I've used Penske many times in the past and they've never let me down. Until this most recent move. I rented a 22 foot truck about a month in advance and confirmed with them two times leading up to my move date. A week before my move date, I even got a call from Penske confirming that my truck and furniture pads would be at this location.
At 8am on my move date, I showed up at this Penske pickup at Home Depot, and my 22 foot truck isn't there. So they tell me that I can use a 26 foot truck isn't there. Not ideal since I'd rather have a smaller truck for a long interstate move/drive, but fine. Problem is, the truck obviously had not been inspected/serviced since the last rental and there was a ton of used boxes and debris in the cargo area. Since I needed the truck pronto to meet with my movers, I ended up cleaning up the cargo area, borrowed a sweeper from the Home Depot and cleaned the truck. It really sucked though because it smelled like rotten produce in there and it was gonna be a 90 degree day. On top of all this, there are no furniture pads available to rent.
I drive the truck out of the lot and drive back to my old place. I was worried that the truck wouldn't make it to my destination which was 250 miles away. So I called Penske and they got me in touch with the service manager at the district location (Baron). He was super nice and friendly and walked me through checking the oil and coolant on the truck.
The movers loaded my truck and I made it to my destination. Upon arrival, I open the cargo and all my stuff stunk like rotten produce. And it still does to this day, although a bit less since most of the stink was on the cardboard boxes which I've since thrown away.
At my dropoff location, I complained to the Penske representative, and he gave me the "max" credit of $100 off my $560 rental. I was pretty steamed that this was the max, because it was such an awful experience.
Will I use Penske again? Probably, because the other options (Uhaul, Ryder, etc.) are probably worse. But now I know that you can't count on Penske either.
P.s. The only reason that I gave 2 stars, and not 1, was because the people I dealt with (the woman at Home Depot, Baron at the district location, and the representative at my drop off location) were very nice and apologetic. read more