swatt@ittvax.UUCP (Alan S. Watt) (08/23/83)
My aplogies for Louis DePalma's complaints posted to net.general. That was his last day here; he is moving to Rhode Island to a new job. He was obviously upset, perhaps justifiably so, but such feelings should not be vented to this newsgroup. Perhaps we can just let it die here. - Alan S. Watt (ittvax!swatt)
halle1@houxz.UUCP (08/24/83)
Gee, so Louis DePalma's in R. I. Is Alex Rieger there, too? How about Latka?
rjk@mgweed.UUCP (08/25/83)
I agree with ittvax!dipalma on this one. Whereas Jartran did nothing "wrong" nor "illegal", the mental anguish caused from that kind of business nonsense is more than enough justification to badmouth and (hopefully) remove some business from them. I sympathize because I just made a move last month - complete with family from out of town, many friends who committed their entire day to the move, and many other events hinged on the movement of articles from point A to point B in 90+ degree weather. My local Ryder person did, in fact, *guarantee* me a truck for that day and it was there. If it wasn't, you had better believe I'd have been on this net and attempt to dissuade future Ryder business to whatever minor extent I could. Just seeing that little Jartran blurb is enough to prevent me from considering Jartran in the future. THat's good. It cost that Jartran weasel $0.00 to screw ittvax!dipalma out of his/her truck. Why shouldn't he/she have an equally costly opportunity to screw him right back? Randy King we13!mgweed!rjk
lda@clyde.UUCP (08/26/83)
I appreciate ittvax!dipalma's warning, too. It might make life easier for lots of mobile netters in the future. Larry D. Auton, Bell Labs Whippany NJ
chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/28/83)
Ok, I have to say that I think that dipalma went a bit overboard.
(What bugs me most is that he posted each one individually; I had
to see it 6 times or so.) However, I think he's justifiably upset.
Sure, they weren't legally required to rent him a truck, but what
they did wasn't nice.
Anyway, the only time so far that I've rented a truck, I rented
from Ryder. They had a real contract, with clauses and stuff
(lawyer's jargon ya know :-) ), and I had no trouble with Ryder at
all.
The moral of this story seems to be: don't rent from Jartran (at
least not unless they give you a real contract).
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci
UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!chris
CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris.umcp-cs@UDel-Relayesj@ihuxl.UUCP (08/29/83)
When I moved last Spring, Jartran had the truck I had requested; the trouble came up when I tried to return it. I asked the "agent" what time they closed. He said "Five o'clock". I figured "Ok. Fine." I returned the truck at ~4:15 and was told I had to bring it back the next day because they "close the books at four"! Maybe I was being foolish by not asking when I had to have the *truck* back by, but then again perhaps bozo should have mentioned something to me. Nothing was posted re: return time. All ended well when the "agent" miscalculated the bill and screwed himself out of $20.00; who am I to correct a businessman? U-Haul et.al. might be just as bad, but you can bet your a** I won't deal with Jartran again. ihnp4!ihuxl!esj
res@cbosgd.UUCP (08/30/83)
I used Jartran this February to make a local move. When I tried to put the rental on my VISA, they insisted that I sign a blank VISA voucher. Now, hotels often ask to run off a voucher using my card at check-in, but I have never had anyone ask me to sign one with no amount filled in. They claimed I had to sign to get the truck and that they wouldn't know the exact amount until I returned it. Needless to say, I decided to put down the deposit -- and handle the rest of the deal -- entirely with cash. In all fairness, though, I must add that I put off reserving the truck until the last minute and Jartran was the only company that had the truck I needed at a fair price. I don't think it is fair to compare Truck Rentals with air lines. Granted, air lines do bump people, but there are strict procedures that they must follow to get you to your destination and compensate you in this sort of situation. I believe if you are delayed more than 4 hours because of an overbooking, that the airline must refund your ticket price and get you to your destination free. This is such an incentive not to bump that airlines usually try to recruit volunteers by offering significant cash incentives before actually booting someone against their will. I would think that when a company insists that a down payment be made to reserve a piece of equipment that the onus is on the company to ensure that that item is available. Perhaps a set of rules similar to the airline's should be used for determining compensation in such a situation. -- - Robert Stampfli (cbosgd!res)
swatt@ittvax.UUCP (Alan S. Watt) (08/31/83)
This has generated quite a bit of traffic. I have used U-Haul 3 times since moving East. Each time they had the truck I asked for when I went to pick it up. The only trouble I've had was the first time when I found the gas cap had been tightened with a pipe wrench (on purpose; the agent forgot to loosen it when I picked it up). In all fairness, there is a limited amount a rental agent can do if the cause for the delay is another customer returning the truck late. There is also always the possiblity that there will be something wrong with the truck, necessitating repairs. Naturally, the agent doesn't want the truck sitting around his lot all day, so he schedules the next rental out as soon as he can after the truck is returned. A reasonable policy would be to have a fixed turn-around time to fuel, check, and clean the truck, plus a certain "delay" time to buffer the time between return and next rental. Suppose you allow 1 hour for turnaround and 2 hours for various delays. If the truck is scheduled in at noon, it could not be promised out before 3. If the returning customer doesn't make it back within the delay period and the truck was scheduled out again, he pays a fine which is then passed on to the customer who was inconvenienced. This won't eliminate the hassles for the second customer, but it does make the apology a little more substantial. The last time I used U-Haul, they also wanted me to leave a signed credit form with the amount blank. I too thought it was a bit strange, but I had dealt with this particular agent before and had received good service, so I was inclined to trust him. If you object to that practice, offer instead to leave a signed credit form for the amount of the deposit. All he can do is refuse. By the way, don't forget the most important part of moving: Make sure you have enough beer and pizza to feed the crowd of friends you've invited to help load and unload the truck! It still beats living in the same place all the time ... - Alan S. Watt