U-Haul Storage of Waterford

We spent four hours at Uhaul Waterford on a Monday having a hitch installed on my station wagon. My intuition told me to spring for the extended warranty (good even if your dog chews the wires!), and my intuition was right—but after literally spending my weekend dealing with U-Haul Waterford’s error, my hitch is still wrong and my family never got to go camping.

150 miles from home, we realized we had no brake lights on our rented 2019 pop-up camper. We swapped the Uhaul installed fuse, and it popped again before we hit the freeway, so we drove all the way back home with no tail lights, getting pulled over along the way. At 7am the next day, Uhaul Waterford said “a rock must have hit this dangling wire wrong,” so they put a plastic sheath over it and we left. Less than ten miles away, no lights again. We drove back and watched them fumble trying to fix it for several more hours.

Eventually, General Manager Zach Shattuck blamed the trailer, so we went back to the camper dealer (no brake lights) and schlubbed our stuff into another 2019 pop-up... and the lights didn’t work.

We went went back and hooked our car up to one of UHaul’s trailers, and the brake lights still did not work. At this point, Shattuck refused to fix it, and also refused to honor the extra extended warranty, which is good for “even if your dog chews the wires!” He gave me the full refund I demanded, and then sent us on our way in a dangerous vehicle—but what were my options? It was full of our stuff, and we have no other way to get it home.

So (cliffhanger) we made it home okay. We’re out our family camping weekend, our camper rental, our campsite reservation, a full tank of gas, and a dozen hours spent in the Uhaul Waterford waiting area lobby (with both my kids, lawd save me). However, there’s still serious liability here. If you’ve had a trailer hitch installed by U-haul Waterford and were subsequently in an accident because of suspected faulty wiring, I would contact a lawyer.