What does the word reservation mean? Apparently nothing if you work for U-Haul.
As some of you know, Wild Banshee is switching home bases this weekend. U-Haul was supposed to be part of the process. However, less than 24 hours before the supposed move, U-Haul alerted us that they would not actually have any trucks available at the time that we had reserved one. Basically, the reservation only meant that if there happened to be a truck on the lot at the time that we reserved one then we could use that truck. Otherwise, we are just out of luck.
As Mimi correctly pointed out, it is good that hotels do not operate in this manner. Imagine a road-weary traveler dragging themselves into the hotel lobby with a reservation number in hand only to be told that there is no vacancy. The hotel manager informs the traveler, "We didn't mean that we would actually reserve a room for you. We just meant that if we happened to have one available when you showed up that you could have it."
Unfortunately, there is no real recourse for a customer in my position. Obviously there are more people wanting trucks than there are trucks available, so me canceling a reservation and using a competitor is no real skin of U-Haul's nose.
