Some people...

I did not know whether to tag this as a repo story, or as a dealing with the public story, so this one is both. Now, I must admit it was not a repo, exactly. In fact, it was just a time when a car that was rented had been dropped off at a repair shop.

Side note:
Folks, I strongly advise you to never leave a rental car anywhere, even if the rental company says it's OK. I have witnessed firsthand all sorts of bad things happen to customers who did this. I would say you have a better than 1 in 5 chance of having the car damaged before the rental agency gets it back, or being way overcharged for your rental.
Side note off.

Often, and for various reasons, body shop managers would tell people to just leave the rental car there at the body shop. This was poor advice. Well, we had a renter do just that. Good news was she called us (5 minutes before close) to tell us what she had just done.

Since there was no way we could get that car then, I told her we would get it tomorrow and I advised that though I would not charge her, she would be responsible for any damages done prior to me retrieving the car. Surprisingly, she was OK with this.

The next day arrives and I get an unusual call at around 9 am - which just so happened to be right before I was planning to hop into a car and pick up the dropped car.

I fielded the call and was told, by a man I know as the assistant manager of the shop where the car has been dropped, that the car was there. Only there was a twist.

Seems he thought I was stupid. He stated that the car has been there for weeks and the storage bill was mounting up.

Oh, really?

He stated we would need to bring $500 for the storage fees to get the car.

I asked when the car was returned, and he replied he did not know exactly when, but it had been over three weeks ago.

I asked why we were never called before now, and he said that by law he did not have to notify us for 21 days. This was not exactly true - the law states that a "stored car's" owner must be notified within the first ten days for any storage and other fees to be legal. To prevent just this type of situation from happening.

I advised the man that there was no way what he was claiming was true, as I had spoken with the renter less than 18 hours prior and she had not even had the car a week at that point.

His words turned into a stumbling mess.

I drove down there, advised the manager of what this man had done. I also advised the manager that what the assistant manager had done was doing could be interpreted as violating several laws. He said he would look into it.

I told him not to have customers drop off the cars there. Because with them running a legal storage lot, that could look like a conflict of interest - or a scam.

Oh, and you should have seen the look on the assistant manager's face when I showed him a copy of the signed rental agreement, from seven days prior, as he was telling me that the car had been there three weeks. Priceless.

Oh, and this story is a good read to prep you for the next one I will post.