Vernacular

When I reserved my U-Haul, I figured that when I went to pick up the truck, the people running the place would know more than me about renting from U-Haul. Clearly I was mistaken.

Weeks ago, I reserved a 14 foot U-Haul truck so I could move down to Pasadena. I have been getting everything in order for this and have been going absolutely nuts trying to figure everything out that needed to be done. I knew that life would get in the way and prevent obstacles, but I never expected this.

I got a call the day before my U-Haul was supposed to be ready to pick up and I get all the information I need about where to go to get my truck. I had called ahead to make sure everything was ready, and the girl on the other end of the phone sounded like she had just woken up, but said I was all set to head over. I excitedly head across town, passing plenty of perfectly close U-Haul stores on the way, heading to go get MY U-Haul. I get there and walk in to the sight of an empty U-Haul office, with the exception of a girl behind the counter, and what I believe was her father. I awkwardly stood there, waiting for my presence on the other side of the counter to be acknowledged, when the phone rings. Now I can understand that the phone needs to be answered, but there were two people on the other side of that counter, and last time I checked, it doesn't take two people to answer the phone. Clearly I was correct, because the gentleman on the other end of the counter stood there doing absolutely nothing until the girl got off the phone.

I am finally helped, I tell them I am here picking up, and they spend the next twenty-five minutes of my life trying to figure out how to rent me a U-Haul. There was a lot of staring at the computer and pamphlets, there was a lot of trying to call their supervisor who was not picking up the phone, and there was a lot of me waiting. After about the first ten minutes of so, I decided that this was ridiculous and I turned to my iPhone and Qik, a great service that allowed me to share my misery with the world by streaming live video from my phone.

Not only did it take a long time, not only did they seem confused, but they legitimately forgot to have me sign half the papers I needed to sign, and someone had to come all the way out to Roseville in a truck to meet me and finish the process because technically, I was driving a stolen U-Haul according to their system. U-Haul tried to make me happy and fix the situation by knocking a whopping $10 off of my $160 bill. Gee thanks, next time can I pay you an extra $10 to NOT be miserable?

Video of the Incident