[2465] in Humor
jon wild: U-haul bastards
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Calista E Tait)
Wed Sep 23 11:32:47 1998
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 11:02:56 EDT
From: Calista E Tait <cat@MIT.EDU>
From: jon wild <wild@fas.harvard.edu>
To: canucks@hcs.harvard.edu
Cc: canadians@MIT.EDU
Subject: U-haul bastards
Hi,
I'm wondering whether anyone else has had this particular problem with
Uhaul, and whether you managed to get it worked out. I rented a truck in
Canada to drop off here, and the contract said I was to pay $0.40 per
additional mile. Since the whole thing was drawn up in Canadian dollars -
naturally, since we were in Canada - that obviously means $0.40 CND. But
instead of the equivalent $0.27 US, I was charged $0.40 US, which made
quite a hefty difference.
They put me on the phone to about 10 different people of varying levels of
stupidity, none of whom could quite figure out what my problem was. The
"explanations" I got for being charged a much higher rate than agreed for
each mile over the limit I drove were mind-boggling:
"But a lot of those miles would have been kilometers in Canada, and
you're not asking us to convert those"
"But there's more in a Canadian dollar than an American dollar because
you get $1.53 for each American dollar, so if you think about it you're
getting a good deal" (believe it or not, this was from a representative
in Canada)
"Our computer can't convert from one to the other" (this after the same
computer had no trouble at all figuring out that my $80 deposit was only
$53 in "real" money)
"It says miles on the contract, and miles on the speedometer of the
vehicule you were given, so we have to charge you for miles" (the
confusion between km/miles and $CND/$US was an almost overwhelming
non-sequitur that they kept throwing at me)
"If you had dropped the truck off in Canada we would have charged you in
Canadian dollars, but it's illegal for us to give you a truck with
American plates that stays within Canada, so we have to respect the
law on this."
"If we let everyone pay in Canadian funds we would lose a lot of money,
wouldn't we? Did you ever stop to think about that?"
"Listen, 40 cents is 40 cents. When you go from one country to another
you convert it. It's as simple as that"
Foremost among their "reasons" though, and the one they kept returning to,
when I failed to grasp why I should be charged 50% more than what my
contract said - when it says right there on the desk "additional miles
will be charged at the prearranged rate on your contract" - was:
"This is America, not Canada. You're not in Canada any more, you're in
America."
although my personal favourite was:
"We use dollars here, not Canadians"
I swear I didn't make a single one up - suffice it to say we didn't part
on the best of terms (although I *did* get a cheery "welcome to the
States" from the guy behind the counter when I left). Please, if anyone
has gone through this before, let me know how it was resolved. Or, if you
got screwed too, I'm writing to the Better Business Bureau and I'll let
you know what happens.
sorry for the rant and I hope it wasn't too off-topic...
bye, jon
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