May 15, 2015 Update:
After a flurry of letter writing and online complaints the unauthorized charges issue seems to be resolved. To their credit, U-Haul made good on their agreement with us, even reimbursing us for meals which we hadn't bothered to pursue after the move was completed. Several managers contacted us but the Vegas regional manager stands out for her efforts, keeping us informed and following up to make sure we were satisfied. U-Haul ended up dealing with LaQuinta over the charges, resolving whatever the issue there was, and the manager of LaQuinta reimbursed the charges to our card.
I'm very relieved this ended quickly and we can move on.
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Guess I get to add my voice to the zillions of complaints about U-Haul after all, and here I was feeling pretty good about the company after our disastrous cross country move.
Greater detail of the events of this ill-fated trip is here in a different post, but to recap: The 17 foot truck we rented at a dealer in Arizona broke down in the middle of nowhere in northern Nevada and it took two days for the U-Haul-hired mechanic to determine it couldn't be repaired.
U-Haul arranged for us to stay at LaQuinta in Twin Falls, Idaho, for two nights and finally found another truck and movers to transload our stuff to get us back on the road. Despite having been given a dangerously poorly maintained vehicle for a long journey we were happy to finally make it safely to our destination, return their equipment and close the door on this episode.
Almost two months later, all that forgotten and in the past, we get charges for almost $200 from LaQuinta for those two nights U-Haul set us up. Apparently U-Haul hasn't paid the bill and LaQuinta wants to collect from us and, I suppose, let us deal with the hassle of collecting from U-Haul.
U-Haul has some kind of agreement with LaQuinta for these situations so we didn't have any option on where we could stay. U-Haul called the hotel, acquired the room on through their business arrangement, assured us they were covering expenses for the room, then didn't pay the bill. Now their business partner, La Quinta, is saying we're responsible for the bill. How screwed up is that?
Now we're faced with hours, days, weeks and possibly months of dealing with unresponsive people in the U-Haul organization. The corporate office referred us to the Idaho office and Idaho referred us to Arizona, where the wreck-of-a rental-truck originated, as apparently they are responsible for paying the bill, and Arizona hasn't returned our calls. We'll have to dispute LaQuinta's charges with our bank, possibly initiate arbitration or a lawsuit. Life is too short to deal with this bullshit and none of it was our fault.
U-Haul truly sucks!
