Recently U-Haul sent my youngest brother, who like me moved last week, an email.
It was about 40 hours before he was supposed to pick up a truck for 12 hours on Saturday from 4AM until 4PM. With an 8-month old and a young wife he was excited and nervous about their first big move. What did U-Haul’s email say?
It confirmed for him that he would be picking up a truck on Friday for 6 hours, instead of Saturday for 12 hours. My brother, a lawyer, instantly recognized this trick. Instead of calling someone, you email them something completely different than what you’ve agreed upon and see if they go for it. You tell the girl who just dumped you, “I am so glad we are still dating and that our love is strong!”
But Bennett is smarter than that, so he called up U-Haul and reminded them that he had made a reservation for Saturday. They assured him that they had the reservation, they just didn’t have a truck for him on Saturday. Instead, they said he could use one on Friday from 10-4.
He had two choices at that moment: 1. Tell them, “Great, I’m one of those first year lawyers who works from 7-10, then takes a 6-hour lunch break, and then works again from 4-8.” Or 2. He could recite the Seinfeld, “The whole point of a reservation is to hold the vehicle,” speech.
He opted for the second choice and then almost word-by-word had the Seinfeld skit with the U-Haul guy. He talked to someone at corporate. He called other U-Haul locations. He tried his hardest. And then he was forced to get the truck a day earlier for half the time U-Haul had promised him. With no refund or rate reduction.
Epic U-Haul fail.
But moving is like that, right? Crazy, weird things happen. Last time I moved, my father-in-law and I got kicked off the New Jersey Turnpike for being too heavy. I also dropped our television and broke it. In my current move I had to google the phrase, “How do you repair an antique bed your wife spent three years finding that you broke with a rubber mallet?”
Moves can be a bit disastrous. Today, in a short Saturday question, let’s talk about that.
What’s your craziest move story?