Moving between B.C. and Alberta was a bit of a nightmare for Kim Edmondson.
“Have you seen that (Seinfeld) episode? He rented a car. He had a reservation. And he goes up to the car thing and they're like, yeah, ‘So we don't have your car’ ... That's exactly what U-Haul told us,” Edmondson said.
Edmondson wants people to be aware of the troubles she had when moving between Vancouver Island and St. Albert in June, which included price increases and cancellations.
“A lot of people think if you book a U-Haul, you're gonna get a U-Haul. But they don't realize that (U-Haul) can cancel it anytime if they don't have the stock,” she said.
Edmondson and her family of four were living in Chemainus, located about 32 kilometres south of Nanaimo, before deciding to move provinces after years of listening to her brother, who lives Boyle, tell them to come to Alberta.
“The B.C. housing market is really bad, and our house was being sold — there's literally nothing to buy or rent even close to what we could afford or what we were willing to pay,” she said.
The family found a place in St. Albert, and decided to make the move for June 1.
Edmondson said they started pricing their options out back in March. At that time, it would have cost her around $1000 for three days for the 20-to 24-foot truck.
“I was like, ‘Okay, well let's budget about $2000, because that covers gas, the ferry, the other vehicle's gas, and everything,’” she said.
Edmondson didn’t book the truck at that time, as the family needed to iron out some more details.
When she was finally ready to reserve the truck, the prices had increased.
“The truck was now $5,200 plus gas … and there's no guarantee that you even get a truck,” she said.
U-Haul told Edmondson the price increase was due to supply and demand.
“She's like, 'Everyone's moving to Alberta. We only have one-way trucks going one way and nobody's coming back.' If you do get them, it's supply and demand. If you've paid five grand, you might get a truck, maybe. No promises,” she said.
Edmondson found a truck for a slightly later date at a much lower price, but they could not guarantee her that a truck would be available. She was told she would get $50 cash and 30-days free-storage if a truck was not available for her time.
“I'm like, ‘Well, none of that helps me because if you're giving me storage, how do you think I'm going to get my items into your storage unit?’” Edmondson said.
Edmondson found and booked a truck at the end of April.
Shortly after she booked the truck, she received two phone calls from U-Haul. The first call asked if she would be willing to take two smaller ten-foot trucks instead of the single 20-to 24-foot truck she had booked. That option did not work for Edmondson.
“Then I get another callback and she says, ‘Do you know anyone that's moving from Alberta to B.C. that would rent a roundtrip truck?’ And I said, “No, I've never been to Alberta in my life. I don't know anybody besides my brother, and he has been established there for 10 years.'
“And she's like, ‘Did you want to put an ad on Craigslist and see if somebody can help you out?’
“I'm sorry, I don't want to share a truck with a complete stranger,” Edmondson said.
On May 10, Edmondson received an email cancelling her truck.
Edmondson said she knows it’s not completely U-Haul's fault because their business model means some locations won’t have stock all the time, but she feels they should have a way of knowing when a truck is coming back.
“The onus is on the customer to try and figure out how to get their stuff from A to B. It's just stupid, especially when people are trying to move out of old rentals and into new ones ... the timing of everything is so specific, and then for them to say, 'Well, we won't know if you have a truck until three days before your date,' how is that helping anyone?” she said.
In an email, Patrick Cresey, president for U-Haul Company of Northern Alta,, Sask., and the N.W.T. said even getting equipment in St. Albert is limited right now. One dealer has a smaller lot that can only park three vehicles.
“Most of our available equipment for the St. Albert community will be in the greater city of Edmonton, where U-Haul has five company-owned and operated stores, along with 57 local dealers serving as rental locations,” he said.
Cresey said because equipment is always on the move, U-Haul's local teams must wait until closer to the rental date to guarantee equipment.
“In major cities during the busy summer moving season, that guarantee window is two days out. Cancellation is never an option we recommend. It is only a decision a customer would make based on their preferences once we provide them with all our available moving solutions,” he said.
Cresey said sometimes they ask customers to consider different pick-up locations where equipment is most available, or they ask them to consider moving on weekdays, or to consider different sized trailers and trucks to transport belongings.
“We have seen considerable one-way U-Haul traffic exiting Alberta over the last month, but as noted in our annual migration-trends report recapping one-way moves in 2021, Alberta was the top-growth province in Canada for the net gain of one-way U-Haul truck customers last year,” Cresey said.
In the end, Edmondson was lucky — her brother drove down from Boyle with a borrowed trailer.
“I feel so bad for people that literally have no alternatives,” she said.
Edmondson said there aren’t a lot of options when it comes to moving between provinces, especially low budget options.
Her advice?
Book a truck when you see the price and “budget like $10,000 If you ever plan to move between provinces, just in case.”
