Tomorrow is the big day. The move back to Vermont. Although I am here in New York, I am sending my family down to help load and drive the truck. The truck that I reserved over a month ago. The truck that U-Haul told us today was no longer available.
I don’t understand this way of doing business. The business of overbooking flights, and renting out trucks that do not exist. I mean, I get why businesses want to do it, I just don’t know why we, as consumers, put up with it. This is the problem with big business in general. They have gotten bigger than the customer.
We are given the illusion of choice, but when all the companies follow the same toxic business practices, does it really make a difference? I would love to decide just not to fly on airlines that charge extra for baggage now, but if Southwest doesn’t fly to the city I am going to, I’m out of luck. Is there a truck company that really means it when they say my truck is reserved?
I have rented a lot of cars and trucks in my time. At least when the car rental folk don’t give you the car you reserved, they give you a free upgrade. Now that I think about it though, I have never had a truck rental go off without a hitch.
This morning they asked if we could just take a smaller truck (no), and then had the gall to ask if we could just move another day! As if moving was something one did casually, with no prior planning involved. “Hey honey, do you want to move to a new house tonight?”. “Oh, but Glee is on, let’s just move in the morning.”
If I cancel my truck reservation, I have to pay them $50, plus another $50 because we ordered a car dolly. If they fail to provide a truck, then what? What can we do? We are at their mercy, and not the other way around, which is how it used to be. They have a lot of lawyers who have figured out how to protect them from me. I have a house full of boxes and a freaked out family. It doesn’t seem fair.
And then, after a day of worried phone calls and half-baked backup plans, they called and said they had the truck after all. But somehow that doesn’t make it ok.