“Car blocked in by dropped off vans at Intown U-Haul location”

“Dear PoPville,

I had an experience at the Intown U-Haul location that I think is relevant to other DMV residents. Earlier today (Sunday), I picked up a small van at 5:30pm for a 7:30pm drop-off and parked my car in one of the customer parking spaces at the entrance to the pick-up / drop-off depot. I arrived at 7:15pm to drop-off the U-Haul and pick up my car only to find my car blocked in by another U-Haul.

I called the General Manager (the facility closes at 5pm), as well as U-Haul Emergency Roadside Assistance. The General Manager did not respond to his phone; U-Haul had me on the phone for an hour and said that they weren’t going to be able to tow the cars blocking me (the number of U-Hauls blocking me in had grown to 3 while I was on the phone with them). I called 311 and the Police Department sent me a very friendly officer from 5th precinct. The officer called U-Haul Emergency Roadside Assistance with me and, together, we were able to convince U-Haul to send me a tow truck to remove the U-Haul vehicles blocking me in. Needless to say, ~5 hours later, at close to midnight, I was on my way.

Words to the wise:

Intown U-Haul- tell customers not to park in the customer parking after a certain time or they risk having their cars blocked in overnight. Also, let customers know where they should be dropping off their U-Haul vehicles. While the officer and I waited for a tow truck to arrive, half a dozen people came by to drop off their vehicles and had no clue where to drop their car off.

U-Haul Customers- Under no circumstances park your call in the customer parking if you intend on dropping off your vehicle after hours. Maybe this is something that everyone knows because they just know it, but it was not at all clear to me and there was no signage indicating this would be the case whatsoever.

5th Precinct Police Department- keep doing great work in holding local businesses accountable to their customers / residents.”