U-haul, BAD!

Whew! What a busy few days! Mom and dad arrived last Wednesday to help me finish packing up my old place. Other than dad having a strange tape obsession, things went well. Seriously dad, one piece of tape across the top of the box is fine when only moving fourteen miles. Taping every square inch of the box is a bit overkill. :) So, many rolls of tape later, everything but necessities (shampoo, soap, those sorts of things) was neatly packed away. Cindy and Chris arrived with their kids Friday evening and it was off to the new place to ready it for move-in!

My new landlord had done a decent job cleaning the place up, so there wasn't too much deep cleaning to do. We wiped everything down, disinfected everything in the bathrooms and kitchen (yes, I am that crazy), swiffered the floors, and lined the shelves in the kitchen. All of that was done pretty easily, we went to dinner, and then we went to sleep my last night in hell....ummm....I mean my old apartment.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to get started. Dad and I headed to U-haul to pick up the truck by 8:00 am while the rest of the family stayed behind to pack up the last of the necessities. We step up to the counter at U-haul at about 7:45 and BAM, we hit our first road block. They couldn't find my reservation. Luckily, I not only had my confirmation number, I also had the name of the girl to whom I spoke to make the reservation. Armed with this information, they were forced to find me another truck. Unfortunately, this one was at another location, but only a couple of miles away. For my trouble and additional mileage, they gave me $20 in gift certificates--remember this, it is important later.

It is about 8:15 by this point and we go to the next place to pick up my truck. The first bad sign was that the place looked shady as could be, but we pulled onto the lot anyways and went to the door....only to find that the place is not unlocked. Second bad sign, we didn't actually see any trucks. I called the number that the first place had given me to be told very rudely that they did not open until 9:00. Okay, second road block, but still doable--it just put us a little behind schedule, no big deal. Surely they had the truck out back, right? So, we went next door to McDonalds and hung out until 9:00 when the place would open and I could get my truck.

Nine o'clock came and we headed back over and as we were walking across the lot this guy sitting outside told us that they are not open yet. "Yeah, we know, we called and they open at nine." To which he replied, "I know, I work here and the guy that is supposed to open isn't here yet. You guys here to pick up a truck?" I then explained the situation and how we were sent there to pick up a 17' truck, only for him to tell us that he doesn't have any 17' trucks--all he has is two 10' trucks and they are both rented. After waiting for an hour, yes, I was told that they didn't have my truck either.

As you can well imagine, I was starting to get mighty ticked by this point. I called up the original place and they gave me another number to call because they could no longer help me. I called this number, explained the situation, and was then told that my reservation was at Aarons (the second place) and was there anything else they could do to help me. It took everything in my power to not scream at them, "WERE YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME?!?!?" I explained, again, as nicely as I could possible muster, that yes, I knew that my reservation was at Aarons, that they had sent me there after my original reservation was "misplaced," but still, I was not able to get a truck. I also added that I didn't care if they had to give me a bigger truck, so long as I was able to get it at the price of the smaller truck that I had reserved. Finally, they located a 26' truck at yet another U-haul, still a few more miles away.

We got there and as we walked in a guy walking out warned us to have our patience ready. Not a good sign. Thankfully, once we finally got to the counter, the guy was very nice and YES, THEY HAD MY TRUCK! By this point it was 10:00, only two hours after I was supposed to be able to pick up my truck. And instead of the nice cozy little 17', automatic truck I reserved, we had a 26' standard truck. Thankfully dad is able to drive a stick, so that wasn't a problem. But did I mention though that where I was moving to only has on street parking? For a 26' truck? Yep, we were more than a little worried. Oh, one other thing to note, I had reserved a utility dolly with my truck, but all the third place had to give me was an appliance dolly. By that point though, I was thankful to even get that.

Dad and I finally got back to the apartment and by that time Rose had got there to help, and the loading of the truck went pretty quick. We had lunch, loaded the table and chairs, and then it was off to the new place to unload. The night before dad and I had left our cars parked out front of the new place (we all piled into Cindy's van to go to the old place) so we could secure those spots for the 17' truck the following morning. But now we had a 26' truck and there was no way it was going to fit into those spots. The plan was to double park it and just hope that whoever we blocked in did not have to leave. At this point though, God smiled down upon us, that is the only possible explanation. We got there and the spots both in front of and behind where dad and I were parked were open. We had more than enough room to pull the truck in and position it so that the ramp was right in front of my sidewalk. The off-loading progressed well and we were finished by 6:00 when we went back to U-haul to return the truck.

Remember those certificates from earlier? Now is when they become important again. They brought up my account, dialed in the mileage and such, and went to enter the certificates into their system so I could save my $20. THE IDIOT AT THE FIRST PLACE GAVE ME USED CERTIFICATES!!! I couldn't believe it when they told me that. They called him up and he was absolutely no help. I think they were afraid that I might spontaneously combust or go completely nuts and kill them all right there on the spot if they didn't do something quick, so they ended up sacrificing two of their own certificates for me; I guess each location has a limited number of these things to use, and pretty much they are akin to gold, so it was quite a sacrifice. A note to the wise: If you need to rent a U-haul, first, rethink that theory, and then only if it is absolutely, vitally, necessary that you rent from a U-haul in the Catonsville, MD area go to the one located on Washington Blvd, Baltimore. It is a few miles out of your way, but at least the people there didn't strike me as being complete freaking idiots, and they did everything they could to make my life easier after the other two places had seriously screwed things up.

Anyways, I am moved into the new place now, and actually quite a bit of stuff is already unpacked. It already feels much more like "home" than the old place did after living there a year. I have met quite a few of my neighbors and even got interviewed by a couple of the kids for The Alley Weekly, a little paper the kids "publish" for all of the families living along the alley. It is really cute and I love that they do something like that. I think it is going to be a nice neighborhood to live in and I should be much, much happier now.

Wish me luck! And remember: U-haul, BAD!!!