U-Haul International Inc

Description of Work: On July 10, 2012, I took my car to the U-Haul Moving and Storage business at 2152 Grand Ave., in Billings, Montana for the purpose of having a trailer hitch installed on my car. I explained to the manager that I would need a hitch that would be adequate to pull a small trailer. Even though I neglected to specify that it would be a small camp trailer, I just assumed they would understand that. When I picked the car up the charge was $272.95 which I paid in cash; three $100 bills. I was given a receipt and went on my way. When my husband looked at the hitch, he realized that it was meant to pull a small utility trailer and would not support the weight of the camp trailer. I called the manager and explained the problem and also that I needed the hitch by the weekend, as I was planning a week-long camping trip on July 16. That was on Thursday. I was assured they would order the proper hitch and have it sent overnight from their warehouse. They would call the next day when it arrived. Nobody ever called, and when I tried to reach someone there, I was told they were all too busy to come to the phone. Thus, my camping trip was cancelled. To say that I was angry would be an understatement. On Saturday, my husband tried to reach them, but if the phone rings a few times, it is answered by a person who is not at that store. I don’t know where that person is located. He was put on hold, and the next person he talked to was the U-Haul warehouse foreman in Tennessee or Georgia. He told my husband that the hitch had never been ordered, so he had one sent to Billings. The manager, Brad, called and informed me the hitch had arrived, and a date was set to put it on. I went down and waited an hour for the installation. When I went back I was told that the hitch would not work on my car; that I would receive a refund of the $272.95 plus $50.00 to cover the cost of gas I’d used traveling back and forth from Columbus to Billings. Brad asked for my debit card to be used to deposit the $292.95 directly into my account. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, so that is what happened. At some point in this whole process, Brad called and said that they had no record of ever being paid the original $272.95. He assured me that he remembered me giving him the cash; there just was no record of it. When I looked at the work order/receipt, it showed the amount charged was $272.95, and the amount paid was 0. I’d never looked closely at the receipt until that time. When my bank statement arrived and I tried to balance my account, I first saw where the $392.95 had been deposited. However, on the next page there was an overdraft, and the bank automatically withdrew $500 from my savings to cover the deficit amount. The cause of the overdraft was that there was a withdrawal to U-Haul using my debit card in the amount of the refund. The U-Haul Company (not the people in Billings) had used my number to withdraw the $392.95 to recover the original amount of $272.95 which could not be accounted for. When I went back to Billings to discuss this, Brad went to the back room and had a lengthy phone conversation with his supervisor. When he returned he informed me that a young woman who had since been let go had closed the books at the end of the day of July 10, and had taken the three $100 bills. It seems to me that before they fired her, Brad would have tried to recover the money before giving her the axe. He then explained that since it was all his fault (?) he would have to pay me back out of his own pocket, and that if I didn't mind waiting a week until he got paid he would return my money. That day is today, and it will be interesting to see if I hear from him. The oddity in this is that I was given the receipt early in the day, and at that time it already showed the balance paid as 0. I had paid the money directly to Brad. Who do you think pocketed the money?

Description of Work: I used U-Haul to rent a truck for moving.