Not all truck rental places consider a day to be 24 hours. Additional drivers cost money, after-hour drop-off fees cost money. And on top of everything, you're going to get charged tax. If you don't fill the truck up and clean it out afterwards, they can (and will) hit you with ridiculous charges. Insurance fees typically go on a per-day basis, so be aware of that. If you're going far, this will obviously the the most costly part of your move and therefore you should care about this a lot). In terms of pricing, here are the tricky things: the "daily rate" doesn't include this stuff: state "special taxes" ($5/day in my state YMMV), fees (usually $3-$5 per day), mileage fees (these can double at the beginning or end of the month. Sometimes they'll realize they won't get it in time and they'll call you a couple of days ahead of your move to let you know, and sometimes you'll walk into the place the morning of your move and find you that you have to drive an hour out of your way to get a truck. Sometimes they get it and everyone's happy. The major truck rental companies (at least 3 of the majors) will accept reservations at locations in which they don't have your truck, hoping that they'll get it in time. Reserving a truck - even with a credit card - does not guarantee that the dealer will have your truck. I will let you all in on some secrets when it comes to rental trucks. The moral of the story is that if U-Haul screws you, bitch and complain to everyone, they will give in. He eventually got it cleared up and ended up paying less than $200, even though the only proof he had of the $100 discount was that a manager in London told him he would get it. He ended up calling the better business bureau and the U-Haul corporate offices. When he got his bill in the mail, they didn't give him $100 off, they actually charged him about $75 more than the original quote because of the added mileage driving the van from Sarnia. He grudgingly agreed and got the van from the other city, and the move went off fine. They offered to give him $100 off his bill, which was supposed to be close to $300 before the mix up. He had to do everything that day since his new apartment building only allowed him 4 hours on a specific afternoon to move in. They told him that if he wanted one he would have to drive 75km in the opposite direction he was moving to pick it up in another city (Sarnia Ont.). He was of course furious, since he had a reservation. A couple hours before he was set to go pick up the cube van, U-haul called him to tell him that they were out of vans for the day. My brother booked a U-Haul for a 150 km move once (London to Guelph Ont.). I gave her the old, "well, I guess I'll just have to call my credit card company and dispute the charge." She called back within minutes and told me she had fixed the billing problem. If you can't avoid using U-Haul, then absolutely insist on getting your receipt upon returning the vehicle, or else they'll screw you like so many others.Īfter numerous phone calls, I finally talked to an assistant manager. If you have to move, go somewhere else for your truck rental. They told me "go ahead and leave, we'll email you your receipt." I was urged to go ahead and leave after I returned the pickup because the U-Haul personnel were very busy. In hindsight I should have been more diligent about collecting receipts and whatnot. They ended up billing me for the commercial rate of $84.95 per day, bringing my total to well over $100. I drove a total of 25 miles (and used little over one gallon of gas.) I estimated that my costs should be roughly $55 including tax. Out of paranoia I also bought the $10 collision coverage. The pickup was advertised at a daily rate of $19.95, plus $0.79 per mile. I rented a pickup to do a short haul apartment move. I'd like to make use of the internet rage machine for just a minute here, to hopefully warn other consumers of a growing threat: U-Haul franchises.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |