I just moved over Labor Day weekend (from NYC upstate to Ulster County, NY). I was supposed to have been getting a truck from U-Haul. I made a reservation 45 days in advance. I got no truck. I had to rent from another company at a higher price and greater difficulty. All I want is for U-Haul to reimburse me for the amount of the other company’s rental.
I sent a certified letter to U-Haul, explaining the situation and requesting reimbursement (enclosed the invoice from the other co., etc.). I just got a call this AM from U-Haul Cust. Svc., who, after I had explained the situation again, told me that U-Haul does not reimburse for renting from other companies. I told them that I’d have to seek the damages (including legal fees) in Small Claims Court.
So … how do I actually go about doing that? U-Haul’s main offices are in Arizona. The incident took place in New York City and involved the Astoria (Queens) regional office. I’m now living in Ulster County. With which court would I file my claim?
Statutes vary with the jurisdiction, but usually, you have to file a small claims action in the city where the contract was made, or the defendant’s place of business/residence. In your case, that would be Queens, or where ever you contracted to rent the truck.
You aren’t suing U-Haul International–you’re just pressing a claim against the local U-Haul franchise, whoever that may be–the ones who didn’t have a truck for you.
Go for the franchisee whose name was on the agreement.
But before you do, check the U-Haul agreement to make darn sure there’s some sort of guarantee of a truck in there, 'cause I don’t think they do “guarantee” you a truck. They can say, “Sure, we’ll have a truck for you”, but I don’t think that counts, legally, as a guarantee. And I don’t think they’re legally liable for any extra expenses you incurred because they didn’t have a truck for you and you had to rent a Ryder truck instead.
Make sure you really have a case before you get started, because the loser in Small Claims Court has to pay all the expenses.
They don’t claim to be guaranteeing you a truck. They’d like you to think they are, much like Enterprise would like you to mistakenly think “$39.95 for the weekend” means “$39.95 for the whole weekend” as opposed to “$39.95 per day, in effect for the whole weekend.” I know U-Haul overbooks their trucks (and pisses people off) as standard practice, so it seems unlikely that it’s actionable, or they’d be hemorrhaging money.
I think you’re basically out of luck, aside from having gained the gift of knowing U-Haul sucks and doesn’t deserve your money. I bet if you just did a search for “u-haul” on this board, you’d find plenty of stories which support that notion.
Jurisdictions vary but in mine at any rate any corporation doing business in the state has to have a registered agent for such things as receiving legal papers. Check with the appropriate state agency (probably the atty general’s office) to find out where to serve the suit. I know nothing about the legality of the “guarantee” of having a truck for you.
I can second galt’s comment on the overbooking. I used to work for A*is and it was policy to overbook if possible(usually not going more than 10% overbooked I believe). The rationale is that we get a large number of no-shows so to get a “sell-out” for the day/weekend means you have to overbook. We usually estimated pretty well and if we overbooked we would help them get a rental from a competitor(but not pay for it!).
Good policy would be for them to refund/coupon the price difference. Why should they pay for the whole rental? Did you pay them for anything?
I had a friend who got screwed over by U-Haul. He tried to sue, but eventually the cost of the case was over what he could ever have gotten back, so he dropped it.
Does U-Haul ever get one of their rentals right? I’ve known 5 people who tried to use them in the past year, and not one of them got the equipment that was promised when it was promised.
Surely they can’t stay in business forever, operating this way.
I’m not a lawyer either, but unless you gave them a deposit and have a contract, I seriously doubt you have a case.
They broke a promise. Not nice, but not illegal either. They don’t have a legal responsibility to help you with your move, nor to ensure its cost or convenience. You got nothing from them and you paid them, what, nothing? That’s a fair exchange.
If they were to do something for you, whether as a legal responsibility or a gesture of goodwill, the logical thing would be to compensate you for the price difference. You expected to get a truck AND to pay them $X. You got a truck, but now you think it should cost you zero? Doesn’t sound reasonable to me. I doubt it sounds reasonable to them, and I doubt it would to a judge.
I know it’s really aggravating to be counting on something like that and then have it fall through. Unfortunately, I don’t believe you have any recourse other than to proclaim your dissatisfaction. It is possible that a non-inflammatory letter to their president or customer service department would get some consideration. It should express your disappointment (you thought well of them until this incident), ask for reasonable compensation (see preceding paragraph), and suggest that you would do business with them if they made it right (if you vow to never use them in the future, they have no incentive to keep you happy). IF they did something, however, it would most likely be a voucher towards a future rental, which you may or may not want.
This incident probably illustrates how their competitors stay in business even though their rates are higher. When push comes to shove, better service usually trumps lower price.
Whether or not he provided a deposit doesn’t have any bearing on whether or not he has a contract. Boiled down to the fundamentals, a contract is offer plus acceptance plus consideration. “I will give you a reasonable rental fee and you will rent me a truck.” There’s the offer and the consideration. By accepting the reservation through the website, it looks to me like the contract was formed. By failing to deliver the truck per the term of the contract, U-Haul breached the contract (which is in fact illegal [tortious]). U-Haul does have a legal responsibility to fulfil contracts into which it enters. U-Haul’s failure to fulfil the contract has resulted in damages (rental fees in excess of what he agreed to pay) and his legal remedy if U-Haul fails to make good on the contract is to sue for those damages.
As always, IANAL.
Oh, and another thing I thought about last night was that oftentimes companies doing business on the web will have boilerplate language on the site stating that use of the site constitutes agreement that any legal action must be commenced in and will be decided under the laws of the state in which the company is headquartered. The OP should check out the site before filing to make sure that suits in his home state may be filed.
I don’t know, I’m only 5/120ths of a lawyer right now so don’t jump me but…
Might this not be a detrimental reliance contract? Didn’t he rely on U-Haul to provide him with a truck to his detriment? I think it may be a legally enforcable contract but the cost of taking this court is probably higher than the cost of renting another truck.
(We just covered this in Contacts so I probably don’t know what I am talking about)
Did that. It got consideration, which was basically to call me up, listen to the story, and say, sorry, too bad.
No. It’s not.
A fair exchange would be me calling up U-Haul, asking how much a rental costs, finding out it’s more than I care to pay, and then deciding not to do business with them.
A fair exchange would be me calling up U-Haul to reserve a truck for Labor Day weekend, and being told that no truck was available for that time. I could then get another rental in a reasonable amount of time.
It’s not like I placed an order for a stereo and then was told, weeks later, that they were out of stock. Darn. Annoying, but doesn’t really leave me in a bind unless it’s Christmas or soemthing.
How about this example, of what you consider a “fair exchange:” I book a business trip with U-Fly Airlines. I take off time from work. I arrange for people to drive me to the airport–who also have to take off time from their busy schedules–and to pick me up at the other end. But, after waiting in the airport all day, there is still no seat for me. U-Fly makes no effort to get me onto another airline’s flight, nor do they give me vouchers/etc. for a future flight, nor even pay me any attention at the customer service desk. I’m stuck there overnight, I have people to meet on the other end, and even the next morning, U-Fly makes no effort to get me on a flight.
You’re right. How silly of me. Let me call the pope and get U-Haul’s CEO started on the path to Sainthood.
I’m sure I’ll probably end up just as boned as he was. Sons of bitches. I look forward to the day when U-Haul finally drives its sorry ass into bankruptcy. Boo-hoo.
I don’t know, I’m only 5/120ths of a lawyer right now so don’t jump me but…
Might this not be a detrimental reliance contract? Didn’t he rely on U-Haul to provide him with a truck to his detriment? I think it may be a legally enforcable contract but the cost of taking this court is probably higher than the cost of renting another truck.
(We just covered this in Contacts so I probably don’t know what I am talking about)
I may well have been mistaken in assuming there was no contract. I am still operating under the assumption that no money was paid to U-Haul.
In this example… I book a business trip with U-Fly Airlines. I take off time from work. I arrange for people to drive me to the airport–who also have to take off time from their busy schedules–and to pick me up at the other end. But, after waiting in the airport all day, there is still no seat for me. U-Fly makes no effort to get me onto another airline’s flight, nor do they give me vouchers/etc. for a future flight, nor even pay me any attention at the customer service desk. I’m stuck there overnight, I have people to meet on the other end, and even the next morning, U-Fly makes no effort to get me on a flight
…I would assume that the ticket has been paid for. I see that as a very significant difference.
I was thinking more along the lines of making a reservation at a restaurant, then showing up and not getting seated. It’s an awful business practice, but I don’t see where the restaurant would stand any legal liability. In either this or the truck rental situation, the inconvenience and aggravation could range from slight to great, depending on the circumstances.
I’m sorry that U-Haul didn’t respond more favorably to your letter. From reviewing the posts here, it appears there could well be a contract and the possibility of their having legal liability. It wouldn’t bother me a bit to see them lose in court.
It might be hard to win a large enough award in small claims court to claim much more than a moral victory. Perhaps a free initial consultation with an attorney is in order, to see whether there’s a possibility to win significant punitive damages.
Worked for me, twice. The one time they did mess up was to give me a bigger truck than I asked for (at the smaller price) but that came in handy.
The only beef I have ever had concerns the same web signup that toadspittle had problems with. I registered on the web and received notice that my truck (I originally typed “trick” which is not a service provided by U-Haul) would be available at store X. Calling store X to confirm did no good since the web providers didn’t supply the individual stores with a list of rentals until the morning of. The truck was there but when asked about the web signup the truck renters recommended against it.
U-haul is a franchise. Some local owners are real jerks. Some will go out of their way to help you.
Even if you DO get a rental with them, you’ve gotta read that fine print C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y.
The last time I rented a truck from U-Haul, part of the contract was that U-Haul was to be held harmless even in the event of failure of their equipment.
Sorry to barge in but question. I rented a trailer for long haul, Winnipeg to Toronto, I made it clear that I wasn’t comfortable hooking it up because it has to be done properly before the 24 hour highway drive. The employee told me “Of course, that’s my job” I trusted that he would know how to do his job. Less than an hour on the highway and guess what came off. Thankfully I was able to stop right away and got the trailer to stop with the car but it could have killed someone. My kids were terrified. I was terrified. And still had 23 hour drive to go. I can sue for negligence though, can I not???
You aren’t barging in. The discussion ended over 20 years ago. Welcome to the Straight Dope.
Keep in mind that I am not your lawyer, or anybody’s lawyer, nor did I go to law school or pass a bar exam anywhere… Assuming there were no physical injuries or material losses you probably can’t get much for being terrified. Did the rental company come out and fix the trailer hookup? What did you and they do from that point on? Maybe you could recover any out of pocket expenses or material losses of your property.
