Date: 1/04
Move: N/A
Company:
U-Haul (comments by a U-Haul employee)
Cost: N/A
Post #1 – 1/4/04
I am a current Uhaul employee. I have seen all the sites there are on bashing and the things said by "uhaul" employees who dont have a clue. Uhaul practices are very deceiving, and i am here to answer any question anyone may have.
In a previous thread an employee posted about 3 things that are untruthful
1. holiday pay- if you are part time he is correct we dont get any holiday pay, but full time employees do recieve 8 hours pay on the holidays that are included, the receive this if they are or aren’t schedule that day. if they do work it is 8 hours on top of the hours they work.
2. min wage- i dont know about other regions but here our customer service reps start at about $7 an hour. managers can make anywhere from 18,000 to 50,000 a year based on experience and performance.
3. for anyone who has or will make a reservation for a one way trip our policy is as follows........You will receive a call 1 day prior to your pick up date with your location and time.......Location and time are not guaranteed!! if you are moved outside of your prefered pick up area you should be compensated for miles only. You will generally not receive a discount on price. Time is also not guaranteed, uhaul guarantees you a truck on the day of your rental, not a time for pick up.
I do disagree with uhaul practices, it is very misleading to customers the way our reservations are handled. Alas i have no say in this. I for the most part follow uhaul practices but if i feel as though a customer is being mistreated i will offer a discount or some VIP certificates. As for lawsuits, many people who file them did not pay attention when making there reservation. We do have to follow a script when taking reservations and always it is said "you will get a call the day prior to your pick up with the location and time" if that quote was used literally many customers would know that they may be waiting a whole day for their one way truck.
Local reservations are a whole different ball game. Uhaul rents and reserves theirs for "UP TO a 24 HOUR period" whether you rent for 1 hour or 24 the price is the same. If you reserve your truck for an hour and have it for 4 you will be charged for 2 days worth of rentals, because your rental time was for an hour and another customer was likely scheduled for pick up at your drop off time and now we have a separate customer delayed.
i could go on and on but i will stop here and await questions
Post #2 – 1/6/04
Well since there are no questions yet i can throw out some helpful tips:
1. Always book as far in advance as possible.
2. Always use a credit card when moving, its easier to get a refund if you happen to need to put in a complaint and if uhaul cant satisfy you , you can always dispute the charges with your cc carrier.
3. If you can avoid moving on Friday, saturday and sunday do so, those 3 days are always busy and your more likely to have a delay in your truck rental on those days. Sundays most dealer locations are closed so if you are making a reservation in an area without a uhaul center for a sunday be prepared to travel to pick up your truck.
4. From may to october are uhaul and other moving companys busy seasons. These are the worst times to move. If you are moving at these times make sure you give yourself at least 2 days time before you must vacate premises. just in case you are delayed a day in getting your truck.
5. Uhaul trucks (17ft, 24ft, & 26ft.)come in stick and automatic (10ft and 14fts are always automatic). make sure you let people know you cannot drive stick if you cant. uhaul reserves the right to upgrade you from a small truck to a large truck, at no additional cost, if they only have large trucks available. it wont help you if you get a stickshift and cant drive it.
6. Diesel and unleaded fuel- request unleaded , there is no guarantee you will get one but diesel fuel omits horrible fumes and can make you sick especially if you are on a long trip.
7. Always make your reservation at a store whether it be a dealer or center. The 1-800 # first charges a $5.00 fee that is only supposed to be charged to reservations made with less than 24 hours notice, but they charge to all local reservations. You wont get a fee at a store. Plus the 800 # will do anything even lie or not disclose the full truth to get your reservation, those operators get $3 for every reservation they book even if it is canceled down the line. they want the $$ for themselves.
8. Shop around. Uhaul during winter months especially will sometimes do rate matches if penske or budget or ryder has a lower price.
9. Even in the worst situation try to be calm and nice. When customers are ticked and they have been delayed in getting their truck and call the regional office cursing and yelling and being unreasonable, no one wants to deal with that. It only makes your matter worse because you will put you at the end of the list for getting a truck, or if you are really obscene your reservation will be canceled out and you will really be out of luck. cause usually when uhaul is all booked (even though we will never say that, we will keep taking and taking reservations no matter what) everyone else is booked too. KILL THEM WITH Kindness. the more pleasant and easy going and flexible you are the quicker you will be serviced in a delay situation.
10!!!! ask questions.........i cannot stress this enough. If you are unclear on anything always ask and if the person you are asking cant or wont answer you call your areas regional office and ask to speak to a reservation manager, the traffic manager or the marketing company president.
11. If you buy boxes always save your receipt. 1. moving expense can be used as a tax deduction. 2. if you have any unused boxes you can get a full refund with a receipt only.
12. Insurance-Always take it. It may seem a waste but here are the technicalities they dont tell you when you refuse insurance. You will hear you are responsible for damages if anything happens. So you think ok if i dent it i have to pay no biggie.....WRONG........If ANYTHING happens to the truck you will be held responsible. If it is stolen (while you have it or even if you night dropped a truck, until it is in the possession of a uhaul employee or dealer you are totally responsible) you will have to pay for it.
If there is engine problems and god forbid the truck catches on fire and all your stuff gets burnt to a crisp, guess what not only are you SOL on your belongings you have to pay for the damages to the truck. If the box of the truck leaks all over all your clothes and ruins your electronics and you dont have insurance guess what uhaul wont pay for it. if someone graffiti’s on the truck while you have it be prepared to either have it clean or pay for new imaging. If you fall off a truck and break a leg whether it be your fault you fell or uhauls like the bumper giving way either way if you had the insurance uhaul would cover your medical bills if not you’re beat. I can go on and on with insurance the bottom line is take it.
Thats all i can think of for tips
Uhaul did not file bankruptcy. Amerco is who filed. what we were told is that it is common practice for large companies to take and repay loans. well what happened is that the deadline for payment of a 150 million dollar loan was missed and thats when stock prices fell. The auditors uhaul was using done made a big boo-boo causing amerco to file chapter 11 so in the process of reconfiguring their assets the wouldnt receive penalties and lawsuits couldnt be filed. amerco is one of the companies uhaul divided up into. There is uhaul, amerco, oxford and republic western. republic western is the uhaul insurance, oxford is the medical insurance for the employees, uhaul is the truck part and amerco is what oversees it all. so technically they are 1 and the same but all my arguing got they are different.
Here are some other things that may be of interest. edward "joe" shoen supposedly only makes about $500,000 a year, according to the papers sent out every year to uhaul stock holders. He just had a baby (he's all old). Uhaul dealers are regularly ripped off by the company and any1 who has a business can be a dealer. Most uhaul managers (99% except reservation managers who are hourly) are paid by salary and are expected to work 60 hours a week for 40 hours pay. Uhual provides Chevy suburbans to all marketing company presidents.
In order for uhaul not to have to pay unemployment to employees, they do their best to get a person to quit instead of firing them. They will transfer the person to different stores or give them positions that they arent able to do. If a person is fired uhaul will fight tooth and nails against having to pay unemployment.
Advancement only comes to those who suck Butt. People who are obviously not qualified for a job or position are often hired into it because
a- they are relatives of someone higher up in uhaul or are boffing someone
b- they kiss so much butt that they get it
c- they have no one else to fill a position they give it to the first moron who asks or the first 1 they see.
I am ranting now. Just so you all know I dont particularly like my job. It is very unsatisfying. I used to love customer service. I am not a person who lies and thats what uhaul wants you to do to people. The person who is "my boss" is an idiot god knows how he got the position but he has no clue what he is doing. He hires people and doesn’t train them and then expects them to be able to do a job that isnt as easy as it looks. thank god i came long before he did and was actually trained properly.
i hope the uhaul powers that be come and see this site and read this thread they have no clue whats going on in my office if they did they would probably clean house.
if the moderators of this site ever wanna contact me (or anyone else for that matter) for more indepth questions let me know my email address is [removed at the poster's request]. the only thing i will not answer are personal questions about myself, cause i surely would be fired (and they would fight unemployment) for speaking the truth.
Post #3 – 1/7/04
Thanks for the questions i hope i can answer them to your liking
1. Could you give us your opinion of the other rental companies such as Ryder and Penske? Which is the best one?
For other companies I really dont know. I know that they dont rent trailers. I have been told that they are closed on sundays. I do know that Ryder does do Long rentals, like you can rent a ryder truck locally for a month, uahul doesn’t let you do that. Uhual trucks have lower decks and ramps.
2. In your opinion is it a good idea to reserve more than one van to be surer that you'll get one?
NO. I say this because if you dont need 2 and decide to cancel one you will get a cancellation fee. Uhaul does have a problem with some of its dealers. you may have a reservation in and i try calling everyone in my area to place you and i get the truck is down or its not back yet, but you may call the same folks on your own and be able to get it 2 minutes after i called. Dealers make commission and sometimes hold out on the traffic department to try to get better reservations, if i call for a 1 way rental to md from Pa they arnt making to much so they try to "hide" trucks in order to wait for a "bigger" rental.
3. What are you implying by saying that the owner of the company has a new baby and is "all old"? Some unauthorized "boffing" or something?
Mr. shoen is like 50 to me thats old for a person to have a baby, he had the child with his wife so its not Unauthorized boffing LOL. the boffing comment came because it has happened in the past that Newer and less experienced persons have engaged in behaviors with their boss or a person with higher rankings in uhaul and been given jobs that they are not experienced at or been given wages exceeding that of the people in their departmant with more years and experience.
4. Does the company provide employees with health insurance and is it good, affordable insurance that covers families as well as the individual worker?
Full time employees with a years service in are eligible and so are their families. The insurance is Ok, its not the best but not the worst. most services are covered at 80%. We also get prescription coverage, that would cost us $5, $10 or $25 dollars based on generic or brand name. Its funny though that there is excellent coverage for prosthetics and wheelchairs. How many people who work at uhaul have artificial limbs or are confined to a wheel chair. all uhaul employees are eligible for a discount vision plan. Uhual does not provide full coverage on vision for any employee. the discount is like 10%, it really sucks.
uhaul also provides life insurance for full time employees, if i were to die my family would get 1 year salary, if i die as a result of my job my family would get 3 years salary. when you leave the company they offer you the chance to continue your health coverage but it would cost about $1000 a month for a family of 4.
5. How does the company make employees work 60 hours a week for 40 hours pay? Is it sort of like Wal-Mart?
I dont know walmart to well but center managers, area field managers, traffic control managers and marketing company presidents are expected to work 7am-5pm M-F 7-2 on saturday and sundays are supposed to be their off day. they do have the flexibility to leave early if it is dead and there is coverage but from april to october it is to busy to leave.
6. Does the company employ illegal aliens ("undocumented workers") and if so, what jobs do those people do and how does the company get away with it?
As far as i know NO, All employees are us residents either CItizens or resident aliens. meaning that if you came from another country you must have residency papers, green cards and all that other junk. we have many employees in my area that are not citizens but are legal residents. some examples of countries haiti, nigeria, Israel, Guatemala.
7. If you know about them, what is your opinion of companies like ABF that are basically freight forwarders that have expanded into moving household goods?
i have never had to deal with companies. all i know is what i see here on the boards and there was a undercover report done on 1 company here in my area that gave a quote of 1500 and then after the truck was loaded said it would be 4000$. they stuck her stuff in a storage locker at a uhaul center paid the first month and left it, the lady had no clue we had it. the storage accumulated fee's over $1000 and was about to be auctioned when she found out. she explained her situation and after some checking we verified it was true and gave her her belongings NO charges to her. I personally would go with a do it yourself place. I dont trust strangers with my personal stuff.
8. Some U-Haul locations offer packing and loading services through local companies. Are those services any good, in your opinion?
NO. uhaul set up what is called e-move. basically we provide a site and for a fee (i think 10$ and any moves booked through emove uhaul gets a take in what the movers make) any nimrod with a computer can register themselves to be a mover. Uhaul has no association with these people and if they wind up stealing your belongings or worse uhaul isnt responsible. Most of these folks dont have insurance. THere are no background checks done on these people so you could have a rapist or murderer moving your family and belongings. There are a few good folks out there, but I personally wouldnt do it unless i saw some sort of licensing and insurance through these folks.
As for the age of the trucks, most a pretty old. When you look at the truck numbers on the back top right of the truck there is a letter at the end (ex. dc 1234J ) the newer and more reliable trucks will have either an g,h,j at the end these are the absolute newest trucks. The older trucks will have p,x,y,z,r at the end and then there are some trucks in the middle E, b, c. trucks are sold when they are too old. you can actually buy trucks from 1977 today at uhaul. the uhaul pick ups and cargo vans are all brand new every year. uhaul leases these and every year they get a new fleet from gmc
As for broken trucks. We have tons of broken trucks, its not even funny. uhaul is cheap and wants to repair the trucks at uhaul trucks. well their are only so many repair specialists so it takes forever for them to be repaired. Minor repairs are expected to be done at the uhaul centers, by people who are far from mechanics.
any more questions.?????????
Me i cant say uhaul is better than other companies cause i haven’t worked for them to compare. I just started this thread so i can try to the best of my abilities, to educate others on the goods and bads of uhaul. Knowledge is power! uhaul will never tell you half of what i am
http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=864
June 7, 2005 - Someone has just posted that you can get a 30% discount from Penske just by asking a customer service rep for it on the phone--no fooling around with web discounts. - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4639 In addition, someone else posted that a Penske phone rep offered to match a Budget price in Manhattan as long as it wasn't more than 40% lower than Penske's price - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4571 These things are definitely worth checking into.
$7,000.00 for a 15' U-Haul from Seattle to Florida! I almost fell off my chair when I heard this quote. Penske is $4,200.00 for the same size. I can't believe anyone would be foolish enough to pay this price for a self move. We've decided on ABF Movers after reading the feedback on epinions although we have to pick up at a transfer station. We've checked out 10 full service movers and still can't seem to find one that we feel is 100% honest as well as affordable.