be getting good reviews all around. We’ll be looking for one of their trucks next time.
Oh my, Chris. You brought back some painful memories of driving a u-haul back from college in Chicago to my first job in Iowa. It was only about 350 miles – but it was the longest trip of my life. The truck wouldn’t go above 45 m.p.h. and would only go that fast when then gusty winds allowed.
Frightening. There’s definitely room in this market for a decent competitor to eat into U-Haul’s business!!
Heya Tom! It seems like many of us have a bad U-Haul memory. How do you suppose a company with that much bad customer experience is still going so strong?
I have had similar experience with a different company lol. Sad that they let their product degrade to such a level, I don’t know how they get the repeat business with such poor service.
Sounds like you had a terrible experience. Let me share a couple of my U-Haul experiences with all of you. First I needed a truck rental to from Toronto to Halifax (for school). I guess they failed to mention that the truck was leaking! It rained for a few hours on the trip and when we opened the back up my couch was drenched! Obviously no compensation I didn’t even try.
Then on the way home from Halifax a separate time we filled up the truck with $200 of DIESEL gas. But the newer U-haul trucks AREN’T diesel. WHO KNEW!?!?!? Well $500 and 4 hours later we were back on the road with a tank of normal gas. Just goes to show you that U-haul BARELY discloses ANY information, not even what gas to fill the truck up with. Do your research is what I learned the hard way…
Oh, I almost forgot.. When I went to return the truck (first one that got wet) I also rented a bunch of their U-haul blanket/rug protectors. A lot of them got drenched and they told me that I had to pay for them. Well that conversation didn’t last long let me tell you that! Had I known about the replacement cost of these “blankets” I would have never rented them in the first place. They’ll try to scam you any way they can so be careful!
It seems like someone always has something negative to say about anything. Regardless of whether they had a good experience with previous times or not. I have had a couple of good and bad experiences with U-Haul, the best of which was when I found out that U-Haul actually sells out their old U-Haul trucks. Now, some of them aren’t in that great of condition, but if you like fixing up old cars this is right up your alley! The prices are extremely negotiable too. I got a truck that was listed at $4,500 and I got it for $2,600! It works great in many ways. I can help my friends move and when I move across country I’ll be able to use it then and save on rental fees! I highly recommend it!