U-Haul International

On September 8, 2020, I rented a truck from a U-Haul dealer. I returned the truck that same evening. I was not told about a $20.00 charge for returning the truck after hours unless I used my mobile phone to sign the truck in. I did not have my mobile phone with me. All the dealer had to do was open a lock box and remove the key, as I paid for the truck earlier. There is no good reason to charge this amount, except to get additional income on their part. I want a refund of my $20.00.

Jessica please see that this is given to joe shoen for his eyes only! Thank you.

Mr. Joe shoen,

I would appreciate your time to familiarize yourself with my case, since your decision will be the fate of this case/claims incident to be posted as just one more reason u-haul is dangerous and not worthy of our service members hard earned money during transfers to duty stations, as I am sure the military is a big part of the success of u-haul.

Three incidents with one trailer from california to north carolina.

This is our 1st issue with u-haul, when my husband picked up the trailer. The representative secured it the flat bed tow trailer to our f-250 truck and my husband asked if the tires needed to be checked for air pressure while the rep mike was busy attaching the trailer to the truck. Mike the rep. Stated it wasn't necessary the trailer just had an inspection and was good to go for the trip of over 3, 000 miles.

My husband brought the trailer home and parked it in our driveway to await our friend to assist him in loading the 4-runner we were about to tow onto the trailer for the trip.

That evening when xxx arrived they proceeded to load the 4-runner onto the trailer. Xxx our friend that was assisting was straddled over the trailer where you join the trailer to the back of the truck hitch so he could have a center view to guide xxx my husband driving the 4-runner up on the ramp and on to the trailer. No sooner was the 4-runner on the trailer ramp when the trailer with force mind you popped off the hitch, I mean as soon as weight was put on the ramp with the 4-runner it caused a chain reaction making the hitch for the trailer pop off the our tow ball and bang into our tailgate, which was down at the time making a golf ball dent in it and taking the paint clean down to the bare metal in two places. Not to forget xxx who was hit with such force that it jolting/lifting xxx off the ground after the trailer crashed/hit him in between the legs/thighs and causing him to slam his jaw shut causing what appears to be a cracked molar and him needing dental work, which he is in process of as I write this. This was first written in aug on the 14th. 2009 xxx has since been to the dentist and yes it did crack his molar causing him to need a crown but that is his incident attached to ours. I am just trying to deal with mine. Xxx will take care of himself if he sees it necessary to file a claim.

Upon this incident we found out not only was the trailer not secured to the tow ball as my husband was able to twist it down more turns then would have been necessary had it actually been secured in the first place. Not without mentioning this was also put on a tow ball that was not the right size, which was 1 7/8" tow capacity of 2, 000 pounds or there about, which seemed to elude the rep mike that attached the trailer to our truck's tow ball without mentioning improper size, as if we would know what size? The rep attaching the trailer should know this and follow proper protocol for securing the trailer to our truck, not putting us in such a predicament as to almost get us killed by piss poor judgment or no thought at all to making it secured properly. But with that said xxx and xxx decided it was time they just start from ground zero in the morning taking the tow ball into ford and getting the right ball for the job at hand. And to make sure no damage was done to our truck from this point for towing purposes. That is when the size of the ball was noted by ford representative. It was just after after 6 pm when we thought we should inform the company renting us the trailer of the issue we just had but the shop was closed. Probably a good thing considering the incident could of had a worse outcome had our two children been near by or even assisting. They were having a hard enough time trying to stay away from their dad who just got home from two tours overseas away from us and was on a strict schedule to get back to his command to check in, leaving little time for delays for our arrival to nc.

The next day xxx went to the truck accessories department to get a new tow ball and make sure it was the correct size, the right size tow ball and the shop we rented the trailer from was closed that day. Besides my husband was too irate over what had occurred the day before and felt it best to let it be till we got to nc to file our claim of damages. The fact my husband could have killed someone had that trailer come off/jack knifed after driving away from the u-haul shop on a state hwy in the mountains that have winds and turns of 90 degrees in which mike assuredmy husband it was secured is just that type of reason people die due to negligence/failure to do the job right. Xxx had offered to do the trailer hook-up himself, but mike insisted on doing it.

This is the first issue with the trailer. I have photos you just say the word and I will send a copy of any of them in regards to each incident. Please note that these have been sent once but apparently I need someone of authority to see why this should have been resolved in august.

This is our second issue with the u-haul trailer, our first day on the road!

Outside of reno in the middle of the desert in the middle of the day with no ac/ in the bronco, scott is driving our third vehicle behind me driving the f-250 and towing the trailer. The bronco remember has no ac and our great dane and burmese mountain dog are with him, I have the rest of our load of heat sensitive animals; two tropical parrots, two pedigree chinchillas one pregnant - which can die from too much heat as they live in snowy mountain purpose of their dense thick fur and a cat (Thick long hair persian type) not to mention two young children.

All put at risk because the tires were not properly inspected. Noted on our form given to us by the driver that was sent out to inspect and fix what needed to be. As the driver that came out for our tire change checked the other three tires he found they were 10 plus pounds of pressure low in, not one, not two, but three of the four tires. The pictures I took would show the fourth is blown out. Not only should this not have happened had the tires been safe enough for the trip but the trailer shook violently and swayed me into semi's all going more than 75 miles per hour, could have caused me to side swipe them! Not to forget mentioning when this occurred there was no where to pull over safely for almost a mile as we were against guard rails and no shoulder to park on. Don't forget those huge semi's just barreling by at 75 plus miles an hour. Stuck in the desert causing me to run our f-250 engine wasting very expensive fuel to run the air conditioner for the animals and children, really quite upsetting to say the least. Oh did I mention the driver that came out to fix our blown tire said all the other tires are not in the best of shape and probably shouldn't have passed whatever inspection had been done. I have that documented as well, I asked that he write that down for me so I may have documentation in the event it would be necessary if we had any more issues with tires...

A delay of almost two 1/2 hours in the middle of summer in the desert stranded basically. Shortening our drive time for the day for the first leg of our journey across the united states. Not a good second day with this trailer.

This is the third issue with the same u-haul trailer! Not to mention this is the same tire that had blown out and was replaced now had the bearings weld to the wheel rim on the trailer almost causing us to crash yet again on a severely congested highway during a crazy time of the morning rush hour on an overpass that was a blind turn and no shoulder! My nerves are still rattled that to date I can not drive a trailer to tow our boat! Call it whatever you want I call it post traumatic stress and I just can't drive a trailer as the fear is still so fresh in my mind... The fact this wasn't caught upon during the so called inspection of the trailer we rented is beyond me.

In the city of louisville kentucky on the main interstate hwy there is smoke coming from behind my truck and xxx can't tell what has happened he just knows that something is really wrong and I am wobbling all over in my lane and crossing lanes as I can't keep the trailer straight we are on blind turns and over passes, and it is not a little but a lot and my husband is calling me on the cell phone expressing his concerns by yelling pull over pull over something is on fire, you have smoke everywhere. As if I already wasn't trying to find a safe place to secure us out of all the 65 mile an hour semi's whizzing passed us. I have no where to pull over and I am now almost at a stand still in the middle of traffic all driving very fast passed us and on the other side of a blind turn and overpass, finally able to pull over in-between the on ramp and the highway merge we stop and xxx inspects and tells me next exit pull off.

I did and we call u-haul again and I demand they bring another u-haul after the u-haul representative asked me to drive the broken trailer to them, down to his shop for him! What on earth would possess someone to ask for the customer to bring the jacked up trailer to them? My husband isn't pleased with this and asks the rep if they want to be responsible for any damages to our truck and the well being of all other drivers on the road as well as our entire load, since we are driving a damaged u-haul (Really I am thinking next time budget rental)! Guess that made the tune sound different and not too bright a thing to have us do in the first place.

After almost four hours later in heat that is rising by the friggin minute and we are all sweating and dogs are panting as now it is humid something we are all not acclimated to whatsoever, we get a new trailer to put our 4runner on to get back on the road over almost 4 1/2 hours later. Which made us very delayed a total of almost 8 hours of drive time (Which adds up to a days travel time, not to mention my nerves) and a day late for arriving in nc for my husband who is in the military due to check in the day we breakdown in louisville. I was not about to force myself to drive while too tired to but must make after our delay caused by neglect and defective equipment we paid good money to rent, that initially damaged my truck tailgate, xxx needing a root canal and crown, cause of several delays, my husband to be late checking in on orders with the military (Not good) and the fact we suffered through this whole order in the heat.

Yes not too happy about u-haul and now to have claims not respond efficiently to close this claim out is really just like icing on a cake don't you think? Or how about the fact I was offered a lousy 100.00 and a customer coupon for 200.00 are you kidding me, I want all my money back plain and simple. Can't make this any clearer. If I have to publish my little escapade with the base news paper and file a complaint with our commanding officer in regards to u-haul and our claim I can almost promise this does not look good for a company to treat transiting soldier on orders with accompanying family in this respect. Or just giving this story to youtube since my daughter video taped what we went through after almost two years away from my husband serving for our country to have a company treat him as such, well you decide the fate of this case.

Regards,
Names withheld may seek legal counsel...