I would appreciate everyone’s assistance in sharing this blog post. I will share to my Facebook wall when completed, and if everyone would click share and pass it on, I would be most thankful. Perhaps SOMEONE affiliated with U-HAUL will have a Google Alert set up for their company name and see this. –Thank You!
THE LONG STORY:
A few years ago, our daughter and her boyfriend were residents of Vancouver, Washington. When a promising new job opportunity presented itself in Las Vegas, our daughter and her boyfriend placed the bulk of their personal belongings in a storage unit operated by U-Haul - located at 2460 NE Andresen Rd in Vancouver, WA – and moved to Nevada.
As will happen from time to time, the happy couple experienced some financial difficulties – and on a few occasions in 2010 we paid their storage bill for them.
On 3/5/11 an unexpected new charge appeared on our bank card from U-Haul Storage in the amount of $677.83. It turns out that not only did U-Haul retain our bank card information from a previous payment we had made, but opted to charge our card without authorization.
I called the storage facility and spoke to a man who knew nothing about the charge, and by all appearances seemed uninterested in discussing the matter with me. I told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to do whatever it took to insure no further unauthorized charges be made on our card, and that our bank card information be purged from the system.
We contested the unauthorized transaction through our bank and attempted to have the charges removed from our account with no success. I wrote to U-Haul’s corporate offices via the main website (through both the Public Relations Link and the online Contact Us Form on this page) to protest the charges, and my correspondence was never acknowledged, let alone replied to.
At this point we decided to let it go. The money was going towards our daughter’s storage unit after all, and she had promised to pay us back. We would be reimbursed in either case. Although it did not sit well with me, it wasn’t the end of the world – but it certainly was harbinger of our next dealings with U-Haul.
Our happy couple eventually parted ways but remained in touch. He moved to Colorado, and she moved back home to our hometown. She started college while working part time as a barrista and all was well for a while.
Our daughter lost her job after being injured (off the job) and asked us again for help with her U-Haul storage bill, which had become delinquent after she had lost her job. Needless to say we did not hold U-Haul in high regard by this time, but agreed to help our daughter. She was concerned about losing her personal property.
On July 20th or 21st I called the U-Haul facility on Andresen Rd in Vancouver, WA and spoke to a woman by the name of Karen. I explained the situation, but did not bring up the previous issue regarding the unauthorized charge. I asked Karen what our daughter owed, including any late fees, to bring her current.
Karen told me that $763.79 would bring the unit current again. I asked Karen how much time we had to get this done. Karen told me the storage unit was, “In lien status, and scheduled to go to aution on 8/2/11.” Karen said a notice had been mailed on 7/12/11, and again that very day, advising of this.
–I know this is a l-o-n-g post. Thanks for hanging in there with me!
At that time I confirmed that our daughter had authorization to come down, pay for the storage, and remove the contents. This was a bit of a gray area, as the storage unit was rented in the boyfriend’s name, and he was now living out of state. Karen told me yes, so I reserved a 17′ U-Haul truck for the following weekend. We made the necessary plans to drive 150 miles, pay off the storage unit, pick up the rental truck, load the contents and bring them back to our house for safekeeping. Our only other option was to allow the storage unit to go to auction. That week I reorganized our basement to make room for all the stuff.
Upon arrival at U-Haul we were initially, “Helped” by a Mr. Brent Pelky, who held the title of Field Relief Manager. When we shared with him our daughter’s situation he told us that no auction date had been set for our daughter’s storage unit! When we attempted to share with him what Karen had told us on the phone, he abruptly and rather forcefully stated, “I SAID A DATE HAS NOT BEEN SET!” He then added, “…of course if you don’t pay it will eventually go to auction, but there has been no auction date set.”
We were dumfounded. At this point Mr. Pelky said he could offer us a 50% settlement on the storage bill to close out the unit. All he needed was the boyfriend’s permission, since the storage unit was in his name. We explained that he was in Colorado, and that this weekend he was in the mountains in an area of no cell phone reception…but that we would try to reach him.
Mr. Pelky then said we had 24 hours to reach him, and to just have him fax a copy of his ID and permission – and gave us their fax number. We explained to him that we had already driven 150 miles to get there, arranged for extra labor (we had brought 2 extra people and our daughter), and that we could not spend the night in Vancouver.
Mr. Pelky then informed us we could pay the whole bill and access the storage unit now, or wait on the boyfriend to fax his permission to accept the 50% settlement offer and get in then. With that Mr. Pelky started to leave. We asked him where he was going, and he said “I’m off for the day.” We told him we would keep trying to reach the boyfreind.
We were next assisted by Ms. Heather Suhama, with the title of Assistant Moving Center GM. Facing at least 4 hours of truck loading and having no intention of staying over in Vancouver (our helpers needed to return home that night), we felt we had no other option at that point but to pay the bill in full so we could gain access to the unit and start packing - hoping that before we finished, we would reach the boyfriend. We gave Heather $430 in cash and a check for $299.80 for the storage unit. We also gave her a bank card for $168 plus $9.95 for the truck rental, bringing the grand total to $907.75.
Then we were told that since Tara did not have a key it would be another $50 to have the lock removed.
We were about at our wit’s end by this point. Ms. Suhama said that’s just the way it was…unless we could convince one of the yard hands to do it for us.
We made arrangements to have the lock removed and began loading the truck. Shortly after this we were quite relieved to hear from the boyfriend who was back in cell phone range. He said he was on his way back from the mountains, and said he could be at a fax machine in 90 minutes - well before U-Haul’s closing time! The boyfriend said he would send whatever was needed, no problem.
We returned to the office and spoke to Ms. Suhama. “Good news!” we said. “The boyfriend is on his way back from the mountains, and can have the papers faxed over well before closing time.” Ms, Suhama said ok (she had been present during our discussions with Mr. Pelky and was familiar with our situation). She said all she needed to do was to call Mr. Pelky and get his permission.
We thought it rather odd for her to need to ask Mr. Pelky for his permission to honor the offer that he himself had made us - but we stood by while she called him.
When she got off the phone she informed us that Mr. Pelky said “You were given a choice: Choice A or Choice B. You took choice A. The offer is no longer available.”
We were stunned.
We finished loading the truck and left for home.
A couple days later I was able to reach a lady by the name of Lori who I believe was in the corporate regional office. I shared the entire story I just made you suffer through. I then said that, ”In light of the unauthorized charge to our bank card, the misrepresentations made as to the storage unit going to auction, and the offer extended us by your Field Relief Manager, I am requesting this offer be honored and that we be reimbursed 50% of the $763.79 storage bill.”
Lori started to say, “If you can get the boyfriend to fax…oh wait, can you hold while I check on something?” I said yes.
About 5 minutes she came back on the line. She said that U-Haul had violated their own policy and should have never released the contents of the storage unit to anyone without the signed permission of the contract holder. And she said there was nothing more she could do for me.
This brings us to an interesting place, doesn’t it? Seems to me U-Haul has openly admitted that they may have put themselves in a position of legal liability in an amount far exceeding the $381.89 I was asking for.
I have no intention of recommending to the boyfriend that he initiate legal action. I do intend however to do whatever I can to insure that U-Haul will lose at least $381.89 in lost rental business and loss of reputation, hence this blog post.
There are plenty of other self-storage facilities out there, and plenty of other truck rental providers - including Budget Truck Rental, Ryder and Penske to name a few.
Please help me spread the word by clicking the “Share Button” which appears beneath this blog post in the “Comments” section. If you’ve read this on Facebook, please share and post to your wall – and encourage your friends to do the same. If nothing else, we can spread the news and I’ll feel satisfied that I took $381.89 in business from U-Haul even if it doesn’t end up in my pocket.
Thanks for your help, and letting me bend your ear :-)
ps: and one final message for U-Haul…if by chance you decide to do the right thing, I too will do the right thing and update this post with the good news. You can reach me through the ESARSEA tab at the top of this blog.
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