U-Haul rents broken down junk and makes unauthorized charges on your credit card! Ripoff Des Moines Iowa

Come on, why is it so outrageous of me to feel double dinged for fuel? I put $5.00 worth of gas ($2.17/gal here in Des Moines - 2.3 gallons for about 15MPG) into this truck and drove it 35 miles (assuming the odometer was accurate.) That's about 14 cents per mile. Even $7.00 worth (11MPG) would only make it 20 cents per mile. If they paid that out of their 99 cents per mile, that would still leave 79 to 85 cents per mile, about what they charge in some other areas of the country. I seriously doubt that they spend that much on their vehicles, and they still get the daily rental fees and the profit from everything else they can rip you off for!

I stand by all of my comments. In spite of all of their apologists, U-Haul rents junk, they try to conceal damage and charges to rip you off, they're rude and they lie to you! It has now been six days since U-Haul promised to "get back to me in two business days." I wonder how long two U-Haul business days take?


I disagree that the additional fees are CLEARLY disclosed. Just look at one of their trucks: The daily rental fee is displayed in HUGE numbers with the "+mileage" in much finer print. They hope some people won't notice that as well as the many other fees and charges. You have to carefully ask all the right questions if you want full disclosure of all fees.


I don't care what all of the other companies do, that's an old tired argument. If everyone else wants to jump off a cliff...


It may very well cost more than $1 a mile to responsibly own (and properly maintain) a truck over its USEFUL life. I remind you that many of their trucks are way beyond their useful life and I've seen nothing responsible or proper about U-Haul.


You hit it right on the head when you said a U-Haul is the scariest thing on the road. I had to fight to keep that junker in my lane with all of the play in the front end, and the brakes weren't so hot, either. I couldn't believe all of the people with death wishes crowding me or darting in front of me while I drove this junk! I have some truck driving and mechanical background as well, but I don't want to imagine an inexperienced, bad, or tired driver of this vehicle, especially one distracted by a cell phone. Definitely a public safety issue!


Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Maybe you've had better luck with them, that's fine. Who ever likes U-Haul, go ahead! It's your funeral!

Randy,

Do you really think that a truck can be purchased, maintained, insured, and stored with all overhead added on top, for $19.95/Day?

Do you know what it costs to just own that truck over its useful life? More than $1/mile.

Do you know why the trucks are crappy? Because customers want CHEAP. You get what you pay for. Uhaul offers CHEAP trucks to INEXPERIENCED drivers who tear them up. You cannot to much maintenence on $19.95/day.

Look at the "good" companies out there. They are never less than $40/day average PLUS mileage.

Did you really think you would get your fuel for free? Are you serious?

The additional fees are clearly disclosed, and if you ask, they itemize them out for you before you rent the truck. They don't care if you rent it or not, as the guy behind you in line will, especially on a weekend!

You are right on one thing. U-Haul truck are junk. I have a background as both a mechanic and an OTR truck driver. I can tell you that a U-Haul is the scariest thing on the road.

Furthermore, I think anyone operating a truck should have a CDL, and all pretrip and inspection requirements should apply just like it does to a commercial driver. After all, both trucks are being operated on the same roads, right? This is a public safety issue.

Marc, thanks for the support, you seem to be the first one in this thread to agree with me about U-Haul. However, I really didn't get roped in to helping them move. My main motivation was to get those two couches out of that apartment, one for her, and one for me. I'm not sure how you can say that my "helpers" "wisely escaped," though. They had a lot of big furniture to move to their new house, and no other way to accomplish that. With me, we split the cost of the truck, and had two men there to carry large heavy furniture. Without me, I'm not sure what other arrangements they would have made. Maybe a worse truck with no one to help them carry furniture or split the cost.

Why they left is too long a story for this thread, and I didn't exactly consider it all that "wise." If I had gotten there earlier, only his wife would have left. I don't have a cell phone, so they couldn't call me to see what the holdup was. They just assumed I wasn't coming. I found a pay phone to call their cell phone. Just an unfortunate lack of communication.

I noticed one other potential ripoff with U-Haul: They marked my time out as 9:30AM, when I didn't leave their lot until 10:15AM. So if I had returned the truck at, say, 10AM the next day, less than 24 hours after I took it, they would have wanted another day's rent. Just another of the many potential ripoffs when dealing with this company.

Actually they ripped themselves off, because I estimated that I would only need it for about six hours. They started calling my house at 3:30PM (according to my caller ID), apparently wondering where it was. Someone else must have wanted a truck. If I was able to get a truck earlier that day that could be safely driven on the freeway, this move might have only taken about three or four hours. They might have gotten it back in time to rent it to someone else. As it was, I didn't get back there until after 5:30PM, probably too late for the next person.

So, to conclude, if you really want to do business with U-Haul (WHY?) you have to:

PAY CASH ONLY! Never let them see a credit or debit card in person or online.

Spend a lot of time researching in depth this company's busy and slow times so that you know when is a good time to rent from them. This may seem obvious to those in this industry but not to the rest of us. Be prepared to change your plans at the last minute to fit around their schedule. Have backup plans in place due to this company's unreliability.

Rent your vehicle days ahead of time to check it out if you want to be assured of a good vehicle when you need it. This is mandatory since they have so much junk in their fleet, and can't honor reservation times.

Be prepared to stand around for a long time while they ignore you in the office! Apparently talking on the phone, helping potential customers who are only price shopping, is their main priority. They can't be bothered by an actual confirmed customer with a reservation waiting to give them cash on the spot.

Carefully scrutinize every last little bit of your contract, damage sheet, receipt or anything else they give you. Make sure everything is correct and that there are no charges for unwanted extras or any other nasty surprises! Pay close attention to the odometer reading, fuel level, condition/damage/cleanliness of the vehicle, or time out. Don't cut that zip tie if you don't want to pay for using the two wheeler!

Be prepared to hear lies from these people or at least not the whole truth. If you have a problem or complaint, tough, they don't want to hear it. Be prepared for rude arguing and contradiction. Don't expect to hear back from the manager or "customer care." They can't be bothered with you. (We already have your money, now just go away and leave us alone!)

If you're really OK with all that, (did I forget anything?) good luck with your U-Haul experience! You're going to need all the help you can get. Personally, I'd still rather beg my worst enemy for his truck than ever waste my time and money on U-Haul again!

Sam, the $75 was actually deducted from my account, not just a hold as you U-Haul guys keep trying to say. This resulted in a negative account balance, not just a negative available amount. My bank only charges overdraft fees for overdrafts, not holds. This is a plain and simple rip-off, since I was assured TWICE that there would be no charge to the card, and I was paying for everything in CASH.

Of course the "+mileage" is displayed on some trucks (in smaller print.) I said I was trying to point out some of the hidden (or maybe not so obvious) charges. I didn't specifically complain about paying for the gas and tax, I simply included them in my list of expenses. Paying for gas, too, when I already have to pay 99 cents per mile does strike me as double charging me, however, especially since I doubt the accuracy of the truck's odometer. I believe the route I took was closer to 25 miles than 35.

I notice you had nothing to say about all the optional extras already checked on U-Haul's website. My guess is that they hope some people won't notice these extras and uncheck them. Or the fact that this truck had a two-wheeler and furniture pad right in the way at the back when I didn't want them. My guess is that they hope some people will cut the zip ties and move them out of the way, without realizing that will be another charge. Or the fact that this truck had a damaged roof that might leak. This was not brought to my attention, but written on the back of the damage form AFTER I filled it out and turned it in. This was not even visible until I peeled my copy of the damage form away from the contract later.

Yes, I said it was busy, but that's still no excuse to ignore me for more than half an hour. I had previously reserved a truck, and was told it would be ready at 9AM. It is absolutely inexcusable that I had to wait for so long while their employees answered phones and helped other customers that arrived AFTER me. Maybe some of them had reservations, but so did I.

No, I still haven't heard from Customer Service (big shock.) What number do you recommend calling for the Corp office? Is it different from what I've found on their website?

Steve from Florida, the $5.00 was an online reservation fee, and the debit card was verified at the time of RESERVATION, not at the time of rental. I paid for EVERYTHING else in CASH at rental time. The card was requested as a second form of identification. (At least that was the excuse.) I did not OFFER the card as a form of payment, and did NOT give my permission to put a hold on it or charge it. I told him TWICE there is not enough in that account, do NOT charge it, and was assured TWICE that he would not. My mistake was to trust that he wasn't lying. I imagine that if I had refused to show him the card at that time, since it was on file from my online use, they would have charged it anyway. And no, I had no other cards to give them.

Yes, accepting this crappy truck might ultimately be my responsibility. It was barely adequate for a short in-town trip, and they had nothing else, so I accepted it. I did not road test it first (do they allow that?) so the front end misalignment and gas gauge issues were not immediately apparent. The sprung hood did concern me a bit, so I just drove it no more than about 30 MPH, in town. If I was going any farther I would have refused the truck and made other plans. One point of my report is to let people know what kind of junk this company will rent you, not to argue with defenders of this company. If they have so much junk in their fleet that you have to rent one days early to make sure its OK, do you really want to do business with them?

OK, I concede Larry's point that maybe I should have rented it Friday night so I would have had the truck first thing Saturday morning. Good suggestion! I had no idea what I would run into at the U-Haul office. I've never rented a truck before or worked in that area so please stop acting like I'm some kind of blithering idiot because I was unaware of some things. (Like, maybe, that this company rents junk, will try to rip you off, and can not have equipment ready when promised.) That is another reason for my report, to point out the difficulties I experienced with this company, so that someone else might avoid them. Instead of arguing about whether I should have known this or that, we should try to make more people aware of these things. And I am not just the only disgruntled customer of this company. This was by no means an out of the ordinary solitary isolated incident. Do a search and you will find almost 200 (I don't know why that number fluctuates) reports against U-Haul. I am not the only person who was unaware of potential problems with this company or had a bad experience.

Sam, the $75 was actually deducted from my account, not just a hold as you U-Haul guys keep trying to say. This resulted in a negative account balance, not just a negative available amount. My bank only charges overdraft fees for overdrafts, not holds. This is a plain and simple rip-off, since I was assured TWICE that there would be no charge to the card, and I was paying for everything in CASH.

Of course the "+mileage" is displayed on some trucks (in smaller print.) I said I was trying to point out some of the hidden (or maybe not so obvious) charges. I didn't specifically complain about paying for the gas and tax, I simply included them in my list of expenses. Paying for gas, too, when I already have to pay 99 cents per mile does strike me as double charging me, however, especially since I doubt the accuracy of the truck's odometer. I believe the route I took was closer to 25 miles than 35.

I notice you had nothing to say about all the optional extras already checked on U-Haul's website. My guess is that they hope some people won't notice these extras and uncheck them. Or the fact that this truck had a two-wheeler and furniture pad right in the way at the back when I didn't want them. My guess is that they hope some people will cut the zip ties and move them out of the way, without realizing that will be another charge. Or the fact that this truck had a damaged roof that might leak. This was not brought to my attention, but written on the back of the damage form AFTER I filled it out and turned it in. This was not even visible until I peeled my copy of the damage form away from the contract later.

Yes, I said it was busy, but that's still no excuse to ignore me for more than half an hour. I had previously reserved a truck, and was told it would be ready at 9AM. It is absolutely inexcusable that I had to wait for so long while their employees answered phones and helped other customers that arrived AFTER me. Maybe some of them had reservations, but so did I.

No, I still haven't heard from Customer Service (big shock.) What number do you recommend calling for the Corp office? Is it different from what I've found on their website?

Steve from Florida, the $5.00 was an online reservation fee, and the debit card was verified at the time of RESERVATION, not at the time of rental. I paid for EVERYTHING else in CASH at rental time. The card was requested as a second form of identification. (At least that was the excuse.) I did not OFFER the card as a form of payment, and did NOT give my permission to put a hold on it or charge it. I told him TWICE there is not enough in that account, do NOT charge it, and was assured TWICE that he would not. My mistake was to trust that he wasn't lying. I imagine that if I had refused to show him the card at that time, since it was on file from my online use, they would have charged it anyway. And no, I had no other cards to give them.

Yes, accepting this crappy truck might ultimately be my responsibility. It was barely adequate for a short in-town trip, and they had nothing else, so I accepted it. I did not road test it first (do they allow that?) so the front end misalignment and gas gauge issues were not immediately apparent. The sprung hood did concern me a bit, so I just drove it no more than about 30 MPH, in town. If I was going any farther I would have refused the truck and made other plans. One point of my report is to let people know what kind of junk this company will rent you, not to argue with defenders of this company. If they have so much junk in their fleet that you have to rent one days early to make sure its OK, do you really want to do business with them?

OK, I concede Larry's point that maybe I should have rented it Friday night so I would have had the truck first thing Saturday morning. Good suggestion! I had no idea what I would run into at the U-Haul office. I've never rented a truck before or worked in that area so please stop acting like I'm some kind of blithering idiot because I was unaware of some things. (Like, maybe, that this company rents junk, will try to rip you off, and can not have equipment ready when promised.) That is another reason for my report, to point out the difficulties I experienced with this company, so that someone else might avoid them. Instead of arguing about whether I should have known this or that, we should try to make more people aware of these things. And I am not just the only disgruntled customer of this company. This was by no means an out of the ordinary solitary isolated incident. Do a search and you will find almost 200 (I don't know why that number fluctuates) reports against U-Haul. I am not the only person who was unaware of potential problems with this company or had a bad experience.

Sam, the $75 was actually deducted from my account, not just a hold as you U-Haul guys keep trying to say. This resulted in a negative account balance, not just a negative available amount. My bank only charges overdraft fees for overdrafts, not holds. This is a plain and simple rip-off, since I was assured TWICE that there would be no charge to the card, and I was paying for everything in CASH.

Of course the "+mileage" is displayed on some trucks (in smaller print.) I said I was trying to point out some of the hidden (or maybe not so obvious) charges. I didn't specifically complain about paying for the gas and tax, I simply included them in my list of expenses. Paying for gas, too, when I already have to pay 99 cents per mile does strike me as double charging me, however, especially since I doubt the accuracy of the truck's odometer. I believe the route I took was closer to 25 miles than 35.

I notice you had nothing to say about all the optional extras already checked on U-Haul's website. My guess is that they hope some people won't notice these extras and uncheck them. Or the fact that this truck had a two-wheeler and furniture pad right in the way at the back when I didn't want them. My guess is that they hope some people will cut the zip ties and move them out of the way, without realizing that will be another charge. Or the fact that this truck had a damaged roof that might leak. This was not brought to my attention, but written on the back of the damage form AFTER I filled it out and turned it in. This was not even visible until I peeled my copy of the damage form away from the contract later.

Yes, I said it was busy, but that's still no excuse to ignore me for more than half an hour. I had previously reserved a truck, and was told it would be ready at 9AM. It is absolutely inexcusable that I had to wait for so long while their employees answered phones and helped other customers that arrived AFTER me. Maybe some of them had reservations, but so did I.

No, I still haven't heard from Customer Service (big shock.) What number do you recommend calling for the Corp office? Is it different from what I've found on their website?

Steve from Florida, the $5.00 was an online reservation fee, and the debit card was verified at the time of RESERVATION, not at the time of rental. I paid for EVERYTHING else in CASH at rental time. The card was requested as a second form of identification. (At least that was the excuse.) I did not OFFER the card as a form of payment, and did NOT give my permission to put a hold on it or charge it. I told him TWICE there is not enough in that account, do NOT charge it, and was assured TWICE that he would not. My mistake was to trust that he wasn't lying. I imagine that if I had refused to show him the card at that time, since it was on file from my online use, they would have charged it anyway. And no, I had no other cards to give them.

Yes, accepting this crappy truck might ultimately be my responsibility. It was barely adequate for a short in-town trip, and they had nothing else, so I accepted it. I did not road test it first (do they allow that?) so the front end misalignment and gas gauge issues were not immediately apparent. The sprung hood did concern me a bit, so I just drove it no more than about 30 MPH, in town. If I was going any farther I would have refused the truck and made other plans. One point of my report is to let people know what kind of junk this company will rent you, not to argue with defenders of this company. If they have so much junk in their fleet that you have to rent one days early to make sure its OK, do you really want to do business with them?

OK, I concede Larry's point that maybe I should have rented it Friday night so I would have had the truck first thing Saturday morning. Good suggestion! I had no idea what I would run into at the U-Haul office. I've never rented a truck before or worked in that area so please stop acting like I'm some kind of blithering idiot because I was unaware of some things. (Like, maybe, that this company rents junk, will try to rip you off, and can not have equipment ready when promised.) That is another reason for my report, to point out the difficulties I experienced with this company, so that someone else might avoid them. Instead of arguing about whether I should have known this or that, we should try to make more people aware of these things. And I am not just the only disgruntled customer of this company. This was by no means an out of the ordinary solitary isolated incident. Do a search and you will find almost 200 (I don't know why that number fluctuates) reports against U-Haul. I am not the only person who was unaware of potential problems with this company or had a bad experience.

U-Haul should have the trucks repaired as they are damaged. U-Haul customers aren't likely to be professional truck drivers, and far too often U-Haul's shabby trucks leave people stranded on the side of the road. On a busy weekend it's ok to rent out junkers just so you can profit a little more?

The O.P's mistake wasn't in using U-Haul though, it was getting roped in to moving his girlfriend's cousin and his wife in the first place. His "helpers" wisely escaped the first chance they got, but he didn't. People that want to move should do it themselves.

Randy,

All truck rentals require some form of deposit which can be a hold [charge] on your credit card/debit card, or cash. I think you missed that part of the conversation. The $5 was just to hold the reservation.

Furthermore, the card you reserved the truck with has to be verified at time of rental. How do they know you didn't steal the card? This protects everyone.

You should never offer a card on an account that has no money in it. And a debit card should never be used to rent something where extra charges can be added. This is just common sense.

As far as the condition of the truck goes, the ultimate responsibility for taking it was yours. This is why the other poster made some good suggestions on timing of the rental. never rent at the last minute when you have no other choices. Get the truck in your possession a day or two before the move so you can be sure everything is right, and leave yourself other options if they are not. We are talking about $20/day here. I think this would have been a wise investment.

Randy,

All truck rentals require some form of deposit which can be a hold [charge] on your credit card/debit card, or cash. I think you missed that part of the conversation. The $5 was just to hold the reservation.

Furthermore, the card you reserved the truck with has to be verified at time of rental. How do they know you didn't steal the card? This protects everyone.

You should never offer a card on an account that has no money in it. And a debit card should never be used to rent something where extra charges can be added. This is just common sense.

As far as the condition of the truck goes, the ultimate responsibility for taking it was yours. This is why the other poster made some good suggestions on timing of the rental. never rent at the last minute when you have no other choices. Get the truck in your possession a day or two before the move so you can be sure everything is right, and leave yourself other options if they are not. We are talking about $20/day here. I think this would have been a wise investment.

Randy,

All truck rentals require some form of deposit which can be a hold [charge] on your credit card/debit card, or cash. I think you missed that part of the conversation. The $5 was just to hold the reservation.

Furthermore, the card you reserved the truck with has to be verified at time of rental. How do they know you didn't steal the card? This protects everyone.

You should never offer a card on an account that has no money in it. And a debit card should never be used to rent something where extra charges can be added. This is just common sense.

As far as the condition of the truck goes, the ultimate responsibility for taking it was yours. This is why the other poster made some good suggestions on timing of the rental. never rent at the last minute when you have no other choices. Get the truck in your possession a day or two before the move so you can be sure everything is right, and leave yourself other options if they are not. We are talking about $20/day here. I think this would have been a wise investment.

Randy,

All truck rentals require some form of deposit which can be a hold [charge] on your credit card/debit card, or cash. I think you missed that part of the conversation. The $5 was just to hold the reservation.

Furthermore, the card you reserved the truck with has to be verified at time of rental. How do they know you didn't steal the card? This protects everyone.

You should never offer a card on an account that has no money in it. And a debit card should never be used to rent something where extra charges can be added. This is just common sense.

As far as the condition of the truck goes, the ultimate responsibility for taking it was yours. This is why the other poster made some good suggestions on timing of the rental. never rent at the last minute when you have no other choices. Get the truck in your possession a day or two before the move so you can be sure everything is right, and leave yourself other options if they are not. We are talking about $20/day here. I think this would have been a wise investment.

The $75.00 on your c.c. Is NOT a charge but a hold on the estimated charges & once you return the equipment the hold is released, but it can take up to 3 working days. On the truck's where the daily in-town price is displayed, i.e. $29.95, it also clearly states " + mileage". And per your objection on having to pay for your fuel. Have you ever rented a car? It's the same policy. That is only common sense. And tax, like it or not, everyone is required to pay taxes in this world.

I am sorry for the customer service you said you received. As for it taking longer than you feel it should have to complete the rental process, you even said they were very busy. I understand wanting to walk in and not having to wait & spend time doing all that is required but that isn't always possible. If you do not receive a call from Customer Service I would recommend you call Corp office & speak to them.

Sam

Steve, this employee SAID he needed to see my card "to make sure I am who I say I am," not to charge the card. A second form of identification, supposedly. He wrote down the information over my objections! "I specifically told him AGAIN not to charge the card, there was not enough in that account, I was paying cash. He assured me AGAIN that my card would not be charged, it was only to verify my identity." So he was obviously lying through his teeth!

My move was NOT commercial, and I did NOT just casually choose Saturday of Labor Day weekend as Larry suggests. To clarify, my girlfriend's cousin and his wife were moving out of their old apartment into a new house. They did not just casually choose this date either. The lease on their apartment had ended and they had just taken possession of their new house. They had some large pieces of furniture left that we needed the truck for. (They were not my help, I was theirs!) Their apartment was my first stop, and I hoped the rental process would take no more than half an hour, (not just 10 minutes!)

Yes, Larry, we have them thar noo-fangled cell phones way out here in the wilderness of Des Moines! How do you think I reached them when they were gone? The next stop was my girlfriend's apartment to return the couch she had loaned them earlier. We weren't able to load everything in the truck and get there before she had to leave for work, so I had to get the key from her. The new house was the third stop, where we unloaded everything else except for a couch that went to my house, the last stop before returning the truck.

I suppose in a perfect world we could all afford professional movers or several day's rent on something we only need for a few hours. And be able to take off work whenever we want. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way in the real world. I really didn't expect anyone to start picking apart what I had to say. I posted this report, as I said, to try to help at least one other person avoid the hassle I went through by pointing out some of the unscrupulous business practices of U-Haul. Not to start another of the many nasty threads I've seen on this website! Please, let's not go there!

Larry, the majority of your comment seemed to concern the fact that this was a very busy time for this company, and that this was the reason for the long delay and crappy truck. But, I did make a reservation for this truck ahead of time. U-Haul even called me and confirmed this. I should not have had to stand at the counter for more than half an hour and be rudely ignored by the manager. I can't believe everyone else there had reservations, too, since I don't recall hearing anyone else say they did. Most of what I heard the manager say on the phone concerned which equipment they had and the costs. That didn't sound like customers with reservations, either. Not to say that I think my reservation means everybody should drop everything and wait on me, but it shouldn't take 75 minutes. And I shouldn't be told to step aside for someone who just walked in!

I tried a different type of search and saw there were 175 reports against U-Haul, so I'm far from the only person to have problem with them. Once again, I hope I can help someone avoid the hassle and rip-off that is U-Haul by warning everyone about the way they do business and my experience with them. Larry's comments about avoiding the busy times are well taken, too. In my particular situation, I didn't have the luxury of choosing another time for the move. Next time I need to move something, I would rather beg my worst enemy for his truck rather than go back to U-Haul.

I used to rent trucks for a U-Haul competitor. It was the worst job I have ever had but I learned a lot that is worth passing on. It's a little late for Randy but may help someone else from making the same mistakes.

There is only a finite number of rental trucks but an infinite number of people who want to rent trucks. Randy got a really crappy truck because he chose to pick up his truck on Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. This is only the second busiest weekend of the entire year. Only Memorial Day weekend is busier. Randy was lucky to get a truck at all.

Demand for rental trucks is always highest on Saturdays. Even higher on the first or last Saturday of the month. Higher yet during summer months when a large percentage of the fleet is in one-way service, and higher on long weekends.

The secret to getting a truck for Saturday is to pick it up on Thursday or Friday. Ah gee wiz, you gotta pay for extra days. If your stuff is not worth the cost of an extra day or two why bother to move it all? Better yet, take a day off work in the middle of the week and move it then. If your boss does not value your work enough that you cannot afford a professional mover then you can be assured he is not going to miss you if you take a day off in the middle of the week.

Randy's other mistake was to have all his plans based on driving off with his rental truck 10 minutes after U-Haul opened. Randy had no Plan B. The only plan was that he would show up at a certain time and place with the U-Haul. When he did not show due the the delay in getting the truck off U-Haul's lot his help took a hike. (No cell phones in Des Moines?)

If your help is going to be ready to go on Saturday morning then show them the courtesy of getting the truck a day or two earlier. Besides, if there is some problem with the truck, you have time to correct it.

if it was only ID verification??--
"the employee simply wrote down my card number"

And it sounds like you were renting this truck for commercial purposes--Nothing wrong with that, but I suggest next time you rent from a rental company that specifically rents for that reason