So he closed his truck almost four months early. He received reassuring emails from U-Haul about his “guaranteed” reservation. But when Everitt showed up at the Montreal location to pick up his truck on the afternoon of June 30, staff told him there was no truck for him — and their explanation, he says, was confusing. “I was shocked. I remember asking what the purpose of the reservation was? I was told that my truck was reserved for that location, but that it wasn’t assigned to me, whatever that means. “I assumed the delivery of the truck was their responsibility, not mine.” The issue has been around forever, and even appeared in an iconic episode of NBC’s Seinfeld, which questioned when a reservation is a reservation. WATCHES | “We’re Out of Cars”: The iconic Seinfeld episode in which Jerry makes a car reservation but can’t get a car. But what followed was no laughing matter for Everitt. He was left making the phone calls to secure another available U-Haul truck. Staff were “simply absolved of any responsibility,” he said. U-Haul’s website promises if the company “cannot meet [a customer’s] preferred time, place or size,” will pay $50 and “still try to complete the reservation.” But that was not Everitt’s experience. Instead, he says the staff left him scrambling for a Plan B.
“I had little to no choice since I had to be legally out of my Montreal apartment by midnight that night, in fact.”

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As it turned out, the only truck available was about 292 kilometers northeast of Montreal, in La Tuque. The drive would take about three and a half hours each way. The clock was ticking before he had to leave his apartment for the arrival of the new tenants. “I was really scrambling at that point. I put out an urgent message on my Facebook account, my Instagram account, to see if anyone I knew in Montreal would be willing to drive,” he said. Everitt was so desperate that he offered $250 to anyone who would lead him to pick up the truck. A friend from school stepped up, volunteering her time. The couple rented a car and finally arrived in La Tuque at 8:30 p.m Because they arrived after hours, Everitt was charged an additional $54 to use U-Haul’s online key recovery service, which took another hour to work. By the time they had something to eat, they returned to Montreal and Everitt dropped off his friend and the rental car, it was 3 am. — 14 hours from the original reserved pickup time. Sam Everitt of Toronto discovered that reserving a moving truck with U-Haul does not guarantee that the truck will be available. (Susan Goodspeed/CBC) He had to be out of his apartment in the next six hours, so he worked through the night to hastily prepare the truck. The emotional ordeal left him more than $400 out of pocket — for the rental car, gas and food — and sleepless for the drive to Toronto. Looking back, Everitt says it could have been worse. he was lucky he didn’t have a family. “What if you were a single parent with kids and you were put in this kind of situation? How would you handle it?” asked. In a statement to Go Public, U-Haul said it is sometimes necessary to send a customer to the “next closest location” to pick up a vehicle. He acknowledged that the distance Everitt had to travel was “unfortunate and extreme” and notes that he offered him a $250 certificate. Quebec lawyer Molly Krishtalka says U-Haul is violating that province’s consumer protection laws. (Florence Pluhar/CBC) U-Haul also noted that it did not charge Everitt for the extra distance he drove to bring the truck to Montreal. The company refused to reimburse Everitt for his additional expenses, including $54 for after-hours key retrieval. Montreal-based lawyer Molly Krishtalka says U-Haul failed to comply with Quebec consumer laws that prohibit advertising anything false or misleading. “Saying that a truck reservation is guaranteed, when in fact a truck reservation is [is] to pick up at a given place, given time is not guaranteed, in my opinion, this is misleading.” Go Public found dozens of online complaints from across the country about U-Haul’s missed reservations.

Abandoned items

We verified the experiences of customers who had to pick up from different locations, pick up different vehicles than they reserved, and tow a trailer to accommodate smaller vehicles than they reserved. In one case, customers even had to give up some of their belongings because they wouldn’t fit in a smaller truck than the one they reserved with U-Haul. Another customer, panicked after being told U-Haul had no truck anywhere for him, had to enlist friends and family in pickup trucks to get him from Ottawa to Cornwall. U-Haul advertises, “Your reservation is guaranteed or we’ll give you $50.” However, the customers say they want the vehicle, not a $50 refund. The company has admitted that it does not have enough vehicles to meet demand. EJ Shoen, president of Amerco, U-Haul’s parent company, said in its 2022 annual report that “the fleet rotation program has been impacted by an undersupply of vehicles and will be for next year and the foreseeable future.” . Toronto lawyer Tanya Walker says U-Haul should make its “warranties” policy clearer to its customers. (Cyril Cromwell) Go Public asked if U-Haul overnumbers its vehicles, but the company did not respond to the question. Tanya Walker, a Toronto civil litigation lawyer, says U-Haul should do more to make sure customers know that reserving a truck doesn’t always mean getting a truck. A one-minute explainer video for customers to watch before clicking the book button, he says, would ensure that the customer made the decision to book with full knowledge of the risk. “To rely on the fact that the warranty is not actually a warranty warranty, I think the information should be more familiar to the customer.” Everitt had to drift off and sleep in the back of his moving truck for a few hours to safely make the 542km drive to Toronto. He’s recovered, but says he won’t be happy unless he pays back all the extras he paid. U-Haul sent him that $250 certificate on Oct. 6, more than three months after he moved, but Everitt says he won’t be using U-Haul again.

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