Today, I’m trying to rent a car to drive, one-way, from Pennsylvania back to Columbia one day next week. I’m helping somebody drive up there, and I need a way back.
A simple matter, you think? Well, if you think that, you’re wrong.
Just now I talked with the local representative of that rental company that tries harder, and he said he might be able to find me a car, but that there would be a “drop charge” or a “drop fee,” or some such. The word “drop” was in there somewhere. I’m guessing it’s from what customers’ jaws do when they hear the fee.
He said the car, for the day, would be $58.98. Not bad, I thought. With a rate that low, even with the drop fee it might be less than what another rental company (the one that this one traditionally tries harder than) had said they’d charge. And it would be closer to where I will be geographically.
Then he added, “with a drop charge of five hundred dollars.” Really. He said that. At which point the conversation was over.
Here’s what I’m thinking: Who would say “yes” to the incidental little added charge of $500 on a $58 rental who was not involved in a major drug deal or something or that kind? Presumably, I’m paying somebody to drive the car back for me — and whack somebody on the way, for that kind of money.
If anyone said “yes” to a deal like that, I’d immediately be extremely suspicious of him. Wouldn’t you?
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Pull a John Belushi in K-9. Rent the car, pay for insurance, then wreck it in Columbia.
Randy, I am sure someone will correct you. Its Jim, not John.
Good movie, good idea. However, Brad and Jim’s personalities are polar opposites. Brad might put a gum wrapper in the ash tray with used gum in it but thats about it.
Essentially they have to pay someone to drive it back.
Car rentals have escalated wildly in the last two months. I tried to rent a car for 36 hours in San Francisco, but the rate averaged $400 for that. Far cheaper to take cabs!
And, Brad, think Greyhound.
Bart, I stand corrected. Sad, I even double checked using Google images and Jim’s photo appeared after typing “John.”
I bet Brad, like John (and maybe Jim as well) hates Illinois Nazis.
I’m not crazy about South Carolina Nazis, either.
You know what’s disturbing? Of the top five most-watched videos that I have ever posted on YouTube, three are the clips I put up of the neo-Nazis at the State House.
My most-watched clip ever is the short one of John McCain saying, “I know that little jerk Lindsey Graham is around here somewhere,” with 61,501 views. And I’m sort of proud that my “Who Resurrected the Electric Car?” has gotten 31,059 views. But it’s disturbing that this one and this one and this one have gotten so many…
Amtrak.Really. Steve takes it all the time.
Where in PA?
This Nazi crap is normally of no interest to me because those who like to dress up in costumes and parade around surely are missing something major in their development and lives. KKK and Nazi wannabees along with Muslim terrorists, all peas in the same pod. Jerks.
Odd that the Nazi Party is also called a National Socialist Movement.
Burl,
Most national car rental agencies, corporate owned, don’t return one-ways by private drivers. Franchises and small, independents are the ones who usually have a specific fleet and will charge extra for a one way.
That is the reason I always used Hertz. I never had to pay a significant extra for a one way rental.
Get a U-Haul cargo van. One-way is easy. Outfit the back with a couple couches and invite some friends. Business in the front, party in the back.
Bring the grill for a moveable feast.
The drop fees depend on where you are dropping the vehicle on a one-way rental. If the cars are piling up in that locale, they have to pay someone to drive them back, or to ship them back.
On the other hand, if they need more cars in a area, they will rent it cheap with no drop fee, in order to get some more cars there.
I rented a BMW 535 in Pittsburgh for the econo car rate because they needed it dropped in Florida.
And Burl, I checked Greyhound. I’d have to travel farther to get on the bus than to rent a car, it would cost just as much, and take about seven hours longer, minimum.
So I’m going to drive.
Ditto with the train, Kathryn. My wife took the train here from there a couple of years back — I wrote a column, AND a song, about it at the time. It took much longer than driving, she got here in the wee hours of the morning (and a couple of hours later than scheduled), she froze from the air-conditioning the whole way (this was in August) and I THINK it cost just as much, although I may have to check that last point.
I love public transportation. But it could stand a lot of improvement in this country…
I didn’t say it would be quick. It would be cheaper than renting a car, take a sweater, and you can work. I repeat, from whence come you and is your time flexible? My brother and his family are heading down to SC sometime around now from Philly in a minivan… not sure when since I’m in IL.
At the risk of going “political” about this, one thing America sorely lacks is maintenance and continual upgrading of intra-city transportation, particularly of tracked systems. That’s one area stimulus money would not be wasted upon. Much as I love air travel, it has been the big dog too long. Train travel is slower, but the costs are much cheaper — if the tracks are properly maintained.
The problem with trains is that the routes are inflexible. And don’t get me going on what could be the single most crippling terrorist target in the U.S. — the dozen or so train bridges across the Mississippi. Half of them were built in the 1800s.
Amen on the train thing, Burl. And it’s good of you to care about interstate ground travel, given your location — we know you’re not just thinking of yourself…
I used to ride buses between cities all the time. But they used to go more places more often. Near as I can tell from the schedules, Greyhound doesn’t even stop in the PA town where I’ll be. I’d have to go about 25 miles to Harrisburg.