U-Haul Moving & Storage

A wonderful tale of a devastatingly painstaking experience with U-​Haul
I recently used a U-​Haul to move from Philadelphia, PA to Princeton on a day when the region received 3 – 4 inches of snow. Here’s how the events unfolded:
January 8^th, 2011
8:58am: I arrived at the U-​Haul facility to pick up my U-​Haul scheduled for 9am from Bala Motorsports (100 Belmont Ave, Bala-​Cynwood, PA 19 004). (The reservation had successfully been rescheduled from 10am to 9am the night before in order to beat the forecasted snowstorm)
9:10am: I call the number on the signboard. The person answering replies in a rude tone «I told you last night that I’d be there at 9:30am». This of course never took place. I was mistakenly spoken to as another customer who possibly had a reservation for 9:30am. Once he corrected himself, he said «Well, I’ll still only be there at 9:30am, I am just leaving home». Great!
9:15am: I called U-​Haul Customer Service in the meantime and was told that the best they could do is change my reservation to another facility. I turned down the offer since the nearest facility was another 20 – 30 minute drive. Here’s the best part — The Customer Service agent also told me that the store keeper had no notification of my updated schedule and there was nothing that could be done about it. I like this system — allow me to make changes to my reservation to no effect.
9:35am: No sign of the store keeper. I called him and got the update that he was going to be at the store within the next 15 minutes.
10:05am: The store keeper arrives and there is no sign of regret or any apology offered, except I heard cuss words on how bad the conditions were. When asked what he was going to do in terms of compensating for the delay, his answer was «Nothing».
10:15am: I was told that I was given an additional day and 27 extra miles & I was asked to follow one of his guys to the truck.
10:30am: After driving for 15 minutes, we arrived at a parking lot that had 2 trucks. The trucks were parked about 100m from the road and I was handed the key and the guy drove off. Please ask me for photographs. It’s worth seeing this place.
I walked to the truck, identified the correct one and cleaned off the accumulated snow — by myself and using my own equipment. I have a close-​up shot of this scene as well, do ask for a picture. I’d love to share it!
10:45am: I sit inside the truck and notice that the fuel indicator shows less fuel than stated on my contract. Great! so much for signing a contract without inspecting the vehicle.
One hour and forty-​five minutes later than expected departure date — The snow had gotten heavier, I had missed my window to use the ‘Freight Elevator’ at my apartment complex and the person who had to help me move was no longer available. Fantastic! Thanks to a lazy and inconsiderate store keeper.
Now that you have read my story (hopefully), here are my concerns:
1. If the truck or the facility was unavailable to deliver my truck at 9am, why was I allowed to reserve it for 9am and waste one and a half hours of my time?
2. If I can be at the facility at 8:58am by planning ahead, why not the store keeper?
3. Isn’t it U-Haul’s mission to ‘Make Moving Easier’, why do I have to drive to another location to pick up a truck? And why do I have to clean a truck myself before use?
4. They store keeper gave me 1 extra day and 27 extra miles, what do I do with an extra day? I need the truck to move my stuff from point A to point B. I don’t intend on taking it to a banquet!
5. Who calibrates U-Haul’s fuel indication system? The truck I picked-​up did not have tank fuel as recorded by the store keeper.
6. I got to her hear cuss words from the store-​keeper. Where is the professionalism? Also, if you get time, go and take a look at his office. It’s very clean — OSHA would love this field trip!
7. This guy was awarded a ‘top 100′ U-​Haul dealer? Are you serious? I wonder how the dealers are who didn’t make it to this list.
8. I left the truck with the same amount of gas as was found during pick-​up, but of course I get charged $ 43.00 from the guys at the drop-​off location. If you do the math, I drove for 160.4 miles during my usage; I filled about 15 gallons, which brought the indicator to the exact same line as recorded during pick-​up. If your trucks are as efficient as advertised I should have gotten at least 150 miles. Why am I charged for 13 – 15 additional gallons? Is U-​Haul really trying to scam people?
9. Every single attempt I tried to make to get help was only answered with «Sorry, I can’t help you». I don’t need to spend hours on a phone to hear that.
10. Finally, Is U-​Haul doing something about this? Whether they do or not is immaterial to me at this point, I am never using U-​Haul again. U-​Haul can keep my money, but they are surely losing a lot of customers.