U-Haul of San Rafael

After 1 year I received a bill that I have to pay 75 $ because of the toll. They had to charge my credit at the time but they didn’t. I looked it up and I realized this is a common thing with this company. They hire a collection agency to collect the money and they are really rude too. This is a new way for them to make money.

If your looking for a place to have your hitch installed, only to have it fall off a year later (yes, I nearly lost my boat), then I’d def. call U Haul…

I cannot say anything negative about this location. Have used them several times including this past weekend over a five year period had had positive results. I was surprised seeing the negative reviews.

No wonder this guy has so few stars. What a crook! I made a reservation to rent a truck and when I get there the owner tells me I have to bring it back earlier than reserved — because he rented it to someone else. What’s with that? When I replied that I had reserved it — he tells me Take it or leave it. I had helpers planned and people depending on me to get this move done and this guy tells me he’s not going to honor my reservation because he wants to make more money? I don’t think I’ll ever be using U-​Haul again.

UPDATE 12−6−15:
Despite my review below U-​Haul management COMPLETELY ‘rose to the occasion’, completing the job at a very significant discount due to all of the hardship from the day before on 12−2−15 (where they stood me up for my appointment). While the schedulers and the shop need to figure out how to communicate better still, the staff, in the end, took care of me.
12−2−15 Posting
It’s hard to imagine worse customer service. Schedulers sent me down for an appointment for a wiring harness installation. When I get there clerk said the installers went home 2 hours prior. Wow. Hmmmmm… so perhaps the scheduler might have called and verified parts and staffing for the appointment before scheduling. They assured me multiple times there was someone there and the part was there. Unbelievable a business can run with this horrid level of customer service and lack of structure oversight/​competence. U-​haul is the only game in town for this install as far as I can tell… bummer.

This review was removed by administrators on July 15, 2015.
I’ve edited it, added to it and am reposting. Let me point out that it is shocking to me that Uhaul as a company exists based upon it’s terrible customer service. Most recently, I ordered a Uhaul truck for a one way move from this very location to the Sierra Foothills and ordered the vehicle two weeks in advance of the June 27^th move date. In the reservation, I stated I had to pick the truck up for this very Uhaul of San Rafael location. The day before the move, I get an email stating that the truck would have to be retrieved at the farthest point north in Novato, adding — easily — 50 miles to my journey; miles that I would have had to pay for. Trying to resolve the issue with customer service agents was futile. Therefore, and again, like the other time detailed below, I had to get Christopher Watson, the Uhaul Northern California Regional President, on the phone to complain about the horrific customer service. I finally got the truck I wanted thanks to his help. In the ¹¹⁄₂₀₁₅ issue below, I was issued a full credit due to the terrible condition of the vehicle received and detailed in the provided video.
This is the email I sent to Christopher Watson on June 26, 2015 regrading my most recent Uhaul rental debacle.
Christopher
I want to thank you for your help, again, regarding what seems to be ongoing issues with overall customer service efforts at UHaul, at least with my rentals. I have a tendency to complain more than most, and I am also a professional publicist, so «Hell has no fury than a publicist scorned.» I hate having to get satisfaction by taking these issues to the executive level. This is not the first time UHaul has screwed up, but UHaul always screws up the worst when it’s an important major move, and always on a long, one-​way journey.
I dealt with Packy and Danielle in regional 1 – 800 customer support and neither were professional or helpful. I was so angry, I took the matter to Twitter, where you and I first met, and this is my Twitter feed today… I dealt with «TA» on Twitter today, at attached is the unsatisfactory reply I received. Really? Someone will get a hold of me in three days, when my move is tomorrow? That’s ridiculous.
Such terrible customer service from UHaul personnel results reviews such as the one I left for the San Rafael UHaul office last December… link removed.
I hope you take action on the ongoing issues people have with UHaul. Statistically only a fraction of your customers will complain when getting bad customer service, and I am the most aggressive at complaining when I feel I am being jerked around.
Moving is stressful enough without having to get jerked around on the eve or day of a move by being told your truck is now 50 miles away from where it is supposed to be. It seems that these ongoing issues with trafficking of your inventory is a major problem that needs to be resolved. If I order a truck from a specific location, I want to pick it up at that location, not Godknowshowmany miles away and only finding out that important info at the last minute. Fix these problems, please.
Thank you again for your help.
CB
Below is my edited review of this Uhaul Location from November 2014.
11÷29÷2014− I sent this to UHaul: Here’s my video post about the dirty truck received from the San Rafael, CA, office. This is the sixth truck in two years received in this filthy condition. I’d appreciate a credit on this rental. Very disappointed, again, to get equipment is such poor state of cleanliness.
The video had the caption: The trucks from UHaul of San Rafael are always filthy & disgusting. This is about the sixth van rental from Uhaul of San Rafael and in every case, the truck interiors are always filthy and gummed up with incredibly sticky and vile gunk that gets all over my cargo. I was not offered a refund and in spite of the fact this location always has a great inventory of equipment, the equipment is always filthy. I am rethinking using this location again.
This is the reply I get after chasing UHaul around for several days through Facebook and Twitter, after they said they would take care of the situation:
This has to be the biggest «EfYou» I’ve ever received from U-​Haul: U-​Haul: @Uhaul_cares @Uhaul #Uhaul after receiving filthy equipment & inferior & incompetent customer service: On Dec 3, 2014, at 12:45 PM,
wrote:
Hello this is Drew B— from San rafael Uhaul. I apologize that the vehicle was not to your satisfaction. We do our best to maintain clean equipment. I have looked at the vehicle you were given and we will be doing a more thorough job on cleaning. Unfortuantely there is no refund to be issued at this time. We appreciate your business and hope to see you again in then future.
I would highly recommend that no one ever use this UHaul office ever again.

Since this is an actual corporate store their prices are the same as you find them online, which for moving supplies is a great deal. The staff has always been helpful and the truck rental process is straight forward and fast.
The only negative would be the terrible parking lot.

I specifically reserved a 26′ truck because I wanted to complete the move in one trip and had only one day to do this (for which I took off work). I was told they would not not know until a day or two beforehand whether I they could get the largest truck, but if they had trouble they would notify me of this. Therefore I was relieved when I received an email confirmation Saturday for a 26′ truck set to be picked up Monday at 12:15. I also receive a confirming text. Had they not been able to get me a 26′ truck or at least a 22′ or 24′ truck (I have a 20′ hang glider and its storage pipe that need to be transported), I would have cancelled the reservation. Unfortunately, when I arrived as schedule at 12:15 Monday afternoon, without comment, a 19′ was rented to me! When I expressed surprise at the size of the truck I was told it was all they had. Because I had already taken the day off from work and my ability to do this is limited, I had no choice but to go forward with the rental. As a consequence of this too small truck, the already stressful and difficult job of moving was made that much more expensive, time consuming, and stressful. Specifically, U-​hauls failure to deliver as promised had the following unpleasant consequences: 1) I had to make two trips, instead of one; 2) I had to hire two separate sets of workers, because the first set could not remain for a second trip; 3) The second «set» I hired, consisted of one man, since at 6:00 o’clock at night, there are not many anxious to begin work. This means the second load took even longer to complete than the first; 3) Because I had to make two trips, instead of one, and the second was with just one helper, I was the stuck with having to carry heavy furniture down steep and narrow stairs, not something I planned on; 4) Because I had to make two trips, instead of one, and the second was with just one helper, we did not complete the job until 1:30 a.m. and my (former) neighbors called the police on us for making too much noise as we stumbled around loading furniture in the dark. I then went to work the next day on four hours sleep; 5) Because I had to make two trips instead of one, I was charged for twice the mileage I should have been at a rate of 99 cents per mile. And to top it all off, when I called to speak with a manager the next day, I was twice told the manager would be given the message and return my phone call; I’m still waiting.

Awful! Made a reservation 2 weeks in advance for pick up in San Rafael for a 26ft truck. Confirmed it twice, and they call the day before to say they don’t have the truck I need. They can’t find a truck the size i reserved within 200 mile radius. They offer me 2– 15ft trucks that I can pick up in Vallejo instead, and they consider this keeping their «guarantee». I would not recommend risking being put in the same situation when on a deadline to move.

I had an appointment at 4:30 to get a hitch put on my car. I received a call that i can come in earlier. The secretary told me someone would be calling me back shortly. I never heard from anyone so i go at 4:30. After arriving i was informed that the manager was off. I never was ask to rescedule or cancel my appointment. I feel like this place is disorganized and unprofessional. What a waste of my saturday!

I got a good clean truck. Brought it back. Everything worked out just fine.

tl;rd: Horrible customer service, broken and dangerous equipment.
After calling the 1 – 800 number to let them know the equipment I rented was dangerously defective, the manager called me back and left a very snide and rude message stating he didn’t believe the rental had any issues and that he wouldn’t be giving me a refund. I never asked or expected a refund, I called because I was concerned another customer was going to get injured or killed from the defect.
I called the manager back twice to clarify and give more details on what was broken. Someone at the counter took my number both times but I never received a phone call back.
This place isn’t concerned with your safety or the state of their equipment, they just want your money while doing the bare minimum to not get shut down or sued.
Stay away!

Horrible Service overcharged me and threaten further action, with a made up amount. Never go here.

We have rented from this location a few times and have had nothing but good experiences. It is the Corp Office that limits what these guys can do and dictate a lot. Corporate is really the problem, not this store. No, they don’t hold your hand and stroke your ego, which so many Manirites expect, they just get things done quickly. Yes there are day laborers, but they are not aggressive, and sometimes the computes are having an issue but I have never ever had any of them not apologize. Again, Marinites…

There was a problem with the computers and I had to wait for over 30 minutes to get my pre-​reserved van. No apologies, no discount, nothing. I think you should at least apologize to the customer and explain to the 6 people in line behind her, on a Saturday morning, what is going on.

Meh. Moving is such a pain and the folks at UHaul have an opportunity to make it a little easier while making an easy profit. No such luck. I’m moving cross country, so I’ve been in the store multiple times lately purchasing many supplies. The sales people have never offered to help. I’ve purchased large quantities of big and cumbersome items and not one assists. I pulled into a parking spot yesterday and was immediately asked to move my car to another area. That in and of itself is no problem. But they told me to move my car to an area where there were no parking spots and was covered in aggressive people trying to pick up day-​labor work. The line moves painful slow to checkout. If moving is their business, wouldn’t they have figured it out by now?

Charged me $ 100 to power wash the bed of a pickup after I already hosed it down. Never rent from here again.

We arrived early to a full lot, with dozens (!) of trucks in it. I asked for one. Desk clerk says «they are all reserved.» Really? I say. ALL of them? Yes. I went to the car, picked up my iPad, and got on the uhaul web site. In 5 minutes I had a 20 footer reserved. Had to stand in line again, finally reach desk clerk. I now have a reservation, I say. He didn’t even blink. So is he lazy, stupid, or just an a-​hole?

This location has generally been good to me, but I was unpleasantly surprised by gas charges. The needle read Full when I picked up the truck, so I completely refilled it before dropping it off. Unless my 14′ rental truck got 3 miles to the gallon, I put in way more gas than I used. When I complained about this to the staff, I was told I should have just filled it up until it touched «F» on the gauge. Really? How am I supposed to know exactly the right spot so that I don’t get dinged for extra charges and $ 5 /​gallon fuel. This was disappointing and I would not rent again without an explicit understanding of exactly how to pay for only the fuel I used. (Maybe the trick is to fill the tank BEFORE you start the job? But, again, nobody suggested any of this to me).

20 minute line with one counter worker at 10am on a weekday.

Beware of Uhaul pod rental
They advertise to rent a box for $ 79.95, which is totally accurate.
However what they don’t tell you is you also have to rent the trailer that it sits on for $ 14.95 per day. So to rent a box for a month DOES NOT cost $ 79.95 but $ 528!!!
Absolute liars.
BEWARE.

Rented a large 26 ft truck for a simple move from a storage unit in San Mateo. The truck was waiting for us when we arrived, the staff was friendly, and we had no problems. I gave it a four star because I don’t believe the amount of gas they said the truck had in it was the right amount. He said we could make it there and back based on the amount of miles we were going, but we had to stop before we reached our destination to fuel up. It cost us an extra 50 $. I know. it’s a large truck. They have a computer program that shows you the fuel amount. Whatever.
Overall, I would rent from them again.

After waiting in line for at least ½ an hour… we are told, «all our vehicles are reserved, we’ve even overbooked».
Politely (!!) I stated maybe you could put a sign up at the desk stating such?
Then a for sure lifer at U-​Haul, smart ass says, «we’ll run it by corporate:»
What a poor employee, what a poor company that has to deal with such an arrogant bastard.