I carry my tracking unit, purchased from and serviced by MileageLogger.com. It normally rides in my

Peshkova /Shutterstock If you re tired of technology being used against you and how can you not be after the the latest NSA spying allegations then you ll probably appreciate luxury hotels uk this man-bites-dog story.
It comes to us by way of Bryan Lawver, who recently rented a car in Florence, Italy. When he returned the vehicle, an associate told him he was one minute past the grace period luxury hotels uk and would be charged an extra day.
The agent refused to give us a return receipt, but rather penciled info on our original rental agreement, says Lawver, who works for the federal luxury hotels uk government in Livermore, Calif. I found that peculiar, but I lacked the language skills to explain my complaint.
Fortunately, Lawver had a more high-tech answer. He used his Sony DSC HX10v, which has built-in GPS and resets its clock to local time, to take a timestamped photo of the car — which, by the way, is always a good idea.
Some car rental customers seem to have targets on their back. They contact me when a big, bad rental company or subrogation company is asking them to pay a few hundred bucks for scratching the undercarriage of their rental, and each email to the company is filled with emotional language that would have you believe the rental companies stole their firstborn.
It s easy to buy into this culture of victimhood. After all, the rental companies luxury hotels uk invite it with their bullying tactics that include strongly-worded letters demanding immediate payments for often invisible, luxury hotels uk undocumented damages. Let s just say neither side is doing itself any favors.
Consumers have received encouragement from an unlikely source: a man named Mark Duffy, who used to own National and Alamo franchises for the Island of Puerto Rico. I receive regular complaints about aggressive damage claims from these companies, and although its parent company, Enterprise, denies it, customers believe it operates its vaunted luxury hotels uk Damage Recovery Unit as a profit center.
I developed the camera system initially for our use, Duffy told me. But he recently sold his franchise back to Enterprise and spun the concept as a stand-alone app. Interestingly, he says Enterprise continues to evaluate the technology at San Juan airport. Hertz was testing a similar luxury hotels uk program called CRVIS a few years ago in Newark. Unfortunately, it was never adopted .
Technology can be the great equalizer when a car rental company wrongfully accuses you of something. Having reliable before and after images effectively eliminates any frivolous car rental damage claims. A GPS-enabled camera that can add a timestamp can counter a car rental agent s claim that you returned luxury hotels uk a car late.
It helps to understand the predicament car rental companies find themselves in. Profit margins are ridiculously thin, so dropping a $20 charge on a bill can mean the difference between making money and losing it. They re not gonna just let something go. They ll charge you for everything they can, because they feel they have to.
The only way to make sure they don t is to use the tech you have. Remember, luxury hotels uk without images and timestamps, a car rental company can potentially make any claim it wants to. The burden of proof is on you — to say, No, that ding was there before luxury hotels uk I rented the car, or I brought the vehicle back on time.
In an ideal world, car rental companies would be taking photos of their own cars. They d be GPS-tagged and time-stamped, too. Why don t they? Because luxury hotels uk that would cost them money, not just to set up and train their employees, but also in missed damage-claim opportunities.
luxury hotels uk Car rental customers don t have to be suckers. When a company demands we pay hundreds of dollars for every ding and dent, to shell out money for junk fees for loss of use and diminution of value, and when they use time as a weapon to collect luxury hotels uk more money from us, we can fight back.
I carry my tracking unit, purchased from and serviced by MileageLogger.com. It normally rides in my car at home, but it s small enough to fit into my shirt pocket and gives me real-time tracking on a third party site. It plugs into the OBD II (diagnostics connector) just under the dash and keeps track of when and where the car stops and starts and the distance driven between points. luxury hotels uk It will verify when and where I was in case there s ever a question. It also will yield information to show my average point-to-point.
BTW: There s even a small discount on purchase with the code TAXCA. THen if you leave the rental office 45 minutes after they time-stamped the documents and arrived to return only to find a 1-hour line to make your return, the Mileage Logger shows exactly when you left and returned.
I just rented a car from National last week in Burbank. Thanks to this website I was educated and took precautions. My agreement did not come with the vehicle drawing and a place to note any damage, so I asked the attendant for one. I walked the vehicle with the attendant and noted every single chip near the trunk (common spot where people pull their luggage in and out), door dings, and a huge scratch that went from the windshield to the front of the hood that was almost invisible luxury hotels uk unless you caught it at the right angle in the right light. I also got him to sign the doc and took pictures. Returned it with no problems and will keep all of my documentation for at least 2 months. I wish there was a way to leave a copy of this information for the next renter, who may be in a hurry or be struggling with kids to pay as close attention. Anyone have any ideas?
The poll question today is badly worded. Both statements are true; the tech available to ordinary customers can do so much more than a generation ago, but you re still going to run into darkened parking lots where your picture of the undercarriage (you did remember to get under and do a set there, didn t you?) won t reveal enough to be legally admissible.
We need a standardized automated picture-taking system like ORVIS as described above, that operates at checkout and checking and gives the customer a link to the before and after set of shots. This should be required for every rental.
Chris, get real. Rental car companies are charging two or three times as much as they did two years ago. I go to the Los Angeles area to see family during the same week each year. I used to be able to rent an intermediate car at LAX from Hertz for about $210 for a week including taxes and fees. I just checked Hertz and their current rate is now $494. Their prices go up and down like airline fares and if I try to make the reservation on another day, I might be able to save $50 or $75. It would still be at least twice as much as I used to pay.
Alan, the undercarriage photos are a good idea. However, I doubt if many rental car customers are willing to get dirty rolling around on a garage or parking lot floor to get these shots. ORVIS makes sense.
It helped me out recently! I had to do a rental through my insurance after my own car was out of commission due to a hit run accident lucky me. The rental franchise was less than helpful (it took 2 hours to get a car I had a reservation for) and I ended up in a car that was scratched, chipped and given to me dirty. The interior hadn t even been cleaned out since the last rental, luxury hotels uk with dirty seats, reeking of smoke, luxury hotels uk and leaving me to clean ashes out of the dash gauges. I took pictures luxury hotels uk of everything with a time/date luxury hotels uk stamp and submitted them to my insurance company s claim wall on the website. That way, there was proof that all of this existed when I picked it up in case they tried to come after me and my insurance for it.
Last time I rented a car, we picked luxury hotels uk it up in dark garage at the Seattle airport. I was still able to see some dings and stuff which I noted on the rental contract and made the attendant sign, but there s no way I could have gotten decent pics. Everything was fine with the return luxury hotels uk though.
What might actually work would be an app that links to an online database of rental vehicles. Renters would enter details into the database when they see dmage on a rental car. Then, subsequent renters would enter the plate or VIN number into the app and the app scans the database and shows you the damage history of that car, perhaps even with pics. If the database shows damage on your rental car, you can check to see if that damage is still there. I don t know if smart phones can scan the VIN barcodes, but if so, that would make the process even easier. You scan the barcode and the damage history of your rental car pops up on your phone. Sweet!
Technology sure worked for me! Several years ago I rented a car in Auckland, NZ. When I picked it up, I noticed there were several large scratches on the trunk. But the attendant was too busy to bother doing a walk-around with me. So I did my own, and took time-stamped photos luxury hotels uk with my camera.
Upon returning the car, the attendant pointed to the scratches and told me I was going to have to pay for the repair, and tried to get me to sign a damage report. I just laughed at him, walked inside and showed my time-stamped photos to the manager. The attendant was red-faced spittin mad, but again I just laughed. There was nothing they could do I had the proof. Methinks I cost him a nice fat commission.
Whenever they try the We re going to charge you for an extra day because you re a minute late routine, I always tell them Okay then I m going to *keep* it for a whole extra day . When they realize that they re not going to be able to rent it out to someone else, later in the day, they relent.
In some instances, we have the cities luxury hotels uk we travel to to thank for the higher cost of rentals. Taxes are added time and again to pay for new stadiums, etc Try renting at off airport locations to avoid paying luxury hotels uk those nice little fees added by most major cities. Car rental companies luxury hotels uk (just like hotels), will charge more when availability is scarce. Better yet, use a good travel consultant to help you find the best deal.
TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR RENTAL CARS. As a former rental agent, I can t stress this enough. My company never,