The following was text submitted as "Statement.pdf" detailing our claim and interaction with U-Haul and their insurance cohorts, Repwest. Apart from some minor editing (noted in italics), this file was submitted in an email with supporting documents on June 29, 2014. This statement is posted first to introduce our story. All interactions (referred to in this statement, and up to the time of posting) are detailed in a timeline that will be included in subsequent posts. Note: our address have been removed from the statement.
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Thanks for reading,
J
Claim no. 00######-2014
Statement of facts
My wife and I are in the process of moving from Massachusetts to California. We decided to use U-Haul's U-Box pod to ship the majority of our belongings from east to west, both because of familiarity with the U-Haul brand, as well as the cost compared to other pod-type shipping providers. The low cost (in our case, U-Haul was about $1000 or one-third cheaper than other companies), apparently turned out to be a "pay-for-what-you-get" type of scenario. The U-Box was in U-Haul's possession the entire time. I cannot emphasize that statement enough. That is, we elected to load and unload our U-Box at certified U-Haul facilities, instead of having them drop it off at our residence on either end of the move. On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, I loaded the U-Box at U-Haul Moving & Storage of Hyannis, 594 Bearses Way, Hyannis, MA 02601. I took several pictures after I had finished loading the pod, closed the door, latched it, put a newly purchased (from U-Haul) lock on it, and fastened all the velcro of the vinyl weather covering. I returned to the office at the U-Haul facility and was told that all was set and scheduled, that I would receive a call from U-Haul informing me when the pod was five days away from actual delivery. Then I drove off, leaving the packed and locked pod sitting with U-Haul.
The U-Box was projected to be delivered on June 11, 2014 to Watsonville Self Storage (a U-Haul neighborhood dealer), 127 Lee Rd. Unit H, Watsonville, CA 95076. Between those endpoints, the U-Box was (I assume) picked up by a U-Haul truck (I received a notification on June 2, 2014, time-stamped 03:58, that the U-Box had dispatched), and driven across the country with other U-Box pods. The projected delivery date means I should have been notified sometime around June 6 that the U-Box was en route and on time. I never received a call.
On June 10, 2014, my wife received fraud alerts on four separate dormant accounts that had never been closed. All of the alerts were issued based on attempted charges made in Stockton, CA, a city approximately two hours from Watsonville by car. This immediately led us to believe that the U-Box containing our belongings had been burglarized because she had packed those cards in a bag that was put in the U-Box. On June 11, the projected delivery date, I called U-Haul customer service to find out where the U-Box was (remember, at this point, we had not been notified of delivery or any other update other than the invoice dated June 2 that indicated the U-Box has dispatched), and I was informed that I should call the facility of origin. I immediately called U-Haul Moving & Storage of Hyannis, which at the time, happened to be after hours. Presumably, the call was forwarded to a central U-Haul office and I was connected to another U-Haul agent who had no information to give regarding the status of the U-Box and told me to call the destination facility. That facility had also closed for the day, so after hanging up, I went to uhaul.com and entered our contract number, only to see the same static timeline of events (i.e., projected delivery on June 11, access on June 12) presented to us when the reservation was first made.
I called Watsonville Self Storage on June 12 and spoke with Ned, the facility manager. I explained to him that I was trying to determine where the U-Box was (Had it been delivered? or was it still en route?), and that we had reason to believe it had been broken into. Ned pulled up the information available to him via our contract number and told me the U-Box had been delivered to that facility on June 9. Again, we were never informed that it was indeed delivered three days prior, nor had I ever received a call letting me know it was five days away from being delivered. Ned also mentioned that he did not remember seeing anything outstanding or strange with any of the U-Box pods in the warehouse. He told me he would go check to make sure the security tape was intact (at this point, I did not know what measures U-Haul took to secure the pod after I had closed, locked, and fastened the weather-proof covering) and that he would call back in an hour. I never received a call back.
All of this is taking place as I am driving across the country. My wife, however, was already out in California, so I quickly relayed the information to her that the U-Box was sitting at Watsonville Self Storage, and that I had talked with Ned on the phone. She rented a cargo van and drove out to the Watsonville facility. Upon arriving, she met with Ned and together they walked to the warehouse to locate our U-Box. Our pod was there, wrapped in clear plastic wrap, sitting amongst other pods all wrapped in green. Ned mentioned that it was odd that the U-Box was wrapped in clear, as U-Haul only uses green. My wife removed our lock from the latch, took a photo of the latching mechanism (rife with obvious tampering) with U-Haul's own "security" pin still in place, and opened the door. She then took a photo of the state of our belongings, which had obviously been pillaged. The Watsonville police were called, a report filed, and the claim process started.
Among the red flags in this situation (fraud alerts in nearby Stockton, failure to notify of delivery, clear wrap versus green, obvious tampering of the latching mechanism), we speculate this to be an inside job either at the Watsonville location or a nearby distribution center that the U-Box may have passed through. U-Haul's own failure in software and customer service means we have no idea what route the U-Box took from Hyannis to Watsonville, we were unable to track it, and apparently U-Haul representatives with whom I spoke to were unable to track it as well. That seems like a very basic service to provide, not only for your customer's peace of mind and scheduling, but also for your own measures of security and so forth.
On Monday, June 16, 2014, at 16:43 PST, I received a [call] (edited on 07/24/2014; previously "called") from Repwest agent Mirna Gutierrez regarding our claim. I was driving when she called, and returned her call at 17:10 PST on the same day, and left a voicemail at her extension. I waited for a return call Tuesday and never received one. On Wednesday, June 18, 2014, at 13:45 PST, I called and left another voicemail. I awaited a return call the rest of that day, Thursday, and Friday, and never heard back. On Sunday, June 22, 2014, at 09:30 PST, I called again and left another message, hoping to hear back first thing Monday morning. On Monday I connected (edited on 07/24/2014 to clarify "connected," meaning I made the call) with a Repwest operator at 13:13 PST to express our frustration and request a new agent. I was transferred to whom I was told was the supervisor for Mirna Gutierrez, whose first name was Chris and surname was not exactly clear to me (something sounding like "Evenson"). I left a voicemail and asked that he call me back, which he never did. Instead, I finally received a call from Mirna a short time later at 14:43 PST on the same day. If customer service were of any real value to U-Haul and Repwest, they should be trying to contact us over and over. If U-Haul cared in any way to accept responsibility for a U-Box that was burglarized while in their possession one-hundred percent of the time, we should be inundated with calls trying to right their wrong, trying to settle our claim.
We will be seeking full reimbursement for the expense of the U-Box and shipping fees, as well as for the itemized replacement value of the things that were stolen from us. We have been documenting each and every interaction with U-Haul and Repwest from the beginning of our move. If legal action is required to settle this claim, we are fully prepared to take that route. We are also prepared to take our story to social media, encouraging everyone we know and the power of social media to spread our story in hopes that U-Haul's lack of care, unwillingness to accept responsibility, terrible customer service, and shady practices do not go unnoticed. We had a choice in which company we trusted to move our things, and we chose poorly. We hope others choose not to deal with U-Haul in the future.
Jeffrey XXXXX
06/29/2014
Kakani XXXXX
06/29/2014
=============================Thanks for reading,
J
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