U-Haul Moving & Storage of Elmira

Awesome shout out to Erica F at the Elmira store. Rented a small box trailer to head to Arizona with to haul our camping gear in hopes of finding a new camper along the way unload the supplies in the new camper and return the trailer at the nearest U-Haul. Set it up with Erica, told her what we were planning and she said that corporate policy is to double charge you if you just drop off the trailer at some untold location. But, she added that U-Haul is pretty good, if you give them a couple days notice by calling the corporate number they will work with you and and help you with the change. As luck would have it we did find a camper along the way in eastern Tennessee, that was on a weekend and the banks were not open so I had time to call Corporate to ask for help and got the “Corporate Book” reply of double rate for unscheduled drop, giving guilt replies like “If you rented a car from Enterprise they wouldn’t let you drop it off at just any location,” and, “this was going to Arizona what if they need it to rent to someone there now it won’t be there…” This was not going to change our plans but it was a bitter pill to swallow and gave a bad taste of U-Haul “assistance,” fortunately it was the smallest trailer and the fee the smallest in comparison. So Monday comes and I called Erica to share with her how well the U-Haul “help” turned out for us, and to not share that kind of information to future customers that Corporate will help in this manner. Her reply was “What!?” So she asked where we were and where the nearest U-Haul site was got my number and said she’d call back in a bit. True to her word in a few minutes she calls back and says it’s cool to drop it off in Johnson City and to have a great trip. She had called the J.C. Store and made arrangements and had an acceptable fee schedule worked out and it worked as smooth as if we had planned it from the start. The people in J.C. had the information when I dropped it off and it couldn’t have worked out better.
So I tell people that it’s not a company but it’s people that make the customer relationship. You can have the best of companies with the wrong people and you will consequently have declining business because of no repeat business and no referrals (where we were at mentally after getting Corporate support). Conversely, you can have a poor company with great people and and you will get repeat customers and referrals because of that relationship with good people (as we now are in dealing with Erica and the Elmira store). She totally impressed us from the moment of pickup, calm cool and collected, in fact training a new employee in the process, to helping 800 miles away when Corporate left us less than happy.
I have been meaning to send this kudos since we got back to Arizona but time slips away but she so impressed us that I had to get back to it and make it happen because she needs to be recognized for the support she gave us.
Excellent stuff Erica, yours is our go-to store from now on.
Jerry

Easy to rent. Courteous, helpful staff.

The staff was very helpful and friendly. I would use this place again!

Everything went good