Overdue Corporate Battle Story

Here's the background to this post if you wanna read. Sorry for taking so long to type it up...

I feel a little weird writing about this because the company that I fought with hooked me up and didn't screw me over. But I said I'd post about it. So I just won't name the company by name. (If you know the name of the company, please don't write to em and call them wangs. It was really the customer service person who made me extra mental and when my complaint went up the line and they did the right thing and didn't charge me anything).

Here's the dealio:

There's a company that rents cars by the hour around here. Basically they have cars all over the city in parking garages. There's one a few blocks from me and every now and then I 'rent' the Honda Civic for a couple hours for whatever reason. Grocery shopping or whatever.

I go online to their site. Reserve time with the car. Show up with my 'electronic card' which gives me access to the car. Drive around.

It's coolio because it's their insurance and they pay for gas etc. Only like $10-14 an hour depending on the car. A big deal is returning the car on time because if you keep past your reservation time-- there's a good chance someone is waiting at the garage to use the car next and you feel like a douche. But because the cars get used like all day long there's a good amount of ware and tear and stuff. Stained seats. Cracked windshield. Sometimes a small dent here or there. All the cars have some issue going on.

According to corporate policy if you go to take out a car and see some damage on it-- you should call the company immediately and report it. Like if I showed up and the car had a side door smashed in, I'd call up and be like, "Hey! The side door is smashed in..." And the person who had the car before me would be in trouble for messing up the car. But no car has ever been damaged enough to make me call in and report something. All the cars have dings and stuff.

But last month, I rented a car (and returned it without messing it up or anything). But the person who rented it after me called up and reported every bit of damage on the car. Side swiped door. Headlight sorta messed up. Rear bumper paint chips. Whatever. Stuff I'd been seeing all over that exact car for weeks and weeks. The company contacted me and told me I messed up one of their cars and I owe $500 (to cover the insurance deductible).

They sent me pictures of the car and the damage I was responsible for:

I was like, 'WHAT!!! WTF!! $500!? I didn't do that to the friggin car! And that side door is RUSTED!!! It's obviously old! I can't even tell what's wrong with the headlight! All that stuff obviously happened at different times!!!' The bitchy customer service girl kept telling me that policy states that it was my responsibility to report any damage to the car. And that the fact that the 'responsible' person reported that damage meant that the responsibility is on the person who had the car before he did. Aka. Me.

You get it? I get it. Technically, they were right. But morally, I felt like it was a little ridiculous. If it was one thing like the sideswipe or whatever. I would have bitten the bullet and even assumed that it might have happened when I had the car. But the fact that they were dumping all the damage on me made me nuts. Thus that's why I went mental and threatened to blog about it and she mocked my voice and stuff. You could see why...

But when push came to shove I didn't have to pay the $500 and still use the company to take cars out now and then.  It really is a great service-- which is one of the reasons I went extra mental. Because I didn't want to lose my right to take out their cars and stuff...

And that was that.

Sorry it took me so long to type it up.

Good vibes to y'all...

tOdd