1. Advantage charges a $2/day "Highway Helper" fee that doesn't appear when
you book on-line. The agents claim that it is in the "fine print", and will
actually spend several minutes looking for it in vain, before finally removing
it under protest and veiled hints about an FTC complaint. Apparently, they
don't trust their own maintenance dept!
2. Last January, my Budget car died on the way to LV. It took 2-3 hours for
their tow-truck (which is an independent contractor) to appear. The office @
McCarran them claimed that I had put diesel in it--and was going to charge me
$250 for the tow and not give me another car! Fortunately, I had saved all
my receipts and showed that I had only purchased unleaded.
Last month when I picked up another car (figured I'd give them another
chance), they gave me one with numerous dings and scratches. I compared them to
the "damage slip" and figured I was covered. When I got back, they claimed
there were extra scratches on the bumper--that was already shown as damaged.
They eventually backed off. They then claimed that I hadn't vacuumed the
crumbs from my meals on the road and were gonna charge an extra cleaning fee (there
were no stains or anything that normal cleaning for the next sucker would not
remove). They eventually backed off on this one, too, under the spectre of
the FTC and CA Dept. of Consumer Affairs.
3. In comparison, Alamo's "gotcha" is petty. Their "59 minutes grace
period" accrues from the time you noted on your reservation. E.g., if you're 15
minutes early picking up the car, that eats into your 59 minutes--and isn't
off-set by returning 15 minutes early.
So far, I've had no problems with Enterprise.
Me thinks that the industry's "creativeness" for figuring out new ways to
screw the customer will only increase, due to heightened competition and
diminishing profit margins. CAVEAT EMPTOR and set toll free numbers for the FTC and
the respectfive state consumer agencies on cells' speed dial!!! That's the A
merican Way!!!
Rick
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