UHAUL NOT LIVING UP TO THEIR OWN IDEALS

Since the incident where UHaul executives stepped in to destroy my working relationship with my local UHaul outlet, I've done some important digging on their history. 2,000+ complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau, and their account with the BBB was actually shut down once already for the volume of issues the company had clogging up the BBB's systems.

My treatment doesn't appear to be the exception. This is the normal way it goes for many of the disgruntled customers who don't get their issues resolved. They typically take their concerns online and hope others avoid doing business with this company.

UHaul thinks they can point to the fine print and tell you this and that are excluded, but they forget what they've called acceptable damage and billed me the deductible for before. They pretend to be all about wanting to take care of their customers, but in this situation they took a good customer and made the managers of an outlet treat that customer like the scum of the Earth.

Here is a little note from one of UHAUL'S OWN SHAREHOLDER REPORTS (2004 Annual Report):
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It is our intent to be a medium-size company with an entrepreneurial, aggressive management team, relatively immune to the potholes of corporate bureaucracy.

Our plans include the following.

• Operating in a specialty niche, where our success is dependent more on how we treat our customers than on competitive or market conditions

• Developing a self-funding balance sheet. Expand by using our own profits.

• Maintaining substantial insider ownership. This includes Shoen interests, ESOP and individual ownership by directors, employees, dealers and vendors.

• Continuing with a North American orientation. Remain relatively insulated from political changes and currency valuations.

• Maintaining constructive labor relations. Management free to make decisions independent of outside groups. Encourage a coincidence of interest between ownership, management, operative U-Haul System members and dealers.

• Maintaining a reasonable price/earnings ratio on our common stock. Emphasize the strength of the company, not the strength of the stock price.

• Employing people who are high in integrity. Successful companies are composed of people with integrity at all levels of the company
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     The top and bottom items on that list are being thrown out the window in my situation. There's no integrity at all in your system when it comes to my case, and you showed you are willing to take one of your best customers, run the bill up on him and then tell him he can no longer rent from you. The executive who made this happen lied through his teeth to me and the Better Business Bureau about why they had me ambushed on the day of my rental return and are now forbidding me from renting from them ever again. The actual managers of the store did not decide to run the bill up and refuse further rentals to me. An "outside group" of two executives ran my bill up and tried to run me out of business and inflate the bill on me at the same time.

     Also, it's pretty damn ridiculous that UHAUL can't figure out a good insurance plan for their vehicles to avoid all this kind of hassle being so regularly passed on to the consumer. What's worse is one of UHaul's parent companies actually OWNS an insurance company.

    Sunlight is truly the best disinfectant, and I hope everyone who follows this site knows that this is not a blind crusade built by anger and spite. This is nothing like that. I am taking this stand for the multitude of people with complaints about this company that are never resolved. People who feel like they couldn't take that stand and didn't have the resources to put into such a fight can count on my efforts to make UHaul accountable here. I will hopefully inspire them to fix/stop what they are doing to over-exert executive influence on store managers across the country. Many of these people are in managerial positions because they are good leaders, are excellent with people and know how to operate all your existing systems flawlessly.

An executive of a company like UHaul should not be able to come in from some other area of the country, spend a few minutes looking around and arbitrarily decide that manager can't rent to the outlet's best customer. This is the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Customers and consumers have rights, and so do these store managers. Executive level a-holes come in, kick stuff around and try to act like they know what's best, but they really don't. These executives turned a good working relationship to what will end up being a living Hell for the company when this case goes to court.

But, hey, your attempt at ramming $755 in charges down my throat for something that should have been covered by insurance was worth the resulting turmoil, right? No damage done, right, we'll just get the next guy for what he owes us.

WRONG!

This author intends to get a judgment that will deter UHaul from ever engaging in this type of abusive behavior again. Stay Tuned.

Daniel Guilmette LIES: Better Business Bureau Results

My complaint to the Better Business Bureau resulted in Uhaul immediately offering to cover my final bill (with expenses padded by staff at the instruction of management shown in the photo below). As much as this might seem like a fair and equitable gesture, it's not. Mr. Guilmette was told when he contacted me to call me back with his lawyer on the phone with him. He refused to accomplish that and then tried to appease me by not coming after me for the final rental charge.

Also within the statement from Uhaul is a pile of blatant and disgusting lies, which I highlighted in bold print below. I don't take the truck off-road, I use boards and tarps in the bed to prevent damage from loading. I have never provided any police reports because the damage to the truck has never been from any collision with any other vehicle (except for the bumper being dented while I was parked one day, and I did not see the dent until UHaul personnel pointed it out). I have always been honest about the damage sustained during my rental periods. Nearly every time the truck was damaged, the dents on the truck happened because of the truck lacking 4-wheel drive and being unable to maneuver effectively in the snow during the winter months, and the damages they claim I did were not any more significant than any careless mover could cause. Also, they act as if I caused some extensive vehicle damage when we are talking about a few dents and dings. I've only ever paid TWO deductible payments over more than 2 years of renting with them. The kicker is they say I can't use the truck for logging and their trucks were not meant for that. I wore company shirts almost every time I came into the office and told employees about how my firewood business was going, and they KNEW what I used the truck for at all times. NOW they want to CRY FOUL? This is not covered by the over $6,000 in insurance premiums I've paid over the years????

NO, NOT TODAY! UHAUL WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!

Here is the official response from Uhaul, delivered by the BBB:

Thank you for your concern for our customer Mr. Bergeron.

Dan Guilmette, our Executive Assistant for our Los Angeles West Regional Office, followed up on the information Mr. Bergeron provided.  He informed our office he has talked to Mr. Bergeron on two separate occasions but has been unsuccessful in addressing all his concerns.  Mr. Guilmette relayed, the recent Promissory Note Mr. Bergeron incurred in the amount of $1,274.50, will be forgiven for the amount of business he has given us over the years, however, we have chosen not to do any further business with Mr. Bergeron in the future.  The amount of damages he is doing to our equipment due to his off-road travels and improper loading and use of the U-Haul equipment is not covered by Collision Damage Waiver (CDW).  CDW is not a license to do damage to the equipment.  Mr. Bergeron has never provided us with any police reports indicating collision or accident during his rental when he returns our equipment damaged.  U-Haul does not rent equipment for the purposes he is using it for with his logging business.  Mr. Guilmette, unfortunately, has never had the opportunity to explain this information to him. 

Our customers are very important to us and we regret to hear of situations that cause problems for them. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and allowing us to offer a response.

Sincerely,

Maria Palmisano

Executive Assistant

U-Haul International



MY RESPONSE:

The fact is, there is NOTHING exclusionary in their insurance agreement about the damage to that truck they are claiming. I also know the company's regular policies and practices, and they changed them on a dime specifically to target ME. If they matched up my truck with any other vehicle in their fleet rented by multiple users instead of just one, for the same amount of time, mine would be the jewel of the fleet. I've seen the damage other people do to the trucks. I've heard the horror stories of people who don't take the insurance and take off to another state or hole up in a Walmart parking lot towing a camper behind them. I've even had to deal with running the truck they gave me for weeks while it needed an oil change badly. I was more concerned about that truck getting maintenance than they were. One employee even told me not to worry about the oil change light at all and actually gave me instructions on how to reset the computer to shut it off!!!!!  

Half of the dents on the above list of damages (they are claiming all happened in one week), were already taken care of in other prior vehicle damage reports. They were dents caused by other customers in at least two cases,and one that I already paid for in a previous incident. TOTAL BS!