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Seattle Vault Self Storage (U-Haul Neighborhood Dealer) Gas Gauge Scam. $40 charge for supposedly not filling the tank full enough after a 4 mile drive. Seattle , Washington
I rented a U-Haul truck from Seattle Vault Self Storage and was told that the tank was full, but if the gauge showed that it was below full when I returned it, I would be charged a $30 service charge plus $5 per gallon for gas.
When I returned the truck, the gas gauge clearly showed that the tank was full. However, because I had been scammed by U-Haul before, I took a picture of the dashboard with my camera phone.
The next day when I received the receipt, it showed that they charged me $40 extra ($30 service charge and $10 gas charge) because they claimed that the tank was a tick below full. My total travel was only 4 miles, and the gas station is only about mile away from the U-haul drop off location.
According to U-Haul's own website, the truck that I rented gets 12 miles to the gallon. Even if I had not put any gas in the truck at all, for me to have used 2 gallons of gas for a 4 mile trip would have required me to have been hauling 6x the truck's weight, and I would have had to be hauling that weight for the entire duration of the trip.
When I called them and asked why I was charged $40 extra, the man told me that when he looked at the gas gauge it "looked like it was a tick below full." However when you look at the photo, it isn't even ambiguous. The tank is clearly completely full.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Rich
Anytown,Delaware,
United States of America
Idle time?
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, February 13, 2013
You may have only driven 4 miles, but how long did you leave the truck idling? If it was a hot day, running the air conditioning and leaving the truck running is not an uncommon practice. By the way, the truck uses gasoline while it's engine is running, regardless whether it is in motion or standing still.