What if You Dont Bring Rental Car Back With Gas
The Haggler
Bring It Back Full, or Don't. You'll Pay Either Way.
Whenever he rents a car, the Haggler feels as if he's an unwitting player in the world's worst game show. In other game shows, you can win money. The best you can do at the rental car counter is not get fleeced.
Every episode of "Wheel of Misfortune" includes a round called "Pick a Refuel Option." Some of the options are a little bewildering — especially the pitch about just how little the rental car company charges for a full tank, so hey, live a little. Bring the vehicle back as empty as you like and the company will fill that baby right up, with gas that you pay for in advance.
The Haggler has never tried this option, because he imagines himself driving in circles around a city, trying to burn off extra gallons, muttering, "I'm bringing it in on fumes!" So he ticks the tried-and-true "I'll bring it back full" box. Except this has pitfalls, too.
Q. I reserved a car from Payless in Las Vegas. The total charges were estimated at $44 for two days. But when I picked up the car, the total was listed as $87.79. An attendant said I would be charged for a full tank of gas, but that if I showed my gas receipt upon return, a $39 charge would be refunded.
I bought $8 in gas — I didn't drive much — and returned the car with a full tank. I showed the attendant the gas station receipt and left the car. Nonetheless, I have been billed the entire $87.79, even though I have a Payless receipt stating that the car was returned full. I left a message with Payless and called another number in accounting that will not accept voice mail messages.
I'm never renting from Payless again. But I'd like my money back.
CHERYL DUBOSE
JONESBORO, ARK.
A. Rummage around on the Payless site and you will find little about refueling rules. But two weeks ago, another of the company's livid customers — and there are many on sites like Consumer Affairs — said she was charged $79 for a fill-up, although she returned the car with the tank full. Why? She was told that she did not meet two criteria:
■ She failed to fill up within five miles of the airport.
■ She failed to fill the tank within half an hour of returning the car.
The best the Haggler can say about these rules is that they are shameless.
It obviously doesn't matter when you refill a gas tank. A full tank on Wednesday is a full tank the next Tuesday. But even the five-mile rule is a gotcha. A Nissan Versa, part of Payless's compact fleet, gets 31 miles per gallon in the city, 40 on the highway. So let's say that on average it gets 35 miles per gallon. That makes five miles one-seventh of a gallon. A gallon of gas now costs about $2.30, according to AAA. So five miles of gas costs about 33 cents.
Payless, in other words, will charge drivers for a full tank — in this case nearly $40 — if the company spends more than 33 cents to top off the tank of a Nissan Versa.
The Haggler was a little skeptical that Payless was serious about these rules, because they sound both hostile and cockamamie. But a spokeswoman for the company wrote to the Haggler last week that, indeed, the Payless "refueling policy requires vehicles to be refueled within five miles from the return location and 30 minutes from the return time."
Now we get to what is especially crazy about Ms. DuBose's case. She has receipts, which she shared with the Haggler, who shared them with Payless, proving that she refueled half a mile from the airport — yes, a good 4.5 miles under the limit — and dropped off the car less than 10 minutes after her visit to the gas station.
In other words, Payless set up an obstacle course, and Ms. DuBose aced it.
So why was she charged for filling up her tank? The spokeswoman at Payless was mum on that topic, though she did state in an email that the company would refund the gas charge as "a gesture of good will."
Hang on a moment. It seems like a refund in this case is not a "gesture of good will" at all. It is more like the bare minimum required. Which is different.
As the Haggler was finishing this column, the spokeswoman asked for a call. She then explained that after further conversations with customer service, she learned that there was no 30-minute rule, actually. She was initially told that there was, but that information was wrong, she said apologetically. How exactly this urban myth took root inside the company was a mystery she could not immediately explain.
The five-mile rule, however, is real, and it's worth noting that it does not apply at Avis or Budget, which are part of the same company, the Avis Budget Group, that owns Payless. (Come out and wave to the people, Chairman Ronald Nelson.) Asked why Avis and Budget don't use such a draconian standard, the spokeswoman explained it is because "Payless is a low-cost provider."
Interesting! But of course there isn't anything "low cost" when the company applies the five-mile, 30-minute rule, which it apparently does even though there is no 30-minute rule. So, until a change in policy, the Haggler has dreamed up a truth-in-advertising motto that the company is welcome to use, gratis:
"Pay less. At least upfront. We'll get you later."
What if You Dont Bring Rental Car Back With Gas
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/your-money/bring-it-back-full-or-dont-youll-pay-either-way.html
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