First experience with renting a UHAUL van (10 footer). Reserved 2 days in advance online, with the specific pick up and drop off location I wanted. Skipped the phone app option because it was only rated 3.4 stars out of 5 and the recent reviews were terrible. Flew to PDX early in the morning and grabbed an Uber to my UHAUL pickup location. Waited outside the office until they opened and was the first customer as soon as the manager unlocked the door. Everything was going fine with the check in process until the system apparently 'crashed' after a few minutes and right before I was to scribble my sig on the pad to sign for the rental agreement and walk out the door to drive away with the van. Another male customer then walked in at the same time I was about to scribble my name, smelling of cigarette smoke, with no wedding band, and looking like a worn out FBI field agent who kept his phone positioned covertly with the camera pointed at me just a couple of feet away as he was resting against the counter 2-3 feet on my right. He was already squared away with the app apparently and after a few minutes of standing next to me, the employee asked if he had already reserved the van to which he said yes and he didn't even show her the reservation on the phone, give his name, nor did she ask for anything, and then he simply walked out and drove away in the van. The employee then called multiple numbers for assistance with my online reservation that kept giving her issues (apparently). In the end, after spending a full 60 minutes there in the office getting frustrated trying to re-do everything I had squared away 2 days prior online, both on her computer, as well as downloading the app that someone she had called had sent me a link to download, and then trying to re-enter all of the reservation details at least 10 times she finally called her 'boss'. This guy was the head honcho apparently, and I was physically close enough to where I could hear over the phone that he was instantly trying to pass off the issue to be dealt with by someone else while he spoke to her. That necessitated me instantly interrupting him and saying loud enough over the counter so he could hear my voice that 'the buck stops with him'. Then the employee repeated that phrase exactly to him because she seemed frustrated as well given the effort she was putting into this and seeing that I was about to walk out of the door and go throw myself in front of the next big truck that was speeding down the road. That got the head honcho to pull his head out of his backside and got things moving, and I was finally given the keys and promised by the manager that the head honcho would email me the reservation and paperwork soon. I just signed some hard copies and she promised that my initial quote from 2 days prior would still be honored, but I ended up having to pay tax on the rental now that we were doing the transaction in WA instead of OR which cost an extra $40+ which was just extra salt in the wound. Once I was done with the van rental, I drove it to the drop off location I chose when I initially set up the reservation online. I was greeted by the manager and I told him that the past few days had been a horrible experience with the van (this included dealing with all the idiots on the road as I drove from Vancouver WA down to southern Oregon with 2 separate car fires in the middle of a workday JSO Portland on the 280 and a traffic collision at the end of the workday JSO of Eugene, all of which occurred only in the southbound lanes which I was traveling in, snarling traffic and causing a 3+ hour delay to what should have been a 4 hour drive). He immediately pulled up my reservation and then called someone discussing why I was there like I had committed an unknown offense. Knowing that I already had a horrible experience with the entire evolution as soon as I walked into his office, he requested that I drive the van to another location 'because another customer needed it the next day'. Which was lame to ask for due to a couple of reasons. First, I chose that specific drop-off location for a logistical reason when I made my initial reservation, and the reservation number or details never should have changed, so all of the information on his screen should have been the same, unless the 'head honcho on the phone in Vancouver' decided to switch things up for the sake of UHAUL's own logistical needs over the customer's logistical needs that were planned out 5 days prior. Secondly, there were two other employees in that office in addition to the manager, one of which was sitting on a chair by the door playing on his phone, and another who was standing next to the manager apparently being trained up on the computer software UHAUL uses. Either of these two extra staff could have driven the van to the other location anytime that day when they had the time. Obviously the employee on the phone had the time right then and there to get it done, but he was obviously too busy f'ing around on his phone, and was probably related to Saul, whereas I was just a stranger who ended up doing UHAUL's work for them. When I said 'NOPE' after being asked to drive it to the other location (not knowing how far the location was or where it was located), and after being overly frustrated with the entire UHAUL experience, the manager said I would be charged double for the rental if I did not comply with the request to move the van where they needed it. That's just a lame way of forcing a customer to do the job you have extra staff on hand to do (I very much want to insert stronger language here instead of 'lame'). When I asked him if he saw on his computer screen how much my rental was, Saul said it did not give him that information. Then I asked where the location was that he needed the van dropped off and looked it up on my phone. I then forever gave up the business idea that the 'customer is always right', at least in America, and drove the van over to the location they blackmailed me into driving it to by threatening me with an extra $440 dollar charge on top of the $440 I already paid for the rental. I was met by the manager at the 'new' location who was expecting me. I immediately told him what a cluster f*ck this UHAUL operation was as soon as I walked in the door and he was sympathetic to the situation and knew ahead of time about the frustrations I had based on the call he received from Saul at the first location I wanted to drop the van off at. He already had my information on his screen (using the same software that Saul was looking at when I asked him earlier how much I had been charged when he told me that his screen doesn't show that information). When I asked this other manager how much I had been charged for the rental, he had it right there on his screen and rattled off the correct amount ($440) as it was directly tied to my reservation number. This was the same exact one that Saul had in front of him, which confirmed my suspicions about him being a liar when I asked how much my rental was. Saul runs the UHAUL operation and Climate Control Mini Storage business at 2012 Kingswood Drive, Medford, Oregon. If you are a military veteran, or active duty or reservist, I would highly recommend you spend your money elsewhere, as Saul does not deserve your hard-earned money as he is not someone you can trust with even simple questions. I checked my voice messages the day after I got back to OR and a UHAUL rep had called me at the same time I was in the office in Vancouver trying to pick up the van and had asked in her voicemail if I was still interested in picking up a van, as I had reserved it for a 930am pickup, and she had called at 10am when she left that message, saying she would hold the reservation all day for me and for me to just call her back to let her know when I would be there to pick it up. My phone was on, and I was actively interacting with it trying to use the app that was sent to me via the SMS link. I had 5 bars of 5G cell service, but my phone never rang the entire time I was in that UHAUL office in Vancouver. After the experience with Saul forcing me to move the van to another drop-off location under the threat of charging me another $440, that's when I knew what was really up with this whole business operation. Any hacker worth their salt could take UHAUL offline permanently, destroying their business. Not knowing if UHAUL will actually post this review, I'll next leave a review for Saul's operation via Google.
Curran M
Hometown Self Storage
(U-Haul Neighborhood Dealer)
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Nothing! Everything went great with pickup. Staff was friendly and well-informed, and made sure I understood everything included in the contract before I was fully checked out.
AMBER GEverything was great. Fast and easy pick up and drop off
JARED RThey give me two locations to drop off the equipment the first time, but they sent me in other city due to full equipment on those lot. So has to drive more miles just to drop off in other place.
RODEL BReturn app froze and wouldn’t allow me to continue to upload pics as requested
ERIK G