5 ways rental automobile companies can ruin your trip
Be nice to your automobile rental agent. Otherwise you could end up like Hank Jeffries.
He doesn’t remember saying anything offensive to the clerk when he rented an intermediate-size automobile in Cancun recently. It didn’t matter: Jeffries’ “confirmed” $325-a-week rate through his travel bureau turned into $900 when he checked in.
“I stated I wanted to rent the car,” stated Jeffries, a retired information technology worker from Los Angeles. “Not purchase it.”
That may have rubbed the employee the wrong way. Although the rate was adjusted back to the original price, he had to purchase insurance, which brought the price up to $700. Then he was handed the keys to a high-mileage automobile with extensive damage.
“In retrospect, I would have been far better off renting a automobile at the resort where I stayed, even paying a daily rate,” Jeffries said.
Although it might not always be obvious, automobile rental employees are people, too. They have the power to make your rental experience a pleasure — upgrading you to a sedan or looking the other way when you put a chip in the windshield — or, like Jeffries, to make your rental experience absolutely miserable.
Here are five tricks of their trade — and how you can make a detour around them:
1. Wanna play the price game? Angry automobile rental agents can alter the rate you’re paying, often broadsiding you with a new, higher price when you pick up the vehicle. When Shirley Garcowski booked a automobile in Orlando recently, that’s what her agent did. “When I went to pick up the car, the rate they were giving me was higher than the rate quoted when I booked the car,” she said. “They stated the corporate rate is only an estimate — the only locked-in rate is through their website.” That’s nonsense, of course. And she knew it. She complained to a manager, who concurred to honor the original price as “a one-time accommodation.”
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2. This box is pre-checked for your convenience. A automobile rental agent who wants to make your life miserable can also pre-check a box on your lengthy automobile rental contract, in which you indicate your acceptance of the optional insurance. (Collision-damage waivers are one of the most profitable add-ons for automobile rental companies, so the bottom line might also have something to do with it.) That’s what happened to Jim Strohmeier when he rented a automobile in Las Vegas recently. “They charged my credit card for automobile insurance, even though I did not check the box on the contract where it is indicated to choose insurance,” he said. When he requested a copy of the contract, the automobile rental company backed down and credited him for the insurance.
3. We make up the rules as we go along. Like airline agents and hotel clerks, automobile rental agents can often do as they please. For example, they can make up policies, just for the fun of it. That’s what happened to Vinil Bhandari who rented a automobile at the Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) airport recently and was surprised when he was asked to pay another $18 a day in additional-driver fees. The reason? A manager told him it only applied to married couples. “Then the folks behind rental counters, along with the location manager had a good laugh at this,” he recalled. Wow, that’s pretty mean. Bhandari is appealing the charge, since it contradicts the automobile rental company’s own website. He should be receiving a refund shortly.
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4. It wasn’t like that when you got there. Perhaps one of the most unsporting things a vindictive automobile rental agent can do to you is to assure you that the preexisting damage you note on a automobile won’t be held against you, but then it’s held against you. It happened to Bruce Bennett when he rented a automobile in Honolulu recently. “When we loaded the automobile we noticed that there was a hole in the rear bumper and we brought it to the attention of the lot attendant,” he remembered. “She told us to tell the person at the gate. We did and they circled the rear bumper on the automobile diagram and off we went. When we returned the automobile I told the person checking us in about the damage.” But the next month, they got a $738 bill from their automobile rental company, anyway. Typically, a strongly worded letter to your automobile rental company with a copy to the say insurance commissioner, is enough to reverse those charges.
Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org .
More Source:
5 ways rental car companies can ruin your trip - Travel - Travel Tips ...How to Get the Best Deal on a Rental Car: 5 steps - wikiHow
Finding Your Best Rental Car Deal - Senior Travel - About.com
Best RentalCars.com Reviews of 2011 & 2012 | Car Hire | Review ...
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Submited at Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 4:00 am on Tips by ethan
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