U-Haul Moving & Storage of Up-Town

Came in yesterday to pick up a 10ft box truck which we reserved 2 hours before (over the phone). EASY! We called several U-​Haul stations in the area with zero luck, This location saved the day! We would have been S.O.L. by the lack of planning on my part. Thankfully that wasn’t the case for me!
We came in, immediately greeted and got taken care of. Sat down for no more than 10 minutes (probably less), went over all the little details and basically got all the information we needed to be on our way! Left with a few boxes and a mattress cover too! Seriously, for a last minute /​poorly planned move, our U-​Haul experience was such a pleasure that ended up setting the positive mood for the rest of our moving day! Easy with No Complaints Whatsoever!
Our 10ft Box Truck was definitely spotless! Had that new car smell, but more importantly it was spotless, no mystery stains! Even the back of the truck smelled like a fresh wood shop. I was so worried about getting my belongings dirty and thankfully it wasn’t an issue.
Overall everything was smooth and easy! And lucky for us, we didn’t go over our free miles and only paid $ 10 for Gas. Returning the truck that same night at a location near my new home saved us an additional $ 15! I find it hard to believe the other bad reviews, see for yourself and you decide!
Moving is hard, this U-​Haul made it a little easier.

Less than 1 day prior to our move, this location notified me that I would not be able to do a ONE WAY move, as I had reserved 2 weeks before. This resulted in me having to drive back into the city, something I did not want to do.
Upon returning the truck, I was looking on my emailed receipt and noticed a 25 $ cleaning fee. After calling to inquire, they said I did not fold the blankets I had rented. I couldn’t believe they would charge 25 $ for something so stupid. The guy on the phone, Luiz, said he couldn’t do anything about it, despite Uhaul already screwing up my reservation with making me drive back into the city.
Hey Luiz, your location is getting terrible reviews on google and Unilocal,perhaps customer service should be held with a little higher regard at your location.

The workers at this store are lazy and do not help you out. It was a Tuesday afternoon, not busy at all. With the exception of one woman working the register (Kara), the rest of the six or so people working at the store did nothing to help me out picking up packing supplies. They didn’t even ask me if I needed help, they just sat around as if I was invisible. No help picking stuff out, getting my stuff together, or even an offer to help me out with all the boxes I had picked up. Apparently their conversations with each other about meatballs was more important. Good thing there’s plenty of other places around to take my business to from now on.

Short version: If you require a truck or trailer and expect that the request will be fulfilled, look elsewhere.
Long version: This is the 2^nd time I’ve experienced the terrible service of this location. First time around, I reserved a pickup truck and trailer to move a piece of lawn equipment. When I arrived, they had neither the truck, nor trailer. After pitching a small fit, as I’d called twice to confim, they magically produced a pickup truck but, no trailer.
This time, I reserved a van for five days, having a large volume of very fragile things to move a very short distance and estimated less than100 miles of driving. Two days after reserving the van, I get a voicemail late in the evening saying, «you can have the van for the day (first day of my reservation) but, it MUST be back by 6AM the next day or you will be charged late fees.»
I tried to call the location but, was transferred to the national call center. After much questioning and inquiring to no positive result, I asked for a manager and was transferred to a regional manager in Chicago.
This person explained to me that he’d look into it and put me on hold for ~2 minutes. He came back on the line and said he couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t give me the van for the requested period, as they had plenty of inventory. He went on to say that this sort of thing is explicitly against Uhaul policy and that they shouldn’t be doing it.
He then went and restored the rental to my original period of five days. Two hours later, I got the call from the North Broadway folks, again telling me there was absolutely no way I could have the van for this long. They further reiterated, «…you can have the van for the day (first day of my reservation) but, it MUST be back by 6AM the next day or you will be charged late fees.»
Naturally, I’ve now canceled my reservation as frankly, I cannot abide by the uncertainty that this location brings into the equation.
I don’t know about you but, the need for a van or truck is related to a specific need, usually tied to a specific time period and this sort of behavior is simply unacceptable.

I had to switch my U-​Haul truck times and measurements at least three times while I was trying to calculate movers and figure out a leasing situation. Originally I didn’t like the first location because they changed my time without asking me. A second U-​Haul location would never answer the phone. This one (the third option), however, answered promptly, was organized and answered questions fairly. I was concerned about driving a U-​Haul truck for the first time, but there was a younger guy (saw him in person later — looks kind of Taylor Lautner-​ish, boy band cute) who assured me that driving the truck was much easier than it looked.
Thanks to him being patient enough to let me look over the truck, sit in the truck and examine the mirrors, I felt more comfortable about the drive. The two guys he worked with just kinda sat around giggling and looking at a computer.
The day I picked up the truck I dealt with a quick group while they were painting the other side of the location. I don’t remember much about the cashier, only that he was quick. But when I came back to return the truck, the Taylor Lautner-​ish guy remembered me and immediately smiled and asked, «How was the drive?» I thanked him profusely for his patience once again and said driving the truck was a breeze. (It looks so much more difficult from the outside looking in than it is from the driver’s seat. I drove that truck repeatedly and easily.) His curly-​haired, taller co-​worker (reminds me of a cooler looking version of Matt McAndrew from «The Voice») was also just as friendly and surprised that I was so happy about driving the truck.
I have no complaints about this location. If someone were to get a truck or need packing supplies, I would pick this location every single time.
Note: Their mattress bags are handy and strong. Beware of the couch plastic though. It’s meant for couches that don’t have any long pillows or ottomans. The couch plastic was a wee bit too small.

These guys made my move as smooth as possible! Thank you for taking away at least one of the stresses of moving stuff out of the city.
I needed to rent a cargo van to take a couch and table back to Iowa and then return home Sunday. The online reservation was easy and they had exactly what I needed. My only speed bump was when I pre-​checked in online, my total went from my original $ 320 to $ 850 and I about had a heart attack. Lucky for me, I called in and Nick took care of everything! Basically the computer was estimating based on the wrong price model.
My pickup and return went smoothly, which is great after the stress of driving these things through Chicago. If you’re in Lakeview and you need Uhaul service, this is the location I would recommend!

Well after reading the reviews (of all the u-​haul locations, not just this one), I was dreading the experience… but it turned out to be a nice surprise! I only had a 10 minute wait to pick up my van
The return process was just as quick.
Van was pretty new, operating well, and reasonably clean.
Maybe i was just very lucky, but all in all, a good experience.

Really friendly folk, here. They helped me out with expedience and went over and above. I needed one single bungee, which could not be found for sale. So the guy helping me went in the back and found one laying around. Rock on! I also needed to extend my reservation not once, not twice, but three times… and each time I called, they patience and accommodating.
I recommend making your reservations over the phone rather than online. And I also recommend you call a few days after making said reservation to make sure all is correct in the system (my name was initially input wrong).
Also… the regular-​grade boxes are not all that sturdy. If you fill ‘em heavy, don’t depend on the handle holes to stay intact. I like that unused boxes are returnable. After a couple of my handle broke, I decided not to use the rest of my boxes.

Wanna know what it means to make a reservation for your truck? Nothing. A reservation doesn’t actually mean you will have a truck at the time you reserved it for and they will let you know this less than 24 hours before your move. Thanks guys.

Just wanted to throw some positive feedback toward this location.
It’s received a ton of negative reviews (so much so that I almost rented a zipvan instead), but I had a great experience there. My wait times were short, the van I rented was in excellent condition, and the customer service representatives were extremely friendly and helpful. Way to go.
The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is that there was an issue finding my online reservation. They ended up giving me a van that may have been reserved for someone else… though this seems the fault of the online system, not a fault of this particular location.

Sooooo sloooooow and not the friendliest staff either. Guess that’s what happens when you hold the truck rental monopoly in Lakeview. Where’s the competition when you need it?!

So you are moving lots of stuff, and you already have a lot of stress in your life??? Don’t come here!!!
This review is not an indictment of U-​Haul, just this location, quite possibly just the person I was stuck dealing with.
So we reserved U-​Boxes on ⁷⁄₇ for my first pick up of my first box on ⁷⁄₈. Reservation was confirmed before 9AM.
I receive email confirmation of my order for the U-​Haul uptown location.
At 12:30 PM I went to this location to confirm my reservation for this location, and that I would have a box ready to move at 4pm on ⁷⁄₈. Guy views my reservation… no problem. Writes down my schedule and hands it to some other girl, explaining the situation.
Everything is awesome…
I arrive at the location on ⁷⁄₈ at 4pm and meet Alicia. ALICIA!!!
Alicia informs me I don’t have a reservation at her location.
Alicia says my reservation is at the Avondale location.
I show Alicia my 2 reservation confirmations for this location
«I don’t know anything about that. The computer says you are reserved for Avondale»
within 28 hours my reservation had changed.
I explained how I had come into the office and talked to someone who confirmed it would be here today.
«I don’t know anything about that. The computer says your reservation is in Avondale, and they called you to confirm the reservation and you confirmed it.»
*note — I had not received any incoming calls since I made my reservation… not one.
So now we know Alicia is a liar.
So can Alicia do anything about this?
«No You need to pick up your U-​Box in Avondale. All of our U-​Boxes are booked and are booked through August» *– remember that
«Can I talk to the manager?»
«He left for the day» *– remember this too
*note — it is 4:15
** note about note. I showed up at work at 7:30 so I could leave early and pack a U-​Box and get it back before 7pm when they close.
So I get on the phone with customer service. I get transferred to the U-​Box department.
I reiterated my entire story up to that point to the Customer Service Rep.
Customer service rep said they had quite a few empty U-​Boxes at that location.
She said that location could have contacted the Avondale location and transferred everything.
She said she called Avondale but did not get an answer.
She said she emailed them and maybe they would be able to get back to me tonight.
She also thought Alicia was a horrible person.
At 6PM I received a voicemail from the Avondale manager stating:
«I spoke to the Uptown MANAGER and we arranged everything. You can pick up your U-​Box tomorrow morning.»
He spoke to the manager???
So all of the above could have been accomplished by Alicia, but she doesn’t care. She doesn’t care about me, or my time, my family, this humongous move, the U-​Haul location in Uptown, or U-​haul as a company. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that my reservation was at Uptown. Alicia does not give two turds.
I don’t know if her name is Alicia. That was the name she gave me. If you are the manager there, she was working on 7÷8÷2014 at 4:15PM.
I cancelled my U-​Box reservation and rented a truck from Budget.

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER.
This uhaul location has the worst staff. I came in 1 week ago, I ordered a hitch. Payed the express shipping, the next day I received a call they told me it wasn’t going to be shipped. I called back and they left me on hold for 1 hour. It is seriously the worst company ever. I am never going back there. After that I went in because they never answered the phone and they told me hitch was going to get there the next day same thing happened I called back to ask if it was there and I was on hold for more than an hour. Today I went back in and they told me it was going to come in tomorrow. After that he told me it was going to take 2 weeks. All my plans got ruined because of there fault. Don’t go in there the staff is really rude. I really had the worst experience ever.

I’m giving 2 stars because most of the staff was friendly and helpful. However, one of the staff was extremely rude and picking up a trailer became a nearly 2 hour ordeal.
I made a reservation for a one way 5×8 trailer approximately 6 weeks in advance. The weekend before my reservation, I brought my Jeep to have the wiring installed — the staff that day were all very friendly and helpful. I waited 40 minutes to have the wiring installed and was told I was good to go.
The reservation email I received from UHaul stated that I would receive a confirmation phone call, which never came. I planned to pack the trailer in the afternoon and I called to confirm my trailer reservation that morning. The woman on the phone was not helpful and was extremely rude and told me three times that I reserved a 4×8 trailer, when I kept telling her that I definitely reserved a 5×8. She said it was fine to come in that afternoon to pick it up, which is when I planned on showing her the email confirmation that showed I reserved a 5×8.
The woman at the register was the same woman I spoke with on the phone and, again, she told me I reserved a 4×8, and I showed her the the email. She was not apologetic whatsoever that it seemed to be a computer glitch. She told me that they didn’t have any 5×8 trailers and when I told her that there were 2 in the lot, she said that they were reserved, and did not try to seek any other options. She may have had the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Another worker overheard the situation and figured it out and I was able to take one of the 5×8 trailers.
The man outside who attached the trailer had excellent customer service skills. However, once attached, it appeared that the wiring was not installed correctly. After everything inside the store, I had to wait over an hour for someone else to «troubleshoot» and uninstall and reinstall the wiring. The man who reinstalled the wiring was apologetic, but offered no compensation for the incredible inconvenience. In my opinion, at least a refund for the wiring installation fee would have been appropriate.
In the future, I plan to use alternate moving services.

Literally the most backwards Uhaul site I’ve ever been in. I’d rather carry my couch 5 miles by hand than use this place again. Terrible wait times only to start talking to an employee that doesn’t know what’s going on.

Horrible customer service at this location. The staff is irresponsible and, to put it nicely, they are dumb.
I wouldn’t recommend this location to anyone. The workers are lazy, and even if you do manage to get their attention to ask a question they either won’t know the answer or they’ll give you the wrong answer.
Don’t go here!

I had a good experience.
Friendly staff, trucks/​vans are cheap and reasonable, and I like how they let you store stuff on the premise for 30 days free. That really helped us out.
You can whine about waiting in line for 15 – 20 minutes, but whatever. The world doesn’t revolve around you. 15 minutes isn’t all that bad (I had to wait in line too).
Overall, a good experience and would recommend this place.

This place is terrible for customer service! Anyone moving already has enough going on that they don’t need rude people adding to the chaos. I scheduled a rental for 7am when they open. I get there about 7:20(nothing goes smooth on moving day right?) and wait in ljne for ten minutes. While one of the cashiers is ringing me up, she says you have to return it at 3pm. I said, «thats for eight hours correct?» She rudely replied, «well you were thirty minutes late, so.» That annoyed me instantly. There was several other rude comments she made when I had a question.
Then, she marked that the truck was full with gas. It was not and I had to get it changed on my receipt before I left. Adding more time at Uhaul. I take the keys and they have a large booklet attached to them. I assumed it was my receipt and thought it would be easy not to lose the key.
When I returned the truck, the guy that came out to tell me my final bill mentioned that they weren’t suppose to attach that booklet to the keys. So not only are they rude they aren’t organized. I was glad to leave.
I called today to ask about the refund from my estimated cost, once again the lady who picked up the phone was ignorant. I wont be using them again and will definitely not be referring this location to friends.

So I called, spoke to the central and regional office, both who told me I was set. Not trusting them, since it was a day of rental, they transferred me to the store and again was told I Was set, even that it would be available a half hour early.
I get there and they tell me it won’t be ready for another 4 hours. I left.

I absolutely hate moving, if only because I don’t have a car to move big furniture items. This is why I’ve lived at my old apartment for 3.5 years. It’s also why I like being minimalistic. I hate having a lot of stuff to move around.
With that said, U-Haul’s website is easy to navigate. I found it easy to place an order for a van (though I did accidentally select for a pick-​up truck at first, but it was easy to correct after I placed the order), order furniture padding, and select for how long I want the van for, see my approximate charges beforehand, and schedule when I’d like to pick up the van for use. Everything on the website was done very simply.
At the Uptown site, however, the experience was «meh, it could be better.» Not «I’ve experienced better» as this was my first time renting a moving van, but I expected the service to be much better. I guess I should have read the reviews prior to my booking, but I don’t know if it would have made a difference because this location was the closest to my old apartment anyway.
I dislike the fact that there were only two employees working the front desk and even with a reservation (and we arrived 5 minutes late), it took close to 15 – 20 minutes for me to finally finish checking-​in/​out. Then it took another 10 – 15 minutes for the ONE employee to bring the van over to me. Er, really? Everyone was courteous and stuff, but geez, that meant I overpaid for an hour because they took up close to an hour of my time just waiting for them to get their shit together. I was not happy. Luckily I booked for 4 hours and returned it about an hour before the van was due, but I hate overpaying when it’s not my fault. This location needs more employees so that things can run more efficiently.