I agree it was a little rude I can't argue with that. But I'm just trying to protect myself from once again being a victim of the rental car companies.
It's not something I've done in the past, nor something I do at restaurants or for that matter with any other businesses. Based on the way I've been treated by car rental car companies during the past two years and how they have taken advantage of me (using your logic) I've helped push rates down for everyone in the past. I'm just protecting myself from them and I'll explain why:
1. In Vegas, Dollar Express keeps changing their Express pickup procedures. A few rentals ago I went directly to the parking garage to the Dollar kiosk (which is now shared with Thrifty). About eight people were waiting in line. To the right was an open walkway and an employee there told me if I had a Dollar Express reservation to just pick any car in the car size reserved. I loaded our bags into the car we chose only to discover there was no key or key FOB in it. So I removed the bags and picked another car only to find that all doors were locked. I asked a different employee walking by for help and she asked to see my paperwork. I had only the reservation confirmation paper work I had printed at home. She said I would have to go back to the kiosk to get my paperwork. The line was still about eight people long and I was upset that I had just wasted 15 minutes and was back at the end of a long line again where I started.
While in line, a different employee walked by and I told her the story and she said I needed to get out of the kiosk line and check the electronic screen to the left of the kiosk and find my name and there would be an assigned car in an assigned space number and my paperwork would be in the car. I got out of line and checked out the electronic screen, and finally found my name, but all that was displayed next to it was TBD (to be determined). In the meantime, two more people took my place in the kiosk line and the line was about nine people long now.
Forty five minutes later after waiting in line at the so called Express booth, I finally get a car and head to the exit gate booths. Here we find two lines of cars with about eight cars in each line now waiting to get through the car checkout/exit gate booths.
After about another 15 minutes we are about two cars from the booth. It is much brighter here than the area where I picked out the car, so I decide to do a walk-around the car to check for any damages. I notice the sides of the rear bumper are severely chipped and scratched with missing paint and on the passenger door an area about the size of a golf ball has a large ding and missing paint.
Upon finally making it to the car check-out booth gate I tell the agent about the damage and ask her to note it on the paperwork. She says she doesn't do that here and that I would have to pull the car back into the car pick-up area where I got it and find an employee there and have him do it there. I said if I do that I would then have to go back to the end of the eight car queue and wait in line again to get out. She simply answers: "Yes sir I guess so."
2. Next Vegas trip, I had rented a mid-size SUV via Dollar Express for the week. At the Express booth about 10 parties were waiting for cars as only compacts were available. After about a half hour wait other cars began to show up and about an hour later I was informed I could take a "full size" Nissan Altima as no SUVs would be available for the foreseeable future. Did they compensate me for not having ANY cars even close to the time when my reservation was due.? NO. Did they compensate me for providing me with a lesser car than I paid for. NO
3. On another trip in Florida, there are tolls that can only be paid if you have Florida's version of Fast Pass. No other State is tied into this system, so you can't take your Fast Pass windshield device from your own car from another state and put it into your rental car. Also in Florida there are toll roads that are booth-less. So you can't pay with cash as you enter or exit. But when you don't pay (because you can't pay) they record your license plate and charge the owner of the car. I went through two tolls (as I had no choice but to go that way and had no prior knowledge of the toll setup). I learned that the two tolls came to about $2.60 and if you don't have Florida's automatic pay device in your car, FL sends the car owner a bill for the toll plus a surcharge of $2.00+-. So the rental car company gets the bill for $6.00+-, BUT then they bill me for $25 service fee for each toll for $50. No amount of discussion with them was going to reduce the bill.
So at this point based on their treatment of me over the past two years, anything I can do to beat them out of a dollar but more importantly get back the time that with no qualms they cheated me out of I will do.
Not that I need more reason but don't you realize that if you don't prepay (which I did not) that you are paying more than if you do prepay. So essentially you are paying a surcharge for not prepaying and guaranteeing that you will show up. So essentially I am being charged extra by the rental car companies for the privilege of not showing up for my reservation.
I'm just trying to protect myself from once again being a victim of the rental car companies.
ST
---In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, <cush58@...> wrote :
While I understand your desire to get the best car rental rate, by triple booking you are pushing up the rates for everyone else that required a car at that time. A little rude.
