Voluntary Repo

This one was pretty funny from my point of view. Particularly how it ended.

Setting: I was assistant manager at the Mendenhall Enterprise (since relocated). There was a rental that we were getting keys cut for. Jeremy (my manager at the time) and I had been trying to contact a renter whose credit card was declining for additional charges and she had exhausted the security deposit.

As she now owed about $100, we had the key in hand and I had plans to go make a visit that night, but then the strangest thing happened. The renter came in the office, saying she "heard we were looking for her."

I explained the situation. She needed to pay $100 to get current, and pay more if she wanted to keep the car longer. In the "confusion" she got to thinking (erroneously) that she only needed to pay $100 now.

So she paid $100.

I aksed her where I could return her to (Enterprise will pick you up, free, and take you back home or to the repair shop, free). The look on her face is etched into my memory like stone to this day. She asked why she could not keep the rental car longer.

I explained that she had just brought it current - and would have to leave more money to keep it longer. It was at that point that I realized she still had the keys to the rental, as I had not done a return check of the vehicle at this point. To this point it had still been possible for her to pay more to keep the car longer.

Realizing she had no intentions of paying more, I motioned to Jeremy discreetly to block the rental car in. He did so quickly and quietly. We worked as a team very well, and our branch was one of the most profitable in the state as a result. This was just another example of our teamwork. Jeremy and I were on the same page when it came to how to run a branch.

The renter got upset, as I had anticipated, over the fact that I was not going to just allow her to keep the car longer based on extending her credit of some sort, but that I was asking for payment in advance (which had been perfectly OK with her at the onset of the rental!).

She walked out of the building, only to find the car blocked in. She walked back in, all in a huff. She demanded I move the other car.

I politely refused, again asking her where we could take her as this rental had ended, if she had no intentions of paying any more.

After a bit of conversation back and forth she expressed remorse and stated that she should not have paid the $100. She felt she was entitled to that portion of the rental for free!

SHE ASKED FOR THE $100 BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not comply.

It was a quiet ride back to her home.