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October 10, 2001
U-Haul Customer Service
U-Haul International, Inc.
2727 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Dear U-Haul Customer Service,

I'm in a co-operative education program at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and I have moved 7 times in the last 2 years and plan to move 7 more times in the next 3 years. I chose to use U-Haul for my most recent move, from Toronto to Waterloo, because you gave the option of dropping off the truck in another city and U-Haul seemed to be reputable. Unfortunately my experience with U-Haul was absolutely awful. What follows is my experience with your company. I was planning to move on August 31, 2001. I realize that this is one of the busiest moving days of the year. I phoned the U-Haul office at 3673 Dufferin St in North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada well ahead of August 31 and spoke to a representative named Walter. Walter told me that if I scheduled the U-Haul for August 30th, I would be guaranteed to receive it on August 31st. My first clue that U-Haul was not the reputable business that I had expected should have been having to book a day in advance of the real day that I required a truck because it was anticipated that I would indeed be bumped.

August 31st was a Friday and I called the Monday before to confirm that I would definitely have a truck by Friday. I talked to Walter again. He remembered me, and was very friendly. I told him that I needed to be guaranteed that I would have a truck by Friday, as I was about to purchase airplane tickets for the Saturday. He assured me that I would have a truck by Friday.

I was told that I would be contacted 24 hours before I was scheduled to move. Since I was scheduled to move on the Thursday I expected a phone call on Wednesday. When no phone call came I phoned Walter early Thursday morning. He assured me that I would be receiving a phone call sometime during the day. When no phone call came by 5 p.m., I phoned Walter again. I think that he realized that there was a problem, and gave me a number to call (which I believe was the office that would have called me once my truck was ready). I called this number for hours and it was always busy.

Come Friday morning I was absolutely panicked. I phoned Walter at 8 a.m. and he told me "there just aren't any trucks in the city". He told me to just keep on calling the number that he had given me. This line was of course still busy. An associate of mine called the London U-Haul which told him that the number Walter had given me was in fact out of service. I then proceeded to make phone calls to every truck rental place in Toronto.

Of course, every truck in the city was already rented out. I was told, "I should have scheduled a truck weeks ago". However, I did luck out and found one place with a truck that I could have for 4 hours to drive to Waterloo and back. I got this truck, and was able to meet the four-hour deadline but only with the help of friends in both Toronto and Waterloo. I was then able to rent a car from the same location as the truck (keeping in mind that all major car rental companies had no cars available) to pick up the little things in Toronto that I hadn't had time to pack because of the tight deadline with the truck. I was of course expecting to have a U-Haul truck for 24 hours.

I would also like to note that I have told many people my U-Haul moving story and found that I'm not the only one to have had problems with U-Haul promising a vehicle on a certain day and then being unable to deliver the vehicle on that day. In fact the rental company that saved us mentioned that they have had many people turn to them for their moving needs after having a bad experience with U-Haul. It also absolutely baffles me that in this day and age you are unable to track your vehicles' locations in real-time. Doing so would of course provide your clients with accurate estimates of when vehicles will be available.

I fully expect U-Haul to cover cost of the actual truck that was rented ($154.94) and the actual car that was rented ($39.45). I also expect U-Haul to cover my fuel costs for the 24 hour period that I moved ($61.02) as I was not expecting to have to make two round trips from Toronto to Waterloo. The appropriate receipts have been enclosed.

I also expect to hear back from you promptly. This letter and your timely response will be posted on the Internet at http://www.mattgoyer.com/uhaul, on a website that receives hundreds of visitors a day belonging to my partner, Matt Goyer, who shared in not only the costs but also the frustrations of moving as he was moving from Toronto to Waterloo as well.

Regards,
Natalie Gordon (& Matt Goyer)
207 Erb St W
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G6

References:
U-Haul's response
Lisa Kay's U-Haul experience
Lynda's experience
Mark's experience
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