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[MaryG]

Not that anyone who is thinking about moving wants to think about what could go wrong, but I thought I would mention that we had a terrible time with moving truck rentals when we moved (actually the last two times!). Within in two years we relocated twice for job related moves and reserved a truck way ahead of time. When we went to pick it up there was no truck available! We were told the a reservation means we had "dibs" on a truck if one was available. Eventually with much problem solving, many phone calls and lots of loud complaining to many levels of the corporation we managed to locate a truck. I was stunned to find out this is a common experience for many people! Next time we're hiring movers. Ugh.

[Betty]

Mary, I agree with you.  There are rental truck companies that take reservations, but the irony is there may be no truck waiting for you when you walk in the door.  To help with this problem, sometimes its best to rent a truck during the week when its not so busy.  Also try and avoid renting a truck at the end and beginning of the month.  This is when the demand for rental trucks are the highest.

[Lisette]

Many many years ago I was moving from South London to Scotland and it was on a very tight budget.  I went to hire a truck and agreed that I would get this wizzy diesal one which did loads of miles to the gallon and so on.  I thought about hard but finally paid the extra for collision waiver insurance (means no excess is payable if there is an accident) which put the the price up by 25% but I just felt I could not take the risk. I did really think about it since this was a hit on the budget. On the day I went to collect it - guess what - no whizzy truck but a nasty one - hard to drive, petrol etc.  I was not happy but what choice did I have.  I was going to be driving up one day and back the next and because of traffic this can be a long drive.  They were not particuarly helpful about this and I was quite distressed.

Anyway, I set off and turned the corner and felt a thump which did not sound good.  It looked like I had taken the corner too tight and hit a bollard.  I stopped and looked at the truck and it looked fine so kept going.  It was very early morning.  I got home and loaded it up and then noticed that I had managed to sort of cave in the whole of the side of the truck - seriously not good!!. 

Not much I could do so I drove to Scotland and back and went to return the truck.  They were much displeased with me and I was hugely happy for having paid for the insurance.  I truely did not do this on purpose and it is the only time I have had an accident but I guess if I was going to have such an accident this was the time and truck to do it with.

[Chevy]

I had experiences similar to both Lisette and Mary. We also had reserved a truck in advance, about two months so in fact, and were told that the company would contact us the day before to tell us where to pick up the truck. I didn't think anything of it, I thought they meant in terms of the multiple rental locations in the city we were in. The day before we were to pick up the truck the company called and told us the truck was to be picked up 75 miles away. I was astounded to say the least, considering the contract we had signed only allotted for a particular number of miles and anything above and beyond was at a ridiculous expense. So I went to the local location and tried to work it out with them. I ended up with a truck about 3 times the size of the one we had originally wanted and of course I was unprepared to drive such a monster of a vehicle. I backed it up to our front door and promptly got stuck on the porch overhang. Needless to say the local rental location was pleased when we finally managed to move out of that city!