Saturday, January 24, 2009

U-Haul sucks (as does STINSON FUEL 3934 Innes Rd)

I talked to a lot of people before I moved. One common thing I heard over and over again was "The moving company gave my truck away!". Well, no way was that gonna happen to me!! I reserved one, one month in advance from:

STINSON FUEL
3934 Innes Rd,Orleans, ON K1C1E7 (613) 830-2549


This was before I found out that they were as useless as an inflatable blow up Santa doll. Their main thing is selling gas and using binoculars to spy on their mortal enemy, the ESSO station up the road and they should really just stick to that. I hit the U-haul website a month before my move, found the closest place and called them to reserve a 26 foot truck. I even called 2 days before the move to reconfirm my booking. I offered to pay over the phone with a credit card, they said no, pay when you pick it up! When I showed up at 9:00am Saturday to pick it up I saw a guy jumping into the 26 footer and thought "Wow, they're warming it up for me!". I went in the little gas bar to pay for it and looked up just in time to see my 26 foot truck rolling out of the lot.

I looked at the bundled up middle eastern gentlemen behind the desk and said in a worried tone:
"Was that the truck I reserved I just saw leaving?!"

He looked at me and said.
"No, yours broke down!"
"I haven't even told you who I am!"
"Is broken down!" he insisted
I looked in the lot and there was a 10 footer covered in snow. It looked like it could be broken down.
"No, THAT little bitty one looks like it's broken down, mine was 26 feet long and it just left. Did you give my truck to the guy that rented the smaller truck?"
He looked at me. I was (*&(^&%(*& livid.
"Show me your reservation book. My name should be in it!"
He shuffled through some scraps of paper, some of which blew outside as someone came in the gas bar. That's their reservation system. GREAT!

Then the guy LEAVES! He sells some cigarettes to the guy and then runs outside and starts pumping gas for someone while I'm standing there trying not to explode.

IDIOTS! I thought. It's probably not even the guy's fault that he's an IDIOT! H
e just gives the trucks away to whoever shows up first. Guess i shouldn't have detoured to Tim Horton's to get donuts for the guys eh?

#@$%@^@*^&%&*&%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So he comes back in and I say "Look, if you gave away my reservation, can you call your boss because if you've screwed me I have to know in the next 2 minutes so I can get out of here and find another %$#*&^#$ truck!"
He picks up the phone. Has a heated conversation in Arabic
and hangs up.
"Is broke down!" he says again.

I immediately turned and left before I said or did something nasty (or both). I screamed the F word at the top of my lungs all the way back to my car in the Walmart parking lot (apologies to the early bird shoppers). I had a pile of people showing up at my old place in 30 minutes to move my stuff and I had no truck.

I phoned 4 places, no trucks.. The 5th place, HERTZ, had a truck and saved my ASS!!!! By 10:00, only 30 minutes off schedule, I was backing it in my lane way. Thank got it was a cold Saturday in January and not the end of the month!

I have yet to go tell STINSON fuels what I thought of them that day, but I've learned my lesson. Don't rent a U-Haul, and don't rent from a gas station, and somebody at STINSON FUEL is an IDIOT!

IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 comments:

Evolving Squid said...

Same thing happened to me some years ago with the u-haul on hunt club. When i talked to Hertz, they told me they keep a few trucks in reserve to cover off pissed off former u-haul customers who got jilted on their rental day.

Bryce said...

i saw we all reserve at least one large truck from Stinson for one peak moving period in the future and then not show up.

Anonymous said...

I just reserved a 20 footer off the u-haul website for a pickup at that location for the end of the month. I think I will have to book somewhere else also as a precaution. It's a shame U-haul doesn't give a damn about their own business and how it's represented to the public.