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Richard G. Boyd
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Richard G. Boyd
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CLICK LINK BELOW CLICK LINK BELOW
Birthright : Murder, Greed,
and Power in the U-Haul
Family Dynasty
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Send complaints to Uhaul using this link.
https://www.uhaul.com/customer/feedback/action_form.aspx THE TRUTH ABOUT UHAUL'S INSURANCE
UHAUL RENTALS NIGHTMARE My number one advise is to warn people NOT to give their credit card number to anyone at Uhaul. Pay cash -- this way -- they can't add other charges to your card unauthorized by you. (I just found out that U-Haul won't do business with you unless you give a credit card number) To contact any of the people in these messages replace the word "at" with the @ sign in their email address. A small donation is appreciated for the maintenance of this site. Use the Paypal button above to donate as little as one dollar. Or mail a small donation to R.G. Boyd, 568 W. Friedrich Street, Rogers City, Michigan 49779. Thanks Email me at: richboyd"at"SpeednetLLC.comDear Mr. Boyd, In my search of trying to locate any information on Uhaul pertaining to my particular problems/issues, I came across your website. Great Job!! We need to get this message out. I do not know if you are still accepting postings for the site but I have quite a story for you which involves 2 seperate complaint issues and also the usual complaint regarding Uhaul's customer service. My original dealings are with Uhaul of Bellerose, NY, but the letters I am pasting below are the inquiries I sent to the Arizona headquarters along with their responses. They are quite lengthy (believe me, I spent hours at a time writing them) but this is because I needed to get my point across clearly and tried to include every detail, also because I found that by my 2nd and 3rd email I was repeating what I already told them since the responses they were sending back led me to believe they were not reading my letters at all. My situation is a bit different than most that you have on your site and after reading the letters below you will see that I am only seeking $45 from Uhaul which they owe to me but mostly I am looking for an explanation and an apology and a Uhaul representative to show some interest in what I have to say. Should you choose to post this on your site, you may edit it due to the repetitiveness but please post it because there may be others out there dealing with this same issue. Please son't mind the typos but in my stressful aggravation of pounding the keyboard to write to Uhaul, I was not concerned with grammar. Finally, here are my inquiries and the responses, and more inquiries, responses, etc.(note the 1-2 sentence response from Uhaul to each long inquiry of mine) ************Jan-12-2004************************* I have a storage room at UHAUL for which I pay about $215 a month, I have had it since July '03. My storage fee is due on the 5th of every month and if it is not paid, they charge a $15 late fee. Then 15 days later they charge another $15 late fee and start sending threatening letters about how they will seize your property if they do not receive their payment. I knew of all this since day one and since I am one to usually be late with my bills, I almost always got stuck with the $15 late fee for being a day or so late and on 2 or 3 occasions paid the $30 late fee for being 15 days late.When I signed the initial contract with them to rent the storage room I was asked if I would like to have the monthly fee automatically deducted from my credit card and if so I should fill out the necessary credit card info and authorization which was a small box located on the contract.I declined this option, preferring to pay cash.Then, I proceeded to pay my rent fee every month (usually late but never more than 15 days) and always paid the late fee as well.I always went in person to pay my rent even though they sent me a letter in the mail every time I was late(the letter would come a day or so after the due date) and this letter always offered for me to "sign up for the monthly storage fee to be automatically deducted from my credit card and we will waive the $15 late fee" and it requested for me to provide my credit card info and signature and send it back to them.This option never appealed to me and I always chose to pay in cash in person.At this point, I should add that the employees in this location have horrible attitudes towards their customers and are lazy, impolite and downright rude. On every occasion that I arrived to pay my bill whether there were NO customers in there or 1 or 2, there were ALWAYS several employees standing around doing nothing and they never greet me or even look up to acknowledge me.I always spend about 15-25 minutes in there paying my bill(which shuld only take a minute) and I get to listen to the employees speak among themselves about what they are going to "have for lunch" or "who did their nails" or how their "scalp is itchy because of the oil they use in their hair", etc. etc., etc.I have NEVER in my life experienced such a lack of customer service in any business establishment in my entire life.Anyhow, to get to the issue at hand. On one occasion several months ago I paid by credit card because I was short on cash. I was again offered to have my credit card kept on record so that they can automatically bill me every month and I declined this stating that I was just using it "this time" and I would usually be paying cash as I preferred to. I did NOT sign anything authorizing them to automatically deduct any future payments from my credit card, nor did I receive the $15 late fee being waived since I did not sign up for this method, I merely used it on that occasion. I only signed the receipt for that particular transaction as I would for any routine credit card purchase.Since that date, I always paid cash as usual for the next few months and usually "late" including the late fee. Since the same employees are always working there when I go, they pretty much know who I am and that I always come in and pay cash somewhere between the 5th and the 20th of the month(rent being due on the 5th).I always get the same letters from them every month, the first letter stating I am late and I am being charged $15 dollars and if I do not pay within 15 days and additional $15 will be added and very rarely I get a telephone (maybe 3 times in 7 months)message that is usually not understandable except for the fact that I hear the word "UHAUL" along with a lot of jibberish and I assume they are calling to inform me my rent is late.I have never paid my rent later than the 20th of the month (which is 15 days late)but I am almost always late and I always pay in cash, in person. Then, in the month of 12/03, I did not pay my rent on time on the 5th(as I hardly ever do) and I received the letter on the 6th or 7th informing me of the $15 late fee, as I always do, and I had planned on dropping by with my payment later on that week as I always do. Suddenly, on about 12/10/03, my credit card was charged $230 (the rent fee plus the first $15 late fee)!!!It was charged without my permission!!I did not authorize for them to charge my credit card and I was outrage dthat they even had kept my credit card number on record and used it without my consent and without my signature and my rent was not even 15 days due yet!!Prior, to this it had gone up to 15 days past due and I was charged a $30 late fee (total of $245) and paid in person by cash and I could not understand why they would take it upon themselves to just charge my credit card out of the blue. On top of this, the letter I received stating I was late and I was being charged a $15 late fee also offered me the option of the automatic credit card deduction(as it always did) if I signed the form and provided the info and mailed it back and it also offered to waive the late fee if I chose to do so(as it always did). But the point is, I DID NOT CHOOSE TO DO SO, I did not sign anything or authorize anything and they just charged my credit card INCLUDING the $15 late fee. This made me exceed my credit card limit causing me to incur additional penalty fees with my credit card company.I immediately called UHAUL and provided the associate with my name and storage room number and asked her why they charged my credit card without my permission.Her response was "I didn't charge your credit card", I asked her "what do you mean?,I was charged $230 by UHAUL" She replied (emphasis on the I) " "I" didn't charge your credit card" very rudely. I said "well, maybe YOU aren't the actual person who charged me but when I see YOU, I mean you people who work at UHAUL". She said "well, I didn't do it", I asked her "who did?" she said "you will have to speak to a manager", so I requested the manager and was then told she was not there and i should call back tomorrow after 10:30 AM. The next day I went in person around 12 noon and requested the manager who happened to be not there again, I told the employee that I was instructed to call after 10:30 and it is now 12pm, so how come she is not here. I was told she was in but she left already. I then explained the situation to a male employee who asked me if I authorized them to charge my credit card, I said "no", he checked his computer and verified that I was not on their "automatic credit card deduction program" and gave me the business card of the manager.I also took a comment/complaint postcard to fill out and asked him for the location # so I can put it on the card and he told me that I should call the manager and she will give me the information(he wouldn't even give me the location # to write on the comment card!). The next day I tried to call in the afternoon and she was not there again, I pled my case to another employee on the phone stating that I wanted to ensure this does not happen again and I cannot keep calling every day if the manager is never going to be there. I was then put on hold for an extended amount of time until I hung up. I waited a day and called again the next day and I still could not contact the manager and the employees would not take a message for her, they just kept telling me I would have to call her back. After that I found myself to be very busy with the holiday's and then I was involved in an auto accident and the matter slipped my mind since I had other things to deal with and I was pretty sure that at least it would not happen again since I was clear to the employee's I spoke with that I did not authorize this to be done and my overall intention after that was to try to move my items from that storage location before 1/5/04 and to write a complaint to the BBB. Well, like I said, with the holiday's and the accident, before I knew it , it was January and the incident was far from my mind. That is, until 1/08/04 when I received my monthly UHAUL letter stating that my rent was due on 1/5/04 and a late fee of $15 has been charged to my account and an additional $15 will be incurred if it becomes "14" days late (notice I stressed the 14 days becasue it used to say 15 days and they suddenly changed it, I will comment on that later). It stated that my balance was $230 and again it offered to waive the $15 late fee if I sign up for the automatic credit card payment plan. When I received this letter, it reminded me of the previous month's occurence and I made a note for myself to write a complaint to the BBB and also to go down to UHAUL next week to pay my bill before it becomes 14 days late and I figured maybe I would catch the manager at that time to speak with her. Well, could you imagine that on 1/10/04 they charged my credit card AGAIN!!!! They charged me $230 AGAIN (the storage and the $15 late fee) as they did the month before without my permission and again the rent was not even 14 days late yet, I had just received their letter 2 days before!! Now, this credit card that they were charging (that I had used once in the past for ONE payment) is actually not even my OWN credit card account. It is a card in my name that my father had gotten for me to use for emergencies only and it is actually HIS account, he receives all the statements, I just have an extra card with my name on it. That is really the main reason I never chose the credit card billing option and also the reason I only used it once when I really did not have the money to pay my rent. So, he was the one getting stuck with the penalties for going over the card limit(which happened again!) when they chose to charge this card without anybody's prior consent! Like, I said, I only have the card for emergencies and I never use it without asking him first since he knows the balance and the amount available to use. For the $230 they charged on the card in December I had to pay him instead of paying UHAUL so that he could pay the balance on the card but he incurred the penalty and now this month, he had to cancel the credit card completely since he was very concerned about them charging the credit card again without us knowing and him having to get stuck with all the fees. So again, I jus t visited him today to pay him the $230 that I would have paid to UHAUL directly (today is 1/12/04) had they not chosen to charge the credit card for a second time without our consent.This also caused a rift between me and my dad since he thought I took care of the issue last month, which I tried to but never was able to contact the manager but thought I was very clear that this card should never be charged without my consent to every employee that I did speak with. On the day the card was charged I tried to contact the manager with no success as usual so then my father called UHAUL and amazingly he was able to reach the manager. I now think that she was purposely avoiding me since I gave my name each time I called but when he called(he has a different last name), she was caught off guard and did not realize that he was calling for the same issue as I was. All she told him was that she would make sure not to charge the card in the future and proceeded to tell him that if I do not pay my rent in time that they would seize my property that is in storage and auction it off and sell it!!! Can you believe the nerve? My dad is an older man and instead of demading an explanation from her on "why?" and "how?" they charged our credit card without our consent and signature, he let her turn the conversation around on him and make it seem like I'm going to have my property seized and auctioned off since I keep paying my rent late and she got him all worried about that so he just thanked her for her time and then called me to warn me about not paying my rent on time! I then tried to call and she was gone for the day already (supposedly). My point is this: we never received an answer on why they charged the credit card in the first place, not once but twice and with the late fees(since the letter states if I choose to use the credit option they will waive the late fee), even though I did not choose this option, they still charged me and they still charged the late fee and then she had the nerver to make it sound like my property was going to be seized from me!!!I NEVER EVER once paid my rent more than 15 days late, and because I pay my rent late I am charged a late fee and I know this but I CHOOSE to pay that late fee because I CHOOSE to pay my rent late!! I am not worried about my proeprty being seized since I know that I will never NOT pay my rent!! I will always pay my rent as I always have for the past 6 months, whether I choose to pay the normal fee of $215 on the 5th of the month or pay $230 after the 5th or pay $245 on the 20th. I have never let it go THAT FAR!! How dare they use my credit card without my permission and scare my dad into thinking I'm not going to pay my rent in time and my stuff will be seized in order to turn the tables on him and make him lose sight of the issue at hand. So, that is my MAIN concern and the issue that is at hand. I want to add one more complaint to this form while I am here. A few paragraphs above I mentioned how this last letter I received from UHAUL stated that I would incur an additional $15 late fee if my rent was "14" days late instead of it saying "15" days late as it did in the past. This was an issue I had with UHAUL several months back, the first time I was ever charged for both late fees in one month bringing my late fee charge to $30 for that month. In that month, I went on the 20th of the month to pay my bill because I understood the letter I received to mean that as long as I paid my rent by the 20th (which was 15 days from the due date) that I would not incur the second late charge, I believed I would only incur that charge if I paid after the 20th. When I went in person to pay my bill and was being charged $245, I questioned why I was being charged the additional $15 since it was the 20th and the rent was not 15 days late yet, it would have been if I let it go past that day and that was the reason I went there on the 20th so that I did not incur the additional $15 late fee. I was used to paying the first $15 late fee many times in the past but had never had to pay $30 and I did not understand why I was being charged. The first employee I was dealing with (a woman) was very uninformative aand rude and said "the late fee was charged this morning and once it goes in the system, I cannot take it out, there's nothing I can do". I asked her for a manager at that time also and I was told I would have to call Arizona. At this point, I did not know your headquarters were in Arizona and I asked her why I would have to call Arizona. She said that if I wanted to speak to a manager, the manager is in Arizona and I would have to call there. We proceeded to argue a bit because I was getting very frustrated becasue I did not understand what "Arizona" had to do with my storage room in New York and the employee was not explaining anything to me. I said to her " I don't pay anyone in Arizone, I pay you and I would like for someone to help me here at this location". She did nothing. I went on stating that I had a contract with THEM in NY, I signed a contract in New York and I have no dealings with Arizona and what was she talking about? She got all confused and asked another employee to assist me. The other employee was no better, she at least explained that the headquarters are in Arizona and the late fee was charged through their main system and could not be changed by them once it is charged and I would have to contact Arizona for further assistance. At this point, I tried to plead my case to her, asking her if she understood where I was coming from (she did not). I slowly explained to her that if my rent is due on the 5th and I pay on the 5th it is $215.95, and if I pay any day after the 5th I incur a $15 late fee as I always do and I usually pay $230.95 when I receive the letter which states to me that I have an additional 15 more days before I will incure another $15 late fee. So, if it was the 20th of the month and I came there specifically on that day so as not to incur an additional late fee and not to let the rent become over 15 days late, then why am I still being charged the additional $15 late fee? She said she all she knows is that the charge went into the system early that morning and that she could do nothing to take it out and I have no choice but to pay and take it up with the people in Arizona. I told her that I refused to pay becasue it made no sense and it was ridiculous and there was obviously some mistake made and I did not believe I should be charged this additional late fee. I then showed her my letter and asked her why the letter said I would only be charged the additional $15 if the rent was 15 days late and if I am there on the 15th day then I am NOT late, I would only be late if I paid on the 21st or later, so I would like her to explain to me why I was sent a misleading letter by them. At this point she got defensive about how "She" personally did not send me the letter, and I had to explain to her that whether it was "her" or any other employee at Uhaul, somebody sent me a letter leading me to believe I would only be charged an additional fee after the 15 days and yet it turns out to be false. She said I should have paid it that morning. I was dumbfounded!! What difference did it make, morning or afternoon, it is still the same day and still during their business hours. Since, I was not happy with their answer, they wrote down the Arizona phone number for me which was not toll free and told me to call Arizone. At that point, I requested that THEY call Arizona, since I should not have to also incur the long distance phone charges and also , I did not want to drive home and have to make another trip back to Uhaul after calling Arizona. So, she called the number and started speaking to someone on the phone but she was not clearly explaining the situation she was basically just saying " acustomer does not want to pay her late fee, etc. etc." but not explaining "why". I asked her if I could speak to whomever she was speaking to but she ignored me and I asked her at least 3 times making full eye contact with her while she proceeded to avoid my eyes and look down and say "um hum, uh huh, ok" and then hang up and tell me that they are not going to take the additional $15 off my account!! She did absolutely nothing for me and I'm starting to wonder now if she was even really on the phone with anybody!! Now, I was really aggravated and tried to get any one's attention who worked there who would here me out. I asked them if there was no manager on the premises, then who is in charge? I did not understand how nobody could be incharge and since these 2 employees were completely unhelpful, I wanted to speak to somebody who could help. Finally, a male employee who was at least more polite and more informative at answering my questions came to assist me. I aexplained to him that it made no sense that the other 2 employees said if I paid this morning I would not have incurred the late fee. I said that if the bill has to be paid by a certain time it should be stated in the letter I received, becasue an average person would believe that the payment can be made any time during business hours that day (like is true with any other company awaiting a payment on a certain day). After looking in his computer he said that I was charged the late fee at 7 or 8 am and that they were not even open at that time so I would have actually had to pay the day before (the 19th) in order to avoid the late fee. So that would have been 14 days not 15 and the letter was not accurate!! He explained to me that the letter was meant to be understood that on the 15th day the late fee would be charged and that I was understanding it differently. So finally, somebody made sense!! I understood him but still felt that the late fee should be taken off my account since the letter was misleading but since they could not help, I would pay the fee for now and send in a complaint to Arizona later. So that was that. I did send one of those postcards in explaining this issue but I never heard back from anyone and it was only during my last Uhaul visit when I took another comment card that I noticed that it requested the location #. Since I did not provide a location # on my previous comment card, maybe that is why I never heard from anyone. You may want to look finding that comment card sent several months back. Anyhow, it's quite ironic how the new letters you send out correctly state "14" days instead of incorrectly stating "15" days as they did in the past. This lead s me to believe that my comment was in fact looked into and I was in fact correct but instead of receiving the credit I was due, Uhaul just decided to correct their letters and ignore the fact that I was the one who brouught up this issue and ignore the fact that they owe me that $15 due to the misleading information on that letter. I am sure you agree that just by Uhaul changing the 15 days to 14 days is an acceptance of being wrong on your part but instead of attempting to resolve that issue with me, they just decided to start a whole new issue and start illegaly charging my credit card without my consent or approval or signature. My intent now is to take this up with the BBB but when I checked their complaint form on their website it instructed me to attempt to solve this first with Uhaul directly. This is my last attempt to give you a chance to right these wrongdoing's and offer me some sort of explanation. I am saving a copy of this letter I am sending you so that I can show it to the BBB should I have to contact them in the near future if you do not show some concern about this matter. I will also look into having the credit card company take legal action for the fraudulent use of the credit card if necessary if this matter goes unresolved. *********WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP*********** 1. Offer me a valid explanation on why my
credit card was charged twice without my permission. FIRST UHAUL RESPONSE: Dear Ms. Fitzgerald, *******MY RESPONSE******** Dear Kristen, Please understand that as I thoroughly explained in my lengthy fully detailed inquiry to you, that the people at the Bellerose location are of no help to me whatsoever!! As I already explained to you, I have had trouble contacting the manager after numerous attempts and I do not intend to waste any more time trying to contact her when it is obvious that she is avoiding me. On top of that, I have only been met with rude employees every time I have tried to speak with whoever was available, they provided me with no help with anything. Also, regarding the matter of the $15 that I was charged months ago for the 15 day late fee that was now changed to 14 days, I was told by the employees in UHAUL that I would have to contact Arizona since they could not do nothing about it. For all of these reasons, that is why I contacted you. I was hoping my inquiry would be read by a supervisor who cares about their reputation and their customers. I have had no luck with any of the Bellerose employees nor have I had any luck reaching the manager. After more than 6 attempts, I cannot waste my time any more with them if it is in vain. My inquiry to you was not only a cry for help but also a complaint against that location, so if they are unwilling to solve my problem, the only one left for me to turn to was you. Please let me know if you intend to try to get involved and resolve these issues for me. If not I will go ahead and contact the Better Business Bureau because it is painfully obvious to me that a thrid party needs to be involved in order to get to the bottom of things. I was hoping that third party would be you, saving me the trouble of contacting the BBB and saving UHAUL from having yet another complaint filed against them since I am already aware that numerous complaints have been made against Uhaul to the BBB, and there are even websites on the web devoted to unsatisfied Uhaul customers who are trying to get the word out of these unfair business practices. I look forward to your prompt response and hopefully your attempt to resolve these matters. Thank you for your time. *****UHAUL'S SECOND RESPONSE******** Dear Mr. Boyd, Thank you for your time. This is the 2nd half of the email I just sent to you. If you are getting this one first, please read the previous one before you read this otherwise you will be confused by it. If you have gotten through the lengthy first half and are now ready to read my final response to Uhaul, thank you for your patience and concern in my case. I am thankful to find somebody who wants to hear about this since Uhaul apparently does not. So, without further ado, below is my response to Ms. Michelle Baker's reply to me giving me the runaround and referring me to yet ANOTHER Uhaul office:
Jan-21-2004 Dear Ms. Baker, I find it very rude that you seem to be just brushing me off on to someone else and offering no assistance to me whatsoever. As I said in my prior inquiries to you, the Bellerose Uhaul employees had actually referred me to YOU in the past when the problem arose with the extra late fee. So, although I have 2 separate issues I am trying to resolve, the one issue regarding the late fee was in fact supposed to be taken up with your office according to the Uhaul employees I spoke to back then. Although I thought it was ridiculous for me to have to contact somebody in Arizona for a problem arising in NY, those were the instructions I was given. So, even if you cannot help me with the credit card issue, you should be able to help with the other matter as I was told. If that is not the case and youa re still referring me now to yet another location which I have to send my complaints to, then this adds a 3rd complaint to the original two, should I have to take this up with the BBB. That 3rd complaint being that I am being given the runaround and if the Bellerose employees insisted that the Arizona headquarters were the only ones who could resolve the late fee discrepancy and directed me to you, and then I write to you not only by mail (and received no response) but also by email and now you are just handing me off to another location, then Uhaul as a "whole" is practicing shady business ethics and treating their customers who are currently in a business contract with Uhaul very poorly. A business such as yours that a customer such as myself goes into contract with for you to provide me with services in return for monthly cash payments obviously must frequently encounter issues in which the customer is in need of assistance by either a Uhaul employee, manager, or customer service department. When these issues arrive there should be a means by which the customer can easily and promptly take up their complaint with whomever is in charge of these matters and the complaint should be investigated and an attempt to resolve the issue or at least provide a valid explanation to the customer as to why the problem occured in the first place and what steps will be taken to right the wrongdoing that was imposed upon the customer. There are 2 parties to a contract such as the one you offer to customers for rental of storage rooms and in this case the parties are Uhaul and myself. When one party breaches the contract or acts in a manner that is not outlined in the contract, then the party who is being wronged has the right to: 1- File a complaint with the company and/or manager/supervisor requesting the situation be remedied in a timely manner, 2- Have easy access to the person or persons that handle these matters, whether it be in person, by phone, by email or postal mail, 3- Receive a timely response from the person who handles these matters stating that the matter is being investigated and also stating an approximate length of time it will take for a proper response/resolution to be offered 4- Lastly a detailed response/resolution/explanation should be sent in a timely manner (considering all factors of what needs to be researched and how busy you are with other matters such as these), but during this time, correspondence should be sent updating the customer of your current status and what you may be waiting on before you can make an informed and fair decision. These are the guidelines that are widely followed by any legitimate business that I have ever dealt with or know about, for dealing with a customer under contract who has been wronged by the company. Other than that, the customer can choose to take the matter to small claims court, report it to the Better Business Bureau or the Department of Consumer Affairs. I am not interested in having to take this matter that far and that is why I have first given Uhaul several opportunities to handle my complaints. If you flip this around to your side and think of a hypothetical situation where I had breached my end of my contract with you, here's what would happen as far as I know: My rent is due every month on the 5th, if it is paid by the 5th it is the regular charge of approximately $215, then there is a 15 day period offered by you (or rather, it is now 14 days, since my complaint), during these 15 days I receive a letter from you stating my rent is late and there is a $15 late fee imposed on my account and if I do not pay in 15 days another $15 late charge will be imposed on my account totaling $30 in late fees(even though you currently changed to 14 days I am going by what the majority of my paperwork from you states from when I went into contract with you in July 2003 until a month or so ago). Since I never paid more than 15 days late I am not sure exactly what you do then, but according to some letters I received from you, you state that if the rent is not paid you will put a lock on my storage room so I can not access it and you will seize my property and sell it or take me to court or both. So, as far as I can tell from those statements, I understand that I have a grace period of 14 or 15 days from the date the rent is due, and during that grace period I may pay my rent including late fees and then my account is current with you until the next month. But....if those 15 days pass by and I do not pay my rent, you will seize my property and take me to court to recover damages (assumably for the unpaid monthly rental fee of $215 plus the late fees). In other words, you give me 15 days from my due date to pay you for that month's rent AND you impose late charges and after that you seize my property and sue me for damages. How ironic!! Since I pay my rent at the beginning of the month for "that" month, for time that has not even started yet(it's not as if I am paying for services already rendered, I am paying for future services), you give me 15 days to pay you and charge an additional$15-$30 and then after that you seize my property and sue me for that month's rent! So not only do you keep all of my possessions which are worth much more than the monthly rental payment, you also sue me for damages which I assume would be at least $245(rent plus 2 late fees) meanwhile, my property would have only been in your possession unpaid by me for those 15 days not for the entire month!! If you seize the proeprty after 15 days then it becomes yours, right? Yet, you would keep my property which is obviously valuable or I wouldn't be paying $215 a month for the last 7 months to keep it in storage, and you would try to recover damages from me for the rent, when meanwhile, if you seized the property mid month, it would no longer be mine, it would be yours! But you would still make out like a bandit, recovering damages from me for rent for storage that you seized 15 days into the month(making it no longer my property) plus you would sell/auction my property and end up getting at least an amount equal to or more than a year's worth of rental payments. Since I am unsure of exactly "when" you take this action, I may be off by a few days or a week or so. I am not certain if this happens after 15 days or if you allow another week or what since I never let my rental payment get that late, however I know that it is a short amount of time and you do not offer much leniency to your customers and almost seem eager to seize our property since at that point "we" would have breached our contract with you and apparently you feel this action is necessary immediately without giving the customer much of a chance to try to catch up on his/her payment. Instead of sending a letter stating that if the rent is 15 days late, please call so we can work out an arrangement (maybe a payment plan or 30 days to come up with the money, or inquire if the customer can sell some items in storage in order to pay the rent, etc.,etc) you are quick to send a nasty letter offering no alternative but to pay now or lose everything and I am sure you promptly follow through with those threats. I am trying to make a point here so please don't think I am being sarcastic with you. I am not saying you are wrong for seizing a person's property or suing them for damages if they do not pay their rent because if they do not hold up their end of the contract then they must deal with the consequences. The process for Uhaul to take these actions is speedy and smooth. Since they have our address on file on the contract, all they have to do is mail out a letter or two stating what actions they plan to take and then they proceed with the seizure/auction/lawsuit. It is also my understanding that the particular Uhaul location where the customer was in contract with, are the ones who seize the property and possibly sell it and sue the customer for damages, this leads me to believe that this particular location that the customer was dealing with receives the profits from the sale of the customers property and also any damages recovered legally. I know for a fact that the money I have paid to the Bellerose Uhaul was placed in their cash register before my eyes, including any late fees, and whenever I received a letter stating that I was being charged a $15 late fee and would be charged another late fee if 15 more days past, and after that "I have a short period before my property is seized and I believe there are also additional lien fees; all of this correspondence came from the Uhaul Bellerose location. So, it is painfully obvious to any average person with a bit of common sense to believe that if "I" as a customer have a problem with the services I am receiving under my contract with the Bellerose Uhaul that the "Bellerose Uhaul" would be available to assist me with my needs. They are very quick to accept my money, impose late fees on my account, send me a late notice immediately when my rent becomes one day late and send letters which appear to me as attempts to intimidate/threaten my ownership of my property which I store at their facility if I am anywhere from 1 to 15 days late. They even mail out the "pre-lien" notice letter on the 14th or 15th day early in the morning before I get there to make my payment(since I believe I paid on the 15th day twice) so that even though I did in fact remit the payment on that day, I receive a nasty letter in the mail a day later threatening to put a lien on my property, meanwhile I already made the payment to them. In other words, I have 2 letters dated 10/19/03 and 11/19/03 stating a "pre-lien fee" has been charged to my account and I have a short period of time to remit payment or my rights to the storage room will be terminated!! They sent these letters out before the end of the business day when I did in fact come in and make the payment. To make matters worse, there's actually a 4th issue I can now add to this since I have been researching all of my Uhaul paperwork. Those 2 payments I made for October and November included the additional $15 pre-lien fee making the total payment $245.95. However, the letter dated October 19, 2003 says "the rent is now 15 days past due and an additional $15 fee is being charged", the November 19, 2003 letter says "your rent is now 14 days past due and a additional $15 fee is being charged". This makes no sense!! As was my original argument with Uhaul a while back regarding the misinterpretation of the 15 days, I figured if I paid by the 20th (15 days from the 5th), I would avoid the additional penalty, but I was then told after much confusion in the office that the fee was imposed on the 15th day so even though I paid on the 15th day, I would have had to pay on the 14th day to avoid the penalty. Due to this lack of clarity on Uhaul's letter's to me I tried to protest it and as I told you in my letter previous to the last letter I sent, I was told by Bellerose Uhaul that the fine was imposed through the computer system in Arizona and I must take it up with them in Arizona. As I also repeated to you several times in my prior inquiries to "you" in Arizona, I sent a comment card regarding that issue which was never responded to as of this date. Then the November 19, 2003 letter came, notice the date is the 19th and is the same as the previous month's letter dated the 19th, this letter said "your rent is 14 days late and an additional $15 penalty is charged". On top of that, I received a letter dated November 8, 2003 which stated if my rent was 15 days late I would receive the additional penalty. Do you see all of the errors and confusion here? If I was told in October that the penalty was charged as of the 15th due starting from the 5th that would mean I receive a penalty as of the 19th. Even though this was vague and unclear and was written to be understood that I had until the 20th to pay, they offered me no recourse at Bellerose (as I told you earlier) and referred me to Arizona. Then a month later in November I get the same letter dated on the same day of the month but instead it says that I am 14 days past due and a penalty is being imposed. So, in a period of 2 months you used two different methods to calculate the days. The first month, October, you started on the 5th and counted to the 19th, (5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19) totalling 15 days and charging me a penalty on the 15th day even though I paid that day. As I have said to you and the Bellerose employees and on my comment postcard, I did not realize the method you used for 2 reasons:I did not think you counted the 5th as a day, an average person would count 15 days from the 5th and believe they had until the 20th to pay, and even if you count the 5th and make the 19th become the 15th day, then I would still believe I could pay by the end of the business day on the 19th. So, instead of correcting the misleading letters Uhaul sends regarding late fees, they change it but it is still unclear. The next letter says I am charged a late fee on the 19th because I am 14 days late!! So obviously this time they did not include the 5th as the first day, instead they started from the 6th as I thought was the case originally, but yet still I get the late fee because they change the time period from 15 days to 14 days!! When a change is made like this aren't we supposed to be informed prior to the next billing cycle? How are we to understand these bills? It seems like it is done on purpose just to collect more late fees from us. Why can't you just state the actual date that I will be charged the penalty if the rent is unpaid instead of using this 14-15 day vague method that is uncomprehendible and misleading? And why not offer a phone call a day prior to the late fee being imposed instead of a day after which is the only time they call? So, as I was previously saying, it is very easy for you to recover damages from us if we breach our contract and you penalize us if we are 1 day late with our payment. So how come it is so hard for us to get a Uhaul representative to show even a bit of interest and try to right a wrong (or several wrongs in this case) when you commit acts and engage in business practices that as far as I am concerned are in breach of the contract you have with me? I have been saving all of my correspondence and evidence pertaining to this matter and I am sure the BBB and DOCA would take a keen interest in this case, considering all of the attempts I have made to solve this directly with you and all I have gotten so far is a one or two sentence response directing me to contact somebody else. This is getting crazy!! I don't think anybody would put as much effort into trying to easily resolve this with you as I have. I am spending an hour at a time detailing information that should be of some major concern to you and it seems that nobody is even reading what I have to say, except to note my email address and respond to me saying I should contact somebody else. First you responded telling me to take it up with the Bellerose location when I clearly explained in my first letter to you that not one employee in Bellerose offered me any assistance and the manager was not available to speak with me when I called numerous times and even went in person to see her. The employees who, according to them, can't do anything at all for me, not even look into the matter and explain it to the manager when or if she ever does come in to work, the only advice I was given was to call or contact the Arizona office which I am doing now for the 4th time I believe, although I have no clue why I should contact Arizona for problems when Bellerose is always available to take my money and send me letters and enter into a contract with me, not Arizona. But, since I was directed to you, I refuse to be shoved off to someone else. If you feel that this is not something that should be dealt with by you and as you replied below, I should now contact someone else in Brooklyn, why can't you take some initiative, even if just because it's the decent thing to do, and forward all of my letters to the person in Brooklyn whom you believe should handle this and then I will await her response. I see no reason I should have to call another office and explain in great detail what I have already repeated several times in these emails and to the Bellerose employees and the Brooklyn office may just direct me to somebody else and not even help me anyway? Bellerose Uhaul referred me to take these matters up with you and since I have made numerous attempts to resolve it with them with no luck, I hoped you would finally get to the bottom of this. Now after 4 very long and detailed pleas for help to you, you are sending me to someone else. I have spent enough of my time and have been caused enough stress and aggravation over this matter, which in reality, I am not asking for much from you, just what I deserve. The refunds for the late fees I was wrongfully charged and a valid explanation as to why my credit card was used with no prior authorization from me, and an explanation as to what you plan to do about this as far as reprimanding whomever caused these issues to arise. It is not fair what Uhaul is doing and the lack of concern by the management is even worse. I will not go any further with you now, you can let me know if you plan to do anything about this or forward it to someone who can help, otherwise I will just forward all of these letters to the BBB and DOCA and see what they have to say about it. Thank you for your time. **********For the record Mr.Boyd: I received a telephone message today from a Uhaul representative named "Hazel" who stated that she would like to speak with me regarding my concerns and try to find a way that we can come to a resolution. The number she left was in a (718) area code which is either Queens or Brooklyn. I was unable to call until after 5PM and I tried several times between 5 and 7PM and I was met with a fax machine beep/signal. I assume they were already closed and the line was hooked up to a fax machine for the night but I will try again tomorrow and hopefully be able to reach "Hazel". If you are interested I will keep you updated but either way I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts on this issue. For me it is more the "principle" of their ethics than the actual money. I hope Hazel has been informed of everything and I do not have to repeat my entire story again. However, I have already decided that whether or not they resolve the issue to my satisfaction, I will still file a BBB complaint regarding their customer service and billing practices. I am only waiting to do so until I hear what Uhaul has to say since I am sure once I file a complaint they will cut off further contact with me (not that they have actually had any contact with me anyway except for this message I received today). If the matter goes unresolved are you aware of who else I should contact? Department of Consumer Affairs, Attorney General, local news/newspapers, etc? I am interested in your suggestions. Do you think the news would be interested in a story such as this? Should it come down to that, I will definitly let them know about your website and the numerous others out there regarding Uhaul's lack of customer service. I'm sure your not a lawyer, so it may be nervy of me to ask you for legal advice but since you have been dealing with Uhaul complaint's for a while, I figured you may have an answer for this last question: If they do not resolve the issue with me and I decide to take them to small claims court, what do you think the outcome would most likely be? Do you think I would be awarded the $45 plus court filing fees or do you think I could recover punitive damages(to punish Uhaul) such as the full amount of the 2 month's rent charged to my credit card (approx.$460). If you think the latter, I will pursue that otherwise I will not sue them for $45. I look forward to your reply in the coming days. Please reply directly to my email or reference "UHAUL" in the subject line so I do not accidentally mistake your email as junk mail or spam. Very truly yours, H. Fitzgerald PS. I was never able to contact this Hazel! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Ms. Fitzgerald I'll post your Uhaul complaint on my web site next time I update it. I pasted your horror story in MS Word and it was 14 pages long. Most people won't spend that much time reading it. But at least we will get the word out. U-Haul is an evil corporation. They know Americans move by the tens of thousands everyday and they know they will never hurt for business no matter how many customers they cheat. The only way to hurt them is to take them to small claims court. Although you don't need an attorney for small claims, you may want to talk to an attorney to determine the amount of damages. I would also suggest sending your complaint to the Attorney General in your state. If everyone did this something might be done. Good Luck Richard G. Boyd
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