Good report on Emove.com

[Guest]

Hope this helps those in need of moving help.
In Nov. 04 I had to move in a hurry due to my house selling in rual NH and unusual stipulations of sale. Quotes for a couple of helpers to load truck from moving companies were quite high and frankly did not give me a warm cozy feeling that they would show up on time. On time was of essence in my case as I had to be out of the house by a certain date etc.
I went to emove's web site and picked out a good rated local firm and bought a few hours of loading time for two helpers. Within a couple of hours the owner called me and assured me they would be there. To make a long story short they showed up on time and had the truck loaded in rapid time..........with an hour to spare.
So, my wife and I are sitting in a motel in NH during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, U-Haul truck loaded and parked at a friends house waiting on us to drive to FL to our new house. (U-Haul truck rental will be covered in another post later when I have time.....bad experience.)
We needed help to unload the truck in FL, so I went to emove's site and bought a couple of hours for two men there. This was 7am in the morning. I had not had time to log off the web site when the owner of the moving help company in FL called me on the cell phone and assured me that the guys would be there and if anything changed to let him know if I was running late or early he could adjust. Two days before the unloading date the owner called us while we were on the road and asked how we were doing and how the schedule looked. We were on schedule. Here again, when we arrived in FL at the new home, not two guys, but three showed up to unload for the price of two. Owner said he wanted to keep his guys busy.
This was the easiest part of our entire moving task.

[Diane]

Thanks for posting about your good experience. We'll certainly keep it in mind for the future. My only request is that you post the actual contact information for the small labor companies that you used in NH and FL because there are so many companies listed with Emove.com that otherwise it's sort of like recommending a major van line rather than a particular agent. You had a good experience but it might be the luck of the draw for the next person.

[Craig]

Will do Diane. Sorry about the omission. I'll have to look it up and will post a follow up later. Also forgot to include my name as poster.

[Diane]

Thanks, and also thanks for identifying yourself because it makes your post a lot more believable! We do have to be careful around here!

So, you used U-Haul for your move last November? Please do post about it when you have time.

[Craig]

This is a follow up note on using emove.com for loading and unloading help. Also, my comments on U-Haul rental.
I used Blodgett Express in Francestown, NH and Martin Relocation Specialist in Ocala, FL. I was very pleased with both services. I don't think anyone could go wrong by picking help in other areas of the US based on the star ratings and the reviews. I think packing is a very important part of a move. The pros know how to pack so there is less chance of damage. We only had one item that was damaged and I was glad to have it lost since it was a gawdy gift we had lived with for years. By getting pro loading help I didn't have to risk putting relatives or friends on the spot by asking for their weekend help.

My experiences with U-Haul on the other hand were entirely different. Based on the reviews and recommendations on this forum, I would have chosen a different rental truck than U-Haul. I had no choice though, due to the size of the load I had to move. Even with the 26ft. U-Haul truck and the attic packed, the door barely closed when finished loading.
Renting the U-Haul truck was stress that I don't want to go through again.
As you know, when selling a house, you have to be out of the house with the house clean for inspection by the buyers so closing can take place usually that day. To add to the problem, my wife who worked out of the house, had to work right up to the night before moving day. We planned on loading two days before closing so that we could have time to clean the house properly.

I rented/reserved the U-Haul truck online about two weeks before moving day. About a week before moving I dropped by the local U-Haul dealer and checked to see that all was ok. The young guy behind the counter assured me he would have a truck ready to pick up. I checked with him again two days before moving day and he said that he THOUGHT he would have a truck in on time for me pickup. The warm cozy feeling that all was well left me right away and I said that I would be right down there to talk with him since he did not seem to understand or care that I really had to have a truck. When I faced off with him he admitted that there may be a truck coming in, but was not sure since they had not heard from the guy renting the truck. I told him to get his manager on the phone which he did and I let her know that this was not a way to run a business that has customers with critical schedules.

So, to make a long story short, my wife and I finally had to drive over 80 miles one way to pick up a truck at another dealer which by this time, I was glad to do. They gave me two extra days rent and 200 miles for our trouble. Nice of them eh?

The long drive to FL goes well with my wife following behind driving our car until we get into a traffic backup in S. GA. The truck starts running hot and I pull off and shut the engine down. I checked to see that it had enough coolant etc. let it cool down then started off again without anymore over heating. Later that day as we are pulling into Ocala, my wife calls me on the FRS and says that I have smoke coming out from under the truck. I mentioned that I had been smelling something like metal burning. After another couple of miles of stop and go the left front brake was gone. I could hear metal to metal scraping and the truck was pulling very badly to the right when braking. At this point, we were only a few miles from our new house, so I used the transmission to slow and brake the truck till we parked at our house. As luck would have it, the dealer where I turned the truck in was only about two miles away. After unloading the truck the next day, I turned it into the dealer and told him what had happened to the truck and that is was not safe to drive.

Positive points on U-Haul: 1. large size, 2. easy ride, 3. low loading height.
Negative: 1. Reserving a truck has little meaing, 2. local dealers don't seem to care and managers care little, 3. poor to no maintainence on their trucks, 3. leaking roofs.

Would I rent from U-Haul again? NO, not if there was any other way to move. And by the way, I checked into using folks like Broadway etc., but my schedule with selling the house and the move in general would not work that way. Believe me, I would rather have gone that route if it was possible.
I got est. from moving companies also, but that would not work, since I had a long steep driveway that their vans could not get up and would have required a shuttle.
I hope this report helps someone navigating through the moving process.

[blue]

Rental truck companies depend on inbound rentals to their local agents to satisfy demand for outbound reservations. If the need for outbound trucks exceed availability from any site, it should fall on the rental company to get the needed equipment to the customer, not the other way around. Your experience was certainly an example of very poor customer service.

If you agree to $$ to rent a truck from point A to point B and you pay a deposit to guarantee that reservation, the truck should be at the site you expect on the day agreed. There are rental truck companies out there that will guarantee reservations.

Hope you have better results next time.

[Diane]

I added Craig's review of U-Haul (and eMove.com) to our Rental Van review thread. I wasn't sure what he paid for the rental but an earlier post suggested that it was around $4,000. Craig, if you see this, please confirm or correct that figure.

Craig said that he had to use U-Haul because he needed a 26-foot van. Is U-Haul the only company that rents trucks of that size? I ask because in our rental van thread people are talking about renting 25-foot Penske trucks.

[twalker]

It looks like Budget (Ryder) only goes up to 24 ft, and Penske has up to 25 ft, but neither has the 'attic', or over-the-cabin space that U-Haul has... then again, you might have better luck stopping your truck if it were a Penske or Budget rental.

Tim Walker
MovingScam.com

[Doug]

Comment on experience I had with U-Haul reservations.

I had put a reservation in for a 14' truck thru the U-Haul website, had been given confirmation number and location of truck availability and paid the $5 on my CC. Seing as the place I was to get the truck from was on the way home I had stopped in to verify. The guy said "yes" I had one for that day. I arrive the day of reservation to be told no truck?? I asked why and was told that "his" customers had already picked up trucks that he had made reservations for and that U-Haul reservation HQ should have known he had none available. See the double talk by both companies!!!

I called customer "no service" and they had another facility, 10 miles away. They contacted me to inform that one would be available at night!!. I needed the truck so I had to wait. U-Haul HQ would not credit my CC because they said I received a vehicle regardless that it was not at the place.

I later had a conversation with a person who actually had worked for U-Haul and now manages the storage facility I am using. She advised that this is a STANDARD practice to OVERBOOK reservations with the knowledge that vehicles are not available. This is how they get fees and then give you the run-around. As long as they get you a vehicle, albiet miles from where you were, they fulfilled the reservation. I now go "in person" to rent any vehicle and this guarantee's it is there for me to pick-up.

[Diane]

I'm going to re-post the above on our Rental Vans thread at http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2060. Please note that a U-Haul employee came on here (review #8 on the thread) to say that with U-Haul, your time and place of pickup is never guaranteed. People might have to drive 80 miles as Craig did and pick the truck up at 6 pm and that is still not considered a service failure by the company. The U-Haul employee also said that people should always go to an actual U-Haul store to make the reservation because the people at the central reservations number will say anything to make the sale. He added that some managers hide their trucks from the general public in order to give a truck to certain favored customers.

[blue]

[Diane]

Does anyone happen to know which rental companies DO guarantee reservations, and also, what does that mean, exactly? What happens if a reserved truck isn't available? I just went on the Penske website, for example, and it doesn't say anything very specific. The exact wording on the website is

Your Penske vehicle will be fueled and ready for you when you arrive on your moving day - Guaranteed!
http://www.pensketruckrental.com/personal_rental/rate_protection.html

[Craig]

[uhaul employee again]

Hey all long time no post. Well i no longer work for uhaul but still have insiders LOL. uhauls 26 foot truck is 26 foot only from the top of the truck back. If you ask for the truck dimensions from the uhaul marketing company you can get the exact measurments but a 26 foot truck is generally 24 feet 7 inches from the bottom of the floor back, the 26 foot measurement includes the space in the moms attic. so in comparison a 25 ft penske probally has as much cubic capacity as a 26 ft uhaul.

[Diane]