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I am a twenty-something second year teacher living in the midwest. I am a Christian woman and proud of it! I am the middle child of three girls. I am the proud aunt of the very beautiful Lil E and Lil C!! I love TV, movies, reading, and baseball. I am in my second year of teaching , but my first year teaching kindergarten. It has been quite the journey!

24 March 2011

Boo Yah!

When we were planning our epic Florida trip (chronicled here, here here and here)we discovered that renting a car when you are 21-24 is annoying. It said online that there would be a fee because I was so young, then we found out that it would double the price of the car! Yikes! We weren't so happy about that, but we were OK with it, there wasn't really anything we could do about it.

Renting the car was the part I was most nervous about. I've flown without my parents, stayed at hotels, gone to baseball games, etc. But I'd never rented a car without them and I didn't really know what I was doing. When we got to the rental counter (after a super duper duper long wait) everything was going well, we even got a free upgrade because they didn't have the right kind of car :)

Then the agent noticed that I was under 25, mentioned the extra fee and asked for my proof of insurance. I am thinking, 'what?!?!?!?!?!' I said I didn't have it and she said that then I would have to buy insurance through the rental company... I told her that wasn't posted anywhere online when I was going about renting the car. She said, "It's not on the website, it's just one of those things you have to know."

Excuse me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! How can you have a policy that is not posted on your website???? So I asked if this was just the case that I needed insurance because I was under 25 and told yes. The woman tried to "get me a good deal" and just make me pay for the absolute essentials instead of a complete plan for the "low, low" price of $45 A DAY!!!!! which basically doubled the price of the car again... What?

But I didn't have a choice, so I paid it and decided to not worry about it until we got home. I got the car and we left.

We, obviously, had a fantastic trip and tried not to worry our pretty little heads about the extra costs.

This weekend I received an e-mail asking me to take their customer service survey. I practically rubbed my hands in glee! The actual survey didn't leave much room for me to complain, but I rated their agents badly and said that I would never rent from them again.

At the end of the survey it told me that if I needed a response for a rep. to contact them via e-mail, which I did. I send them this awesome, strongly-worded e-mail

As a driver aged 21-14 I knew when I picked up my car that I would be charged an additional $27 a day due to my age. However, when I was at the counter, I was informed that if I didn't have my proof of insurance I would have to purchase insurance through Thrifty. As I had not seen this anywhere on *******'s website when researching car rentals, I was shocked. Especially since this insurance would be $45 per day, essentially doubling the cost of renting a car. When I informed the worker that I didn't know this policy because I hadn't read it anywhere on the website, she responded, that it isn't on the website, "it's just one of those things that you have to know."It is completely unacceptable to have a policy that your customers are supposed to "just know." My father has rented plenty of cars and has never heard of this policy. If this policy had been displayed on your website when it discusses extra fees for underage drivers, I would have brought my insurance and avoided this problem. I was appalled with this exorbitant extra fee and will never book with ******* again unless this problem is resolved to my satisfaction.

I felt pretty awesome and pumped after I wrote it. I'm not generally confrontational and it felt super to write this.

I got an e-mail back the next business day, saying that they apologized for the customer service I received (and that lady's blatant rudeness and scheminess) and basically that I could have signed a waiver and not had to pay any insurance... and that they would refund all of the money we paid for insurance! Victory!!

But super annoyed that the agent tried to make it seem like she was doing me a service by picking and choosing the coverage I needed and really she was scamming me...

But all's well that ends well. I guess.

(I think this is the last Florida post... :)

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