The FULL Story...
Okay, originally, a few weeks ago, I had reserved a 14' U-Haul truck for Sunday, January 31st, as this was the day we'd planned to move. Since Sudbury is really stingy with things before open regular hours on Sundays... There was only one location open. So when I made the reservation, I made sure it was FOR said location. Fast forward: we go to pick up the truck, and they don't have one! Well, they had ONE but it was for someone else. I ended up calling U-Haul to figure things out. They tried to tell me to go to 'Location B' [we'll call it], so I called them. Lo and behold, CLOSED.
After calling U-Haul 4 more times, asking for managers, getting QUITE PISSED and even being hung up on, we finally got through to someone who helped us out. Someone was to be returning a truck to that location within the hour. The only issue was... it was a 26' truck. BIG. She also gave us a deal--the 14' one would've cost us $265, and she was going to drop the rate to $190 for our troubles, and try to increase our mileage. But... it was starting to snow again. We took it anyway, but Acacia wasn't all that comfortable driving it. [I would've tried, but my licence doesn't allow me to drive on the major highways.]
We also found out that there was a huge car accident on the main highway and that it was closed. There was no news of when it was going to be reopened, either. We decided to take the alternate route--though an hour longer, we didn't really care. We ended up running low on gas at one point, and were nearing a smallish town. There was a sign: "Gas stations, next 4 exits', so naturally, we took the first one. BAD IDEA. We'd had several whiteout periods the first 3 hours already, but it was clearing up again. Unfortunately, this exit took us down a small backroad type place, and it was just covered in ice. We swerved and almost died several times. I was holding on, white-knuckled, to the HOLY FUCK bars overhead.
We eventually made it, however, got gas, something to eat, and got back on the highway. Once we were on the main highway again, everything was fine. And upon entering Toronto, it was like the snow just ceased to exist. Kind of disappointing, but a relief all the same. In the end we put about $160 worth of gas into the fucker. We got it with only 1/4 tank, meaning we'd only have to RETURN it with 1/4 tank.
So we went to return it. The first lot we went to was real close--but they apparently didn't have room for the big truck, and directed us to the nearest lot. Unfortunately that small drive dropped us to BELOW said 1/4 tank, so we were given a refueling fee. And due to the detour we had to take, we went over our mileage as well. So our $100 deposit? GONE. We were charged $125 to return the truck. In the end, it probably cost us more than it would have to hire some movers.
On top of it all, we noticed there was a parking ticket on the damn truck while we were unloading it. Another $30 down the drain. Fuckers.
After calling U-Haul 4 more times, asking for managers, getting QUITE PISSED and even being hung up on, we finally got through to someone who helped us out. Someone was to be returning a truck to that location within the hour. The only issue was... it was a 26' truck. BIG. She also gave us a deal--the 14' one would've cost us $265, and she was going to drop the rate to $190 for our troubles, and try to increase our mileage. But... it was starting to snow again. We took it anyway, but Acacia wasn't all that comfortable driving it. [I would've tried, but my licence doesn't allow me to drive on the major highways.]
We also found out that there was a huge car accident on the main highway and that it was closed. There was no news of when it was going to be reopened, either. We decided to take the alternate route--though an hour longer, we didn't really care. We ended up running low on gas at one point, and were nearing a smallish town. There was a sign: "Gas stations, next 4 exits', so naturally, we took the first one. BAD IDEA. We'd had several whiteout periods the first 3 hours already, but it was clearing up again. Unfortunately, this exit took us down a small backroad type place, and it was just covered in ice. We swerved and almost died several times. I was holding on, white-knuckled, to the HOLY FUCK bars overhead.
We eventually made it, however, got gas, something to eat, and got back on the highway. Once we were on the main highway again, everything was fine. And upon entering Toronto, it was like the snow just ceased to exist. Kind of disappointing, but a relief all the same. In the end we put about $160 worth of gas into the fucker. We got it with only 1/4 tank, meaning we'd only have to RETURN it with 1/4 tank.
So we went to return it. The first lot we went to was real close--but they apparently didn't have room for the big truck, and directed us to the nearest lot. Unfortunately that small drive dropped us to BELOW said 1/4 tank, so we were given a refueling fee. And due to the detour we had to take, we went over our mileage as well. So our $100 deposit? GONE. We were charged $125 to return the truck. In the end, it probably cost us more than it would have to hire some movers.
On top of it all, we noticed there was a parking ticket on the damn truck while we were unloading it. Another $30 down the drain. Fuckers.