U-Haul Moving & Storage at Central Square

Best U-​hual in The Area
This review is primarily for Bonnie, Mike and Corey.
Bonnie does a phenomenal job of running the show. She keeps everything in order and is extremely helpful.
Mike was very very patient as we kept changing our plan for moving. He always was positive and helped us make the best decision.
Corey got our truck ready, was super friendly, helpful and showed us how to use the truck properly.
It’s always a good, fast and easy experience at this U-​Haul. I would highly recommend it.

Quick and helpful. No surprise bills for my truck. Was ready for my reservation and answered my questions. Used smallest truck size and fit plenty. Would use again.
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I have been a customer at this location 3 times now. Moving is never fun, but getting my truck is always easy and the staff are very nice — it starts my day right! They are always very helpful and easy to work with.
Like any rental company, there is a bit of paperwork, so I always try to arrive 15 minutes early just in case.

U-​Haul is an outright liar. I booked a 9′ van for moving from Boston to NYC and was given the van with ¼th of the tank full. The staff told me if I returned the tank with greater than that amount in NY, I would get reimbursed for gas. When I got to NYC, I was not reimbursed for gas worth $ 50! A U-​Haul employee himself admitted that the company tricks people by giving them vans/​trucks without a full tank and not reimbursing them for any extra gas. BEWARE

Giving Uhaul 1 star is a stretch. I reserved a truck (several weeks in advance) for the end of May and requested an early AM pick-​up time. I verbally confirmed trucks would be available before/​around 8am since I had movers scheduled to arrive at 9am. A day before our move, I received an email that the truck would be available at 12:30pm. I spoke to an incredibly rude and unhelpful customer service rep who told me there were absolutely no trucks available in the greater Boston area before 12:30pm. Uhaul seems to have a horrible truck rental scheduling system and awful customer service. In comparison our experience with Budget has been amazing.

I’ve used this location many times and never had an issue. They always have the equipment I reserved and there is never much of a wait (unless you are doing Sept 1 or June 1 or something, but everywhere is busy on those days). I’m always impressed with how easy it is to rent a cargo van in a pinch to run down to Ikea or move.
It’ll be a pleasant experience if you are kind and not high maintenance.

DO NOT GET YOUR HITCH INSTALLED HERE! THEY WILL DAMAGE YOUR CAR AND BLAME YOU FOR IT!!!
Back in December, I came in to U-​haul for a hitch and hitch wiring installation, to have them do the install for a hitch I had purchased online. The technician/​installer who did the install itself was named Manny. Before I go any further, I want to emphasize that prior to this installation, NO ONE, INCLUDING MYSELF, HAD BEEN IN THE VICINITY OF THE HITCH WIRING INSTALL AREA.
So I began a cross-​country trek from MA to CA at the end of December and about 2 hours after I left MA, my Toyota hybrid car’s electrical system starts going haywire throwing all sorts of warning lights at me. These warning lights turned out to be associated with a number of vital electrical components that weren’t being supplied power to them, one of those components being the cooling fans on my hybrid battery (the battery being a $ 3500 part to replace). At this point, I had no idea a faulty install was causing this so we kept driving and the car was still operational until about 10 hours in when all of a sudden my car shuts itself off in the middle of the freeway due to the overheating of the hybrid system. So at this point we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a trailer attached to my car, and no tow service willing to tow us to the nearest city because we had a trailer hooked up. Luckily, we waited a couple hours to let the car cool down and the car drives fine again for 2 more hours until it shuts off again. hmm, seems to be an overheating problem! To make a long story short, after a somewhat dicey 50+ hour trip on the road, me and my buddy eventually make our way back to CA but not without making frequent stops to give the car enough time to cool down periodically.
Now after tons of visits to two separate Toyota dealerships, several expensive diagnoses, and countless days of car rentals later, the Toyota technicians find out that a set of wiring connectors had been removed from the back of the car less than a foot away from where the hitch wiring was connected into. I drive around to a bunch of junk yards and LUCKILY find the exact connectors off a trashed car of the same model. The dealership plugs in the piece, the cooling fans kick on, and all is fine and dandy for the immediate foreseeable future. But who knows what damage was done to my car by not cooling the hybrid batteries for a 40+ hour road trip?
I call U-​haul and tell them about all this and of course they deny any installation mistakes on their end and refuse to pay for the repairs. The store manager Bonnie Aliberti even went so far as to say my car must have been brought into the U-​haul shop that way. riiiiiiiiiight. So a car I’ve owned for 4+ years now, which never had any sort of electrical problems before, magically disconnected from itself a piece of wiring driving power to the hybrid cooling fans, and started coincidentally having a plethora of electrical issues right after taking the car into this U-​haul for a hitch wiring install. OKAY!
My safety as well as the safety of my passengers was put at risk, not to mention the expensive visits to get the issue looked at and eventually repaired, and who knows what else is damaged as a result. Why would I go through all that hassle and put others’ safety at risk as if I was making all this up?
If I could give this shop negative points I would. Their attitude and unresponsiveness while sorting this all out has been extremely disappointing and I hope does not represent U-haul’s stance on customer service. I will be filing complaints against this U-​haul store, the store manager Bonnie Alberti, and the technician involved in the installation Manny.
the tldr; summary…
took my car in to U-​haul to install a hitch, car breaks down in the middle of a road trip, find out the hitch installer removed a piece of the wiring accidentally, U-​haul denies any wrongdoing and I’m out of pocket almost $ 1000 bucks on repairs… great job U-​haul you just won yourself a lawsuit claim!

I’ve used basically all of UHaul’s services over the past few years: rented one-​way and round-​trip truck rentals, rented storage units, and purchased packaging supplies. The employees here are generally nice and work efficiently, and although they occasionally get jammed up with rentals/​returns I’ve never waited more than a few minutes.
Packaging: They have a good variety of boxes at middle of the road prices. If you’re doing a big move you can probably save a few bucks with rented plastic crates or a bulk purchase elsewhere, but for smaller moves UHaul isn’t bad.
Trucks: This can be really hit or miss as the trucks range from brand new to really beat up. Try to go when they’re not swamped with customers and you can probably choose your truck. TIP: Cross-​shop Penske and Ryder against UHaul and they will match or beat rates. Both Penske and Ryder seem to have cleaner, newer trucks but their facilities are not as conveniently located as UHaul.
So why do I give them a two star rating?
Simply put, the storage is a nightmare. The location near Central Square and heated, 24hour storage mean that this place is a magnet for down-​and-​out people to live in. UHaul Central Square is a de facto homeless shelter for at least 6 months a year, which brings the following problems:
1. The place is infested with rodents and insects: you’ll regularly see mouse droppings and roaches.
2. Frequent appearance of household trash throughout the storage facility (stepping over used tampons and razors to get your stuff is seriously unpleasant)
3. Be prepared for heated arguments and fights among «residents» of the storage facility. On at least two occasions I had to postpone visits to storage because of altercations at the entrance — these are generally more problematic in the evening after the staff leave. If you’re there in the morning you’ll find people shaving and taking sponge baths.
Frankly, I sympathize with the staff on this issue as it seems cruel to put someone out on the street in a Boston winter. However, if you’re a paying customer who wants clean, safe storage take your business elsewhere. If you have absolutely no other options, put your stuff in sealed containers, decline the 24 hour access option and only visit the unit when the staff is around.

I have no idea why all this negative reviews .I think this is the best moving company if u dont want to pay alot of money and customer service is amazing very professional and make way to easy .I disagree with all the negative reviews and this recommendations for everyone to use their services .good job guys. people want to pay almost nothing and never happy.

So helpful and convenient! On the road quickly and with few complications. Manager showed me how the back hatch worked personally. Quick drop off return with digital receipt. This place is awesome. Made my move that much easier.

Bonnie was awesome! I had reserved moving help and 1 ubox from Brighton Uhaul. The movers arrived and Brighton Uhaul did not have a forklift to move the ubox. My movers contacted Bonnie at this location who helped them secure one. Then when I ran out of room and needed another ubox she helped me track one down from another location, gave me an estimate and finalized my charges. She was a fantastic help!

I have been using this uhaul location for the past five years! For the first 3 years the building manager was Jorge — HE WAS AMAZING!!! Their entire staff were always on point! Now there is a completely new staff and they are pretty great as well! They have always been helpful!
We are relocating in Sept and will def use Uhaul to ship our belongings!
Great job, guys!
Buuuuuuuuut the only thing that cause me to take off a star is THE RAMP. Seriously, someone can be seriously hurt– SMH
in order to get to the storage spaces you have to make a sharp turn and drive up a reeeeeaLLLY steep ramp. Its horrible!

Moving is stressful. The easier and smoother the little things are the better. These guys were great. They were pleasant, efficient and nice. I reserved a van over the phone at 4pm, walked in at 6:35pm and drove out at 6:43pm! The next day when I returned the van they grabbed the keys from me and told me I was good to go.
I drove 6 very stop and go miles and put in a gallon of gas thinking that would be enough. It turned out that I returned the van with a gallon less gas than it had in it. They didn’t mention it, waved the $ 30 fuel fee and only charged me for the gas they put in.
I would definitely go here again and make sure to overestimate how much gas a large fully packed van uses on city driving.

The guys who installed the hitch receiver without a doubt, is the very BEST! He was very patient with my questions, very thoroughly examined the installation spot, and carefully performing the install on my vehicle. Overall, I am very pleased with the service.

U-​Haul overall has a very bad reputation for customer service, but I would like to distinguish that this particular Cambridge location is better than most.
When my reservation was switched without my knowledge, the clerks were very helpful in figuring out the proper channels for communicating with a manager and working towards a resolution to our problems.
That being said. U-​Haul still sucks.

Beware — stole my credit card info! Rented from here one year ago and just posting now due to a police investigation. My credit card # was stolen at this location. After handing my card to Alyssa Drake (name on my receipt) I looked away at some boxes. Turned around and she had disappeared into the back room with my card. She came back about 1min later and returned my card. It was unusual but I didn’t think there would be criminal activity.
2 hours later — over $ 3K was charged to my card at Solstice Sunglasses in south Boston. I hadn’t used my card anywhere else over the past 3 days.

Users Becareful!!!
On 6÷23÷13 I rented a Uhaul van to move belongings from Boston to Cambridge and only used the van for about 4 hours. I requested 30mi and only used 28mi on the van. Upon return I filled the tank and double checked to see if the tank was full to avoid the $ 30 fee surcharge and still ended up being charged!
The rental rate was $ 19.95 I added the $ 11.00 insurance (always add insurance; just in case) Mileage charge: $ 17.05, Environmental fee: $ 3.00, rental tax: $ 3.20 which total came out to $ 54.20 which was okay! They put a hold on $ 80 just in case you go over mileage, don’t put gas, etc But after return I was actually charged $ 80!
I called Uhaul and got the run-​around over the phone so I went to speak with the manager (in person). He refunded the remainder that I had been charged and apologized which I appreciated since my blood was boiling!
The same day that I went to speak to the manager I had gone to 6 Flags in Agawam, Ma. I was telling a friend the story about Uhaul and how I felt ripped off, someone in line heard my story and said they were also ripped off!!! Wow!!! Uhaul is actually scamming people with extra charge on GAS!!! So users BECAREFUL!!!
If you feel you have been overcharged speak with the manager (in-​person) to get your refund!!!

I’ve used this uhaul location twice to rent moving trucks and have been satisfied with the rental, though not always super happy with the customer service.
They have always been fair and transparent, as pretty much all the information you need to know is on the website. Moreover, their rental prices are good value for the cost.
The only drawback with them is that when they get slammed with college kids wanting to move their stuff around June or September, they don’t seem to work any faster. Hence, some may have to stand in line for HOURS to get their rental. One would think that with reservations online they can predict how much staff they will need to process their rentals, but this was certainly not the case when I was there on a June morning.

This UHaul location is absolutely horrible.
BACKSTORY: I rented a UHaul truck, returned it after hours in the parking garage, everything went fine. In an event of very poor timing, I literally just dropped off the keys in the key drop-​off slot when a woman came up and said that my truck was blocking the one she was just picking up at that time.
My dropoff time was 9:30PM. Their pickup time was 10PM. How the hell did UHaul not realize that this was going to happen? There are no separate garages for picking up and dropping off UHauls. Such poor planning on that branch’s part.
I felt bad since it really wasn’t the woman’s fault, so I phoned corporate customer service who said that they’d send a manager who’d be there in 15 minutes, and emphasized that I could not leave until after the situation got fixed. It took the manager more than half an hour to get there while I waited in the rain.
The manager finally arrived, drove my truck out while the other customer got her truck out, barely acknowledged me at all, and then got ready to leave. If you didn’t need me there, WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME WAIT FOR MORE THAN HALF AN HOUR. I walked up to him and asked if there was anything I could do, but he basically very condescendingly told me that I could run along home now that he «fixed my problem» and that by the way, I damaged the vehicle and better be ready to see it reflected in the payment. I didn’t think I damaged it in any way (I double checked before I locked up), but even so mentioned that I bought the accidental damage coverage. His response: ‘Well too bad”.
Seriously?! I know it’s late and it sucks that you have to come back out when you thought you were done for the day, but this entire thing happened because of that branch and its employees negligence, which also wasted MY time.
Basically, that encounter made me never want to come back here again. The only positive note is that they did not actually charge me for any damage; I guess the other employees there actually have some sort of moral code unlike that one manager.

As I was looking to move, I was looking into how to get cheap moving boxes. Finally, after not finding much, I decided to just suck it up and go to UHaul to get some. Here is a little secret, if you want to spend as little as possible on boxes, there is a FREE BOXES section in this UHaul. Other U Haul stores might have it but I’ve only ever seen this one. If you walk into the area where the trucks come out, as soon as you walk in, to the right is a giant cardboard box that says in black written felt pen «Free Boxes». If you’re lucky, and I seemed to be every other day I went, you’ll get a ton of free boxes. But be kind, if you get a box and don’t use it, please consider taking it back to this U Haul so that others can benefit from your charity.
And if there are no boxes? Well, go to a Shaws and ask if they have any free boxes they can give you. The Shaws in Somerville brought out a huge delivery cart of perfectly good Apple, Banana and Orange transport boxes which have handles and lids. While we were packing, we even found a leftover apple or two. How’s that for a free snack while you pack?