Dirty Cars Does Not Equal Bailouts

So, just yesterday I get a frantic call from a woman about 10 min. after opening,

Me: "Thank you for calling ******, this is ********, how can I help you?
Her: "Hi! I need to know. Do the carwashers clean the cars in the morning?!"
Me: ".....Yeees."
Her: "Okay good! That means they found my laptop under the passenger seat in the car I rented!"
Me: "Okay, um ma'am I'm going to need to know what car you dropped off last night?"
Her: "Oh! It was a blue focus"
Me: "Okay, I'll get your number and go down to the vehicle and check it for the laptop, and call you right back."

I then proceed to walk out to the car to check the vehicle for the laptop. I open the back door, and looked under the passenger seat.
Sure enough, there it is. I turn to close the door, and notice sand all OVER the floorboards in the back seat, looking up towards the seat, I notice hair.....TONS of hair! It covered the whole back seat. I open the front passenger side door and it's the same story in the front seat, with an additional mess of 6 to 7 empty bottles and drinks all over the place.
NOW, my initial thoughts of anger towards the lack of respect from individuals who rent cars was immediately extinguished with the fact that I was trying to have a good day, and at this point, it was only 8 o'clock in the morning.

I go back to my counter and check out the reservation, where I'm able to view the contract and price that the customer rented the vehicle for.
I notice that the customer had the car one day at a price of only $** a day. Now comes the point where I have to charge the customer as per our contract terms and conditions for returning cars FILTHY DIRTY.
$** charge.
I then call the woman and leave a voicemail, then I kick back and start daydreaming of the situation I'll have to deal with in the next 24 hours when she finds out how much she was charged.

Trust me, I was prepared.....

The next morning,

Me: "Thank you for calling ******, this is ******* how can I help you?"
Her: "Yes, HI...This is ****** and I left my laptop yesterday??"
Me:(smiling) "Hello, how are you this morning!?"
Her: (sensing my smile, I assume, starts yelling) "I am horrible!"
Me: (overjoyed)
Her: "..I just had my checking account get charged for more than I had in the account and YOU are going to pay for ALL of my overdraft charges and GIVE me a refund on what I payed for the car rental, because I am furious to see what I was charged!!"
Me: "Ma'am, I'm sorry but when we did a further examination of the inside of the vehicle, we noticed that there was more than an INCH of dog hair all over the back seat, empty beverage containers covering the floorboards and SAND carelessly piled throughout the vehicle.."
Her: "...."
Me: "So, you did receive a *** charge for the misuse of the vehicle and lack of respect for returning the vehicle in the same manner it was given to you."
Her: "I didn't know you charged for that stuff! This is a scam! You're just trying to make money off of innocent people like me! I didn't read that there was that sort of charge ANYWHERE on the contract. SO I WANT MY MONEY BACK!"
Me: "Actually.....You did legally sign a contract stating that you would abide by the terms and conditions that were provided to you with the contract. And I quote..."

I then read the paragraph and line to the woman stating that she would be responsible to pay any additional fees for the cleaning of the vehicle as per the terms and conditions that I had sitting right on my counter.

Me: "....so unfortunately I cannot pay your overdraft fees for your bank, whether they may be for this rental or other transactions, AND I cannot refund you your cash since I do hold in my hands the very same contract you signed before you were given the keys."
Her: "Umm....Okay."
Me: "Thank you. Have a great day!" :)

Passport Lady

So this was just annoying.
So this woman walks up to the counter. She drops all her belongings on the counter and is going through her wallet. She starts to hand me her passport and says she's here to pick up a car. She is continuing to say how she just had her wallet stolen while she searches for her credit card. I hand her back her passport and say," Sorry ma'am, I need a drivers license to rent you the car, the passport isn't sufficient. "
She says," Did you not hear me, I just told you my wallet was stolen."
I say," Yes, I did, but that is a requirement. Do you have your DMV print out acknowledging that your license is valid?"
She says," How am I supposed to do that?"
Me," Well, you need to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles"
Her," How am I supposed to do that?"
Me," It's on ****** Street."
Her," How am I supposed to do that?"
Me," Taxi cab out front"
Her, "Ugh....fine."
She walks away.....30 minutes later she appears ready to rent her car with the DMV printout in hand.
And to top it off, you would think that she was from out of the area or something, NO, she lived in town!

Always remember, you need a DRIVERS LICENSE to rent a car!

The Fanny Pack Mystery

When you are returning your car it's usually not hard to remove all of your belongings from said vehicle, especially the "Important" items. We rented a vehicle to Mrs. X that was traveling to Colorado on a week rental. One day into the rental, we get a phone call from a Mr. Y stating that he left something "VERY Important" in the vehicle he had returned 2 days prior. We ask what this important item may be, he states, it is his Fanny Pack. (I don't know about you but the fanny pack isn't quite the best accessory one wears! LOL!) We look in our lost and found and let him know that it was not found and the car is currently on rent and will return in a week. He wants us to call the customer and makes sure she finds it and returns it when she comes back. We agree to call her. Call is made to her immediately and she says," Oh, ok, no problem. Whatever I find I will return it when I get back. " She sounds very nice on the phone. She is an elderly woman in her upper 60's. The cute grandma type if you know what I mean. Later in the day we get the call from Mrs. X.

"I need to speak with your manager, immediately!"

"Ma'am, this is the manager, how can I help you?"

"Well I found this fanny pack and you better get a hold of that guy and give him my cell phone number because I want to talk to him immediately!"

"Ma'am, what's wrong?"

"If he doesn't call me on my cell phone then I am going straight to the authorities!"

"Ma'am, is this something illegal? I don't want you to be dealing with anything illegal."

"Just have him call me immediately or I WILL go to the authorities!"

I immediately hang up the phone, call Mr. Y and tell him that Mrs. X is very uncomfortable and she wants you to contact her on her cell phone immediately. I give him her cell phone number and just wait to see what happens next.

I get a call from Mr. Y. " Hello, I just wanted to let you guys know that I spoke with Mrs. X and I am going to meet her and pick up my fanny pack, thanks."

So the days go by and we merely forget about the whole fanny pack and then in walks Mrs. X.

"Hello, how can we help you?"

"Hi, I'm returning my car." (At this point some man walks up to Mrs. X and says hello to her and they give each other a great big hug).

Mrs. X tells me that she will be right back. They both walk out and I'm left there wondering where the heck she was going.

The man that just greeted her walks in and up to my counter,"Hello, I'm Mr. Y and I just wanted to let you know that I just got my fanny pack back from Mrs. X. Thank you so much. Goodbye." He walks away.....

In walks Mrs. X," Hi. I'm returning that car and I just want to let you guys know how inconvenienced I was to have to deal with that Fanny Pack."

I reply," Sorry Ma'am, Unfortunately some things can get overlooked when cleaning the cars and this happen to be one of those instances."

She replies," Well that was ridiculous. I wasted all my vacation making phone calls to that man and I had to hold his fanny pack.....I'm just upset and frustrated."

Again I apologize and think....you just hugged the man.....right in front of me.....what's the problem.....what was in the fanny pack??

At this point I can't even ask her what was in the fanny pack because she was so upset.

I gave her a discount and handed her receipt and sent her on her way..........

What could it have been... drugs, jewelry, money, pornography.....To this day I wonder.....what was in that fanny pack???

When you rent a car, please remove your valuables....if they are valuable to you, then you would have removed them if they were so important!