Follow Through
Sep 5th, 2007 by mark
Last week we had a U-Haul truck scheduled for Friday afternoon. After some consideration we decided that we didn’t need the truck so I called on Thursday, before the 24-hour limit, and canceled the reservation. At the time I made the call I was put on hold for several minutes and had a very hurried conversation with the clerk when he came back on the line.
“I need to cancel my reservation.”
“What’s the name?”
“Nichols”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it.”
After I hung up I had the feeling that it was all too easy, that he wasn’t going to follow through. In my email to Sibylle that afternoon I remarked that I ought to call U-Haul back to make sure the cancellation was properly completed. Life being what it is, I never called back.
Last night, while updating our books, Sibylle asked, “What’s this $50 charge from U-Haul on Friday for?” The cancellation had not been properly processed and we had been charge the standard cancellation fee. I immediately called their 800 number and spoke with a service representative. She took down all the pertinent information but wasn’t really able to do anything for me. She said that U-Haul Customer Service would call me back within 48 hours. Since we are on a budget, and a rather tight one at that, the extra $50 makes things even tighter. Not being able to do anything about it was frustrating.
This morning I called the local U-Haul office and spoke to the clerk and he pulled up the transaction on their computer. He said he could see where I called and canceled the reservation - they hadn’t completed the transaction and therefore I was billed the $50 fee. He further explained that only the manager can credit an account, that he would pass this information on to him when he arrived around 9:00 am today, and that it would be taken care of then.
I will be calling back to follow through with the manager this morning.
