Penske Truck Rental
reviews and complaints

In 4/10 I rented a Penske truck in Oakland, CA for a friend and all my belongings were inside. The same day, I flew to New Mexico to take care of my mother. I am still in New Mexico. For health reasons, my friend was unable to unload the truck contents into storage and parked it in a parking lot in San Francisco. The truck was repossessed by Penske with everything inside and Penske sent a letter addressed to my attention to an address OTHER than what appeared on the rental agreement. When that letter was returned as a "bad address", they either "donated or dumped" all my belongings. I have spent two years trying to get a response from the Oakland Penske dealer (2227 San Pablo Avenue), their collections department, collections attorney in Florida, etc. I finally posted a blurb on their Facebook page voicing my displeasure and was responded to by their Director of Public Relations. He indicated it was my fault and denied Penske's liability in the case and offered me between zero and $5, 000. When I told him I could get more in Small Claims Court, he stopped negotiations stating that I had threatened legal action. I then wrote a detailed demand letter to Penske Corporate counsel in Reading, PA with an itemization of belongings and estimated worth. I asked her to answer my letter within 30 days. On the 29th day, I received a response indicating she would be back to me within 30 days. She has not kept her word and I'm tired of dealing with Penske's evasiveness, and all the time I've wasted on trying to get compensated for my belongings. Penske's corporate offices have all the information and are playing games, delaying this fiasco further, and I need immediate resolution to a problem that has been going on for two painful years. My health has suffered as a result of their negligence and attempts to minimize their liability in sending a letter to the wrong address and then keeping all my belongings.

I rented a Penske truck from San Diego to go to another city out west. I was charged a whopping 1, 500$ for just a one-way trip. I had to move and it was the 'high season' of early fall, so they took advantage of me. I paid the price, but for a one-way voyage I was definitely overcharged. I wrote a complaint letter to the President CEO and I still haven't heard from them. I had used them before with a similar move and it was only a few hundred dollars in total. But with this overcharge, I will never use them again. Hopefully, this complaint will add to the other complaints and it will be on-line forever. Be forewarned, even Penske, which did have a good reputation is getting nasty and greedy, and especially with this bad economy.

Customer service person checking in the rental truck, ran to look at the truck, ran back and stated angrily the gas gauge did not read full, questioned why I didn’t get gas I stated to get it back in time for check in without being charged an additional day I couldn’t.

He then stated that it was a 25 dollar fee on top of 5.00 per gallon to fill it. It doesn’t mention the 25 fee in the contract at all. I then said go fill it I will wait here until you do to assess the charges. He then stated he didn’t have time to fill it could be 20 min to 4 hours to do it (he just walked in with fast food). He then told me to fill it since I didn’t look busy ( I was in the middle of a 50 mile residential move ) then mentioned my partner sitting out in my car with her dog why doesn’t she go fill it .

I stated again through tears (long move cash for keys tight time frame) in order to get the truck there not be charged for another day I didn’t need it didn’t get filled. He rescinded the 2nd day charge if of course we filled the truck 0.25 dollars later plus almost $80.00 to rent it for one day.

We filled the next day mind you the rental truck because he didn’t have time to. He doesn’t deserve to be working there, he made up the 25 dollar fee that isn’t in the contract, and apparently it is an inconvenience to fill a tank themselves. People who are moving like me on a tight time frame just need great customer service since we are going through a very tough time already and over the holidays no less this happened the day prior to thanksgiving.

Penske is famous for race cars and truck leasing, car sales etc. They have a very glamorous reputation. One of the things that no one knows about the Penske empire is that they help any company with trucking employees, reduce, or phase out the older employees from the labor market. This was the case with 30 workers that were working for the Indianapolis Star. The Indianapolis Star, gave the employees a "Sign On" bonus to move from the Star's payroll to the Penske payroll. Every single year, after moving to the Penske payroll, the employees took wage reductions, lost job assignments to non-union workers. The Penske workers, of course were made to keep paying union dues to keep their jobs. After years of asking the workers to take pay cuts, finally Penske came to the workers and said, THEY (The Indianapolis Star) want you to take a $5 per hour pay cut, and we are not even going to let you vote on on it. So you're pretty much out of a job. This is a perfect example of two very large companies working together, to reduce your standard of living, with total disregard for the Union contract they were supposed to be following. (we were paying union dues and had a contract) The union was in on it as well, every greivance that was filed, was answered with the response "no-merit"

On or approx. March 20, 2010, Jose washed the "company" auto and cleaned out the inside (vacuumed). HE also threw out personal property (to wit one camera case (dark blue in color)) an in the process one pair of prescription ground driving glasses. HE DENIES ever doing such. HE also told me, "that unless I SAW HIM DO REMOVE case, I can not accuse him". Sorry I can and will. Now, I'm out approx. $450.00, plus my case. His answer, "I should have done this - "

Customer service person checking in the rental truck, ran to look at the truck, ran back and stated angrilly the gas guage did not read full, questioned why I didnt get gas I stated to get it back in time for check in without being charged an additional day I couldn't . He then stated that it was a 25 dollar fee on top of 5.00 per gallon to fill it . It doesnt mention the 25 fee in the contract at all . I then said go fill it I will wait here until you do to assess the charges .

He then stated he didnt have time to fill it could be 20 min to 4 hours to do it ( he just walked in with fast food ) .

He then told me to fill it since I didnt look busy ( I was in the middle of a 50 mile residential move ) then mentioned my partner sitting out in my car with her dog why doesnt she go fill it .

I stated again through tears ( long move cash for keys tight time frame) in order to get the truck there not be charged for another day I didnt need it didnt get filled .

He rescinded the 2nd day charge if of course we filled the *** truck .25 dollars later plus almost 80.00 to rent it for one day . We filled the next day mind you the rental truck because he didnt have time to .

He doesnt deserve to be working there, he made up the 25 dollar fee that isnt in the contract, apparently it is an incovenience to fill a tank them selves . People who are moving like me on a tight time frame just need great customer service since we are going trough a very tough time already and over the holidays no less this happened the day prior to thanksgiving !

I went to pick up a truck at the rental site (storage unit)
The owner or employee was 20 minutes late, thus causing me to be late with my movers.She was down right rude,
I rented a 26' truck and it had a car hauler on the back.
this lady made me take the trailer off of the truck before I could take it.this would not have been bad in any other case but folks I am physically handicapped.Both of my legs are in braces and you can plainly see that I was handicapped. I will tell you now that I will never get a penske anything ever again.

My husband and I rented two 26' trucks and a car carrier to make a cross country trip from Phoenix, AZ to Alabama. My brother-in-law drove one truck, my husband drove the other. My two small kids and I followed behind in my SUV. The trip went well until the truck my husband was driving broke down in the middle of the Texas desert...the kids and I went ahead, leaving my brother-in-law and hubby waiting for the tow truck on the side of the road.

2 hours later the tow truck came.

After 2 hours in the shop, it was determined that the truck was not fixable and they would have to have another 26' truck delivered and all items moved from one truck to another.

Penske agent "promised" me that we would be taken care of and that "professional" movers would do the moving from one truck to another.

4 hours later, hubby calls me to inform me that the Penske delivery guy said he wouldn't help move a thing, Penske had asked the MECHANICS at the shop to move the items! Hubby also informs me that the idiot mechanics also DROPPED my front loading washing machine, denting it all to hell...and THEN they let the 50" projection TV SLIDE down the ramp, running into a bunch of other items, damaging the screen! They also scratched our coffee table, but that was the least of my worries as the other items are very expensive to repair/replace. Called Penske, again, they promised they would take care of us and we would "just need to fill out a form" when we dropped the trucks off.

Fast forward 3 weeks...Penske sends claims adjuster to look at the damaged items.

Fast forward another week...Company in charge of reimbursing for claims calls me and tells me that they will only pay $125 to fix the table because the repair shop claims that they didn't touch the tv or washer...they LIED and said my hubby and brother in law moved those items when they weren't even on the truck with the items were moved. Now we are out $1300 for the washing machine and $1500 to replace the 50" projection tv that THEY broke!

This is the most backwards company I've ever used...the customer is NOT always right, as they are choosing to believe 4 mechanics from a podunk town outside of El Paso, Texas instead of us to save some dough! I have moved 6 times in the past 4 years for my career...you can BET that I will never use Penske again and will make sure all of my friends, family and colleagues don't as well! STAY AWAY FROM PENSKE!

I have been doing work for this Business for sometime. When I started out with them, all was fine. NOW, "things" have changed. Last evening, I received a call just as I was turning in for the night. A loaded truck needed to have load moved from one truck to another truck. I was given the details as to WHERE, WHEN, and etc.. After awhile, everyone finally gets everything ready to do the transfer. NO ELECTRICITY, NO LIGHTS, and no hot coffee available. We started at 10:00 pm. to transfer load with available light. Around 2:00 am next day (4.0 working hours later) we got done. Crew departed and I went home. FRIDAY - [protected]) I called PENSKE to turn in "work ticket" and receive pay. The work was at NITE and no one else would have done the work. So, I was told my charges were too high and they informed me they would only pay about 90%. Ok, I accepted this even tho it would cut the labor down. I paid the crew out of my pocket. I was also told their Electronic Pay Service was "down". The only option was an "Over Night Settlement". I accepted that. This is LATE SUNDAY nite - no overnight settlement has come as of this late hour. ANYONE dealing with PENSKE - better get "everything understood UP FRONT or prepare to get Screwed".

Lies, lies, & you guessed it...more lies and all from Honda & it's ad campaign claiming 49/50 MPG on their touted 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. We fell for the sales pitch & hype when we plunked down $27,000 in April '06 for our new Honda Civic Hybrid. Turning out to be Truly a bad move, as we have never seen anything over 34 MPG & it's currently 32 MPG. A far cry from their deceitful and misleading claims. After confronting our Dealership (Penske Honda with this information, one of their staff (an obvious trouble shooter) produced a PRODUCT CHARACTERISTIC SHEET ( The Monroney Lable) stating how they arrived at those terrific sounding 49/50 numbers. It basicly stated the car was tested under "LAB CONDITIONS" not in the real world, like the one we live in. Yes, they forgot to mention a few things when we bought the car: In order To get that great mileage advertised..DON'T USE the Air Conditioning, Heater, Radio, GPS, or any other appliances for that matter, no Passengers or Baggage & drive 48 mph with the windows closed. Oh yes,make sure you check all four tires for the correct PSI. Ohter than that you're good to go. For Shame, Honda, that's all the American public needs right now is more DECIET, Half TRUTHS and Out Right LIES. And Mr. Penske How could you endorse and lend your famous name to this Transgression...
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The Following (given to us after we complained) Is, word for word, the "PRODUCT CHARACTERISTIC SHEET:
ACTUAL FUEL MILEAGE VARIES FROM ESTIMATED FIGURES.
Customer's concern: My car doesn't get the same fuel mileage as the figures on the label I took off the car and what I see in the ads for my year & model.
What's happing & why: The "Monroney label" on the side window of new cars shows figures acheived under special driving conditions. The fuel mileage estimates are for comparison shopping purposes only, and the city & highway miles per gallon (MPG) that you experience may vary from those shown on the label & in advertising. The mileage estimates on the label reflect the average MPG attained by similar vehicles in a model line under controlled laboratory conditions and are not the result of an actual road test. Test vehicles are run by professionsl drivers on a treadmill-like device that measures exhaust emissions and fuel usage. During the test, the vehicles headlights, air conditioning, heater, audio unit, and all accessories are turned off.. The city portion of the test, at an average speed of 20 miles per hr. simulates a 7.5 mile stop & go trip that includes idling time to approximate rush hour traffic delays. The Highway portion, at an average speed of 48 mph, simulates a 10 mile rural & interstate drive without idling time. To make the final fuel economy estimates closer to expected real-world fuel consumption, the results of the City mpg are lowered 10% and the Highway mpg results are lowered 22%...What Can Be Done: As the label says, your "actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits, & vehicle's condition" So you can do some beneficial things to increase the mpg of your vehicle...*Keep tires inflated to the specifications listed on the doorjamb sticker.*As often as possible accelerate slowly & smoothly, depending on traffic conditions, try to maintain a constant speed, & use cruise control when possible. *Keep your vehicle in top condition by following the maintenance schedule listed in your owner's manual & by using the recommended engine oil." END OF PRODUCT CHARACTERISTIC SHEET.
For those interested in a SERIOUS LEGAL ACTION SUIT please contact me at [protected]@verizon.net