Wow, this is a great idea. I take pix of the car before I leave, but never thought to take pix of the dash when I return!!
The problem with that solution is that more and more Budget and Avis airport car rental returns no longer have agents to check the car in. There is nobody to show the receipt to.
I also highly suspect that if they charge for that 1 gallon short but the needle is still on Full, they don't fill it. They just take the gas charge and service fee as pure profit.
I haven't had a problem with Hertz US but got a shakedown at Hertz UK (Inverness, Scotland). They claimed we had created superficial scratches on the car paint job by backing into a bush. Although there were other dings on the car that we may have made - they didn't charge us for them so maybe not - this was not one of them. The scratches were so superficial you could not see them at most angles and we didn't initially see it until she wiped the dirt off the back of the auto. Our photo didn't even show the scratches clearly.
They wanted us to pay $350 on the spot to settle it. I told them that they would need to work through insurance on our Chase Credit Card to resolve so refused to pay and left. We filed a claim with Chase just in case but they never pursued it.
I now wonder if the agent might have created those scratches because she found the exact spot and wiped down the dirt on just that part of the car was very deliberate. It was a very strange encounter. Will never rent Hertz again in UK or could be denied. Who knows.
Yep, Budget did that to me the last time, the same incident where they used a highlighter to mark every spot on the car and asked me for proof that the car was in that condition when I took it from their lot. They charged me an extra $15 or so for fuel even though I returned full. I did not bother to dispute but I have refused to rent a Budget or Avis car ever since. It doesn't matter if their rental is the cheapest, I just won't book one.
Much of the corporate world is run on old technology. While dot matrix printers are old, they do still serve a vial purpose of being able to create duplicate or triplicate copies in a single pass. Some airlines still use these. Realize also that many bank ATMs still run on Windows XP. An operating system that is over 20 years old. I've also seen where movie theater projectors are using Windows XP. Investing in technology upgrades is expensive and would cause large disruptions in their operations while the upgrades are happening. Also consider that solving one problem usually just creates another new one somewhere else.
I think it is new technology that is causing the fuel charges for Avis and Budget. Most of their cars now have fuel level indicators that measure to the tenth of a gallon. This is stored in the rental record, so they compare the exact level of the returned car and compare it to the level at pickup. In my one case, my returned level was one tenth of a gallon lower, so this triggered a 'refueling' charge. They really need to provide flexibility in their system to eliminate the charge when the difference is less than one gallon. I also question whether the 'pickup' fuel level is what is actually in the tank when the renter actually picks up the car. Some fuel is used when their employees service and take the car to the pick up location.
