U-Haul - Contractor's Supply & Rental, Bowling Green, KY - given truck with mechanical problems - unhappy with service

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on August 12, 2002:

From:

RE: U-Haul - Contractor's Supply & Rental, Bowling Green, KY - given truck with mechanical problems - unhappy with service

I needed a rental truck to go from Bowling Green, KY to Louisville, KY then to LaGrange, KY and back to Bowling Green to pick up some furniture from my wife's parents and grandparents for our new house. Simple enough. I secured a 14-ft truck from a local UHaul dealer (Contractor's Supply & Rental) on Saturday August 10, 2002 to be used the following day. When I drove this truck from the dealer to my house, I didn't think it was running very well, but I assumed I was just not used to the feel of driving a diesel truck. Sunday morning, my brother-in-law came over to my house (he was going with me to help me get the furniture). He is more familiar with trucks than I am (he has a class-A CDL). He tried to back the truck into my driveway, but the truck would not go. He parked the truck and checked the level of transmission fluid. It was completely empty. We managed to get this truck back to the local dealer and cancelled that contract. He did not have any other trucks available, so we went to the local UHaul store here in Bowling Green. (located at 1817 Campbell Lane). They had a 14-ft truck that had been returned that morning they said we could use. I signed the contract for this truck and we got started on our trip, although we were now about 1.5 hours behind schedule. We made it to our first stop in Louisville OK. About that time we started noticing the smell of diesel fumes in the cab of the truck. We suspected that maybe it had some bad fuel or some other minor problem. The truck was still running so we continued on to LaGrange. We made it to LaGrange and decided to pull into a Shell service station to fill up the tank and see if we could get a fuel additive to help clean it out. However, when we stopped the truck, we noticed smoke coming from under the hood. My brother-in-law opened the hood fearing that the truck might be on fire. Fortunately the truck had not (yet) caught fire, but we could see where diesel fuel had been leaking onto the engine. The number 8 fuel injector had broken and was spewing diesel fuel on the engine. We called UHaul's emergency number, and they called one of their contracted mechanics to come look at the truck. He determined that the fuel injector could simply be replaced to repair the vehicle. However, he indicated there would be problems getting the part on Sunday afternoon. The UHaul representative offered no help in finding a part. The local mechanic suggested checking the UHaul dealer in LaGrange to see if they had a truck he could take the part off of. UHaul said not to do this. He pretty much did all he could do. UHaul then called back and said they were sending a tow truck to tow us back to Bowling Green. I asked if the driver could take us to pick up the furniture we had come to get. UHaul said no. The tow truck driver, obviously not wanting to make the 6-hour round trip from LaGrange to Bowling Green, went to the main UHaul store in Louisville before coming to where we had been stranded. He told the manager at the UHaul store he wanted to take a fuel injector off one of the trucks to fix our truck. He indicated that the manager of the store did not want him to do this, but he apparently got very insistent, and they let him take the part. After being stranded for 4 and a half hours, he arrived with the part (not only "No thanks to UHaul", but also pretty much having to tell UHaul what needed to be done). He put the part on in about 5 minutes. We finally picked up the furniture and headed back to Bowling Green. What should have been a 6 hour trip turned into a 13.5 hour ordeal thanks to UHaul's poorly maintained equipment and lousy customer service. Monday morning August 12, I went to the local UHaul store and talk to Al Brantley, the store manager. I explained what happened and told him I believed the bill should be adjusted for the 4 hours of our time that had been wasted and for being put out on the road in an unsafe truck. He took off the price of the truck ($19.95) and the price of the insurance ($14) and charged for the mileage ($193.32). I believe my time on a Sunday afternoon plus being given an unsafe vehicle to drive is worth more that $33.95. Obviously UHaul does not. I will never use a UHaul truck again. Sincerely, Dave Faulkenberg