A Review of U-Haul Located on Park Ave, Lynchburg, VA

Since U-Haul claims to install more hitches than anyone, I contacted the U-Haul location on Park Avenue in Lynchburg, VA about installing a hitch on my vehicle. I was connected to a guy who installs hitches. He was very friendly, and more importantly, he was informative. He looked up my vehicle and quoted prices for the parts and labor. He seemed to be both honest and knowledgeable.

Through no fault of U-Haul, I decided to have the hitch receiver installed at the place that normally services my vehicle. Then, all I needed was the hitch itself. I was told to buy a straight hitch, also known as a zero drop.

In comparison, the man at U-Haul had never mentioned if the hitch needed to have a rise, drop, or be straight. When I contacted him to see if they had the Class II straight hitches, he said that they didn't have them in stock. He also said that they had the 2" drop and that it would be fine.

Even the people at the auto parts store found that to be an odd comment. Since the trailer needs to be as level as possible, the two inches does matter and I needed a straight hitch.

As suggested on the website, I went by the U-Haul location for them to see the straight hitch and make sure that the trailer connected properly. The man I spoke with said he knew nothing of hitches. After some encouragement, the man put a trailer on my hitch and then said it looked level to him.

Storage

Since I am going out of state to pick up something, it made sense to rent a U-Haul trailer at the destination and then return it to a local U-Haul location upon return. U-Haul calls this a one way rental. On U-Haul.com, it states, "One-way truck or trailer customers with paid reservations are eligible to receive free storage before or after their move."

When I contacted the U-Haul on Park Ave about the one month of free storage, the man who answered the phone said that he had never heard of the free storage promotion. He asked a lady about it, and she told him that they do offer one month free storage with one way truck and trailer rentals.

When I asked the man another question, the lady decided to answer herself. She either already had another phone picked up or snatched his phone. The lady never told me her name. She spoke really fast as if she was in a hurry. When she was completely not understanding my travel plans, I pointed out how she was talking really fast, talking over top of me, and that was why she was not understanding.

In finally answering my question, she said that the returned trailer had to be on their lot before I could take possession of the free storage unit. Even though the U-Haul website says that they offer free storage before or after the move with paid reservation, she made it seem that I was asking for an exception.

I was only asking for the promotion that they were offering. The promotion that she admitted they were offering. If they didn't offer it, that would have been different. But that wasn't the case. The way she acted... That was not customer service. It was customer aggravation.

To file a complaint, I was given a toll-free number by another U-Haul location. But when I contacted them, they never took my complaint. They only helped to sort through the mess. When I questioned the wording of this promotion with a U-Haul representative at the toll-free number, I was told that there was no such thing as a paid reservation since your credit card isn't charged until the truck or trailer is picked up. I was also told that there would have been a risk of arriving at my destination that is five and a half hours away and then the U-Haul location there not having the trailer I reserved.

A different representative from the same toll-free number tried to help with the free storage. She contacted Josh, the storage manager at the Park Ave, Lynchburg, VA location. Even though another location had told this representative that they would give the free storage unit prior to the rental return as stated on the website, Josh was unwilling. He told her that I should leave the trailer on the U-Haul property overnight until they opened the next day. He said to put a note on it explaining how my stuff was still in it and why. I found this laughable considering the neighborhood that U-Haul location is in. If I abandoned my property at U-Haul, it is a reasonable assumption that it wouldn't be there the following day. Not to mention their insurance most likely wouldn't cover it if something happened to it. I felt encouraged to do something that was unsafe and that was ridiculous.

In the end, I had to give up on the one month of free storage even though I was entitled. The one month of storage isn't exactly free anyway since the one way trailer rentals are approximately four times the price of in-town rentals. To avoid losing money, I did an in-town trailer rental for two days and then paid for the one month of storage. This came out to the same amount of money.

Customer Service

When I called the Park Ave location in Lynchburg to make the reservation, I did the trailer reservation in my name. Since I'd be out of town until they closed the night that I needed the storage unit, I put the storage unit in my mom's name so she could go there while they were open that day to take possession of the storage unit. The man who helped me was nice, but he was really confused. He tried really hard to get me to take the storage unit the same day I made the reservation, then he tried for the day of the trailer pick up. I explained multiple times that these were separate reservations, had nothing to do with each other since it was an in-town rental, and that he needed to do it the way I wanted. It took a lot of convincing to do this, which was completely insane considering the two reservations were unrelated.