Menards is not recommendable. Read the reviews. Count the stars. Sorry... count the star. Singular.
I cannot fully express how much stress and worry this corporation has caused me and my family. Let me tell you a brief story.
We rented a truck from Menards. Our current fully owned truck has some transmission issues and broke down on a dirt road on the way home and we needed a quick way to tow it home without paying an arm and a leg. They took a deposit of $300 with a promise to refund $5o plus fees for milage and time and potential damages. We paid the deposit.
We drove it to our stranded truck, barely making it down the dirt road to it. The road was pretty muddy and the Menards trucks are NOT 4x4. They are rear wheel drive only. We attempted a tow using a tow rope (highly recommend a good tow rope, btw, they are mechanically gentle because they have a small bit of stretch and the rope material isn't able to directly damage any metallic surfaces. Just don't buy it from Menards). There was a hill that the Menards truck simply couldn't go up, whether towing anything or not, so we gave up and began driving it back. It got stuck a couple times but we were able to wiggle it out back-and-forth style. We got the truck back Menards the same day.
Upon delivering a muddier, but otherwise unbothered truck back to Menards we went in to finish the paperwork. They sent an employee out with a clipboard to examine the truck. We waited for an extended length of time. Around 10-15 minutes. It was pretty awkward, but none of the employees were directly unpleasant to deal with. Judging from other reviews, your milage on that point may vary ;)
The inspector came back with the clipboard and signed off on the transaction and we were reimbursed around $120 out of the $300. This was less that we hoped and expected, but we paid it with no complaints.
A full week later, we recieve a letter in the mail from Menards noting to us that they have since found damages on the truck and required that we pay back the full reimbursment. They did not specify the type of damage that appeared, nor did they tell us when they found it and how long they had it sitting in their public parking lot before they noticed it. Note that this is after the inspector signed off and the deal was done. We did not expect to recieve any further communication on the subject. After all, any damage that appeared after it was signed off as good and undamaged upon delivery and while it was in their possession cannot be attributed to us. However, against our better judgement, we decided to act in good faith and pay them back. Admittedly, their letter was worded very threateningly. However, this seemed to be the wrong choice.
We have now received several more letters from them demanding even more money, on the order of thousands of dollars. We have paid the rental fees out of the deposit, which included fees for minor damages on the rear bumper. Still not sure where exactly those could have possibly come from, but anyway... We also paid back the rest of the deposit when they requested it a week afterwards, which already felt fishy. And now, we are sent letters saying we promised to pay for any and all damages found (no we didn't) and are demanding over $1000 in unnoted and unexplained damages and demanding that we pay it all by a given deadline under threat of legal action. We just recieved the latest letter today.
I can only think that perhaps they're trying to weasel more money out of us through the misconstrued presence of some sort of verbal agreement said by usin passing while finilazing the transaction. Anyway yeah, very much not fun. I cannot recommend doing any sort of business with Menards. I should have read the reviews myself before allowing us to even consider renting anything from them. And no, for all the stress and worry they have caused with their repeated threats in their otherwise overly vague letters, we don't plan on giving them another cent for the rest of our foreseeable future. And this sentiment will be spread to everyone we know and to our children and their children and we will teach them to spread it to everyone they know as well until such time as it is made right.
They can make it right by apologizing for any stress and trouble they caused us and refunding the part of the deposit that was originally the reimbursment, adjusted for inflation, of course. My breath will not be held for the interim.
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