U-Haul Moving & Storage of University

Part one of my U-​Haul saga.
Made a 1-​way reservation with U-​Haul for a move from Akron to Washington DC. U-​Haul emailed us on Sunday to say to pick up the truck at a used car lot in South Akron on Monday. Of course, since they told us this on Sunday, and said used car lot was closed. Rather than risk showing up and them not having any supplies, we made a bonus trip to this U-​Haul location to pick up some packing materials.
So we pull into the parking lot and laying right there on the ground in the parking lot is a dirty mattress with mysterious red stuff all over it. DEFINITELY not what you want to see at a place where you’re about to rent a moving truck. Which truck or storage unit did that nasty thing just come out of anyway? Chances that the inside was thoroughly and sufficiently cleaned is not good.
Anyway… I’m yet to deal with the used car lot or the drop off location (still TBD). Let’s hope the actual move goes more smoothly than the pre-​move.

Wow, what great customer service!
I want to give this a 4.5. Not a perfect 5 because there were some hiccups, but letmetellyouwhat– the fine folks here at UHaul on Fountain St. did everything they could to accommodate us and overcome *any* inconvenience.
A one-​way trip with UHaul means the customer will interface with two separate UHaul stores and separate managements. So far I can only speak to this Fountain location, because I have yet to return my truck to the Columbus location.
First, the price. We compared prices with Penske on a tip, and found UHaul to be significantly less expensive for the particulars of this move (with pads and dolly, less than $ 250– 3 day rental, 150 miles). However, I get the feeling the rates for these kinds of things depends on when, where, and how… much like airline fares. Obviously UHaul had available trucks for us on these dates.
We made an online reservation for 9:00 am on a Sunday. When we received our confirmation, it said we could pick up the truck at 11:00 am. This seems like a small difference but this significantly narrowed my loading window in relation to when my helpers could help me load. I planned to load the truck on Sunday and Monday, and then unload it on Tuesday. Originally, the truck was due back at 11:00 am on Tuesday, which was going to require some kind of miracle. There’s just some background info for yas.
Guess what happens next?! (Riveting, I know.)
Because of the later pickup time (a detriment to us), Justin over at UHaul gave us an extra day FREE. Now we don’t have to turn it back in until 11:00 am on WEDNESDAY. This makes a gigantic difference and saves us about $ 40. Second bonus: Justin threw in an extra allotment of 25 miles (the 150 miles included would be juuuuussssst enough to get me from Akron to Columbus as long as I didn’t go around an extra block). Wow! 2 hours later than we wanted to pick up, and Justin really cut us a deal. Great customer service.
I am impressed!
Okay, so all this actually happened on a Saturday. We needed to go to the UHaul store to get some more packing boxes and discuss this pickup time for Sunday. So, Justin was great. Now Sunday rolls around and we are ready to pick up the truck. (Are you following me?)
The gal helping us pick up the truck Sunday morning was robotic and extremely bored. Nothing bad happened as a result, but it’s a good thing we didn’t need to deviate from the plan or discuss other options with her. She probably wouldn’t have been as accommodating. Justin, however, left a handwritten note for whoever helped us the next day– so it really paid off that we went a day ahead of time to iron things out. She just followed his authorized directions, and like I said, I don’t think she would have taken the initiative to help us out (maybe she wouldn’t have the authority anyway, I dunno but she just wasn’t very pleasant or friendly to begin with).
Thanks, UHaul!