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About 20 years ago, early in my career, I got into an argument with corporate and a rental car agency over an extra day because the agent did not understand tha

About 20 years ago, early in my career, I got into an argument with corporate and a rental car agency over an extra day because the agent did not understand that the day begins at 12:00 am. Since, then, I've had a paranoia that results in me, if I'm not directly handing off the car to a person, to take a picture of the car. I turn on meta data and the pic has the car, license plate, and enough of the drop off location in the background as scheduled. If there's any problems, I have the picture as backup. It came into play last year. Avis called me and asked, "Where's our car?" I had changed the drop off location and date via the app. I called loss prevention, they confirmed the change, and I sent them the pic. The agent instantly changed his tune from aggressive to puzzled and quickly dropped any harassment. No idea if the car was ever found, but the pic instantly stopped Avis from bothering me any further.

listenallyall 4y ago
> the agent did not understand that the day begins at 12:00 am. But most car rentals aren't based upon calendar days, they are generally based upon 24-hour blocks that start and end at the time you drive the car out. Also, buddy, 20 years is a long time to hang onto a grievance about possibly being charged one extra day... if that's the level of your suffering in life, consider yourself pretty lucky.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Yes, remembering things is a form of privilege.
- googlryas 4y ago
  I don't know if anyone's ever told you, but calling people "buddy" while chastising them makes you sound like a cock.
  - listenallyall 4y ago
    Like a rooster? Huh, never really made the connection
    - machinawhite 4y ago
      No buddy, like a cock
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- snapetom 4y ago
  Holding on to the grievance saved me a lot of hassle last year, so I'm doing just fine. Maybe if you weren't so sanctimonious, you'd be more likable?
simondotau 4y ago
For nearly ten years now, I have judiciously photographed every rental car I use. On pickup I take at least four photos of each quarter and anything I can find which could possibly be argued as damage. On drop off I also take photos of the car from four quarters. I’ve had, especially in Europe, multiple incidents where prior damage is described as “too minor to note” on pickup, but the guy handling returns has a very different opinion.
- 1123581321 4y ago
  “At least four photos”—why not just walk around the car with phone video running?
  - Eleison23 4y ago
    It's often significantly easier to email a JPEG or two than attach a multi-gigabyte video clip with a codec that may not be compatible with the recipient's system. It's also much easier to preview, zoom, and manipulate a single-frame photo to find points of interest, than comb through a shakycam video for them. Why not obtain both, a full-length video for personal reference, and a few snapshots for attachments? That's been my M.O. lately.
    - 1123581321 4y ago
      Fair. Your earlier post didn't mention you were also taking video; if you had, I wouldn't have brought it up.
- bluedevil2k 4y ago
  > especially in Europe 100% this! Had this happen to me in Germany, a scratch on the bottom of the door suddenly became a “we need to repaint the entire door”. I had been warned about this “business model” before I went too. I’m convinced they scam tourists with this scam all over Germany.
  - FireBeyond 4y ago
NikolaNovak 4y ago
I take photos of everything too. It's super easy,and cannot possibly hurt! (That being said, at least in my rental agreements, "day" starts 24 hrs after pickup time. I.e. If I picked car up at 09:23am, I'll get charged for 2nd day at 09:24am tomorrow...)
Aloha 4y ago
The 24 hour rental day behinds at the hour of pickup, not the hour of the day (with exceptions). This could be worthy to go into the engineering fallacies about time "the day begins at midnight" is not always true. The rest of it is always good insurance.
_nalply 4y ago
Thirty years ago I rent a wreck (anyone still know that company?). It was cheap but then I lost a hubcap or it was never on the car, I don't know. I was pressured to pay $50 on the spot but I managed to decline. I told them I need to think this over and will return to pay for the hubcap. I was trying to find out whether the hubcap really was this expensive. Then I talked to a friend and he told me to ignore it. Back home in Switzerland I discovered a charge of $50 on my credit card statement. I called the credit card company and they asked me whether I signed it, and I said, no. This was my first successful chargeback ever. I learnt to check the car carefully before taking it. By the way, the trunk got wet during rainy weather. I put plastic bags on the trunk floor because my things got wet from below. I told them and it was fine, just the missing hubcap was a problem.

listenallyall 4y ago

> the agent did not understand that the day begins at 12:00 am. But most car rentals aren't based upon calendar days, they are generally based upon 24-hour blocks that start and end at the time you drive the car out. Also, buddy, 20 years is a long time to hang onto a grievance about possibly being charged one extra day... if that's the level of your suffering in life, consider yourself pretty lucky.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
pessimizer 4y ago
Yes, remembering things is a form of privilege.
googlryas 4y ago
I don't know if anyone's ever told you, but calling people "buddy" while chastising them makes you sound like a cock.
- listenallyall 4y ago
  Like a rooster? Huh, never really made the connection
  - machinawhite 4y ago
    No buddy, like a cock
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
snapetom 4y ago
Holding on to the grievance saved me a lot of hassle last year, so I'm doing just fine. Maybe if you weren't so sanctimonious, you'd be more likable?

simondotau 4y ago

For nearly ten years now, I have judiciously photographed every rental car I use. On pickup I take at least four photos of each quarter and anything I can find which could possibly be argued as damage. On drop off I also take photos of the car from four quarters. I’ve had, especially in Europe, multiple incidents where prior damage is described as “too minor to note” on pickup, but the guy handling returns has a very different opinion.

1123581321 4y ago
“At least four photos”—why not just walk around the car with phone video running?
- Eleison23 4y ago
  It's often significantly easier to email a JPEG or two than attach a multi-gigabyte video clip with a codec that may not be compatible with the recipient's system. It's also much easier to preview, zoom, and manipulate a single-frame photo to find points of interest, than comb through a shakycam video for them. Why not obtain both, a full-length video for personal reference, and a few snapshots for attachments? That's been my M.O. lately.
  - 1123581321 4y ago
    Fair. Your earlier post didn't mention you were also taking video; if you had, I wouldn't have brought it up.
bluedevil2k 4y ago
> especially in Europe 100% this! Had this happen to me in Germany, a scratch on the bottom of the door suddenly became a “we need to repaint the entire door”. I had been warned about this “business model” before I went too. I’m convinced they scam tourists with this scam all over Germany.
- FireBeyond 4y ago

NikolaNovak 4y ago

I take photos of everything too. It's super easy,and cannot possibly hurt! (That being said, at least in my rental agreements, "day" starts 24 hrs after pickup time. I.e. If I picked car up at 09:23am, I'll get charged for 2nd day at 09:24am tomorrow...)

Aloha 4y ago

The 24 hour rental day behinds at the hour of pickup, not the hour of the day (with exceptions). This could be worthy to go into the engineering fallacies about time "the day begins at midnight" is not always true. The rest of it is always good insurance.

_nalply 4y ago

Thirty years ago I rent a wreck (anyone still know that company?). It was cheap but then I lost a hubcap or it was never on the car, I don't know. I was pressured to pay $50 on the spot but I managed to decline. I told them I need to think this over and will return to pay for the hubcap. I was trying to find out whether the hubcap really was this expensive. Then I talked to a friend and he told me to ignore it. Back home in Switzerland I discovered a charge of $50 on my credit card statement. I called the credit card company and they asked me whether I signed it, and I said, no. This was my first successful chargeback ever. I learnt to check the car carefully before taking it. By the way, the trunk got wet during rainy weather. I put plastic bags on the trunk floor because my things got wet from below. I told them and it was fine, just the missing hubcap was a problem.