the discussion about U-Haul. Could someone please re-post it?
Question:
I can't seem to access the original message that prompted the discussion about U-Haul. Could someone please re-post it?
Answer:
The last 14' Penske I rented had a 65 mph governor as well. But going
down the east side of the Sierra on I-80 It hit 75 with no trouble - the
trouble is thats a lot faster than I wanted to be going in a loaded
truck on those steep hills.
I have used U-haul for local moves over the last 15 years and swore I
would never rent one of their piece of s--- trucks for a long trip. I
figure why should I drive this junk when in the end (adding mileage and
everything else) they cost about the same as a nicer truck.
And then there's the "stupid U-Haul trick". Get quotes on a trip -
every one will quote you rates on certain truck sizes. The U-Haul will
quote you a competetive rate on a "bigger truck". But U-Haul measures
their trucks on the roof. So they give you a rate on a 17' truck which
sounds bigger than the 14' trucks everyone else has. U-Haul includes
that "Mom's attic" thing over the cab. So keep in mind that U-hauls 27'
is about equal to everyone else's 24', their 23' is more like 20', etc.
I used *Penske* for "Grandma's" move from CA to UT. The one way rate a
little higher than U-Haul's quote but Penske gives UNLIMITED mileage on
one way rentals. This was great since I rented the truck in the Bay
Area and took it a couple of hundred miles out of the way to get the
move done. Penske trucks are always in good condition in my
experience. The draw back to Penske is that they don't seem to be in as
many locations. When my g/f moved down from Redding CA in August I
couldn't find Penske around Redding - the closest they found in their
computer was Chico. Used Ryder that time...
...So I have used Ryder once and was treated well and got a clean
truck. However the 20 foot truck I reserved was not there when I showed
up to get it. But they immediately bumped me up to a 24' with a lift
gate for the same rate. The only problem I have with Ryder is that they
always seem to be about 20% higher in price - but sometimes 20% may be
worth to avoid the U-Haul junk and aggravation.
Even Budget Truck Rental has done me well. I've used them for some
local business needs and a round trip from the Bay Area to Seattle.
They gave me a great rate on the Seattle trip. They included 100 miles
per day on my local rentals - and the trucks are nicer than the U-Haul
beat-to-s--- trucks.
There you go... I hate U-Haul too.
U-Haul truck breakdowns are very common here in NY, and I think people
are really catching on. Most U-Haul outlets are full of trucks, while
nice, new, clean Ryder trucks are out on the roads.
My U-Hell story can be found on the U-Hell pages at:
http://www.mindspring.com/~stygian/UHell/index.html
I'd post it here, but it just goes on page after page after page.
Some links to other sites where people describe their terrible experiences are:
http://www.lib.panam.edu/~ward/cwp/uhaul.html
http://www.pressroom.com/~cbell/csign/uhaul/stories.html
Chris Bell's C-Sign pages have more than just U-Haul stories also. There
are reports on people's experiences with other companies as well.
My personal opinion at this point is that U-Haul is a terrible organization.
The incredible contrast between Ryder's customer service and U-Haul's was
dramatic.
There are other companies besides U-Haul, that provide (IMO) better
service. They will get the rental dollars from me and mine from now on.
As far as truck length goes, when we rented the Ryder truck to replace the
U-Haul when we had all the troubles with it, we realized that we could have
practically parked the 17 foot U-Haul in the back of the 20 foot Ryder,
which was priced about the same. It is not just a three foot difference.
when we originally called to get pricing, the price on the Ryder 20
foot truck was within 10 dollars of the rental on the U-Haul 17 foot truck.
But 20% more would have been MORE than worth it to save the aggravation at
what we had with U-Haul. By the time we were done with our U-Haul trip, it
took us five days, and we spent more money than it would have cost to have
movers move our things for us. Which we could not afford.
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