Ever see the exposé CTV's W-Five did on U-Haul last year? Scary: http://tinyurl.com/7pyam

I had a situation where I reserved a truck online for my moving day, gave a credit card, printed a confirmation etc. I showed up on moving day, needless to say a pretty stressful day, just to be told there were no trucks at that time... but there might be in an hour or so. WTF, so I waited an hour, still no truck, in the end I gave up an midday and ended up moving using a friends pick up truck. Don't even give them a chance to screw you like that, I can't tell you how much I hate that company for not showing up on moving day.

The same happened with an acquaintance where the truck broke down in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in the Tri-Cities, and the guys just jumped out and left it there (they were on their way back to return the truck). However they aren't the 'nicest' and 'friendliest' people that you would want to upset, so U-Haul didn't pursue and they got their full refund. Could have been much worse, though, for friendly people like you and me :)

Tara, I don't think you've tagged your story correctly. All your tags show up as one single block together.

John from Sutori here. Tara's tag issue is the result of our misguided decision to make tags comma-separated when most taggers are used to space-separated. We have realized the error of our ways and this feature will be rectified very soon, but in the meantime Tara's tags are indeed wonky. Sorry.

I rented a U-Haul truck about early 2005 and took it roundtrip between Collingwood and Toronto. What a scary piece of junk. The automatic gearbox was fried, the brakes only sort of worked, and it sucked more diesel than your average SUV does gasoline. I must have gone through 2 full tanks. It was cheap though and we didn't get slapped with hidden any hidden charges. So I guess sometimes you just get what you pay for.

Same deal for me. We booked one a month in advance, only to get there and be told they didn't have any. When pressed, they hauled out a 1960's era truck. Nice. When driving down off the hill in Coquitlam, the thing popped out of gear and picked up a lot of speed before the shot breaks would bring it back under control.

Reminded me of a bit that Seinfeld did on renting a car that was beautiful. Always goes through my head when I have to rent a car now.

Agent: I'm sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment.

Jerry: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?

Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.

Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.

Agent: I know why we have reservations.

Jerry: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.

Agent: Let me, uh, speak with my supervisor.

Agent: I'm sorry, my supervisor says there's nothing we can do.

Jerry: Yeah, it looked as if you were in a real conversation over there.

Agent: But we do have a compact if you would like that.

Jerry: Fine.

Agent: Alright. We have a blue Ford Escort for you Mr. Seinfeld. Would you like insurance?

Jerry: Yeah, you better give me the insurance, because I am gonna beat the hell out of this car.

I agree that uHaul generally sucks, but I will say this…

One day I got into an accident in a uHaul truck; by accident I mean "I backed into a brand new Acura parked on the side of the road."

I had paid for uHaul's "Safemove" insurance when I rented the truck. uHaul took over the accident claim, did all the administration, and paid for the entire repair, no questions asked.

Hell, they even let me rent from them a second, and third time!

Stevenluscher,

I just rented a U Hual van and bought the Safemove protection. The same kind of accident happened to me yesterdat - I backed into my new neighbor's car parked on the street. It so hard to see anything through the back in the van, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to drive the truck.

Steveluscher, did UHaul cover the damage on the Acura too? When I talked to the UHaul people, they said it will be my liability since the Safemove protect only U Haul's equipment. Men! I don't own a car so I don't have any insurance (except from a car share program). Do you mind telling me in which state that accident happened to you? I wonder if the coverage varies from state to state. Thanks! I appreciate it!

On May 29th,2007 I reserved a 26 foot U-Haul for our move from Nova Scotia to Quebec on June 30th. I gave them my credit card info, received a confirmation letter etc. However , the afternoon before we were to move, I received a phone call from the head office of UHaul stating there were no available vans for our move. I asked, "how can this be possible, we reserved well in advance", have coordinated numerous other issues,,,i.e moving our horses etcs. rental agreements etc. ". The reply was, "making a reservation does not guarantee that a truck will be available on the day for which you have reserved it, nor does it guarantee where you will be picking up the truck." WTF is the purpose of a reservation??....I did not receive a reply to this question however was told that I would be contacted as soon as a truck would become available but that I might have to drive out of province to pick up the truck. Is it just me...or does that sound ludicrous....we are already looking at a 20 hour drive with 4 kids, 4 horse, 2 dogs, rabbits, cats, chickens and yes...I truly feel like driving an additonal 10 hours to pick up a truck that was supposed to be in my own town of Truro tomorrow morning. When I asked to speak with a manager, I was kindly told that he was backed up with numerous other calls regarding complaints and she didn't think my speaking with him would be helpful. All I can say is...U-Haul,, you are a poor excuse for a company and should be ashamed at the incredibly low standards you have set for yourself and for customer satisfaction. Not to mention the poor quality of vehicles that you have on the road. Had I known about your numerous safety violations last month, I definitely would have gone with another company, even if the price had been much higher.

My friend Margie got a truck from them last year. The roof was damaged and it just happened to rain (as it often does in FL) while we were moving her. A lot of her stuff got soaked. :-(

I do not and will never, EVER rent from those dumbasses at U-Haul. Long before the web was really ubiquitous I saw many u-haul trucks being towed, or broken down. And vowed then that that was good enough for me. I have rented from Ryder.....no bad experiences there really. I have moved a number of times and have never rented from u-haul. They are crap....their trucks are crap, the people working there are crap, their corporate people are greedy idiots and morons and I will never....ever...ever risk wasting my time, money, effort or energy on u-haul.

I loved your subject line.....u-suck....I agree 100%. Good post..thank you!!