U-Haul Moving & Storage at University Ave

Terribly slow. We arrive here at 12:00pm just to return the car. The stuff asks us to wait and didn’t appear again until an hour later. Terrible service.

I reserved and rented a one-​way covered trailer from U-​Haul in Champaign-​Urbana, IL on University Ave on May 15^th.
This reservation was made weeks in advance in anticipation of an out of state move that required extensive planning. (also, this weekend was graduation of a major state university located in town) I recieved a call from the location the day prior confirming my pick up time and rental. On the day of pick up — the computer system was «down». The employees inside ultimately told us they were not able to assign a one-​way trailer without access and that they were unable to help me. No other locations nearby were open or had available trailers in any size. As advised, I contacted the general manager, Andre Hubbard, who was out of the area.
Mr. Hubbard was rude, inconsiderate, and unhelpful. He made no effort to reach a resolution. During our call — he never asked for my name, the details of my reservation, or the reservation number I had available. He made degrading and insulting remarks in my ability to understand the situation. Even after I asked specifically, he did not offer to contact anyone else in the regional area for assistance.
With no help or direction from Andre, I contacted the number written on the vehicle in the parking lot: 1 800 — go — Uhaul. A woman in transportation, Tammy, was immediately able to assist me and provide me a trailer assignment.
I spent more than 3 hours waiting and delayed during my rental pick up due to the poor management and operations of this establishment. Many other customers were affected on this same day. If it was not for my own perseverance, I would have not received a trailer or continued with my plans to move.
The employees at the establishment were eager and willing to help. With some direction and resources provided from management, the location would immensely improve. It is clearly that Uhaul as a company provides great opportunity for customer care and that Andre choose not to demonstrate it.
—- I contacted UHAUL Customer Service with no response or resolution

Have rented an open trailer here on occasion to move things within town. It’s fine but such a hassle for a $ 19 rental. It ends up costing me around 40 minutes. They ask so many questions for the rental and it’s just a cheap trailer. I can rent a $ 20,000 new car with much less hassle.
Recently a friend of mine reserved a truck from this location and when she showed up for pickup, she was told she had to go get it from a location several miles away. When she argued that she had a reservation their response was «yes, we keep the reservation here, but not the vehicle — you have to go somewhere else to get the truck». Seriously??? So now our time is wasted and we have to pay for the extra mileage to go to a more distant location.
The only reason I gave them 2 starts is because there really isn’t a better trailer option that I’ve aware of.

If it is possible, I will give this place zero star and zero business.
Horrible staff, incredibly slow service, always trying to con money out of you for dints you would have never noticed when you picked up the truck.
Avoid this place at all cost, I mean, seriously, just borrow a pickup truck from a random stranger might still be better than going here.
They have such a bad attitude because they know U of I students have to move a lot and they are the closest option.
Let’s make a change and show them the consequences of treating students like crap.

I’m doing this review as I wait on hold on the phone with this UHAUL location for 34 minutes, and counting. This is unacceptable. Every time I go here to rent a truck for my business, there’s only one employee doing everything, from looking up the reservation, to inspecting the vehicle, to checking the customer out. The employee leaves out to go inspect the vehicle, when there are 5 customers waiting behind in line. This place needs at least two more employees, and better customer service. They are also sometimes unreliable, as they say they have vehicles, but don’t, and sometimes don’t call to notify us. I know they can’t control if someone brings their vehicle back on time, but please, at least give us a call to let us know if we’re S.O.L. If there was another nearby location that had better service and fleet availability, I would never visit this place again.

this location is weird. their customer service is terrible. the manager speaks in a condensing tone, pointing with finger while talking, he has no clue how to deal with people. The truck I had was in a bad shape I had to replace it with a truck from a different location.

I am a regular renter at the U-​Haul on University Avenue. In fact, I usually rent anywhere from 2 – 5 times per year. I’ve rented both trucks and trailers from this location and have never had a bad experience. In fact, things have always been above and beyond great.
I would recommend other users make use of the option to perform an online check in the day you are to rent. That will allow you to make sure everything is in order before you go to get your rental.
When I got a new vehicle, they were also great about helping me get set up to tow again. I really didn’t know the first thing about what I needed to buy. They make it easy and explained everything.

The staff at this location really went above and beyond to help me with my unique issue.
My truck was already fitted with a hitch but no wiring. Although Rebecca was very busy installing a hitch from scratch she took the time to squeeze me in after she was done. Initially she wasn’t going to be able to see me until Friday because of how busy she was, but she went out of her way to help me because of my Thursday move out date.
My truck had been sealed up near the tail light due to previous water damage we weren’t aware of when buying the truck more than 10 years ago. Because of that it made the job a lot more challenging, but Rebecca was still determined to get it done for me. I can’t say enough good things about her.
Cheryl also took the time to help with the wiring process as well and applied some anti corrosion spray to the underside of my truck.
As far as customer service the three people I talked to were friendly, conversational, and patient with customers.
At one point a group of young ladies came in causing a scene due to their own misunderstanding of the agreement they signed for milage and dolly use. They then had an issue with their card having insufficient funds, so needless to say it went from bad to worse quickly.
After Cheryl politely dealt with their verbal abuse they left only to come back later for round 2. Both Cheryl and Rebecca were able to calm them down and although I was finished before the situation was completely resolved, I was quite impressed.
The only thing I would suggest is for management to make sure that at least two people can work the desk at any given time, in a college town there’s going to be a lot of customers and one person can only do so much.

Today we received a call from the DM of the Uhaul location letting us know that they would not have any trucks in the state of Illinois. The only way we would be getting a truck is to drive to get it in Lafayette, IN. I said that was unacceptable as we have had the reservation for over a week and have a week before the reservation was to happen. Then she said we don’t require our locations to go pick up the vehicles for you and we aren’t going to pay for your rental… What does she mean pay for my rental when we are paying over $ 300 to rent the truck in the first place. Then they want us to travel 3 hours and pay for the gas to get the vehicle prior to us even starting our move? Poor customer service. I would not recommend the company and as a company would not employ people with such poor customer service and communication skills. We then called Budget, they confirmed they would have a truck or go pick up one for us, and what a difference in experience. Uhaul needs to learn from its competitors, though this is the first bad experience with the company as we have had great service in other areas prior. Again I think it is the management from DM, to store manager, to employee who answered the phone.

I rented a truck in July for a one-​way move. I was supposed to pick the truck up around 10 AM, but it wasn’t available until well after 2 PM. When I showed up at 10:00, there was a long line of customers and only one employee who could work the computer. Since my truck wasn’t there, the employee said I should call over in a few hours to check on the status. When I called the number he gave me, I was routed to a central call center and my call was answered by a disgruntled troll. So I decided to make a second personal appearance. This time, I got into line behind the guy who was returning my truck 4 or 5 hours late. The employee behind the computer from the morning appeared to be the only staff member at the location — literally. He dealt with the previous guy, cleaned out the truck, then processed the paperwork for me. That employee was extremely nice, but it was ridiculous that he was left there by himself. The process took about an hour.
Also, the boxes that I bought there fell apart. Buy your boxes from Two Men and a Truck — they’re more expensive, but they stay together.

Quick Summary
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Had a reservation for a truck at 12:45 PM on ⁸⁄₁₀. Came to the store at 12:30, got my truck at 2:15. No that’s not a typo. On the flip side, all the trucks seem to be well-​maintained. That’s the only flip side. Every other aspect of this experience was hell.
Review
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U-​Haul on University, words cannot express how much U-​Suck. *canned laughter*
Okay, but seriously, the U-​Haul located on University Ave is a perfect example of why competition is necessary for the sake of the consumer. I’ve used U-​Haul to move before on two occasions. They were all poor experiences, but today was the most miserable of the three.
You figure for peak moving season in a large campus town that U-​Haul should be staffing themselves heavily to meet the large amount of people with reservations. Nope. The moment I stepped in my heart sank at the fact that the store was being staffed by the GM alone.
It’s okay, calm down. There’s only five people in front of you. Fine, since I’ve got some time to kill, let’s look around. Gray. Lifeless. The interior looked so depressing. The face of the GM was equally lifeless and depressing.
Now I’m not asking for fun neon colors and sparkling ribbons to adorn the place. Gray is fine. I love gray… just not dusty gray. Not more-​dilapidated-​than-​Sears gray. Not it’s-sucking-the-life-out-of-you gray.
That aside, the service was beyond slow. I knew from the past two experiences that I should get in early. I came in 15 minutes early for my reservation, expecting to get out within 45 minutes. No, friends. It didn’t take 45 minutes to get my truck. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to get my truck. Also remember that there were only five customers in front of me when I came in!
The GM was serving people at the speed of snail. It took over 30 minutes to help out this one customer, only to send him back to the end of the line. Upon inquiring as to why, he was told that this was a new request /​transaction so he had to get back in queue. Legends say that he is still waiting in line at the store today. #suckstosuck #3spooky5me
After an eternity and a half, it finally came my turn in line to get helped. The GM never greeted me. Never looked at me. Never thanked me. Didn’t even apologize for the excruciatingly long wait. Worst customer service ever. I finished my paperwork and was told to wait outside for him.
I finally walked out of that hell hole and got some fresh air. 2 minutes. Oh, he’s taking a little long to come out, I’m sure he’ll come out soon. 5 minutes. Maybe he’s having trouble finding the key to my truck? 10 minutes. Okay now I’m getting mad. Where is he?
I walk back into the store to see him exactly where I left him. At the desk helping another customer. What about my truck bro??? I couldn’t believe it. I waved at him to remind him I still needed my truck but he refused to acknowledge me. I waited another 5 minutes outside before he came out, pointed to the first truck in line, and said, «That’s your truck. Keys are already inside.»
As if he couldn’t have told me that from the beginning? Agh, writing this review is making me relive this horrible experience but I think you should have gotten the point by now. This place scores awful out of 10.

Terrible.

I ordered a 17′ truck with no extras for my move. As anyone who has used U-​Haul in the past knows, they often throw things like dollies and protective mats on the back of the truck which can be used for an extra fee. Well, apparently this truck had a dolly on the back without a protective green seal to signify that it had not been used. When I returned the truck later in the day, the attendant refused to believe the mistake could have possibly been on their end and charged me an extra fee for the use of the dolly, which I did not use.
My advice to future customers: always check the back of the truck before leaving the parking lot to avoid pointless fees.

Recently moved from Champaign to Wyoming. The folks at this place were really helpful and I appreciate it. Got some good supplies and some great help at getting a U Box loaded up. (Now if only the folks at another U haul locale could learn from them, but that will be another review.)
Anyway, thanks!

I called to make a reservation for a truck. I was told that I had a 4-​hour reservation for a $ 20 truck. When I got to the pick up location a few minutes later, I was told that they didn’t have any and my only option was to get a more expensive one. This is absolutely OBSURD customer service. You cannot guarantee a customer something and then force them to upgrade out of their own pocket. I will never rent from Uhaul again and I will not recommend this to anyone.

Stopped by to return a trailer that we hauled from Seattle, WA — there was about a 15 min wait while other customers are serviced by the 2 available employees. We had misplaced our paperwork in the hectic hustle of moving, but the employee was gracious enough to look up our information on the computer.
The only thing I would ding on is the professionalism of the employees — it was wretched hot, & one of the employees questioned if the co-​worker was wearing deodorant; this was in front of a handful of customers. But then again, I come here for the equipment, not for the mind-​blowing service.
All in all, I have no qualms about returning for equipment rentals. Easily accessible location, spacious lot, & honestly, there’s no other competition in town. Also, they tend to be slammed Fri-​Sun, so be prepared to wait.

So Unilocal pulled my First To Review review of this business and sent me an email explaining they did so «because it lacks a substantive firsthand experience.»
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This disastrafuck of an excuse for what on a charitable day I would consider a missed abortion opportunity of a so-​called business would cause weaker souls to commit hara-​kiri before reaching the front of the line.
NEVER DO BUSINESS HERE.
NEVER.
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Allow me to elaborate.
We spent 90 minutes here waiting to make a 4-​minute transaction. We rented a truck online and had our confirmation email and receipt with us. There were 14 customers queued up when we arrived and only one gentlemen working the desk. He had three computers going with a customer at each and was walking back and forth between them doing a little bit at each before moving on to the next. Like reading the first three sentences of every article in the New York Times and returning to Page 1 to begin reading sentences 4 – 6. Not helpful.
Another gentlemen was working that evening, but apparently did not know how to use the computers, as he just stood by and watched the first guy inch closer and closer to a stress-​induced heart attack — which may have proved more humane than the alternative.
Needless to say, this business ranks among the most poorly run in town. Good news for them is their survival seems secured by a lack of competition.