TIFU By Trying To Help My Mom Get A Partial Refund

TIFU by trying to help my mom get a partial refund of $63 from U-Haul.

First time posting on Reddit so here it goes. The parties involved are:

1. Employee 1: Chris - guy that helped with our first U-Haul rental
2. Employee 2: Mark - guy that helped with our 2nd rental
3. Employee 3: Paul - guy that we spoke to briefly when talking about the problem
4. Employee 4: Noah - guy that was there for his afternoon shift
5. Assistant Manager: Emily - helped us with the issue
6. Boss or Manager: Jack - approved Emily's actions

All names are fake since I don't want them to get in trouble. The issue is currently still ongoing, but I am hopeful that it will be resolved. It is a bit long so bear with me.

My mother (F54) and I (F28) rented a U-Haul to transport some pallets of flooring to a house that needed renovation. The first time we went to this location was back in January for the same reason above. The trip in January went well even though it was our first time ever renting a truck because the employee (Chris) was very helpful and nice. Chris helped us with all of the paperwork and also showed us how to start the truck and where the emergency brake was. My mother was very happy and proudly told some of her friends and coworkers that she had successfully driven a big moving truck like this for the first time ever.

The issue occurred the second time we went to rent a truck. A different employee (Mark) had helped us with the paperwork and we estimated the trip to take about 18 miles but since we were not completely sure, he put it down for 20 miles instead which we were fine with. We also got the higher rate to have the deadline changed to the day after as we were not sure if we could finish moving the items in time. We managed to get the goods and unload the items at the house in a timely fashion so we ended up returning the truck later that same day around 7 PM. We had signed the contract around 1:30 PM. The original contract's estimated amount to be paid was about $86. I had also read reviews on the place previously and remembered to take before and after photos of the dashboard that had the mileage and fuel gauge which turned out to be very much needed. I did this for both trips.

A few days passed and my mother noticed that the charge to her credit card was for much higher than expected ($145) and when we called to check, they informed us that they charged her for the amount of fuel missing from the fuel gauge shown on the contract. The problem was the fuel gauge on the contract was wrong--we had received the keys for the truck with a fuel gauge around 1/4 and returned the truck with a similar fuel gauge around 1/4. The contract we had signed showed that the initial fuel gauge was supposed to be 5/8. Since I had the photos of before and after the trip, they told me that I could go in and show them the pictures and they would give me a refund of the extra amount charged.

I drove there with my original contract and showed the assistant manager (Emily) the photos, and she saw that it was indeed an error and attempted to fix the issue. She first questioned me and told me that apparently there was supposed to be a link that should have been sent to the phone on file and that we were supposed to confirm that the mileage and fuel gauge were correct since there was a way to fix it on there. I told her that it was our second time ever renting a truck and that Mark had never told us about this link, which was true. (I think maybe we got lucky the first time that it was correct or Chris had checked it himself when he came out to help us with starting the truck.)

Emily then asked which employee handled our documents and Paul answered "it was Mark". She did not seem surprised. Anyways, she proceeded to redo the return and also got the authorization from the boss or actual manager (Jack) there to confirm. She input all of the new info with the photos I provided to her showing the mileage and fuel gauge. This is where I slightly fucked up. I did not realize at the time, but she had messed up the refund process somewhere as we somehow got charged an extra $0.83 instead of getting a refund. I had seen all of the interactions between the staff and had also approved the refund of $145 (original charge) on the credit card machine. I very clearly saw a -$145 on the machine and tapped "Approve" on the machine. She gave me a new receipt and told me that the additional $0.83 was to offset what I still owed after she fixed the issues. The new receipt showed that we only traveled 16 miles out of the original estimated 20 miles, and the fuel gauge was around 1/4. I was very polite and thanked her for helping me out. I wanted to get my original documents back but Emily saw that she had already thrown my copy in the trash can and it was covered in coffee stains. I ended up getting her to print a new copy of the original incorrect contract as the email on file was wrong and I had not received the original contract via email. She helped correct that as well and I left.

I gave the copy of the original and the new receipt to my mother. My mother does taxes and she looked at the receipt and saw that something was not right as she should not be getting charged more if they already owe her money. It should have been subtracted from the amount that was already charged and she should get a refund of the excess amount paid or the entire charge should have been refunded with the new corrected charge sent after. I called them the next morning and was transferred to talk with Emily as she had handled the return. She remembered me and tried to explain away the trivial extra charge, but did not listen to our side clearly. We tried to tell her that the fuel gauge diagram and the mileage was indeed corrected, but there was still an additional charge of $63 for fuel (14 gallons). The conversation did get a bit heated and Emily ended up putting us on hold and then the call dropped. I think she did not want to hear us out as we had talked over each other a bit and she had told us the refund would take a few days. She also tried to insinuate that we were trying to get out of paying for the truck at all which was not the case.

My mother and I drove to the U-Haul place and explained the situation to the employee there, Noah. He told us that there was a manager or assistant manager (probably Emily since I had spoken to her earlier), but they had already left since their shift was done. I suspect Emily never wanted to continue the call. I was still holding out originally waiting for her to talk again before the call dropped. Noah then had to call his boss and put him on speaker phone so that I could talk to him and explain things clearly. Now, we need to wait to see if they can sort out the mess as someone should call me back in 48 hours to resolve the issue.

So, TIFU for wanting a partial refund of the $63 that U-Haul incorrectly charged me for fuel.

TLDR: I did not catch the error that the assistant manager made when she was attempting, in good faith, to give us a refund and made two 20 minute trips to U-Haul in vain.