On the Justice of Squeaking Wheels: made whole by filling out an automated survey

Anybody who knows me knows, the only thing I hate more than driving is renting cars. It combines all the worst features of the travel experience: you’re charged a constantly fluctuating price (thanks Autoslash!), with ambiguous requirements (do I qualify for a USAA rate as a member, or is that for employees of USAA?), face unlimited liability for anything that happens on the road in an unfamiliar car, and are upsold at every single step of the transaction. It’s a terrible experience for customers, and I imagine an even more terrible experience for the cashiers who have to deal with a stream of furious customers all day every day.

I’ve tried to eliminate as many of these variables as possible over the years. In 2020, I bought non-owner car insurance from USAA for the first time to cover personal liability while driving a rented car. I naturally pay for my rentals with a credit card that includes insurance for the value of the car itself. And I fuel rental cars before returning them to avoid paying their extortionate fuel charges.

But that leaves one pain point: picking up and returning the car itself. Different rental car companies have tried to address this in a variety of ways: elite check-in desks, “choose your own car” gimmicks (National’s “Emerald Aisle,” Budget’s “Fastbreak,” etc). But I’m not actually that annoyed by waiting in line for a rental car. After all, I just waited in line to check my bags, waited in line to board, waited to get off the plane, waited to collect my checked bags, and waited to take a shuttle to the rental car lot. What do I care if I have to wait another 15 minutes to get the car keys?

No, what drives me nuts is how car rentals are so completely unlike any other element of the travel experience, and no lesson you learn anywhere else can be applied to understanding how rental car companies operate:

• an airline schedules a set of flights, some of which take off late and some of which land early. But one flight landing early (besides giving the pilots and flight attendants a little more time to use the bathroom or get a bite to eat) doesn’t make any other flight take off any earlier, and in fact realistically is more likely to clutter up the taxiways and gates.

• a hotel sets a check-in time and check-out time, which they’re typically willing to be flexible about if your room is ready early or you want to keep it a bit longer, assuming there isn’t another guest about to check in.

Car rental companies operate more like private jet services or love hotels. You can show up early, or check-out late, but you’re definitely paying for every minute you have possession of the car.

Getting charged for showing up early

Over the New Years holiday my partner and I flew to Hawaii where we met up with my mother-in-law (yes, I know this is also the plot of the Netflix limited series “White Lotus”). Our flight was scheduled to land around 1 pm and hers around 3, so I booked a weekly car rental at the only-slightly-off-airport Budget Car Rental site, with a pickup and dropoff both scheduled for 1 pm on Wednesdays, a week apart.

Then our flight got in early — very early. We were scheduled to arrive at 12:50 pm but were already at the Budget office at 11:30 am. We didn’t have anything else to do (the Kona airport is kind of in the middle of nowhere) so we decided to pick up the car and drive into town to explore for a couple hours.

I popped in to see if the car was ready yet, and after a few minutes in line, was asked “when are you returning the car?” I naturally replied, “I have it reserved until 1 pm,” and the cashier responded, “but you’re picking it up early. That means you need to return it early.”

And she was right!

After stressing about it for 7 full days, I managed to get the car back at 12:20 pm the following Wednesday — 40 minutes before the end of my original reservation, but 50 minutes after my 7-day “week” expired.

They stuck me with a fee that was, for one hour, a full 14% of the cost of the week-long rental.

But then they gave me my money back

On January 5, in what must have been just a few minutes after returning the car to the lot in Kona, I received one of those thousands of automated e-mails asking for feedback on my experience renting from Budget. Like any normal person, I never complete these surveys unless something is obviously amiss or an employee goes above and beyond. But since I was still steaming about this stupid “late” return charge, I went ahead and filled out the survey.

Shockingly, 5 days later, I received another message from the same generic survey provider:

Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your recent experience. We appreciate your feedback since it helps us improve our service and your rental experience.

I deeply regret that we were not able to meet your expectations regarding your previous rental. We will send in an adjustment for the extra hour charge. Please allow 7-14 business days for this to reflect on your end.

I wasn’t exactly convinced this would actually happen (the e-mail address’s domain was “app.medallia.com”), but was willing to watchfully wait. Then, as much to my surprise as yours, on January 26, 21 full days after I returned the car, Budget refunded me almost $100, which seems to actually be slightly more than they charged me for the extra hour, even accounting for taxes and fees.

Conclusion

I know this was a long way to go to complain about how terrible rental car companies are, which is why I’m trying to make a slightly different point: sometimes, somebody actually reads those surveys you submit after flying, staying at a hotel, or renting a car, and if they do, then making as specific, particularized complaints (or praise!) as possible seems likeliest to get the most favorable results.