U-Haul Moving & Storage of Portage Park

I rent a 5×9 trailer with motorcycle chick at least 3 – 4 times per year and this is easily the best U-​Haul location in the Midwest. Between Alex at the counter and the gentleman in the lot that takes returning equipment, the shop functions like magic. Professional, polite and extremely efficient.

The worst! Initial pickup went fine. 2 miles later went to our pickup destination, while loading up noticed a little leak under the engine. Ended up being a radiator leak. Call uhaul and they say call roadside assistance or drive it to a location. We drive it to a location and they say we can wait for roadside assistance or they can put some more coolant in the truck and hope it makes it… I suggest giving us a smaller truck. They agreed, but we ended up having to move everything from one truck into a smaller truck. Later we call uhaul to get credited for switching to a smaller truck and they give us a little credit for the fiasco. Not that bad right? A week later uhaul calls asking for my insurance because I must have caused the coolant leak. Wow. Not gonna happen.

I can say with no hyperbole that I have never had such an infuriating experience with a company. From the get-​go, my reservations, finances, and complaints have been mishandled with zero accountability and staggering incompetence. U-​Haul got my U-​Box shipping dates wrong not once but twice, starting to drive my box from Illinois to California months before I had even decided to move there (on two occasions). (I had requested a quote for the move but only ever signed up for monthly storage of my U-​Box in Chicago).
They have snuck in charges for things that I was never notified about and certainly never agreed to (e.g. trailer fees) and charged my credit card for more than the amount confirmed in my receipt and reservation — perhaps just hoping that I wouldn’t review my credit card statements and notice? Getting these false charges removed has been a total nightmare. Both the San Francisco and Chicago offices keep telling me to talk to the other, and corporate refuses to intervene. I have spent hours being passed from location to location and department to department, often with employees «accidentally» dropping the call. I still haven’t been able to get anyone to issue a refund. They provide no documentation or receipts, but somehow manage to charge you without any sort of signature because they hold your credit card information on file and bill you for whatever charges they cook up in their imagination.
I can’t decide whether this operation is just a bungling disaster or a scam. You may find that their quoted rates are cheaper than competitors and be tempted, but when all is said and done, nothing could justify getting into bed with this sh*tshow of a company.

1. I got clean, almost new truck. Not the fan of Ford but it was for two days only.
2. I was charged exactly for the miles and rental.
3. Nice, prompt service.
Nothing to complain about.

Never try before
So we try it now
Good customer service
Easy rent
Thanks
We rent a truck for 3 hours for les than $ 50

Stay away !!! A bunch of incompetents that send you from one to the other till they suggest calling 1 – 800.
Not keeping your appointments especially when called the day before and confirmed its not the right way to do business.
Feels like all the employees are there for less than a month …

I would give 0 stars but I can’t.
This store has charged my account for the last 2 months and I have been trying to talk with the Store Manager for a month. Talked once and he never got back with me. Emailed U-​Haul several times and no luck. Check your credit card statements and make sure they are not charging you after you finish using their services. Worst customer service then anyone I have ever dealt with. SORRY

Had an excellent experience at this U-​Haul. Bob was very helpful in explaining the process to a first-​time renter. The process was relatively painless and their rates are more affordable than other companies. Thanks U-​Haul and Bob for being so great and helpful.

Horrible experience and just wrote a nasty survey response to their email. I rented a truck to move from Avondale to the Loop and learned from my mistake. Don’t do this on a Friday afternoon! It was a parking lot of traffic getting to my new place. Since I knew that might be an issue, I asked the lady that was processing the contract what happens if I return the truck outside my 5 hour window. She said it was fine so long as the truck was returned before the next morning. So that’s what I went on but when I was ready to return the truck to their location that night I saw I had voicemail. It was their branch leaving me a threatening voicemail that they needed their truck back and I’d be charged double if it wasn’t there for the next renter by 7 am. We’re not talking about a courtesy call here either. This was an actual «or else» threat this guy left me with nasty tone and all. The truck was returned that night with the keys tossed in the night drop so that wasn’t an issue. But to receive threats is beyond unacceptable as far as customer service is concerned. That leads to the other issue.
The end mileage was correct but the starting mileage was not. The contract reflected four miles less on the odometer than what the truck actually had. The girl wrote down the correct mileage when we did a walk around to spot any damage. But she DID NOT adjust the contract as was promised. Instead, I get an emailed receipt charging me more mileage fees than they were NOT entitled to receive. Talk about padding profits!!! Forget that they got more gas than what I started with just to be on the safe side when it was returned. Of course they will not credit you for this but they’ll move mountains to charge you if you dare not put gas back in to that dash they recorded. So I called the branch and they routed me to I assume corporate customer service. That guy couldn’t help me because of what the contract stated but I told in my damage waiver specifically noted the correct mileage that she wrote down. So he paged the branch to follow up with me regarding correcting the bill. I have still not received any phone calls from them two days later.
I’m done. Suffice it to say I was lied to and threatened by this branch. Not only will I never go to this branch, I will never use Uhaul period over this experience. I’m so ticked off I’m ready to call my credit card to dispute the entire transaction for breach of contract. Learned from my mistake — USE BUDGET OR ENTERPRISE INSTEAD!
*****
November update to this — the corporation still did nothing. The Branch did nothing. They don’t care about customers and they got their 4 miles. Hope it compensated you enough since you are eternally boycotted by myself. Per Facebook responses to my post about this, a lot of my friends apparently had the same issues. AGAIN use anyone else but Uhaul if you want to be treated like a person and not flat out robbed.
Want to hear how karma worked on this? My friend that used your location one month later is the one that had the accident. I’m extremely thrilled you didn’t make any money on that truck while you had it under repair. You definitely deserved that!

Clean friendly prompt and complete selection of all the things one needs to move. Particular thanks to owner Bob Hasty who kindly provided a jump start to a friend’s car after I’d dropped off the rental truck. Highly recommended.

Was quoted one price one day for a shipping pod to California from Illinois. They said this price would be in place for a week and my phone number could be used as a reference. When I called to finalize my pod using my reference number suddenly the price went up by double (from 1300 to 2500). Horrible experience with pods. Ended up going with door to door, who provided better door to door service by less than half of my second price quote.

Dropped my UHaul off here. I had scheduled to pick up and drop off at a specific location but after a full day of moving trying to look up this information felt impossible. So I called the location that I thought I needed to drop the UHaul off at and they told me I could take the truck to the closest location. They directed me to this location even though I had scheduled to drop it off at another.
I arrived and explained this to the staff and they were somewhat put off. Even though, they were still friendly and were able to help me. For a moment I thought I was going to have to take the truck to the other location but they let me drop it off here. They were understanding even after they just had to deal with a somewhat unruly customer. They did misinform me that I would be refunded $ 100 for my move but the actual charge of $ 140 was correct as my move was a pick up and drop off at a different location. Had I dropped off and picked up at the same location it would have only cost me around $ 30. That’s discouraging but you live and learn.

My big love for this particular U-​Haul began when I had to start packing to move and realized that they had all sizes of reasonably priced sturdy cardboard boxes and that they were right nearby. Because you can never seem to have enough boxes when you move, especially if you haven’t moved in a long time and have accumulated ridiculous amounts of stuff. I didn’t rent a truck or a van from them, but I appreciated it whenever the guy at the service desk would let me go ahead of people trying to make weird reservations for vehicles using expired driver’s licenses or to destination cities that didn’t exist. They also have a lot of other interesting mover’s helper type supplies, and they’ll buy back any boxes you don’t use as long as they’re still unassembled and you keep the original receipt.

If I could give them negative 5 stars, I would. Save your time and money and stay away from this place. They employees are incompetent and when you try to call customer service, they all seem clueless and just transfer you without notification if they don’t understand what they are doing.
I made a reservation online for a van. I picked it up, they charged me the estimated amount and said they would charge the difference if there was an overage with the estimated miles or if I didn’t return the gas tank full.
Anyways, I picked it up at 5 and returned it at 9:30 which was after hours. I video recorded the condition of the van upon return just because you never know what can happen in those places overnight and I do not want to be liable for damages I did not cause.
I received my receipt the next day and I was charge double the amount that I was quoted. I immediately called cs and this is where the nightmare began. The rep couldn’t figure out what the charges were. She took all my info and said someone would call me before 5pm. This happened on a Friday. I did not get a call back so I called them back around 7:30. I had to explain the situation all over again to a different rep and all she did was put me on hold and transfer me to someone else. So this was already the 2^nd person I was dealing with. I kind of went of on the 3^rd rep but he was understanding (or pretended to be) and he filed a «report» or claim or whatever they do in those instances. He told me it would take 48 – 72 hours for someone from the facility to call me back. Really? They did not hesitate to take my money so why would I have to wait for a refund. There was nothing else I could so but to write down his name and report number.
Saturday I was busy and I saw that I had a missed call and a voicemail from some guy named Antown. I immediately called back all to get a lady that said he was busy and would call me right back. She took my information as well. No call back. I called Sunday and they said he wasn’t there and the person that could help me wouldn’t be in until Monday. So here comes Monday and no call back and no money back on my card.
I called corporate which is just the same line to cs and the lady told me the manager from that facility would call me right away. She noticed that they charged me for 2 days instead of 1 but I don’t know how the other reps couldn’t figure that out since the beginning. An hour later I get an alert from my bank that they debit another $ 55! Are the freaking kidding me??? I called cs again and all the lady told me is they refunded me the initial amount and simply charged me for what I originally was supposed to pay. So common sense would have been to just refund the difference from the actual charge to what they charged me. But since they could care less about their customers, they took it upon themselves to do what they wanted to do. I never got a call from the manager.
I am so done with this company. I will stay away from them and will make sure to let everyone about my horrible experience. I understand mistakes happen, but when you have to go thru 4 – 7 people just to get 1 problem fixed, it becomes a waste of time and a nightmare. I’m done with them.
Just so you all of you know, they only had 1 person at the counter. So if you make a reservation be prepared to wait because the company is cheap and they don’t like to hire workers to meet the demand. From now on I rather pay more for a rental and give it to a local company who cares about customer service and doing things right.

its the least expencive way to go my mom used them every time not this one of course she has only use this one once in 2010 but the staff was great then and am sure they are very helpful now.

Flat out disrespectful to customers. Reservations made to pick up a truck from that location, only to have it moved to a location over an hour away without approval or notice. When I called to have it corrected Susan (very rude) says her hands are tied and you need to call this 800 # that puts you on hold for over 20 minutes. Still no resolution. If I could remove stars from this I would, but the least you can give is a 1 star. They should be –5 stars.

I’ve rented trucks from here twice and had the same experience both times. First, as stated several times already, prepare to wait. They are always understaffed, with usually only one person available to check customers in and get them their equipment. Since that takes ten minutes or so because of all the insurance stuff, if there are four people in line ahead of you… well, you do the math. Don’t count on getting that time added back onto your rental either, even if you show up early for the pick-​up.
I’ve had both good and bad experiences with the equipment itself. One truck ran smoothly with no problems. Another truck had gone 150,000, had trouble accelerating, and had a loose wheel such that you never quite knew where in the process the wheel would actually begin turning the tires. That can make for some harrowing experiences on the freeway. I can’t imagine I’ll ever be returning here again.

We used them about a year ago to move a couch. Got there early and everything went ok but you have to be very careful when reserving and confirming the reservation. Do not use them to move out of state and you will be fine.

If I could give this place negative stars, I would. I’ll keep the review short so you all read it and AVOID THIS PLACE.
One of the employees ran over my boyfriend’s motorcycle that we had taken up there as our ride back home after returning the UHaul. Then the employee had the nerve to ask if we’d purchased insurance for the UHaul as if the fact that he’d run over the motorcycle was our fault. Fortunately we had and didn’t have to travel down that road with them.
Recently we found out that the insurance company won’t pay for the full cost of the motorcycle that UHaul destroyed, nor will they pay for the helmet that was squished and dragged on the ground under the bike.
Like I said, keeping it short. Don’t go here. Terrible in every sense of the word.

Had to sign up for Unilocal just to share my horrible experience with this location.
My appointment was for 8 a.m., but we waited in line so long that I didn’t actually get the truck until 8:36 a.m., yet still I was given a return time of 2 p.m. That clearly is not a full six-​hour time period, even though that’s what I reserved.
Also, I ordered a 14′ truck, but was given a 10′ instead. I ordered a dolly and was not given that either. I was told they were all gone and that it’s first-​come, first served. What’s the point of even making a reservation if nothing you reserved is available at your appointment? And how were they already out of dollies before 9 a.m. The employee waiting on me was rude and about as unhelpful as you can possibly be.
Also, on our way back to the store we were stuck in traffic and tried to call the store to let them know in case we were late, but we were on hold for more than 20 minutes with no answer before we finally decided to hang up. Upon arrival, we waited another 40 minutes in line just to return the keys and check out.
Poor service, wrong equipment, an overall terrible experience and I will NOT be using U-​Haul services again.

Two stars because at least they were able to tell me what they offered and the cost.
Otherwise. conversations were CLUELESS…
Homer Simpson could work here. It would improve the experience.