Alex & Nicole's UHaul Nightmare

They were just trying to move and start what they hoped to be a beautiful new chapter in their lives. 

Alex and Nicole—two hardworking, honest artists—rented a U-Haul truck for what was supposed to be a simple transition from New York to North Carolina. What followed was a catastrophic breakdown in corporate accountability that’s now going viral across TikTok, YouTube, and social media. 

U-Haul was hopelessly slow to respond to their plight after the rental truck was stolen out of a metered parking spot in front of a popular hotel. They are now living out of their Jeep when they should be working on opening the inn they recently purchased in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

Alex and Nicole’s whole life was inside that truck: their furniture, electronics, priceless musical instruments, expensive cameras, and irreplaceable memories. It was all gone—stolen from right under their noses. While the thieves are ultimately responsible for their own callous act of evil, U-Haul rented the couple a defective, insecure truck. It was not even the truck they actually reserved. A UHaul franchise manager gave them what he had on the lot after their originally reserved rental choice went to another customer before they arrived. 

Their replacement truck was much larger and harder to maneuver, park, and secure properly. The truck had a broken lock latch that was rusted and unfit for use. It must have been a breeze for the truck thieves to check out what was inside before they even broke into the truck's cab to steal it. You can see the actual truck and hear about the damage done by the thieves in Alex and Nicole's own words on one of the videos they posted on YouTube about their ordeal:

🔗 Watch it here

Much of this ordeal is also recorded for posterity on Nicole's Facebook page, where posts include her sharing of a news report done by a local network about the truck theft: 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19DTwwF85v/

Corporate Cowardice in Action

Instead of acknowledging responsibility immediately, U-Haul was unresponsive until the founder of this site reached out to them on behalf of Alex and Nicole. Nicole’s email records a full chain of communication attempts met with boilerplate responses (one was even generated by an AI prompt UHaul reps left in the email by accident), silence, and indifference. The local store manager was quick to point fingers and slow to take action. The company’s so-called "Customer Care" department offered vague condolences, not sensible solutions.

The rental giant's franchise staff didn't even inspect the truck before renting it out. They didn't fix the broken lock that made it a thief’s dream. They didn't address the vehicle's faulty blinkers and tail lights. And they actually even kept right on charging the couple long after the theft was reported to police and corporate customer service representatives.

To begin with, the switching out of trucks, trailers, and other equipment is a phenomenon UHaul is specifically known for. While we don't publish all the complaints that come into us as a result of this site, the most common complaints come from people who often get their equipment swapped out irresponsibly. This is primarily thanks to a huge disconnect between corporate booking procedures and local franchise owners preferring to give walk-in, cash-paying customers their preference. The people who planned their moves months beforehand and placed equipment reservations they thought would be honored are often told to go pound sand when trying to pick up what they reserved. Instead, they get whatever is left on the lot, even if it's impossible to accomplish their particular move with that option. Corporate bookings, no matter how far in advance they are placed, are basically meaningless and pointless under these circumstances. 

Nicole and Alex, like so many other UHaul clients, were forced to rent a much bigger vehicle than they were comfortable driving. To make matters worse, in order to appease them to eat the extra costs and take a truck they didn't actually order, UHaul pitched their "Load Share" discount service. This left the couple with the responsibility to tow an additional trailer behind their oversized rental truck, which they would have to take from Philadelphia to Cincinnati. The UHaul staff made this program sound like a great way to earn a discount, but the additional "per-axle" tolls, gas money, and time spent on the delivery detour actually cost them more than they bargained for. The larger truck also meant they could not park the vehicle in a more secure parking garage with security staff and surveillance cameras. The clearance limits made that impossible with the much taller truck. 

The UHaul Load Share program essentially makes the company's customers into temporary independent contractors. Instead of earning a paycheck, these customers earn discounts on their rental equipment for doing the corporation a huge favor that would obviously cost UHaul a lot more to contract out to a professional delivery service or driver. 

Even worse? Alex and Nicole were essentially mocked when they attempted to sort out their dilemma through the insurance company UHaul uses. It doesn't take long to figure out why UHaul's insurance carrier would be slow to handle claims like this, either. Repwest Insurance Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of U-Haul's holding company. 

The couple is still trying to get answers from Repwest, and they have been lambasted with repeated references to an "optional insurance policy" they could have paid for with their rental. They were treated as if buying U-Haul’s SafeMove coverage on top of the extra rental costs they were saddled with would’ve magically fixed a busted latch on a defective truck they should never have been given in the first place.

Social Media Erupts

The raw emotion in Nicole’s viral TikTok and other social media posts have generated a ton of negative attention for the company. Their pain is now public. 

🎥 TikTok – @sunflower_ballet
🎬 Nicole’s full video breakdown

In these videos, you don’t see actors or influencers—you see real people who trusted a billion-dollar company. They were both big fans of UHaul before this fiasco. Now, they're left with nothing for believing the company would stand by them in a crisis. 

This case is one of the worst we have ever encountered since this site went live. You see grief. You see frustration. You see what happens when corporate America treats people like disposable revenue sources instead of human beings.

What They Lost

Nicole and Alex lost their furniture, clothes, kitchen supplies, electronics, artwork, and so many irreplaceable mementos. Nicole's grandfather's Purple Heart medal was even among the items stolen from the truck. They lost an estimated $500,000 worth of items in the incident, not to mention their sense of security and trust.

Now they’re left to rebuild from scratch. Their GoFundMe details just how devastating the theft was:

💔 GoFundMe – Help Alex and Nicole Rebuild After Theft

They’re not asking for luxury—they’re asking for dignity. For a chance to start over after U-Haul left them exposed and empty.

The Bigger Picture: This Isn’t Just About Alex & Nicole

Thousands of customers have similar horror stories. At FuckYouUhaul.com, we’ve heard from people across the country who were stuck with renting inadequate equipment, bogus late fees, false damage claims, and broken promises. This isn’t an isolated incident. It’s a very disturbing pattern. UHaul is well aware of their systemic truck-swapping issues, and the company still hasn't taken adequate steps to fix the recurring problem. 

U-Haul continues to make millions renting out outdated, inadequate equipment while dodging accountability for what happens next. If they cared about their customers, they’d fix their broken fleet and overhaul their joke of a claims process. But they don’t. They’d rather blame the victims.

Joe Shoen Agrees to a Refund, but His Gesture is Too Little and Too Late 

UHaul CEO Joe Shoen finally provided some limited help to the couple after we sent a particularly scathing email to him and his support staff recently. He called Nicole personally and then sent a written apology with an announcement that he would provide a full refund. His entire responsive email is included below: 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Joe Shoen <Joe@uhaul.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: Nicole Marie Polec and Alex Lowry Potential Lawsuit

Nicole,

 

Thank you for speaking with me. Since then, I have also I read your account on Facebook. 

 

I am heartbroken that your possessions were stolen - that is horrible.  U-Haul will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in any way possible to help reunite you with your goods and find those responsible. 

 

You have strong opinions about Load Share.  I apologize, it did not live up to your expectations and left you frustrated.   It is designed as an option to give qualified customers a better break by helping them offset their U-Haul rental costs.  In your case, the original offer was $625 and before your truck was stolen, you mentioned your excess tolls we increased it to $775 after your trailer drop off and before your truck was stolen.  As you know, this amount is for performing the Load Share, not U-Haul's attempt to somehow collude with Wells Fargo against you.  Calling Load Share "fraud" is of course not accurate, nor helpful.  I have your feedback on how we could have improved our communication when describing the Load Share option to you. I agree that it is in everyone's interests for our Load Share customers to have the right expectations and information out of the gate.  I am sure we can improve. I will work to do so.

 

U-Haul had a balance due of extra charges for the damage to the truck and extra days for $3,338.39.  I have waived these charges.

 

Your U-Haul truck rental was $2,175.40.  I have credited this back to your card.

 

I cannot agree that the break-in and theft of your possessions when the truck was stolen is a result of U-Haul's conduct. Regardless, it doesn't change the crushing nature of what happened - your goods were taken in a random evil act and for that I am sorry that this happened to you. A theft of such an extent is devastating.

 

I know you are frustrated, as you should be.  My hope is that the thief is jailed, your goods are found and returned to you.

 

Sincerely, 

Joe

Joe Shoen

U-Haul International

2727 N. Central Ave.

Phoenix, AZ 85004

Cell: 602-390-6525

Office: 602-263-6805

Fax: 602-263-6889

joe@uhaul.com

What You Can Do

• Watch and Share this story on YouTube and TikTok.

• Support the GoFundMe campaign set up by Alex and Nicole: Help Rebuild After Theft

• Tell your U-Haul horror story to us at www.fuckyouhaul.com by emailing rich.bergeron@gmail.com 

• Demand change: Tag @uhaul on every social media profile you have, and call them out for their shortcomings.

• Provide Pro Bono Legal Assistance: If you are a lawyer who is willing to take this case on as a pro bono effort and help Alex and Nicole get some justice, contact Nicole through her Facebook page. 

Let’s make something clear: This isn’t just about a bad rental experience. It’s about lives disrupted, trauma compounded, and a corporation that continually refuses to do what’s right when they drop the ball and treat customers like second class citizens.

We stand with Alex and Nicole.

U-Haul: You owe them more than an empty apology and a rental refund. You owe them justice. You owe your customers a comprehensive revamp of your policies and procedures that result too frequently in irresponsibly swapped rentals and customers being allowed to leave your franchise locations with hopelessly substandard equipment. 

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):
======
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
======

     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!