I'm convinced that employees at car rental agencies must earn a commission on selling supplemental
insurance. They work too hard to trick customers into accepting it.
For example, there's the assumptive
technique. Last month, we rented a car in Albuquerque and the agent asked us,
"Will you be taking the full coverage, or just the basic?" She became
less friendly when I told her, "No coverage, thank you." Especially
after I'd just declined her upgrade offer. "It's supposed to snow today,
and we're almost out of four-wheel-drive vehicles. But you're in luck; I still
have one available. Or will you be comfortable with the all-wheel-drive?"
Both, we discovered, came with a hefty surcharge, almost doubling the price of the standard rental we had reserved.
On another trip, we had to reroute to
Baltimore at the last minute and didn't have time to shop for a rental car in
advance. The quote we received from the agent at the desk did not provide a
breakdown of charges. When I looked at my paperwork, I saw that all the
supplementary insurance coverages had been added to the basic rental fee. No
wonder the total seemed so expensive! The agent had just handed me my contract
without asking me to initial anything, or even sign my name. When I went back to
the desk and questioned him, he told me, "The airline discount rate you're
using requires you to accept full coverage." I didn't remember any such
requirement but had no way to check at the time.
When we got home, I checked. Employees
had been advised to decline the supplemental insurance since the
American Express card we're supposed to use provides the coverage. I wrote to
National and explained the situation; they refunded all my excess charges.
Last weekend, we rented a car in San
Diego and faced a new challenge to resisting the extra insurance. When the
agent asked us, "Will you be taking the full coverage, or just the
basic?" and I replied, "No coverage," he said, "Then I'll
need proof of your auto insurance. What's your policy number?"
My policy number? My insurance card
was in the glove box of my personal car, parked at the airport in Atlanta.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Unless you can provide me with your policy number and deductibles, I'll
have to charge you for full coverage." The CDW provided by my credit card company
didn't count, he told me, because "it's just secondary."
After googling our insurance company,
calling the toll-free number for the national office (where we were told we'd
have to contact our local agent to get our policy number), we finally got
connected to our local agent, who was just walking out the door on a Friday
afternoon. Fortunately, he was able to find our policy number and reluctantly,
the rental car agent allowed us to decline the supplemental coverage.
Now I keep a copy of my insurance card
in my wallet.
What experiences do you have with car
rental surcharges? I'd love to hear your comments.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete