Complaint Review: U-Haul (Hamilton Ontario)

 Where to start, well, it began in Brantford, Ontario Canada (Sept 04/10). My friend rented a U-haul to travel to Barrie, Ontario (220 km N.) to go to school. She had rented a U-haul to get her belongings to her new appartment. She enlisted the help of three friends from Brantford with the move. At the place of pick-up, they did not have the truck she had requested available and was stuck taking a much larger vehicle. When we had loaded the truck it was on a 1/4 used.

 We departed Brantford (Sept 05/10 10:15am) in a vehicle that had a busted dash board, burn holes in the seat and slight damage to the bottom right corner of the cargo area (all of which was noted on the contract - I was the one that did the look around not the dealer).

 As we traveled to our destination I had noticed severe play in the brakes. As I got off in Barrie (two blocks from destination) the brake pedal had gone to the floor and stopping was becoming imposible. With no traffic to be seen we made it just fine (12:20pm). On arrival I had checked the brake fluid reservoir, and it was empty.

 You would think that losing your brakes was bad enough, well try dealing with customer service. First call ( 12:30pm), the (800) number given is to a call centre in the U.S. The customer service rep was very polite and seemed to understand our situation. She was going to get ahold of a local mechanic and see if the issue was fixable (during the conversation with the rep. the truck was unloaded0. I had to call her back after an hour (1:40pm) too see what progress was being made. According to her, no progress was being made because she could not get ahold of a mechanic or her manager. She tells me that efforts are being made to assist us.

 Guess what? After yet another hour passes I again have to call them back, only this time a new operator is on.

 Keep in mind that this entire trip was to only take six hours. My friends (2) and myself should have been back in Brantford at 4:30pm.

 Total customer service reps = 4, and although they record each conversation for quality assurance, I can assure you that know one was listening. Small foot notes were on file, that all. Small foot notes to a horrible situation.

 Total hours round trip = 12 hrs. Three guys had to pile up in a buck of a tow truck (legally not supposed to take any passengers, but felt bad for our situation).

 Now (Sept 7/10) I had called Lucia at Hamiton office and she had suggested that we should have taken a cab from Barrie back to Brantford (we looked into that while we were waiting. Cheapest cab was $350.00) and we would have been re-embursed. Now not to sound to judgemental but let's be honest.

 So at the end of the day, my friend that rented the truck is still being charged a grand total of $361.00. I couldnt even bother to ask to be re-embursed the $51.00 dollars in meals we consumed while waiting, or the fact that the larger truck consumed more fuel for the trip because the one that was ordered was not available.

 I must not forget that according to Lucia that any failure of the equipment that strands a customer is not subject to re-embursement.

 I urge all, please be very careful when renting U-haul. Not necessarely the equipment failure but the lack of compasion to the customer.

 I can be reached at (((REDACTED))) if anyone would like to hear about this story in full. And Lucia, I would consider taking classes on how to be a better and more copassionate person.