2009 Penske Truck Rental Bad Experience (temporary, move, home, 22')

[arly]

Originally Posted by faithfulFrank

That is good. In the interest of fairness, We left this thread open. We usually do not allow threads like this, but we want to be fair to all parties. The fact that Penske has even involved itself here seems to me a good thing. I think after everything I have read here in the past few years on the subject I think Penske would be my first choice in truck rental.

When this matter is closed, I'll re-close the thread.

Thanks, Frank (mod)

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Hi Frank,

I appreciate your keeping this thread open until the final outcome is resolved between ourselves and Penske. I did not get any email from Penske yesterday or today or ever, actually. I did get a brief, crisp letter from some company saying they will represent Penske and have the right to bring in their own appraisers. This was in regard to our claim of shoddy packing by the outside company the Albequerque, NM Penske Company hired to move all of our professionally packed 22' truck into the 26' truck Penske put us in. This would be regarding the items that were totally ruined, chipped, scratched, smashed. I will be contacting Penske soon regarding our entire moving experience with them - we have put together all papers to prove and back up anything we are claiming happened during the trip including the two engine read-out results printed out in the Missouri and New Mexico Penske garages. We will deal with whatever company Penske wishes to send in to do an appraisal of our items we are claiming were damaged. We also have had appraisals of our own done by different companies. We will deal with this entire matter, the damaged furniture and the mishaps regarding our entire trip in one initial conversation to the Vice President of Penske. Then and only then will we allow any part of our compalints to be examined by any companies Penske chooses. We will not separate the damages from the entire bad moving experience before everything is presented to Penske, all verified, all receipts, all copies of everything needed including a daily email sent out to our friends our entire trip over facebook telling of our troubles at the end of each day, all documented every day in public emails. I am hoping this will be resolved in the very near future.

It may be difficult for people to understand this but when my partner hears any deisel engines while she is out she actually cringes. I recently had to drive 5 highway hours to a funeral in another state and whenever I saw Penske trucks along the way I had such a disturbing, upsetting feeling inside. Just trying to get all the paperwork, estimates and pictures together is like a huge huge weight hanging over our heads - nearly incompacitating us. We are competent, capable women and we are nearly paralized by this entire experience. By reading all the comments in this thread that actually were serious (not frivilous name-calling, arguing, etc.) and just discussed things with me in a polite fashion I do realize that what happened during our trip from CT to CA was a fluke, a horribly disturbing double bad experience with Penske. I would have to agree with the majority in saying Penske would probably be the best moving trucks to use. For myself and my partner, we honestly have been permanently emotionally changed after our experience, and our choice will never be Penske again. I welcome sharing with all of you the final outcome of this thread. You all know Penske at their best, we have experienced Penske at their worst, we will all experience what Penske decides is fair now to their customers. Thanks again, Frank, for keeping this open. I will be in touch. Arly

[Penske Truck Leasing]

I tried to send you a direct message but you have them blocked. My office # is 610.775.6408. I responded to the public message you posted in my profile.

[Tek_Freek]

Fascinating thread. I googled the provided phone number and it is, indeed, a Penske number.

http://www.gopenske.com/pdfs/2009_5_...s_smartway.pdf

Note at top left this is a legit number at Penske.

Let's see if arly contacts him...

[Penske Truck Leasing]

We also wanted to state for the record of the members of this forum that in the August 24/25 timeframe a Penske field representative contacted Arly. She was offered a full refund for the cost of her rental at that time. She declined our reps offer. As far as the alleged damaged freight items this is a separate matter since it is an insurance claim issue and it must be handled accordingly.

[arly]

Originally Posted by Penske Truck Leasing

We also wanted to state for the record of the members of this forum that in the August 24/25 timeframe a Penske field representative contacted Arly. She was offered a full refund for the cost of her rental at that time. She declined our reps offer. As far as the alleged damaged freight items this is a separate matter since it is an insurance claim issue and it must be handled accordingly.

------------------
Not sure what your position in Penske is but when you try to settle something in a very reasonable matter as we have done and it doesn't work you then skip talking to the people who are employees and you go to their manager or further up the line if that is necessary. I'm not going to get into any argument with whomever you are but, "for the record of the members of this forum" we did, indeed, speak with someone from Penske in August. Again, we had to contact them, Penske did not contact us. A full refund was not offered. There was no consideration given to the extra money our circus of a trip driving Penske's both trucks cost us due to our extremely slow moving or NO moving across the country, extra lodging costs, using more gas, more money toward meals and the fact that we have a Company letter of my partner stating that she lost an entire week's pay because of the lateness of our arrival. No compensation was offered for any of our damaged items. I understand, as would any competent person, that insurance claims are handled by a company hired by your legal team to determine their monetary value of damage caused directly because of a second-party moving team not affiliated with Penske who repacked our truck in such a fashion as to cause considerable damage to our property. I then fully understand that whatever compensation is hopefully agreed upon with both parties Penske will then go after the independent moving company that they hired to recoop their losses in paying us for the damages.

When WE phoned and talked to two District Managers and were NOT offered the full refund for our rental of the truck(s) for our moving which is NOT a fair offer considering the aforementioned information supplied by me above we then move on to the next person in line who has the authority of the company to come to a reasonable and FAIR settlement with us.

Unless your position in representing Penske on this open forum board is higher than a Penske District Manager then I really am wasting my time in talking with you because you cannot go above anything discussed between the District Manager(s) and ourselves in coming to a fair conclusion of our experience, both ours and Penske's. Due to the interest of this thread I can understand how Penske would want to get involved and show that they do care for their customers considering over 8,000 people have read this thus far. Saying something and actually doing something are two very different things. This has been a very public discussion with many opinions offered. I fully intend to share with this discussion board everything that transpires between Penske and us. I have told what happened during our trip and I will tell what happens when we have completed all of our business and actions with Penske on this thread also. One of Penske's sayings is how much they value their customers and take pride in the safety and performance of their rental trucks, both to movers and business rental/leased trucks. Roger Penske's wife has stated how much Mr. Penske cares about the safety of their customers. Okay, we'll wait and see.

Lastly, we were told on the telephone directly by a District Manager that if we aren't happy with what he can do for us (which, again, is NOT saying they will pay for the full rental of the truck much less everything else it cost us as mentioned above) then our recourse is to talk with the Vice President of the Company. You, sir, are not the Vice President of the Company nor in a higher position than District Manager to make financial decisions so you can only come on this board and continue to say that you are working with us to resolve this entire matter because Penske cares about it's customers. I understand your need/reasoning to do that in representing Penske on this discussion board, kudos. Meanwhile, real life will go on and I will share each and every step of it on this thread.

[Skyszlimit]

To Arly and the Mods:

I have currently experienced (and CURRENTLY still traveling to get to destination) with almost the 'exact' same maintenance issues as Arly and I'm still on my travels to get me from fla to albuquerque! Granted, the customer response I have rec'd is better than Arly, however, the thing that is MOST important here.. is that the TRUCKS that we were assigned to us should NEVER have been let out on the road, especially for long haul travels!!!!! We had our fully loaded 26' with attached car trailer ready to go (luckily in front of my home), when the truck would not start. Penske had to send out a new 26' for us.. Spent 4+ hours watching all belonging being repacked. When we finally got on the road, we also could NOT get over 45 mph, shaking and hard to steer without getting the truck to constantly pull to one side. My driver (who I hired to help) has driven trucks before and is very knowedgleble about trucks, cars. After calling SOS/Penske, waiting for a road/tire help, and then, having to spend the rest of the day at a Penske Truck shop (they were very nice at the Orlando location, offered to pay for our hotel etc... BUT...

Do you want to know what they found? 1) One of the tires on the car trailer was in such bad condition, it was an accident waiting to happen! 2) The truck's fuel and air filters were SO Clogged, it was apparent, that this '26 truck had NOT been serviced BEFORE getting on the road for 2000 mile trek! 3) They had to replace 4 Truck Tires because of the uneven treading !! (where is Penske maintenance check before letting such trailers on the road (esp for a 2000 mile trip!)

As mentioned, I am still in transit and have YET to get to my destination. And I'm only about 1/3 of the way to Albuquerque and 3 hotels later. I will be coming back to this thread to update.. (I am hoping, I have nothing more to add)..

Except to say, that I too had heard such WONDERFUL things about Penske/trucks. But right now, I feel very concerned about the safety of their larger trucks that they are letting out there on the roads. I am however, getting a better customer response, but I would rather not to have any of these problems. Safety FIRST!

I wish that Arly gets satisfaction resolution to her situation. I am soo sorry what she has had to endure. Moving is stressful in and of itself.

[HIF]

I've had two bad experiences in two different towns.

In the first case, the rubber on the tires was so brittle, that chunks of tread up to 1" X 1" were missing on every tire. We were picking it up the night before our move so that it could be loaded that night and couldn't find another that evening. Not only did it cost us half a day's time, the friends that were coming to help load the truck that night couldn't come the next day, so it really set us back.

The next time I rented a truck from them for a move and the morning that I went to pick it up, I was informed that they had "upgraded" me to a larger truck. It was too big for me to drive and I had to scramble to find one at another company. I really got stuck, as I had paid by debit card and it took almost a week to get the money back in my account. I had to borrow money to rent a truck from another company.

[Penske Truck Leasing]

Arly, first, let me again apologize. I have investigated this matter internally. Reaching you by phone so our claims dept. can contact you directly is the first step. As I posted previously, the number we have on file for you has been changed since your move took place and the last conversation we had with you in August. If you will please contact me by phone using the number I've posted or send me a direct message via this forum with your phone number in it I will be glad to take your information and get it into the hands of someone here who can assist you with getting these concerns resolved quickly. I will even offer to work through the Moderator of this group to confirm that I am in fact with Penske if that gives you some degree of comfort. We sincerely want to help you out. I'm here next week and will happily assist you should you decide to call us.

[arly]

Originally Posted by Penske Truck Leasing

Arly, first, let me again apologize. I have investigated this matter internally. Reaching you by phone so our claims dept. can contact you directly is the first step. As I posted previously, the number we have on file for you has been changed since your move took place and the last conversation we had with you in August. If you will please contact me by phone using the number I've posted or send me a direct message via this forum with your phone number in it I will be glad to take your information and get it into the hands of someone here who can assist you with getting these concerns resolved quickly. I will even offer to work through the Moderator of this group to confirm that I am in fact with Penske if that gives you some degree of comfort. We sincerely want to help you out. I'm here next week and will happily assist you should you decide to call us.

=======================
Hello,

I appreciate your responding and your response to me on this thread. There has been a death in my family so I have not been home as much to read my email. Thank you, Frank, for contacting me. I will get in touch with you, the Penske representative, via your email on this thread. My niece will be helping me with everything once we contact your home office. Thanks. Arly **- AS I WROTE ON THIS THREAD RECENTLY, I WILL SHARE WITH EVERYONE WHO IS FOLLOWING THIS EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS. BELOW IS A COPY OF A PRIVATE EMAIL I RECEIVED REGARDING THIS PENSKE REPRESENTATIVE POSTER:
This is the message that was sent:
****
"arly,
This is a DM I received from Penske......they are trying to get ahold of you.
Frank


---Quote (Originally by Penske Truck Leasing)---
faithfulFrank:

I'm sincerely trying to resolve this matter with Arly and appreciate your patience and moderation. Our claims group just hasn't been able to reach her by phone at her old number. My direct office # is 610.775.6408. I'm legit with Penske. I work in the public relations department at our corporate office in PA. You can call me to confirm if you so desire. I've spoken to the highest-ranking people here and they're ready to help. I'm here 8:30 a.m. to about 5:30/6 p.m. Eastern Time. I'm here all week. Thanks.
---End Quote---"

[faithfulFrank]

Folks,
For the record, the forum does not usually allow consumer complaints, but this situation was a bit unique, and in the spirit of fairness, I allowed it to continue.

I do not think anyone expected it to go on this long. I think arly's experience was unique, and for what it is worth, I am impressed with Penske's willingness and participation here in trying to put this matter to a close. We have read many other moving horror stories from others who have used other companies.......without ever hearing from those other companies wanting to "make it right".

No company is perfect, especially when it is a nationwide company with many locations, manager's etc. Recently I have had some issues with some other customer service depts in other companies, and I wish I heard back from them like we are hearing here from Penske.

Hopefully those here who plan on renting a moving truck from some company can learn here what to look for, what to do correctly, etc. The goal here is simply to learn from others experience, so as to hopefully have our own positive moving experience.

Frank