January 16, 2006
Does anyone *like* renting a car?
This article on Hertz' change in insurance policies to have drivers responsible for acts of god just adds yet another log to the "rental cars hate their customers" fire.
My experience with Budget after my accident is seemingly typical -- even though I was not at fault, Budget was still hostile toward me, sending terse threatening letters about how I owed them money.
Or the car I rented this past weekend from Avis -- the Lost Damage Waiver was $23.99 a DAY, which is more than the car cost. I declined, trusting the gold card to cover it. But, I mean, come ON.
Does anyone have satisfactory rental car experiences? Even Enterprise, whom I had trusted, gouged me on both the additional driver fee as well as an underhanded upgrade that caught us off-guard until we realized what had happened. Why do I have to be "on my guard" when renting a car? Why do I have to assume they are out to get me? How does that build customer loyalty and trust?
Where is the JetBlue of the car rental industry? Hell, why isn't JetBlue in the car rental industry? It is so clearly an industry in need of some form of disruptive competition, because the current set of companies are simply racing to the bottom.
