I'm a Trusting Guy

Since most of my travel is for work I need to keep track of my expenses and such.  I learned a valuable lesson today.  Don't necessarily trust the employees at the companies you trust with your business.

I returned my car to the SeaTac rental car AVIS facility on Saturday and rushed off to my flight.  I was running a little late and trusted that things would happen as they always do:

• I park my car and get all my stuff out
• The people checking in the cars with check it over for fuel and damage
• I get a receipt emailed to me by the time I am boarding my flight

Not exactly what happened.  I received an email from AVIS but it was reminding me of my next rental coming up.  I assumed it was my receipt.  I started gathering my receipts for my trip expenses today and on the AVIS website it indicated I had to return the car before I was able to retrieve my receipt.  This isn't good. 

I was thinking the worst, I was going to have to buy AVIS a new car.  Or second worst, I was going to be charged a whopping late return fee.  Luckily 2 of the 3 kind folks in AVIS customer service that I spoke with were able to help me.

The first person I spoke to in customer service told me they would transfer me to the appropriate group to help me.  She transferred me to the Reservations group and they were definitely not the right people to help me.  The Reservations group apologized and transferred me back to Customer Service and that guy, James, helped me out like a boss!

When James looked for the car he found it had been rented already (whew).  He updated my rental agreement to indicate I returned it on time and all is right in the universe.