U-Haul Moving & Storage of Philadelphia

U Haul has a strange reservation system. I reserved a small trailer in West Philly they seemed to confirm that by email but then I got the actual confirmation for the far northeast. They pick the time and place that you to get your trailer. There was also a note that if I cancelled less than a day before there was a $ 50 fee. Seems crazy high. The trailer rental will only be $ 15. I called reservations and was able to schedule a slightly different trailer in the neighborhood I want at the time I want. Lesson is make sure you confirm by phone and don’t trust their internet system

The building is a mess. They never clean up around the building. They park their trucks on 13^th and on wood blocking the sidewalks. The lights burn ²⁴⁄₇. They painted the first floor and didn’t bother painting the other 6 floors. I wouldn’t trust this place with my belongings.

I found an additional charge on my bank statement from U-​haul that I wasn’t expecting. When I called to question it I was told it was a donation I made. I Never authorized a donation during my visit at U-​Haul, nor was I asked to make one. If the option was available on the screen after rental purchase, the guy behind the counter authorized it on my behalf without my approval or awareness. I will never use this location again.
Pay attention to your bank statement a week after your transaction. The day of the rental I was in agreement with all charges and a receipt was emailed to me. The charge was a completely separate transaction from the amount I approved. Of course they were very unapologetic.

The location isn’t great and admittedly the staff is never incredibly friendly. I’ve used this place once rent a truck and once just to buy boxes and it did the job. Renting the truck was easy and when I bought boxes, they volunteered to drop them off for me since I live nearby. So I thought I’d give a positive review since that was a great help to me and saved me from having to call a cab, request an SUV, wait for and pay the cab.

A true moving day nightmare.
The freight elevator was broken when we moved out so we had to share ONE elevator for all tenants. The entrance to the elevator and its capacity made it nearly impossible to fit some of our larger items. It routinely took 5 – 10 minutes to call the elevator as it was in use by other tenants who, as a result of the smaller elevator capacity, were making 2−3x as many trips as they otherwise would have.
The staff offered nothing in the way of compensation for this inconvenience and didn‘t seem to care at all about our dissatisfaction. Additionally, the truck we reserved was not in their system and it took 30 minutes for the person helping us to find it and get us sorted out.
In short, save yourself a monumental headache and don’t use this U-​Haul for your storage or transportation needs.
P. S. I tried to leave this review as feedback for U-​Haul. Their feedback form only allowed a response of 200 characters! Therefore, I am posting it on Unilocal instead.

I rented a panel van for a trip to NYC. Truck was fine. they should give a full tank of gas so it makes returning easier. Other than that I had no problems

I had a storage unit here for a few months so I’m writing about that experience.
Customer Service:
Customer service here is pretty awful, and this was confirmed for me the very first day that I moved my belongings in. A little background: prior to my move-​in I reserved a storage space online. A few days later, I went into the U-​Haul in person and decided to change my reservation. I spoke with a representative in the office, reserved a smaller unit (for a lower price), and left. I was told that this smaller unit would be made available to me on my move-​in date.
When I got to the U-​Haul with my belongings the manager was there in the morning. It turns out that the unit I reserved in person was not available. The computer showed that I had reserved the original unit (the one that I asked for online). I told the manager who I spoke with earlier that week, when I came into the U-​Haul in person, and what the other representative told me (the representative I dealt with told me he had reserved the smaller unit for me). The manager knew exactly who I was talking about because I even described the other representative for him.
Basically, the U-​Haul representative screwed up and I ended up getting a bigger unit than I wanted, thereby forced to pay more. The manager, acknowledging that his employee made a mistake, did NOTHING to address the mistake. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to charge the bigger unit at a lower rate — because it’s not the size and price that I reserved.
In normal circumstances, I might just take my business elsewhere. That option was unavailable to me because you cannot just change your moving destination on the day of your move — logistically I could not do that. I ended up taking a storage unit I didn’t want for a higher price that I did not want to pay. If you’re a business and you make a mistake you need to own up to it. This U-​Haul certainly doesn’t do that. This is the type of place where if you make a reservation, don’t be surprised if they screw something up.
The Facility:
If you come here it’s readily apparent that homeless people rent storage space and hang out all day. This has also been mentioned in other reviews. There are a lot of homeless people who loiter outside, who come and go into the facility into their units, and who just stay in their units during the day. However, I just want to say they are homeless — they are not serial killers. I have never felt unsafe walking to or using my storage unit, and I did not think my belongings were at risk. (Frankly, I thought it made it less likely that my things would get stolen.) Nevertheless, if this is something that worries you and is a deal breaker (particularly for women who would feel uncomfortable being alone at this facility), that’s completely reasonable and should be considered.
There is only one elevator. This is annoying. It takes forever to go up and down. I have waited 10 minutes for the elevator — and not because someone was loading/​unloading a lot of stuff. It simply doesn’t work well! The call button sometimes doesn’t respond, thus adding to the wait time. Because homeless people come and go pretty regularly, this increases the use of an already slow elevator.

Contrary to all the negative reviews, I actually had a pretty good experience with this Uhaul location. I moved on a Sunday-​not a major moving day but still a weekend so I expected this place to be a zoo. I showed up a little before it opened and was the first person to get my truck. I had to do a little bit of paperwork, but I was in and out of there in less than 15 minutes.
The prices here are very reasonable. I rented a 10 foot truck which fit all of my furniture and miscellaneous crap that I was moving into a small 1 bedroom apartment, and it was only $ 30 including all taxes and fees.
When I returned the truck a few hours later I did have to wait in a short line, and one of the staff members had to go out and inspect the truck and check the mileage, but it only took another 15 minutes or so. For the price, it was totally worth the wait.

This place is a hell on earth, and the people who work there are living nightmares. Obviously it doesn’t even deserve one star.
Never in my life have I been yelled at upon arrival in a place of business. Literally berated over and over due to my percieved wrong doing by the extremly unprofessional attendant.
I guess behavior like this is ok in Liberia, Africa, or whereever you’re from dude, but you should feel lucky that I didn’t punch you in the face.

Super fast check in, very friendly staff, and clean. Not what I expected in a chinatown location.

I’m not sure if I came on an ‘off’ day … but I actually had a great experience with this U-​Haul.
Pros: Speedy service before and after. Quite friendly. The truck was ready for me. Truck itself was very good and the move went perfectly. Reserved the truck in advance. Ultimately paid only $ 60 including gas, taxes, etc for the day’s use.
Cons: Homeless people wandering around outside — quite a big bunch.
Plan on using it again in a few weeks — I’ll let you know how that goes!

I rented a truck July, Sunday, 15^th. The truck was great, my boyfriend, who was driving, told me that it was easy to drive. We were able to fit all my stuff in it.
As for the customer service… not so great. 1^st of all, I call at 9:50 AM, approximately 1h before our reservation, to know if we could come in advance to pick up the van, the employee told me no because there was no other van available. We arrived at the center 15 min before 11 AM, 3 vans were here, I highly doubt that they were all out when I called. Then we went to the desk for the check in, the girl, who did our check in, was sat and was wearing a cap, we were up and she NEVER raised her head to talk to us! She barely said hello, she wasn’t articulating at all so we had to make her repeat things several times and she was obviously annoyed about that. She took ages to fill the form and to take my boyfriend’s passport as a guarantee. When we went out and she bring us the van, same thing we couldn’t understand a word she was saying, it was really upsetting for us. 5 and a half hours later, after having moving out an apartment, moving in a new one, lifting heavy boxes and furniture, we went back to the center. We park in front of the stop sign and waited for an employee to come out and check the gas and miles on the van… no one showed up. We left the van and had to go inside to ask then to do the check out. This time the employee was quick, so quick that he forgot to give us back my boyfriend’s passport! Of course after the day we had we didn’t think about the passport at all, left the center and had to come back the next day to pick it up (no one called us or anything to ask us about the passport). The next morning, the employee didn’t apologize for having forgotten.
I recommend Uhaul for their truck, the price but not for its employees!

I wish I had more time to check this place out before my move. The storage facility is definitely not up to par and I don’t feel safe about my belongings at all. As others have said, there are definitely very sketchy homeless people who hang out around and INSIDE the facility, some of which are surely living there. I’d advise people not to store anything here, if you have to drive further outside the city for safe, clean storage, DO IT. I will definitely be returning by the end of the month to get my stuff out of there. Paying to fly back to Philly and move my things closer to my new residence is definitely worth the peace of mind.

I would never rent here again because they have no regard for the safety of their customers.
The customer service at the counter on the day of our rental was fine; probably because the manager and/​or owner Kelly Turnage was not present. The truck began malfunctioning during the second leg of our trip. We made it back and forth, but it took much longer than it should have because we couldn’t drive over 20 MPH. The employee behind the counter advised us to call Kelly Turnage that Monday, and that she would reduce our $ 100 total rental charge and also have the truck repaired so that future renters’ safety and moves would not be compromised.
However, Ms. Turnage was exceedingly rude, refused any sort of credit, and insisted the truck was fine. She claimed to have sent someone out to test drive it to and from Coloumbus Blvd.
This place is not interested in any sort of customer service, especially after the fact. They already have your money, so why waste their time?

I came. I saw. I did not reserve.
I paid roughly $ 40.00 (insurance and taxes included) for a truck covered in graffiti. Customer service was fine albeit slow, but the dude was a hunt-​and-​peck kind of typist so I can’t hold it against him. The move itself was excellent, but then I’m excellent so it is to be expected. Then I wrote a review about how great my U-​Haul experience was compared to everyone else; I thought maybe I was just lucky.
Jump forward roughly a month and suddenly I’m having to get a lawyer friend of mine involved because of an ordeal that is so ridiculous that I actually questioned whether I was being scammed. I’m leaving out a lot of details for good reason but just know that the information that you provide when you rent a vehicle is not protected and can/​will be used against you. I’m not sure if this is true at all U-​Haul locations, but it certainly is true here. Not that it matters. I’ll never use U-​Haul again.

The only reason I can deal with this place is b/​c of being friends with 2 of the employees. Pay Very Close attention to all of the 1 star reviews here. They sound dramatic, but their horror is all true and all normal at this most unfortunate location.
Very, very frightening homeless people hang out here. Sometimes they roam around the storage units. They are always congregating outside the building. When they catch sight of you, they will eye you. Ever see the movie C.H.U.D. Google it. Even if you are not easily scared, you will be.
The upper floors of storage are always extremely hot. You will break a sweat standing still.
You will have to wait for customer service.
You will have to wait at least 4 minutes whenever you call the elevator.
Short version of this story: if there is anything at all that you can do to keep this place out of your life, Do It!

I wish I could give less stars! I guess the 1 star is for the ability to pull in off the street and load/​unload your car (for storage center).
Service is terrible here and extremely slow.
Not only that… I can’t tell you how many homeless people are living out of their storage unit! When the homeless shelter closes next door during the day, they hang out here. It’s a bit discomforting seeing someone sleeping in the unit across from you with all kinds of trash in their unit. I didn’t feel necessarily that safe here — and would recommend not going alone. Who cares if there are some random cameras, if everyone working there is so slow, what’s the point! I moved to a different storage unit, and while moving out, I ran into about 10 other renters there — they were all homeless.
enjoy.

The only star goes to getting a brand new van with 800 miles on it.
I helped move my girlfriend yesterday so she rented a van from Uhaul. They advertise the rental for $ 19.95 — of course I know they charge more for mileage ect. Somehow yesterday 10 miles = $ 41 in gas.
So a $ 19.95 rental turned into a $ 91 fee. They were even going to charge us another $ 25 if we didnt sweep out the van.
WTF?!?
Never again will I use Uhaul.
I wish I found these sites first:

The only star goes to the cleanliness of the van I rented, and it ran fairly smoothly. Now on to the details regarding the four vacant stars.
Are you ready for a customer-​service nightmare? Here goes. I rented a van from Uhaul on 13^th in early October 2009. I paid the $ 19.95 fee, $ 10 insurance, and approximately $ 50 in mileage estimate costs. I was reassured that if I returned with less miles driven than the estimate, I would be reimbursed. Being short on time and patience, I accepted this deal, and followed the employee to the van.
When we got there, I was given a «release form» to sign in exchange for the keys which I was led to believe was a formality, and standard procedure. As this employee was walking away, I noticed a difference in fuel on the gauge inside the van and what was listed on the paper he gave to me. We ran after the guy, who then made a hand-​written adjustment on the printout, not thinking for a minute that maybe he has the wrong vehicle. We then left with the van, and spent much of the day moving from center city to south philly, taking no more than 3 trips back and forth.
The moving miles added to the miles used in picking up the van and dropping it off was no more than 10 to 12 miles. Sweet reimbursement, right? Wrong. See, when we returned the van, we were told that we had driven 81 miles that day (Eighty-​One. 8 – 1.) and would be charged $ 20 MORE. After disputing this number, we were told that I signed the «release form», which I then found out was supposed to be a signature from myself confirming the fuel and mileage were correct on the printout. According to them, they had the numbers, my signature confirmed those numbers, and I didn’t spend my day moving, I used their van to drive to the shore and back. After reporting this to an assistant manager, I was told I would be getting a call from the manager in a day or two, and the contract would be put on hold until everything could be sorted through.
This never happened.
After not hearing from them for nearly a week, I was quietly charged the disputed amount. As a response, I called their headquarters to report this, and again I left my name and number and was told I would receive a phone call. This did not happen either. So in the end, a $ 36 move wound up costing me $ 90, and if I wanted to spend that much, I would have hired movers to carry everything for me.
That’s what I will most likely be doing next, because I will not stop until I’ve steered enough customers away from Uhaul to offset the profit they’ve made by cheating me.

No problem with the trucks themselves but the customer service at this location is not good. E.g.:
— If you try to call, they will not answer the phone. Ever.
— Lackadaisical gentleman working behind the counter when I arrived to pick up my truck was not very interested in doing his job quickly or effectively.
After having to come here in person to make the reservation on the previous day (due to the first item), I just wanted to get my truck and go. When I got here, there were only two people ahead of me but it ended up taking a little over forty minutes to complete the process. Why? Because the employee mentioned above, after giving what can charitably be described as unenthusiastic assistance to the two people ahead of me over the course of twenty-​five minutes decided to go on break. Without telling anyone.
I didn’t know that at the moment, though. Five minutes after walking the person directly ahead of me out to his rental, another employee walked in and started making phonecalls. After she made a few of these calls, I asked her if the first employee would be returning. She informed me that I just be patient.
After a few more phonecalls, she observed that the first employee still had not returned so she called him on his cellphone. The conversation, if I recall, went like this, «Where you at? What? You can’t do that! You got to tell people that! There’s a bunch of people standing up here waiting to be helped!» (There were three or four people behind me in line at this point.)
The first employee then re-​appeared unhurriedly – again a charitable description – several minutes later. He did not offer any explanation, either to the customers or his co-​worker. He appeared entirely unaffected by this sequence of events and I would take this an an indication that his work ethic will not be improving in the future.