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Sunday p.m., Got back to IAH with barely enough time to get to my connection but got text updates that my flight had ultimately been canceled due to bad weather in Louisiana. Punted on 3rd down & didn’t even go thru TSA screening after clearing customs. Left terminal & went to the Rent-a-car center via shuttle. Got a car from National phuck-a-stranded-traveler RAC Company for $246. I was expecting to pay $80-90 maybe even $100, but $246???? I started complaining to the guy who knew he had me over a barrel but he did discount ¼ day which dropped it to right at $200. Was in the car less than 4 hrs airport to airport. Dropped off car in Lafayette at just before 11pm & noticed a Fuel Service option charge for $25. This is in case you don’t want to fill up before drop off. Well I did fill up & the guy in Houston never asked me if I wanted it so the girl in Lafayette took the charge off. Now I'm down to $175 +$21 for gas. The next day I call & open a complaint ticket with National phuck-a-stranded-traveler RAC Company. The next day, I get a call from the manager in Houston, plead my case & she eventually refunds another $55 to my cc. So now I down to about $145 & say that’s still exorbitant in my mind but that’s fine. Their whole premise about the high fee was 'They don't like to 'lose' cars', meaning one-way rentals. I called BS on that due to the fact that its an Intl Airport, meaning a lot of traffic thru there on a daily basis, & they should expect to 'lose' a predictiable amount of cars & 'gain' an equal amount of cars that originated from other locations. So my CRT brothers, If you have an option, do not use National phuck-a-stranded-traveler RAC Company!! If I can keep one or 2 people from using them , then I will be happy!

Good on you for improvising and getting home. Too bad you got jerked around. Sounds like National lost a good customer. The price of $145.00 sounds high but in the range it would be with the other companies. If that was your original qoute, they would probably still have you as a customer next time. So they loose a customer by trying to high ball you. I guess they feel most people will just pay it and move on so good on you for telling them you are not happy with the way you were treated.

I have noticed that Rental car and Hotel chains will raise the price immediately when bad weather hits an airport. It is a BS business practice (price gouging) but they get away with it. Supply and demand at its finest....

On One-way rentals they all Phuck you over. I used to have a friend of mine that worked for Hertz and he would go with a group friends and drive all the one way rentals back to Vegas over a couple of days they might bring 15-20 cars back to Vegas from the LA area. The would load up 8-10 guys in a van and drive them to where the vehicles were then they would drive the cars back. Usually at high rates of speed. The rental companies would figure out the extra mileage and the cost to get the cars back and charge the customer for it along with a Phuck you tax for taking the car out of the area....

I can see covering the cost of getting it back and a little profit but taking advantage of a customer is a good way not to have a returning customer.

Here is some general info from my days with Hertz:

Rental companies are mostly local franchises, regardless of the name. They buy or lease their own cars. If the car goes out of the area they will only get a portion of the profit until it's returned. Two exceptions to this was California and Florida. Due to their high tourist traffic they split those two states into zones and all the cars were actually owned by Hertz Corporate and not the local franchisee.

As for RAC gouging the OP, that's something that can be disputed but once you sign the contract it's pretty hard to beat.

My question is this would you have walked 213 miles ever how long it took you to save $ 145.00 or even $ 245.00? Good Luck on that. Also Greyhound is always an option. Also how much of a refund did you get from the airline due to the cancelled flight ?

I understand most of that but my thoughts are that as big as these RAC companies are, they have to know that they will lose a certain % of cars as well as gain a predictable amount from other locations. It has to be close to a wash, IMO.

[/quote] As for RAC gouging the OP, that's something that can be disputed but once you sign the contract it's pretty hard to beat.[/quote]

They were quite amenable to reducing the charges from $245. 1/4 day rate off in Houston was a $48+ discount, the Fuel service option, which should have never been on there, was $25 off & then over the phone a couple of days later the mgr in Houston gave me another $45 or $55 off so it can be done.

The explanation I got from the UA CSR was that the complaint ticket would take 7-10 days to get to the refund Dept , then up to 30 days for the Refund Dept to make a decision so i have another 4 weeks or so before I hear anything. BTW, the CSR told me that I had been rebooked on the 3:30 pm flight the next afternoon & we had another thunderstorm roll thru at that time so no telling when I would have eventually got back home had I stayed. I will update asap!!

ooooooooo

I got a check for $60 Phucking 5 dollars from UA! Whoop-tee-Phucking-do!! No calls, no e-mail apologizing, no nothing. I responded with another complaint about the $300 increase in RT ticket fare from LFT-IAH-SJO as opposed to IAH-SJO & their feeble explanation was, via e-mail, "We feel the majority of the flight was used up going to SJO & back to IAH." My thoughts are if the ticket price went up $300 b/c of the commute to LFT, then I should get 1/2 of that back for not taking the last leg. Phucking UA!!!

From this day forward, I will take SW when feasible, even with the 2 hour commute to New Orleans!!

Great advice! One time I rented a Yaris for a trip to Jaco and Quepos/MA. The new highway to Jaco wasn't built at the time, so I had to take the old route, thru Atenas. On the way back to San Jose and Cartago (where my favorita lived), the front bumper became very loose. Apparently my favorita knew someone who worked in a local auto repair shop in Cartago, so we took the car there. The guy got underneath the car and had it fixed in about 15 minutes. It cost me about $20 as I recall. If I would have returned the car with the bumper being very loose, they probably would have charged me a couple hundred dollars or more

As an aside, I always rented thru Alamo, probably seven or eight times in all, and I never had a problem with them. Of course, as 'hotnutsjesus' pointed out above, prior to taking the car, I had them do a VERY thorough inspection, along with myself.

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

And be really careful about the insurance, as I have read the fine print in the rental contracts, researched online, read through my credit card booklet (not just the online info which is incomplete) and I STILL don't freaking understand what's covered and what's not.

Just do NOT assume your CC will cover you, even if that's the case in many other countries. You might be covered, but every card is different, and you need to read the really, really small print.

Or better yet, rent a private car, some ex pats advertise them online, or just take taxis and maybe bus it for longer trips (to Jaco or whatever)