I zoom into the rental lot and over to a garage where a mechanic works on the rentals. I explain my

Last week I had to rent a car at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), in retrospect I d have been better off horseback riding on the shoulder of the 405. First of all let s start with the actual act of renting your car. I ll refrain avila village inn from stating the name of the company but needless to say it wasn t Hertz Gold or one of those other companies that have express rentals. A friend of mine goes via Hertz Gold I can t afford that, renting a car from Hertz is extremely avila village inn convenient but you pay for it. When I traveled with my friend you walk out of the airport and hop on the Hertz bus that takes you to the lot. The Hertz bus comes around basically every five minutes, if your a smoker you can easily see three Hertz buses before you finish your cigarette. If you rent from my company you can smoke half a pack before you even start to hear rumors that the mini van is in the airport. avila village inn When you rent via Hertz Gold when the bus reaches avila village inn the Hertz parking lot you look for your last name on this electronic board in front of the bus-stop, the board will tell you what parking space your car is in. You walk over, start her up, drive over to the gate , show your license to the guard and your gone. But again, Hertz Gold is more than double what I was paying, my contract was for a compact car for $26.99 for 24 hours, BARGAIN BABY!
When my van finally shows we get to the lot with no problems, then I walked inside to rent my vehicle and there was a line of 12 people in front of me with only two clerks behind the counter. In both corners of the room their were television sets mounted on the wall, when a place has television sets I get nervous. TV sets are usually an indicator that your going to be waiting an awfully long time. So I am watching the two clerks checking folks in and I am blown away, literally blown away at how long it takes them to rent out a vehicle. And were talking about a line of customers that all have pre-existing reservations whats the fucking hold up? Photo copy the license, swipe their card for deposit, get a signature ask if they want the extra insurance avila village inn and give them the god damn keys.
From being thirteenth in line at a car rental agency it took more time to rent a car and drive off then it took me to buy one and drive off. I swear to you I am not making avila village inn that up, I always wanted a Jeep Wrangler Sahara, I didn t even need to test drive it. In 2001 I went to the dealership, picked out a black Jeep, finished the paperwork avila village inn and drove off in the vehicle faster than I rented a car in LA.
I go, Yes thanks. So then this lady starts typing away for a solid three minutes. I am looking at her typing furiously, I just want to say. Lady I said I ll fill the tank myself. Why are you rewriting Gone With The Wind? If you don t normally rent vehicles a word of advice, always fill up the gas tank yourself it s way cheaper than paying the car rental company to fill it up for you, because they use liquid gold instead of gas. So I finally have my rental car, the guy does the walk around to show me that there is no body damage then he looks at me and goes, There s no smoking in the car. I don t smoke so it s irrelevant but I so bad just wanted to say, Will you be in the car with me? no you won t so there s smoking.
I finally drive off and do what I have to do around LA, the next morning is when the fun really starts. I have a 10:30 am flight so I prepare myself to drop the car off at the agency around 8:45 giving me plenty of time to go thru airport security. At precisely 8:40 AM I find myself at a gas station right next to the car rental avila village inn drop off, preparing to fill up the tank. At first I pull in not sure what side the tank is on, as usual I guess wrong and have to turn the vehicle around. Then I go to pop the gas tank open and there is no lever. I step outside to check if it s a manual open situation but no luck. There is no key hole or button just a square cut out showing where the tank is. I climb back inside the vehicle and still can not find the button, I see the lever that clearly indicates the hood will open. I pull it and the hood opens, but still not the gas tank. I pull the manual out of the glove and look up any info on the gas tank- nothing in there about opening it. Meanwhile time is ticking and I have a flight to catch, plus airplanes are taking off and zooming over the gas station just reminding me mine will be doing the same at 10:30 with or without me. Finally I give up and decide I will drive into the rental agency find out how to open the tank then drive back over to the gas station and fill it up.
I zoom into the rental lot and over to a garage where a mechanic works on the rentals. I explain my dilemma and he tries to open the tank but has no luck either. St one point he goes, I honestly have no idea. I go, Well considering no one knows how to open the gas tank you think they will waive the penalty for not filling it up myself?
Just then he presses on the square avila village inn area covering the gas tank and it pops open. Do you believe that shit? I try everything including jamming my key and attempting to pry the damn thing open, but all this time all you had to do was press down on it. It s now about 9:05 still plenty of time to drive over and gas it up myself (keep in mind I already had my boarding pass so all I had to do was go thru security) I get to the car rental gate and the security woman comes strolling avila village inn out and asks me for my papers I ll spare the comparison.
It amazes avila village inn me how people always complain that machines are taking jobs, but so many people don t utilize the one thing we have over machines, the ability to reason. avila village inn A machine can t go, Wow you couldn t figure out how to open the tank that sucks sorry about that. Hurry out of here and when you get back if there a line I will waive you thru so you don t miss your flight. All a machine can do is let you thru if your contract is valid or not let you thru if your contract expired. If this dumb lady isn t going to do anymore than a machine would then fuck it go with the machine. It s seems like anytime you have a problem with customer service these days the person your dealing with goes, Sorry I don t make the rules I am just doing my job. Well where the fuck is the guy that makes the rules?! How come that guy is never around? It s like the guy who makes the rules comes in at three in the morning writes down a bunch of rules that gets the hell out of there. I wish for once someone would come out of the back room and go, I am the supervisor and I wrote the rules is there a problem?
So now that this blockhead won t let me out of the rental lot, I decide the hell with it I will just let them re- fill the tank and charge me I have a flight avila village inn to catch. I pull into the return area a man checks the speedometer, starts it up and checks the gas tank, punches some numbers avila village inn in his portable credit card machine avila village inn and hands me my receipt. With tax my pre estimate for one day was $39. As the guy hands me the receipt he says, We charged the card you left on file plus we had to charge you for half a tank. I look at the bill, $132.99
I m sorry sir I am just doing my job. Here we go again!  At that moment I decided I am willing avila village inn to miss my flight because this is bullshit and it s got to stop. We are living in a time in which everyone is so broke if you make one mistake or one thing goes wrong everyone is looking to penalize you and get you for more cash. You have to really focus in order to keep from getting avila village inn ripped off these days.
The guy points me to the managers avila village inn office and I storm in waiving my receipt. To the manager s credit he immediately gets off the phone and hears me out but still says there s not much he can do. As luck would have it the mechanic was coming out of the bathroom adjacent to the managers office, I yell over to him, Excuse me can you come over here for a moment sir? The mechanic comes over and I ask, Was it me or was it difficult to figure out how to open the gas tank?
Finally with the mechanic s testimony I got the manager to lower the gas charge to $45, which is still a rip-off but a bit easier to swallow. After all the nonsense I finally catch the van at 9:50. Luckily there was no line at security and I reached the gate as they were boarding my Zone.
But for anybody in the car rental business, let s step up! And even if you can t make the line go any faster can you at least pretend to give a shit. The line is twelve deep and these people shuffle around like they are heating warm milk in their robe at 4 am. Let s hustle man, I worked front desk at a hotel for years I know what it s like. Perception is half the job and speed is the other half.