Prince

It all began last week, when I made a reservation for a U-Haul truck for Sunday morning. We've been packing our stuff little by little all week, but come Saturday it's time for a real push. Sunday morning at 9:00 am we go to pick up the truck. All's well, we start loading it and packing stuff, wife's folks arrive from about a 90 min drive away to help at around 2 pm.

We get the packing and loading done at 10 pm, and head on out on the highway. We expect it to take us about 100 minutes or so to get to our destination... We get on the interstate, and two exits later the trucks breaks down. The engine stops running and won't start, even though we just put 15 gallons in the tank and it already had a quarter of a tank in it. We also note that the tail lights aren't working...at all.

10:30 pm we put in a call to U-Haul's "24 hr roadside assistance" number. They tell us to call back in half an hour, as they need to locate a mechanic. at 11:10 pm, we call back, and they say to expect a mechanic to arrive from Austin in about an hour. Okiedokie... 12:30 am, no mechanic has come, we call back, they say they can't reach the mechanic they sent out for us. They say try again in half an hour. 1 am, we're getting a bit sick of standing by the side of the interstate after packing and loading up the truck for 12 hrs and everything. We call them again, they say they're sending another mechanic, please wait about an hour. A little after 2 am, that is 3 and a half hours since our first call, a mechanic arrives. Great job, U-Haul.

Turns out that there were two fuses missing from the car for some reason. Anyways, we decide that it is too late to drive to our destination as we're barely keeping our eyes open. Going back is not an option as we'll have nothing to sleep on in the old apartment. Also, we supposedly only have less than 7 hours left before the truck is due at the drop-off location. To make things more fun, we have 3 cats in carriers in one car, one dog in one fully packed sedan and one dog as a passenger in the U-Haul.

We drive back to the old apartment and put the cats in the bathroom after we find their food and litterbox from the crammed up truck. Then we drive to the Holiday Inn and check in, and sneak in the dogs from the back door and up the emergency exit staircase. We shower and fall asleep at 4 am.

At 7:45 am the dogs need to take a shit. We get up and sneak out again with the dogs, let them do their business, sneak them back in and feed them, and eventually they settle down, but we can't fall asleep again. Every muscle in my body is on fire, and some I did not even know existed. I shower and put on a new pair of scrubs (nice moving wear), but all my underwear is packed up deep in the truck, so I have to borrow a pair of my wife's panties. They ride up my ass like a g-string.

My wife grabs a breakfast downstairs while I can't even find an appetite. We all check out and get the cats and the truck and head back on the road at 10 am or so. Two hours later, we arrive at the new place and start to unload. Later in the evening, we're done, we catch a quick dinner and by 1 am we can finally go to sleep. We return the truck sometime the next day, and U-Haul agree to pay for the Holiday Inn, and don't charge us an extra day so they did right by us there. Not that I feel any better about the piece of shit truck and their absolutely horrible "24 hr roadside assistance" service.

It's Wednesday evening now, and my inlaws are staying here for yet another night. I am getting irritable because I haven't gotten laid in well over a week. My wife keeps telling me that we'll fuck as soon as they leave. I am waiting impatiently. I am grateful for their help, but we haven't had a single moment for just the two of us in our new home. It also irritates me that we have to wait till next week for USPS to make keys for our mailbox (what happened to the previous ones?) and we have to drive 40 miles to get them, even though there is a post office less than a mile from the house. And my All In One printer went to shit today and now I am using an old deskjet that smudges all over the fuckin pages.

This thread serves no purpose I guess. I just need to be a man, shut the fuck up, and go jack off in the bathroom.

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lurkette

I'm sorry, but

I'm assuming the scrubs were pretty thin, or you woulda just gone commando, but I can just picture you mincing around all day, horny as hell, with a pair of women's panties riding up...

so sorry ROFL

*snort*

Ok, seriously, now...

no, sorry - it's just funny.

The in-laws will go home and you'll be able to "christen" your new home in style.

But thanks for the laugh

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Brewmaniac

Sorry about your ordeal but your story is funny as hell!

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krwlz

Oh man, that sounds like a hell of a few days. Haha, I'm with lurkette though... Comando it is.

Then again Commando is my prefered modus operendie (sp??)

Average_Joe

Many years ago, I too had a bad experience with U-Haul. I was moving from Seattle to New England, and I had rented a U-Haul trailer to carry all my stuff. They gave me an old, beat-up trailer, but they assured me that it would make the trip without any problems.

So, I'm on my way heading East, but I was stuck in a weather front the whole way, so it basically rained non-stop from Eastern Washington to Montreal. I finally got to my new place about 5-6 days later, and when I was unloading the trailer, I found that my queen size mattress was completely soaked, and the futon mattress on top of the bed mattress was damp. Turns out that the floor of the trailer was made of wood inside a layer of aluminum, and the wood floor became so waterlogged that it rotted and left gaping holes for water to just spray up underneath.

I dropped off the U-Haul and filed a complaint. The U-Haul office from Seattle called me and said there was nothing that they could do because I didn't buy the insurance they offered (I had little money at the time and was trying to move as cheap as possible). I didn't bother to fight it because the mattress was given to me, and the futon dried out nicely. Later I learned that I should have been offered a completely aluminum trailer due to the distance I travelled based on U-Haul policy.

The_Jazz

Prince, have you considered sending the inlaws to go get the mailbox key (even if USPS won't give it to them) and spending their 2 hours out of the house nailing the wife?

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cyrnel

These are the situations that are usually discovered by EMTs and recorded for posterity in those "humorous emergency room incidents" lists. Glad you didn't end up there but I can't help but picture the EMTs reactions. "Dude, check the skivvies on this one."

Gaaawwwwd, U-Haul. Their equipment condition and service provider arrangement leaves so many people stranded I'd expect them to get hit with a 60-minutes episode. U-Pray.

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maleficent

momma always said to make sure you leave the house with clean undies on... she never said anything about making sure they were your own undies

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eribrav

I've vowed to live the rest of my life in the place I live now, just so I will never have to go through the experience of moving again.

Thanks for the positive reinforcement.

fyrehair

OMG!!! I'm sorry, but that was too funny. Of course, I'm finding your story funny because it didn't happend to me. I too had a horrible experience with U-haul, the bastards! My bf & I were moving and we were on our way to return it the next day. The truck died 2 miles away from the rental office! We called and after about a 2 hr wait, a mechanic arrived. We had missing fuses (dunno how that happened & how the truck made it through a whole day of moving ). The mechanic got the truck running & we made it to the office. We explain what happened and the clerk said not to worry about a late return fee. I get a statement in the mail from them, and they had charged the late fee! Needless to say, they got an earful that day.

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Prince

That's amazing. You had missing fuses too. That's really weird. How do fuses just go missing like that?

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Smooth23

I hate uhaul, I wont use them anymore. Find penske rental trucks if you can. They may cost just a few dollars more, but the trucks are all kept in tip top shape, I've never had one I was even remotely uncomfortable driving for however far I would ever want to take one.

shoegirl

Thanks for the story, Prince. After hearing quite a few negative things about UHaul, I'll think twice before using them when I move.

thingstodo

Great, entertaining story. This is a wonderful, brilliant, creative idea!!

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