Melissa LaFreniere  |  July 4, 2017

Category: Consumer News

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PASADENA, CA/USA - AUGUST 16, 2014. U-Haul trucks lined up in a row. U-Haul is a moving equipment and storage rental company based in Phoenix, Arizona.A New York plaintiff says U-Haul fails to deliver on its “reservation guarantee” policy, leaving do-it-yourself movers without the equipment they ordered or compensation for their inconvenience.

Plaintiff Trang Nguyen claims U-Haul International Inc. routinely confirms moving equipment rentals to customers who are then forced to wait much longer than their scheduled pick-up times or required to travel to other U-Haul locations.

She says this practice runs contrary to U-Haul’s nationwide advertising campaign which promises movers a “reservation guarantee.”

According to the U-Haul class action lawsuit, the company’s policy states “When you make a truck or trailer reservation, we guarantee to provide you with the equipment size, location and pick up time, as agreed. Should you not receive the equipment size, location and pick up time you agreed to, U-Haul will pay you $50.”

Nguyen alleges that reasonable customers, such as herself, would naturally expect that the moving equipment they rent would be at the location they selected or they would receive the “reservation guarantee” compensation of $50. However, she claims that doesn’t happen.

The U-Haul lawsuit says Nguyen reserved a cargo trailer rental online this past April and selected a U-Haul facility in Flushing, New York as her pick up location. Nguyen then received an email confirming her order which directed her to use U-Haul’s “Express Online Check-In” for faster in-store service.

Nguyen says she followed the steps to check-in electronically and received another confirmation of her order which stated “Congratulations, you just cut your wait time in half. See you today at 3:45 pm!”

However, the plaintiff claims that when she arrived at the U-Haul facility she was informed that her name was not on the list of those scheduled to pick up a cargo trailer that day. Nguyen says she showed a U-Haul employee her email confirmation but this “did not alter the representative’s position.” Nguyen says she even called a nearby U-Haul location to see if her trailer rental was there but it was not.

At this point, the plaintiff asked the store employee about the $50 “reservation guarantee” she was owed and was instructed to contact customer service regarding the compensation. Nguyen says she attempted numerous times to collect the $50 but U-Haul “intentionally gave her the run-around, pretending as though she was attempting to place a new order (or had already placed a new order) in order to avoid addressing the issue.”

The U-Haul class action says neither Nguyen nor potential Class Members would have tried to rent moving equipment from U-Haul if they had known the “reservation guarantee” was no guarantee at all.

The plaintiff seeks to represent a Class of all U-Haul customers nationwide who ordered moving equipment from the defendant but were not provided with the equipment at the time or location they ordered it and did not receive the $50 “reservation guarantee.”

Nguyen is represented by C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of Lee Litigation Group PLLC.

The U-Haul “Reservation Guarantee” Class Action Lawsuit is Trang Nguyen v. U-Haul Co. of New York, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-03947, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

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138 thoughts onU-Haul Class Action Says ‘Reservation Guarantee’ is No Guarantee At All

  1. Patricia Dean says:

    It happened to me in arizona. Had to come back the next day and then the trailer was not available. It was flagged it needed to be repaired. Truck was there. Never told me about any 50.00. I rented truck and car trailer.

  2. Corey says:

    I flew into Washington state to help a friend move to las cruces new mexico. I ordered my truck and car hauler. they had the truck but did not have my car hauler that day and would have it the next morning in the AM. we loaded the truck expecting no issues with the slight delay on the hauler with our current plan. The next morning we called and got the run around. IE no car hauler then they found one behind the store but it had no wheels so then we was waiting ona mechanic to place tires on the hauler ext ext.

    At about 2pm I got upset and called corp support line. they placed a asset manager on my “case” to locate a car hauler.They called and said we have your hauler reserved at this location. 2hr drive I arrive to find out they do not have a hauler at that store and they had been notified to tell me when i arrived to go to another store that was another hour and half back towards my original departure location.

    I finally got my “reserved” car hauler about 34hrs after my pick up time. and after burning though a full tank of fuel driving a now fully loaded rental truck from store to store. And adding an extra two days to my loss of work at nasa.

  3. C. Taylor says:

    Weeks ahead of time, I reserved a U-Haul truck to move my daughter out of her college apartment in 2004. When I called the day before to confirm, they told me they overbooked the trucks and I would not have one. I asked them “what about my guaranteed reservation”? And the reply was “A reservation is no guarantee that you will get a truck.” Then what is it then?

    I had to scramble, on Memorial Day weekend the busiest moving weekend of the year, to get a truck elsewhere. I will never, ever, ever use Hoo-Haul again!

  4. Sandra Anderson says:

    April 2010 used them to move from Rhode Island to Florida quoted little under 2,500.00 loaded the truck said said they wanted 6,000.00 they maxed out my credit card while I’m on my way to Florida by car. So no food and my in-laws sent money for gas. The lawyer in Pensacola tried but I’d had to go to California to deal with it um no I’m broke cause you robbed me cashed in my 401k to buy back all my own stuff!!

  5. Ms A says:

    I noticed if you reserve a truck in a red line area they double bill you and rake up milage charges. I could not find a truck in my area so I had to get on the other side of town. For 29.99 a day ended up charging $300.00 the truck broke down on the freeway and they wanted me to pay I refuted the charges will my cc carrier and sent them a check for 29.99 they cashed and started to receive calls after about a month they stopped calling me.

  6. Top Class Actions says:

    The case is still moving through the courts and has not yet reached a settlement. Claim forms are usually not made available to consumers until after a court approved settlement is reached. We recommend you sign up for a free account at TopClassActions.com and follow the case. We will update the article with any major case developments or settlement news! Setting up a free account with Top Class Actions will allow you to receive instant updates on ANY article that you ‘Follow’ on our website. A link to creating an account may be found here: https://topclassactions.com/signup/. You can then ‘Follow’ the article above, and get notified immediately when we post updates!

  7. Donna Smith says:

    Same thing happened to me moving from sc to nc in may 2017

  8. ANTHONY KENNEY says:

    ANTHONY C KENNEY 1840 S B0ULDER ST APT702 TULSA OK 74119 9186441056
    COMPLAINS AGAINST RENTING A 19,99 TRUCK AND BEINGG CHARGED 98 MILES FOR A I.5 DAY USED FOR TO MOVED APARTMENT,,,ONLY WENT 9 MILES

  9. Stacy moll says:

    Happened to me on a move from Illinois to Florida this past year

  10. Pamela Sweeney says:

    Problem here in TN

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