This article was written by "girlina" on a moving-related message board and is reposted here with permission of the author.

Date: 5/6-5/9
Move: MD to IN
Company: Penske
Cost: I'd have to look it up... but it was right around $500 for the 10' rental truck for an automatic 4 days plus about $80 in gas.

I rented from Ajello Penske in Towson, MD and I had an excellent experience with them. I wasted so much time trying to find a full service mover that by the time I gave up and made arrangements for a truck, I had less than a month before I was moving. I actually didn't book the final dates until about 2-3 weeks before the move. When I called, since I didn't have a hard date when I needed to be moved, they suggested moving the first week in May instead of the last week in April. That saved me about $200. Also, about a week or more passed before I finally committed from the time they first quoted me the price. In the meantime, the new price lists had gone into effect. They however gave me the original quoted price, which was about $75 less. (And I did double check the price change on the Penske website, and they told me the truth, the prices HAD gone up.)

The basic Penske rental is automatically for 4 days. That ended up being a lifesaver for me. I had a disaster with the people I had hired to pack up the truck for me. I ended up leaving a day later than originally planned. If I wouldn't have had those 4 days booked, I would have been very screwed. I also picked up the truck about 6 hours later than I had told them I would. I've heard that people have lost their reservations because they showed up late for a pickup before, so I freaked out. I called them and they reassured me, but still, you never know if someone is gonna keep their word.

So I finally got there, and the people at Ajello were super nice. The truck was clean and full to the brim with gas. They even took it and topped it off at the gas station next door while I was filling out paperwork. After all the paperwork had been taken care of, I realized I had forgotten to get a dolly and some packing blankets. They just loaded them up for me. I think there might be some nominal charges for that stuff, but they just said for me to return them with the truck. I was also able to buy some packing boxes and bubblewrap there.

I know I'm being all gushy about the Ajello people, but seriously, I was incredibly freaked out at that point in my move, and dealing with them was one of the few things that went well. They went over all of the paperwork with me and let me know exactly what to do in case there was some sort of emergency so that I would not be liable for late charges.

The distance we drove wasn't too bad. We were able to do it in one day. the truck handled well and we had no problems with it. It was very clean and roomy. We were able to fit 2 adult women, a rubbermaid container big enough to hold my Macintosh sat between us in the cab. My (incredibly angry with me) cat sat in her carrier on top of the rubbermaid container. We had plenty of room. The a/c also worked well.

The friend I drove with flew back to MD the next day. She dropped the truck off at a Penske rental place on the way to the airport because there wasn't one very near where I now live. She said it was really easy, just dropped it off at the lot and put the keys through the slot.

One thing I will suggest is that when you're calling around about quotes, pay close attention to their phone manner. I called a couple of other Penske rental places in Baltimore. One of them was downright rude and another one was very noncommittal and not overly helpful. I figured that if they were that poor with their customer service BEFORE getting my money, then I was in for a rough time once they had my credit card digits.

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