Complaint Review: RSC Equipment Rental

You know, I used to love this company when I worked for them. Ten years of the best part of my life. But their unfair treatment of customers (other than their top ten or so revenue producers) irritated the crap out of me. How do you replace an old set of forks? Wait for someone to rent the lift, accuse them of bending one or both of them, and charge them. Simple as that. Need a new foam filled tire on a reach lift? Accuse the next renter that they were the ones that gouged that chunk out of it. They'll never know the difference. It's just a way to pass on the cost of doing business to the unsuspecting consumer. I bet over a hundred times I witnessed this last one. Hell, I was a part of it! If you forget to bill out a few gallons of fuel to the last person that rented something, just bill the next guy that rents it. Simple. I know of one Manager (I was higher up than that when I left) who routinely billed out damages on equipment, but never fixed it. Within a week or so, this equipment would be transfered to another RSC store and they wouldn't notice the damage. What's the purpose you ask? He just made a 100% profit on the damage bill, and another RSC branch ate the cost of repair. He used to do this all the time when he was having a tough month. Bottom line, all equipment rental stores are crooked. They are just worse than most.

You probably weren't the renter that actually bent the forks on the machine. These forks can and are quite frequently bent when you get them, but, unless you note it on the contract when signing for the machine, you have a "he said, she said," situation. These forks are almost always bent on any machine more than a few months old, and you can go to any rental yard and look at any forklift and find a bent fork or damage on these machines, while sitting in the yard waiting "Ready to rent" to go out to unsuspecting customers like yourself. The forks on these machines can be straightened on a press as well, instead of replacing them, but, RSC will not do this due to ignorance and so called liability reasons.

If I were you I would find a small Mom and Pop rental store and form a working relationship with them instead of a 'Monster sized" company like RSC, who really don't care about anything about you or your project, except the profit they can make from you. The management at the local level are under such enormous pressure to turn an EBIT or EVA profit, that ripping off a customer is an option that they frequently must employ just to keep their job. Sad but true. You're lucky that you're not in California, as this tactic, and many more, are being used under the guidance of local district and regional VP managers.