what on earth are you thinking? Could your reservation, check-in, and rental process be more archaic, lengthy, and troubling? I should say not. Let me provide my most recent experience (today) while attempting to pickup my truck for the move:
I set the reservation for an 11am pickup and arrived at 10am just in case there was a line, a missing truck, or some other situation that would certainly slow the day down. Besides, I wasn't wanting to drag the whole moving thing beyond a reasonable time frame... especially when other people are helping. Well, sure enough I enter the rental station and a line of nine people is before me. A nine-person line in a retail store is normally a non-issue, but in a Uhaul store it is a beast unto itself! There were three people running registers, or rental computer stations, and they could not have been any slower. Perhaps the best was a gentleman who arrived at the front and when the lady asked for his name so she could pull up his reservation he said he didn't have one. The lady now spends the next 35 minutes calling people on the phone who have already taken care of their reservations to see if they will be actually picking up their truck at their scheduled time. Could she have asked him to step aside until something possibly opens up? Sure. Did she? Nope, not a chance. I finally arrive at the front of the line a full fifty minutes after arriving. I hand the lady (same lady who was calling everyone) my confirmation printout from my online reservation only to have her respond (with a rather unhappy tone) "I don't need that, just give me your name." So I hand over my driver's license and she proceeds through an eight minute process of reentering my information for rental. I must ask, what's the point of an online reservation system if you have to reenter all the same data upon arrival. Shouldn't all that be already present under my CONFIRMATION NUMBER YOU DIDN'T NEED?! Nonetheless, I swipe the card, sign this, sign that, initial this, agree to this, and agree to that only to have her tell me I have an E-Alert on my account. What's an E-Alert? Good question. It means I nor anyone who's with me can rent until I call this phone number to see what the deal is. So, I step out of line, call the number, give my name, and have the lady inform me that almost four years ago I returned a Uhaul late few hours. I said, "No, I rented it for a specified time and due to a glitch, your computer said I was supposed to have it back sooner." She said, "Well, I don't have any notes on the issue and your balance is paid in full so I'll take your name off the list and you can rent in about five minutes." Well, that was real productive. I get back in line (oh yes, there's still a line) and after another five minutes the same lady who was "helping" me makes eye contact and asks what they said. I reply, "Computer glitch and they said I can rent in five minutes." Did she allow me to come back up to the front after already serving my time in the line? That's a fat negative. I was privileged to get back into line and spend the next thirty minutes living the good life as I wait all over again. After another ten minutes of going through all the same "initial this and approve that" I finally received the keys and could finally leave. What a nightmare!
