Silly Renter

Not a repo story - this one is a dealing with the public episode.

Setting:
Fred, my co-worker, was doing a return with a customer, who became irate at her $260 rental bill. The customer became increasingly uncooperative, and finally asked for a manager. I approached the rental counter.

I verified she had rented the car six days earlier. We also verified that at the time, she had intended to keep the car for three days at a charge of $140.

Then we verified she called in to corporate to keep the car three more days. She said that at that time, the corporate representative had said the total bill would be $120. In all actuality, the corporate representative had said the additional three days would be an additional $120.

I pointed out $120 + $140 = $260

She argued that the total bill should be $120.

I said, "Ma'am, I've only known you 5 minutes, but I can already tell you are smarter than to think anybody would reduce the rental charges if you kept the rental longer. At that rate, we'd owe you for the rental after two weeks."

Fred had been sipping a coke at this point. After my statement, he spewed his coke.

The customer had no logic to rebuff my statement and paid in full. I gave her a coupon to use on her next rental with us.

Fred chewed me out after she left, telling me to warn him before I pulled something like that again!