Penske® Reviews
Ernesto was a godsend.... recently moved from Austin Texas to Denver & had a million things working against me - fortunately though, Family Movers & Ernesto were not one of them. They were quick to communicate their arrival and communicated thoroughly throughout the entire moving process. Ernesto & his assistant were tremendous...even when things broke down a bit during the move he & his team were quick to pivot and adapt. We got everything done earlier than expected & can happily say Ernesto was great company throughout!
Once we got it, the truck was great. HOWEVER: I ordered a Penske 12' truck in early July. When we went to pick it up at 8 AM at a local Penske rental location, there was no 12' on the lot. After numberous call from the local renter (at Home Depot, Lawrenceville Highway, Decatur, GA), we were told: (1) therte was only 1 12' available, in Atherns GA; AFTER I SPOKE WITH DISTRICT MANAGER, HE REPORTED THERE WAS NO 12' TRUCK IN THE STATE OF GA; I was distressed, so that felloow caLLED HIS BOSS AND MIRACULOUSLY, A 12' TRUCK APPEARED. Time? about 1 pm. I incurred a $200 change fee when I had to delay our loading from 10 AM to 1:30 PM. Penske appeared to lack an efficient and reliable management chain.
The trucks are governed to 70 MPH which is fine, but extremely under powered while trying to maintain that speed in any kind of uphill or headwind. You are lucky to get 60 in a 10 MPH headwind. In my mind this can be a significant safety concern especially in the mountains on I90, through Montana and Idaho.
The truck had slow reaction to braking and the cruise would intermittently stop. Had difficulty restarting it. Rented 12 furniture blankets which did not come with truck. Had to go to UHaul and rent blankets from them. Also, was quoted $400 for insurance, but paid $500. Probably would check out other companies if I ever need to make another long distance move like this one.
Terrible 26' truck with 185,000 miles. Even though it had just come out of maintenance, it had a bad suspension that made it dangerous to drive. Their only offer was to transfer the entire load to another truck, which would have wasted a full travel day and damaged the household goods. I will never use this company again as this was the second time they've supplied a bad truck. No other truck was available at time of pick-up.
I reserved a 16-foot truck online as well as a stair-climber dolly and a dozen furniture pads (required by the movers (manual labor) we also hired for this move. When I arrived to pick up the truck I had to wait half an hour just to get the keys. To make matters worse when I got out to the truck neither the dolly nor the furniture pads were in the truck (even though the desk agent specifically told me they were). When I went back in to get them, I was told they didn’t have any! Their website advertised that if I paid online at the time of the reservation, this would ensure that my truck was ready AND that any additional items would already be in the truck… so NONE of that was true. I had to call customer service who told me someone could bring the dolly and furniture pads to me from some other location but that it would be at least an hour. This started off our moving day in the worst way, made us late for the movers we had hired to help us, and threw off our entire day. Moving is stressful enough, don’t use Penske unless you want MORE stress during your move.
Guys I have so much to say. I had heard so many good things about Penske, for even one of my family members who has moved within multiple times. However, despite placing an order for the truck and two dozen moving blankets over a week in advance, when I arrive they didn't even have my truck, they didn't know where it was, and they had zero moving blankets in the entire Penske section of the Home Depot. Granted, these are all home Depot employees that I worked with and not specifically Penske staff, but to misplace the entire truck? I had this delicate dance of loaders and unloaders scheduled for the day, so of course step one of the plan catastrophically fell apart. You could argue part of this was my fault for not building in a little more spare time, and you could be right, but to have to wait in line 45 minutes to have the associate at Home Depot; with Penske on the phone, custom create a new order on the spot to give me a truck that they did have in the parking lot - with 0 moving blankets mind you - was nerve racking to day the least. It made me almost an hour late for my first group of men to load the truck for me, and then over an hour late when I arrived at my new apartment complex for the movers unloading the truck, costing at least $300 in overtime fees. Not to mention the assistant manager at the Home Depot refused to write off any moving blankets that they had in their store, meaning I had to spend $200 on my own moving blankets while paying for a truck that disappeared and 24 blankets that got the day off. I would have thought that since Penske in Home Depot have this working relationship that it would behoove them to make things right by providing whatever moving blankets were in the store, but it was not to be. The only reason this doesn't get a one-star is because I at least made it to my destination in one piece, albeit moderately late and incredibly stressed. The next time I move I would seriously consider just hiring full service movers. You're less likely to nearly have your day ruined from the people that I least expected to disappoint me.
