Hire car games

[MarkW]

ROME AIRPORT, AND IT'S THE USUAL BS WITH CAR HIRE COMPANIES:

Hello Sir.

- Hello. I have a car booked for a couple of days - here are the documents.

OK. Now before we start, is it OK to send you a customer satisfaction survey by email? If I get enough positive feedback I could win this months 'Wow!' award.

- Sure.

Now, I see that you have booked an automatic. I can upgrade you to a manual for the same price if you like.

- So that would be an 'upgrade' that costs less than the car I booked, then.

Umm...

- And in any case, how is a manual an 'upgrade'? Do you also offer a starting handle as an upgrade for people who refuse to truckle with the notion of an ignition key?

OK, I'll be honest: we haven't got any mid-range automatics left. Sorry.

- Not to worry - I'm sure one of your competitors here will. Good day.

No! Wait! Er... I can upgrade you to a bigger automatic, free of charge.

- Thank you. That's more like it.

The only thing I have to charge more for is €30 for the satnav.

- That's OK, I don't need it.

Don't need it?

- Nope. Feel free to take it out of the car.

It's built in to the dashboard on all our cars.

- Well you can't very well charge extra for something that comes as as standard, can you?

Uh...

- Look, pull the bloody fuse out for all I care - I don't need the satnav, so I'm not paying for it.

Er...

- All I want - startling as it may seem - is the car I booked online. No manual, no satnav, no bogus upgrades or extortionate pre-paid fuel plans, just the car I booked - no more, no less. And I remind you that I am still considering that 'Wow!' award...

OK! How about taking this - it's one of our best cars and I'll give you over €50 of upgrades free of charge!

- Thank you very much - that'll do nicely.

[Bender]

Can only add, I love rome

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

What did the Romans ever do for us?

[learningtofly]

Nice work

[gogs01]

I flew in to Edinburgh airport and went to pick up a Ford Focus.

Are you OK with an automatic ?

I almost said

"all the automatics I have driven have been left hand drive and in a foreign country". I said "yes".

And off I went with the key to Ford Mondeo Titanium X estate (automatic) ! Nice car.

[Bender]

Sort of on topic.

Booked hire car in Orlando at airport , turned up, gave name, OK sir you want row 2, take any car you like, on return a woman zapped the car with a scanner, welcomed us back and said have a mice day, it was the most pain free hire car experience I have ever had.

[Tango]

Many years back an old colleague flew to Belfast and hired a car at the airport.......A few miles down the road he was flagged to stop at a checkpoint.....He was suddenly surrounded by soldiers all pointing their guns at him, shouting to keep his hands on the top of the steering wheel......after a few nervous minutes an officer appeared and got the soldiers to stand down......He apologised about all the guns and that and explained that the car had been stolen a few weeks earlier, but no one had updated the system to show that it had been recovered and returned to the hire company....so it was still showing as stolen, which was why they were very nervous about it.........that was the last time he went to NI.....

[fullscreenaging]

Went to the Bahamas in my late 20’s. Hired a focus from Enterpise to get to Gatwick. On the return trip landed back at Gatwick and arrived at the Enterprise desk.

“We have no medium sized cars available so are upgrading you to the next size up free of charge. You have the option of paying and extra £1.30 for insurance purposes or staying as you are”

“So what vehicle do I need to pay the extra insurance for?”

“A Mondeo ST 24”

“Wooohooo” was the sound made while travelling most of the way home

I took it to the fastest I’ve driven in a car. An indicated 150. It was still going, but I’d drifted from the inside lane to the outside on the bend of a dual carriageway, so I lifted off.

While on the North bound M25 we saw Frank Bruno on the hard shoulder stood next to his broken down Jag

[MarkW]

Aaaaand.... I've stuffed it into a wall. I told the parking attendant at the hotel it was too big to get through the alleyway to their car park...

[rennie]

Ooops!

[Arwen]

Lol whoops! Will delivery on a dark and stormy night cover the damage?

[Adam]

I had a Toyota Camry + sat nav booked for me by my company upon arrival in SAN Francisco. Having had one of their “sat navs” (a phone with an app) before I politely asked for a car with a built in sat nav, oooh that will cost more sir was the reply the lady gave me. Once she had added the cost of the sat nav ($15 per day!!) onto the normal daily price of the Camry she suddenly had a BMW X5 3.0 twin turbo petrol available. Result!!

[Bianco2564]

Went to Austria in 2002 with work, picked up a Smart hire car, spent about 10mins pressing buttons and pedals before it started but didn't know how I did it.

Ok until I had to stop for fuel,stuck at the pump for another 10 mins before it went again.

Landed back at Heathrow about 6am after a 20 hr flight back from Australia, got my bags and got to hire car desk about 7am.

I have a car booked please.

Driving licence?

Here you go.

Paper part?

I haven't got it.

Oh,you will have to wait until 8am when DVLC open up.

But I had a car delivered to work on the outbound journey, I just collected it from work didn't show anyone my licence.

Sorry sir that's the rules

Not a hire car but was given to 4 of us from work when we went to Oz for 2 weeks.

Ford Falcon FPV GT, 390hp V8.

This is me at the start of the great ocean road in 2004

[MarkW]

CAR HIRE KARMA:

If the car hire company were praying for karma after I returned their previously pristine car with a huge gouge down the side, they've got it: one of our staff has just reversed into the front of my car, ripped the number plate off and put a nice dent in the bumper.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

The great ocean road I’m putting that on the list

Worth the effort?

[mikestrivens]

Been there, done that. Definitely worth doing. Great B&Bs all round south Australia

[S-Westerly]

Been there, done that. Definitely worth doing. Great B&Bs all round south Australia

 

Ditto. Absolutely worth doing. Port Fairy is a nice place to stay on the way.

[Bianco2564]

The great ocean road I’m putting that on the list

Worth the effort?

 

Most definitely.

We left Melbourne early,had breakfast in Lorne then ended up at 12 Apostles.

We only had one day so didn't travel the whole lot and got busted for speeding on the way back (not me driving)

130kph limit and we were doing about 140

[mikestrivens]

There are great places to visit around Bendigo and Ballarrat and the gold mining areas.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Port Fairy? Is that a real thing? Did you see any fairies? I’m going.

If I see one I might get one of those mental bumper stickers that says powered by fairy dust.

Might get one anyway I always give a couple of extra metres space to a vehicle with a nutter alert sticker could be a good safety move

[S-Westerly]

It's a real place, never saw a fairy but when I was there had an excellent inn with a very good restaurant. Made up for the lack of fairies.

[BIKERDAD]

Booked hire car in Orlando at airport , turned up, gave name, OK sir you want row 2, take any car you like, on return a woman zapped the car with a scanner, welcomed us back and said have a mice day, it was the most pain free hire car experience I have ever had.

OOO FECK PLZ READ THIS ..

Last year we went to Orlando went to collect the car . ..sorry we don't have the car you booked but we will upgrade you free .. we went all over the car for bumps dent scratches dings the lot . Had the car for 2 weeks went back.to the airport

Dropped the car off the guy scanned the keys and said thank you have us a small receipt..

2 weeks later credit card bill arrived . $600 dollars gone out of our card .. WHEN THEY SCANE THE KEYS THEY TAKE ANY AMOUNT THE WANT OUT 1st they will take juat a few dollars our case $3 the bank says ok . Then $597 went out . I taken us 5 months to get the money back . You have to call Orlando airport to talk to them as the number on the small receipt they give you won't Talley with any the numbers you booked with them its loged to the small machine the guy used ..

NO BULLSHITE CHECK YOU CARD STATMENTS we had to get the cash baxk off the bank as unotherized transaction . If you dont have that small recitpt your screwed

I asked the carcompny and the bank why would I pay for the car hire WHEN I TAKE THE CAR BACK . You pay 1st then you take the car not the other way round ..

[BIKERDAD]

We paid for the car hire and.was told they want a credit card just in case .. I said but we got full insurance if anything happened the insurance will pay . Yes that's right but the car hire like to have a credit card on file WHY ?????

SO they can take money out your account and don't need to tell.you unless you spot it then you need to argue it even then you have to wait months for them to do the checks .even then they don't refund you . As i said in bad to do anotherized transaction to get my money back .

It's the new scam or how old they been doing it because ppl are wise to them not fixing bumps and dents then.charging the next person who hires the car . Then the next one so on . So now this is been highlighted. I contacted the papers and sent all the paper work .but nothing was printed . If you need the name of the car hire . Mexico all ways says !!remember the A....!! Or is it the yanks says it ..???..

Blue and yellow logo

Anyone hired a car check there card statements. Small one 1st it was a bulb $3 then cost the car hire $597 at the time you take the car back ?????

[Bender]

Don't need to read it, always have stand alone policy for any excess that the hire company decide wasn't covered (which is way cheaper than any upgrades hire company try to offer) by there own, hired many cars in many countries and had no issues with any of them.