U-Box: Don't do it

Our Cross Country Move post is beneath this one.  It is called "Well, East Coast Girls Are Hip."
This one is mostly angry venting stuff. 

We moved our stuff via U-Box because it was cheap and the box was small and fit our stuff perfectly (a POD was twice as much and twice the space).  It started out fine, but turned into a big mess.

We arranged the drop off of the box and where it needed to be shipped online.  We couldn't have it shipped to our new apartment in D.C. because it is all metered parking around the apartment so there would be no place to have it dropped.  So the U-Haul website told us the closest U-Box storage location to our new D.C. apartment and we had it shipped there.  We got a verification email with the box drop off time and the final destination address in "City A."

We had the box dropped at our apartment in SoCal on Wednesday the 19th for us to pack.  It was supposed to be picked up on Thursday the 20th to be shipped out east.  On Thursday T got a call from U-Box.  They said they wouldn't be able to pick up our box until Friday the 21st because corporate was making them go to Palm Springs for a pick up.  So our box got picked up on Friday and we left to start our cross-country drive just a few moments later.

About two hours into our drive we get a call from U-Box asking us where the box is supposed to be delivered.  Seriously?!  We already told you!  It's already in your system!  They asked where we were moving then said they would have the box shipped to Richmond, Virginia.  I told them that Richmond is no where near D.C.  I told them that it needed to be shipped to "City A."  I had to tell them our new home address and spell out "City A" where it was supposed to be shipped.

We arrived in D.C. on January 26th and have been sleeping on the floor because our bed is in the U-Box.

According to the website, our box would take about 10 business days to arrive in D.C.  On Tuesday, February 2nd, I called U-Haul to see exactly where our box was and if we would be able to pick it up on Saturday the 5th like we had planned.  The woman on the phone was very nice, but said that our box hadn't left SoCal until the 26th!  Which was the day we arrived in D.C.!  And it would take 10 business days from the 26th!  The box was picked up from our SoCal apartment on the 21st!  What is going on?!  She said she would have one of the managers look at our situation and give us a call back.

Wednesday T got a call from U-Haul.  They told him that our box had arrived that day in D.C.  I called the U-Box storage facility to tell them that we would be picking up our box on Saturday the 5th.  No one answered, so I left a message.  I called again later that same day and it went to voicemail.  I didn't hear back from them.   But we knew the box was there and they knew that we were coming to get it on Saturday so we arranged to rent a truck to pick up our stuff.

Saturday morning I called the U-Box storage facility again to remind them that we would be arriving at 10 to unload our box.  It went straight to voicemail, like it had before (all three times I called during the business hours listed on the website).

We picked up our U-Haul truck and drove to the U-Box storage facility about half an hour away.  At the location where we picked up the U-Haul truck there was a big sign saying "U-Haul strongly recommends not hiring day-laborers for your own safety."  When we arrived at the U-Box storage facility in "City A," there were day laborers inside bothering us and asking if we need help! Gah!

The girl at the counter told us that the guy who did the U-Box stuff wasn't in today so she couldn't help us.  She gave us his phone number to call.  So, I called the number.  It was the same number I had been calling and like usual, it went straight to voicemail.  Another guy at the counter called the U-Box guy (on his cell I think) and the U-Box guy said our box was not there.

Apparently the U-Box guy called me once to tell me that our box wasn't there but my voicemail wasn't set up.  Now this was true because I did get a new phone.  But I only had one missed call the entire week and it was from a completely different number than the U-Box storage facility phone number.  Like a different area code different.  And he never tried to call me again!  Really?!!!!  You just called once?!!!!  Even though you knew we were planning to unload our box on Saturday?!!!

It was like pulling teeth to get anyone at "City A" U-Haul and U-Box storage to help us.  After the U-Box guy on the phone said they didn't have our box the other workers started ignoring us.

Eventually we called the U-Haul 1-800 number.  Luckily T had taken a photo of our box number and they were able to track our box with that number.  Our box was located at a different D.C. U-Box storage location in "City B" even though twice (once with our original online order and once on the phone) we specified the box should be delivered to "City A".   "City B" is actually closer to our apartment.  My qualm isn't that our box was delivered to "City B."  My qualm is that no one told us that our box was going to be delivered to "City B" or asked if that would be okay.

So we started driving to "City B."  I called while T was driving and they said they needed 24 hours advance notice before they could let us access our box.  I asked if they could make an exception and explained the situation.  She said that their U-Box guy wouldn't be in until 11 but that she would talk to him about it.  We drove straight to "City B."

The girl at the counter was nice and started by calling the U-Box storage location in "City A" and asking them to do a visual check to see if our box was there.  The girl from "City A" said that their U-Box guy wasn't in so she couldn't.  The girl from "City B" gave the girl from "City A" some flak and told her to just go look at the numbers on the actual boxes - anyone could do that, not just the U-Box guy.  The girl from "City A" said she would look and call "City B" back.  I'm not sure if she ever did call back...

So we waited and waited and wondered why the girl from "City B" didn't just go check to see if our box was here.  Eventually T asked her just that.  And she replied that our box was on a manifest that had been signed for, but that the box wasn't actually at the location.  The number on the manifest and the number on the box didn't match, but whoever had received the shipment that day had failed to verify that.

So, the bottom line was that no one knew where our box was! Awesome.

While they tried to track down our box, T and I tried to figure out what to do.  That box had pretty much everything we owned in it, but most of it was replaceable.  I would miss some photos and Christmas ornaments and T had some important papers in there, but most of it was replaceable.  Mostly we hoped that our box was in a storage facility somewhere and not just dropped off at some street address where it would stay for ages and eventually be broken into.

After about half an hour they tracked down our box.  It is in Louisiana.  They don't know when it will arrive in "City B."  They will call us on Monday.  So we have another week of the same five changes of clothes and sleeping in our sleeping bags on the floor.  We will also have to pay to rent another truck.

You better believe that U-Haul and U-Box will be hearing from us.

For anyone out there looking to use U-Box, we definitely don't recommend it. It may be cheaper than other options, but this has been nothing but a mess from the get-go. As the girl from "City B" put it, "This whole U-Box stuff is new to us. We're still figuring things out." So, if you don't mind handing over your possessions to a company that openly admits they don't know what they're doing, go for it. As for us, maybe next time we'll just sell it all and start over.