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THE COMMANDMENT

You wouldn't think it to look at me but I'm not really a world traveler. I guess I haven't rented a car more than two or three times. The occasions were memorable. One time that sticks in my mind was perhaps in the late 80's or early 90's. I'm almost sure it was Hertz. For the first time, when I checked the car out, a woman in a uniform came with me. She had a form on a clipboard; a diagram of the outline of a car was part of the form. The young woman insisted I inspect the car, taking particular note of any damage to the car -- together we walked around the car looking for cracked windows, dents, scratches, dings and ruined body paint. We found a small dent in the trunk. She made a note, marked the location on the form, tried to duplicate on paper just what we had found. The interior was next; a small rip in the covering of the rear seat (near the door), marked on the form.

I signed the form, she tore off one copy for me and wished me well. There had been little conversation but very little was needed. Hertz was going to have the same form I signed very handy when I turned the car in. They had my signature on the Mastercard receipt. The rental contract was airtight -- court-tested a million times with renters and their insurors in every state.

I've always been careful with the car when I needed a rental but this time I was extra careful; how and where I drove it, parked it, stored it. I even had the damned thing washed before I took it back -- watched every move of the guys at the car wash.

A simple, yet powerful concept and contract: Enforceable Stewardship. Screw it up, cough up. Take reasonable care of it, return to the freedom you enjoyed before the contract. The threat of Hertz charging huge auto repair bills to the bottomless pit of a hard-earned credit limit forced me to take better care of the car than I took of my own. Just for kicks I took the car rental papers out of my coat pocket, laid it on the bar at the hotel. I ordered another scotch, put on my cheaters and read "the fine print". There were 21 parts, all of them Greek to me. As to the vehicle, it all boiled down to the rock bottom basics of stewardship. They needed the form for legal reasons but I thought, after my third scotch, in the real world, all they really need is the one commandment, "DON'T CHANGE THINGS THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU".

That's not all I was thinking. I was thinking "The Best Western chain can't buy a scotch/rocks after I've bought four of them at $5.50 a pop?" I was thinking that God could have used such a powerful injunction. The Ten Commandants are simple, they cover all the really bad things, but people forgot them, abused them, twisted them, found loopholes so their sins would be hidden, diminished or forgiven -- the Catholics have their Confessional; Methodists, Protestants, Baptists hire Jewish lawyers.. God is in control, he's in control of time. He could go back, back to the time of the Tablets. Maybe the whole earth would be better for it. After all, we don't really own the planet or any of the other things hanging (so tenuously) on to it. The imperialists, the conquerors, missionaries, usurpers, interlopers would be under very different orders. Just like with Hertz, if you change things that don't belong to you "You'll catch hell."

Maybe when Moses asked the Lord "Shall I go forth over the land, spread the gospel, read the tablets?"

Moses might hear God's Holy Reply, "Nah, use the Hertz thing."

Great perspective! I need to share a story with you, Osprey. Several years ago my husband and I rented a car for a short period of time (on a road trip and ours developed a transmission glitch). A post pubescent perky thing took us through an arduous inspection of the tiny vehicle. Now in a previous life I had been a weekly Hertz business customer, escaping the travails you describe. When we got to the part where we had to convince her that we had the financial resources to basically buy the car, including a description of the type of car we owned, I finally, I had to ask if car theft or destruction had increased to such a degree that all of this information had become necessary. Cheerfully she explained that people didn't steal the cars as much as that they would rent them for just a day in order to change out the tires or seats or whatever parts they wanted for their existing vehicle. I was stunned at the numbers of years I had lived with such a lack of imagination!

Thanks..... I needed that

Heh. I once rented a windsurfer while on holiday in Aqaba, Jordan. After frowning at me dubiously and grilling me as to prior windsurfing experience, the guy had me sign papers with my name, passport number, hotel room number, credit card number and who knows what else. He then proceeded to point at the parts of the windsurfer, going, "This piece, 30 dinars. This piece, 90 dinars", and so on. Finally he sent me off with, "Don't damage the boats [pointing to enormous freighters in the harbor] and don't go there [pointing to Israel]. You will make me very big problems!"

The Mexican car rental agencies get inventive too. A great scam they had going at the Los Cabos airport: The rental client gets a credit card charge for the agreed amount plus a hundred bucks. When and if the client can reach the seller he is told the charge was for the floor mats -- can you remember if the floor mats were in the car when you returned it? Did anybody point them out to the agency? Can you prove they were there when you took it back? Gotcha.

The secret to life can be found by always reading the fine print...

Originally Posted by Osprey

The Mexican car rental agencies get inventive too. A great scam they had going at the Los Cabos airport: The rental client gets a credit card charge for the agreed amount plus a hundred bucks. When and if the client can reach the seller he is told the charge was for the floor mats -- can you remember if the floor mats were in the car when you returned it? Did anybody point them out to the agency? Can you prove they were there when you took it back? Gotcha.

Yeah, they're a riot.
I remember the days,a group of us from Sacramento rented a VW van to go to the east cape and Cabo. The rental guy pointed to the vehicle parked accross the street and when we got there, it had 2 flat tires. Took 2 days to get tires for that car, but when we got the credit card charge, it was from the time we ordered the vehicle.
Then another time, when a friend and I ordered a small car from Hertz on the Malecon for 4 days, the charges never made it to any of our accounts.
I'm in Guadalajara right now. Had a rental here for 10 days. Biggest piece of junk ever was put on the roadways. A Chevy something. After driving around the center of the country,
San Miguel, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo etc, where spped bumps are the order of the day. Mostly unmarked. Pedals on that car so close together (5 speed) that it's almost impossible not to step on the brake and gas pedal at the same time. So, let the better half drive. Smaller feet and, according to her, an excellent driver, whom managed to drive in most of those cities downtowns in 1st gear. Telling her that 1 st was only to get the car rolling , was acknowledged, but didn't change anything. Managed to hit enough topes to give me a severe whiplash, which put me out of commission for a few days. The fenders, made out of plastic, had to be put back by a mechanic, who just shook his head. Car seems put together like a lego puzzle. Snaps together. God helps the poor sucker whom ever gets into an accident with this thing. But, turned it back in without a scratch, I think.