U-Haul International review: refuel policy unfair to the consumer 18

The manager of this particular store or his billing associate used my debit card unknown by me to make a payment on my monthly rental of a storage unit. The same payment that I had made several days before. I always paid them by check as I did not want to use my debit card at this place. I guess the day I was moving I was in a hurry to get the thing rented and used the debit card. This created an overdraft in a bank acctount that affected 3 other payments I had made and of course fees from the bank and the merchants involved. I did file a police report with the sheriff's office in sandford. It took over 6 mos. To get all the fees straighted out and refunded to my account and to complete an investigation by wachovia bank. I was never told if anything came of the charges I guess that is their sop of doing business.

The EXACT same thing happened to me last week!

I rented a one-way U-haul 14 foot truck to go about 35 miles. At the pick up counter (before entering the vehicle) the woman at the counter told me the tank was half full of gas. The contract printed with the gas gauge line at half and I signed it.

I went outside and got in the truck AFTER signing the contract (in the future - ALWAYS ask to check the truck gauge before signing). I saw that the gauge line was a hair or so below the half way line. Close enough, I thought. WRONG!

I moved my things in just a few hours then stopped off to put gas back in the truck to exactly replace what I had used and went to return the truck at my destination's drop off location a few miles away. The guy at the U-Haul place went out to inspect it and handed me the key with a crappy attitude and told me to put gas in it. I told him that I re-filled it to the exact point I received it... and he said the contract says half so I need to fill it to that. My fiance (an ex-linebacker) who accompanied me to the drop-off location was at the beginning stages of bubbling over and so to avoid a further complicated scene, I opted to just go and fill it the teeny amount to get it to be a half tank ... it should only be a couple bucks, right? WRONG again!

I went to the gas station to add more gas to get it to the half way line. Can anyone answer me how it cost 12 bucks to get it from nearly Empty to a hair below the half-full line (the amount of fuel that was in it when I got it) and then another 25 bucks to get it to move a few microns to a "true" half tank? I know fuel gauges can be touchy - but this seemed like another scam! If I am ever in this situation again... I will make sure I inspect the vehicle before signing ANYTHING ... lesson learned!

And I should have let my fiance tear the guy's arms off - LOL!

I picked my truck up with 1/4 tank. when we tried to fill it the did'nt seem to move. We turned the truck on but it didn't jump up until the third time then went from below a 1/4 tank to 1/2 a tank. I guess uhaul is in the busines to rip off consumers. I complaind when I returned the truck. The response was oh well to bad that's the policy.
All I can say is take your money elsewhere.

Not so sunny in Florida.

I know what I am about to mention below may be confusing (fractions are hard stuff) but bare with me!

What happened to me was REALLY weird! I was given a u-haul truck with 7/8 tank of gas. Moving from the u-haul location to my home destination my fuel gauge went down to the 3/4(or 6/8) mark. I figured since the distance from the uhaul location to my location used about 1/8 of gas, I decided to refuel the truck to full at my home location before driving back to uhaul to return the truck. The problem starts here...

I gave the gas station cashier $20 thinking I would receive change from fueling 3/4 of tank to full. To my surprise, the truck ate the full $20 and probably would have continued to eat more fuel had I used my credit card to fuel it to full. I would also like to mention there was NO spillage.

Now here is the weird part (aside from the truck eating the full $20 for 1/4th tank of gas). The fuel gauge displayed FULL. Okay, so I figured maybe it really did take exactly $20 to fuel it to full. So from my home location I drove the truck back to uhaul (w/ AC on to the max). But wait, what's this? The fuel gauge WOULD NOT BUDGE. It was STILL full. Whereas before, the exact same route resulted in my fuel tank going from 7/8 to 6/8 (effectively using 1/8 tank of gas). The fuel gauge on my return trip back to uhaul stayed full! Am I missing something here?

I could just be paranoid but the facts are as above. Am I just misunderstanding how fuel gauges work? Or is it okay for me to believe that the tank inside the uhaul truck is actually bigger than what fuel gauge is displaying? I am pretty sure the fuel pump would've kept pumping in gas had I not paid in cash (which was limited to $20). Do you think its possible that the location would extract the gas out to profit?

I had to do an after hours drop-off with the key turned in to the box. What boggles me was that the receipt was sent to my e-mail address, and sure enough, displayed the fuel gauge as a FULL tank (so it was NOT a temporary error!)

I am also positive that it took 1/8 of gas from the uhaul location to my home location.

The whole thing is bogus. Not to mention their $30 service charge policy + gas price per gallon when returned with less than the gauge listed. Rental car companies such as Enterprise has an option where you return it and have them refuel @ standard gas prices, why can't uhaul?

I had a similar experience today. We picked up a U-Haul truck and it was at the "Full" line. We drove 26 miles and went to refill before we went back to U-Haul. I started fueling then went to wash the from window (I didn't want to get hit with their cleaning fee), when I was done I went back to the fueling pump and saw it stopped at 10.713 gallons! When I started the truck the fuel gauge was well beyond the Full mark. I complained to the manager of the store that the fuel gauge was broken, and he stated that all the U-Haul trucks have overflow room, and that I should have put in a gallon at a time until it reached the "Full" line. This "overflow" thing was not disclosed when I rented the vehicle, and no one told me that the truck fuel tank could be filled 10 gallons over the Full line. Since this is well known will all U-Haul employees, I asked why this wasn't disclosed when we picked-up the truck, and the manager said they only had to disclose what is in the contract, and since the overflow room is not in the contract they don't have to disclose it to us. I then asked if I could get a credit, discount, or they could wave the dolly charge since I put in WAY more gas than I should have, and the manager said he couldn't do anything like that, he doesn't have that authority and that U-Haul doesn't allow for discounts.

i can even tell you how stupid all of you are. if you would take the time to read your contracts and the folder they come in then you would know how dumb all this sounds. bottom line. . . if you dont agree with the policies then dont sign the dam contract.

987654,

It is odd you would call someone 'stupid' by 'not taking the time to read a contract'. None of the aforementioned issues have to do with reading the contract; rather, the issues above regard Uhaul practicing deceptive business practices. It is only a matter of time before Uhual is penalized...as more and more of these types of stories are continuing to develop.

I have a similar stoty to the individuals above, except mine was even worse. Indeed, I read the contract thoroughly. Yet, they did not fill their end of the obligation. Uhaul had a picture of the gas tank on my contract. I filled the gas past where the picture required. Yet, the day after I returned the truck I was still dinged for a gas fee and the $30 charge. How could this be?

Apparently, the gas gauge on my truck read from right to left, rather than like every other vehicle that reads left to right. Considering I only had the truck for 1.5 hours, I didn't notice the gauge. Thus, when I went to put $15 in the truck to cover the few miles I rode, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I didn't put enough gas in the Uhauls truck. Of course, I was wrong. Because I didn't know the gauge read backwards, I put in 1/8 gallon less than what was required to meet the gas amount. That cost me $43.50 for 1/8 gallon of gas. Doing that math, it would cost almost $1000 to fill up a Uhual truck tank.

After I was informed the gas gauge read backwards, I offered to pay for the difference in gas so long as they would wave the fee. I talked to several representatives and I got NOWHERE! I have never been treated more disresprectfully and more fraudently than I was by Uhaul. There conduct made it very clear that they have a corporate practice of fraudulently dealing with consumers. I am shocked they have not been subject to a class action law suit.

Your "bottom line" argument is "stupid". The Uhaul contract is a 'contract of adhesion' so the consumer has no negotiating ability. However, when dealing with a merchant it is reasonable for the consumer to believe that a seemingly reputable company like Uhaul will work with the consumer when the contract is confusing. This is one instance where they messed up on the contract, NOT ME!

Although each story is different, the victims above are not subject to being 'stupid' for not reading the contract, they are 'stupid' for dealing with a merchant who obviously does not give a [censor] about their customers.

987654 you need to grow up.

Sending your customers out with less than a full tank and expecting them to refill to the same level just makes things more difficult for the customer. It is a poor policy on Uhaul's part. Having gas guages that work so slowly that you can drive 5 miles before the thing fully registers and you realize you over filled is the scam.

let me remind everyone complaining about the gas policy. on the contract it is cleary listed how much gas the truck has and how many gallons the tank holds. simple math anyone who graduated 8th grade should be able to do this. the uhaul 14ft one-way truck has a 40 gallon tank. if its on a quarter that means you've got 10 gallons left. add ten to get it to a half a gallon. it also says on the contract @muddyrunnergirl that you are to verify the gas is at the listed level. if its not you are to let the customer service rep that helped you fix it. dont be ignorant and try to right it off as a scam. if you were intelligent enough you would read a VALID LEGALLY BINDNING contract BEFORE signing it. how do i know all of this because i am the assisstant manager at the location on 65th st in little rock, arkansas. come see me sometime. ask me some questions.

oh by the way to Mr.Uhaulbad. you my friend are an educated [censor] you have a large vocabulary but no common sense. i know the exact model truck you are speaking of. there is an open circle on one side(empty) a half filled circle(half a tank) and a solid white circle(FULL)

you my friend are one of the ignorant [censor]s i have to deal with on a daily basis. you do realize (since you read the re-fueling policy throughly) that there is a 30$ refueling fee plus the local gas rate. its what us business people call incentive. if you dont fill it back up thats less gas the next customer has before they need to refuel. dont be an [censor] put the gas back use those math skills

The worst ever Customer Service and on top of that from the GM of that store I am soo pissed about the rental..the gas mileage ...and overall service ...If anyone out there knows who I need to complain to about Uhaul and get results please let me know by email dcooper667@gmail .com

Could you elaborate on what made you so upset?

the owner is a thug rapper wantabee . he has a bad attitude and is rude to customers, he looks like a idiot with lots of gold chains, braclets and one big medallion around his neck. he makes you feel like he does not want your buisness and says he has no time to refill propane tanks. do not shop here...

What's with the bad attitudes and the "I'm ranting because I've been dealt an unfair blow" bit? How about a comparrison. Do I go to Walmart because their customer service is stellar and their store policies are weighted heavily on "the customer, even the ignorant and unruly ones, is always right"? No. I go there because it's cheap. You buy a cheap poorly made piece of garbage that's made in China or some other cheaply made place of origen, and with the money you saved, you buy some more cheap stuff. No offense to Walmart, but you get what you pay for. I think the $30 charge is worth the discounted rates over the other guys. People blow 30 bucks buying garbage all the time. What's the difference? It's not about being unfair or ignorant or having poor business practices or lousy customer service. It's about the feeling that you've been wronged somehow. It's the principle of the thing. The credit here goes to the folks who just want to be acknowledged that a misjudge-ment occured. But, I'll be as honest as my Walmart comparrison. You get what you paid for. The business practice undoubtedly is exactly what was stated before, incentivation. If I were to make a suggestion to U-haul, it would be to increase their rates, buy and refuel their own trucks, and keep it easy on the math. Let them charge for exactly the gas used. How hard is it to top it off anyways? That being said, they probably won't and I'll just front the 30 bucks.

I am planning to rent a van from U-Haul and I realize that they are asking me to pay the amount for the rental + .56 cent per mile on full. How is that they are charging per mile the initial rental, but also demanding their costumers to full up the tank? That proves that U-Haul is scamming people. No one should be charge per full that we are paying for before returning their rentals. if that is the case than every costumer is over paying for full cause when we go to the gas station the gas prices we pay is the same as the station has at that moment, the prices doesn't drop to equal the .56 cent per miles.

Exactly. They have found a way to steal money legally from their customers.

Their customer service record is one of the worst of any company in America.

They misread the gauge at pickup and screwed me out of $25 for 4 gallons of gas.

I had put in 4.6 gallons minutes before at a station less than a mile away.

4+4.6= 8.6 gallons. I traveled 45 miles.

That calculates out to 5 mpg. Their websites all state a 15' truck gets 10 mpg.

Absolutely no chance they were correct.

They misread the gauge at pickup. Is this going on in all of their 21,000 plus locations? If so, they are ripping off mega millions from their customers each year. Wonder their not in a huge class action lawsuit. That may be next on the agenda.