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‘Top off’ fee explained: “Everyone drives a little after filling the tank”

January 29, 2008

The travel community was outraged last week when my MSNBC.com colleague Bob Sullivan reported that Dollar had begun charging a $2 “top off” fee at certain locations. But why? No one has gotten a straight answer from the car rental agency, except a claim that the new fee was “not a widespread practice.”

Then Stuart Goodfellow picked up a Dollar car in Hartford, Conn.

“In the printout of the reservation it said, ‘All cars returned with full gas tanks will be charged a $2 top-off fee’,” he says. “When I got to the rental counter I asked about this charge. The agent said this Dollar agency was a franchise and the owners mandated the charge and it was not waiveable.”

Goodfellow asked why. “I told him the usual policy of most companies where a receipt from a nearby gas station will negate any surcharges,” he says.

“The reply I got was, ‘The owners know that everyone drives a little after filling the tank’,” he says.

“Well, duh!” adds Goodfellow. “Unless the car lot is right next to a gas station, that is always the case. When I left the car lot I drove past a huge Mobil station a whopping 0.8 miles down the street. Do I think the owners actually use that $2 to top off the tank, or does it go directly to the bottom line? I think you know what my answer is.”

Yes, I do.

It’s time for Dollar to drop this unconscionable fee.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

14 comments

  • Joe F.

    This is truly silly. Lets use a real world example.

    Savannah Intl/ Airport. There are TWO gas stations about 1.5 miles from the rental car drop-off. The car rental maintenance yards are about half that distance on the main airport road.

    So, what this fee tells me is that I top the tank off 1.5 miles from the terminal [which, btw, is what EVERYBODY does] and I use a half of gallon of gas to go 1.5 miles. Then, after the transaction, where I drop the car off, Budget has someone drive it back to the gas station and then ‘top it off’ for the next person. Right? Thats what the fee is for. Thus, after they drive it to the gas station, top it off, and then drive it back, it has no more fuel in it than it had when I dropped it off originally. Therein lies the proof of fraud on the part of the car rental licensee.

    Unless the licensee tops the tank RIGHT THERE in the yard, then, they are simply pocketing the money. By collecting a ‘top-off’ fee, unless they actually topping the vehicle off, its fraud. It is certainly obtaining money by false pretense. Such is illegal in Connecticut, and Georgia in the case of SAV.

    I live in the Hartford area and am very familiar with Bradley Airport. There are at least three gas stations within one mile of the car rental drop off area. To claim that the tank needs to be topped off, once again, is a fallacy unless thy have gas right there at the drop area. You know what? NONE of them do – know why? EPA and Conn. DEP regulations on fuel storage tanks. Unless you use thousands of gallons of fuel every month, it is completely uneconomical to operate a fuel tank to squeeze 1/3 of gallon into every car. What do the rental companies do with cars that are NOT filled up? They drive to the gas station 1 mile away, fill the tank, and then rent the car to the next person – who – btw – DOES NOT HAVE A FULL TANK under their own rules.

    This is ANOTHER class action lawsuit just waiting to happen. The fraud is obvious. The franchisor is part of the problem by hiding behind the claim that ‘its a fee the licensee charges, we have no control.’ THAT is a bunch of malarkey. Franchise agreements ultimately state that the franchisor has the FINAL say over EVERYTHING. The franchisor, in this case Dollar, knows the licensee is breaking the law and committing fraud and does nothing about it, which means they are just as liable for the fraud.

    If you are interested in being a Connecticut class action claimant – please contact Chris – he knows how to get in touch with me.

    At rate we are going, i’ll be able to retire in 5 years simply on travel industry class actions.

  • Torienne

    The cost incurred by the rental car company when a car is driven from a gas station to the franchise is never borne by the rental car company, as Joe F. said. It is either borne by the next renter, or more likely, by no one. You rent a car with the gas gauge on “full,” you put gas into it and you bring it back with the gas gauge on “full.” How full is it at the beginning and end of your rental? As long as it is equally as full, it doesn’t matter. Exactly what gas was present where is irrelevant.

    American business has discovered a new and wonderfully profitable business model: Provide nothing for something. It’s finest moment is in the imposition of bogus “fees” for doing all kinds of things that cause no expense to the business, but are used as a thin justification for collecting a little charge. One business does it, and soon they all do it. Then one increases the fee so it isn’t so little any more, and the rest increase the fee. You’re outraged, but you have to travel on business, and that means renting a car or staying in a hotel or getting money from an ATM, or employing one of the thousand fee-opportunities that are never described far enough in advance for you to make a decision on whether you want to pay them, and that make corporate America so rich.

    I used to rent cars 20 weeks a year and I’m down to about 15 now, even though I travel even more. I just go to great lengths to avoid rental cars, because I’m so sick of the 40 item checklist I have to go through to avoid being ripped off by rental car companies. I wonder if the defection of customers like me is recompensed by the phoney-damage collections and by the fees. I fear the answer is “yes.”

    Torienne

  • Dave

    Thanks for the heads up on this. This is nothing but another case of keeping a fictional base price, upon which lots of things are added to make up the real price. I don’t like regulation, in principle, but this looks like something that’s crying out for more controls.

  • Bill

    I concur with the comments. I always top off the rental car before returning it and I am very sure that I top it off “more” than it was topped off when I got it. Adding a top off fee regardless of where the tank is just adds insult to injury – and it isn’t fair. I certainly won’t be renting from anywhere that charges such a fee. Maybe they should all include a little gas can in the car so we can fill it in the station and then use it to top off the car rental tank when we drop it off – of course they won’t use any fuel when they drive it away to the car wash…

    Idiots..

  • Ken

    I disagree strongly with Bill–the practitioners aren’t “idiots,” they’re greedy. By bundling this fee into the already mind-numbing car rental receipt, replete with convention taxes, use fees, off site pickup charges, etc, the operator has figured a way to boost revenue surreptitiously. Add in the fact that for many business travelers, “the company” pays for the rental anyway, and it is even more profitable. And, when you think that most larger locations now check the car in at dropoff, and that travelers are in a hurry, they have, in effect, picked your pocket. By the time you realize you are missing the money, there’s no one to complain to.

    Oh, and good luck getting any political help here, because travelers are the greatest tax source available–they have to spend money, and they can’t vote.

  • Janet

    I am a corporate travel manager and I have just dropped Dollar from our list of approved vendors. We seldom used them because of poor customer service anyway. This just cements my decision.

    Nothing but Greed – Greed and more Greed!! It will be interesting to see if anyone other companies try to adopt this. I am sure that they are all waiting and watching for the response.
    J

  • http://www.worldscheapestdestinations.com cheap traveler

    This also shows why renting from a “name brand” is no protection from individual owners who will do whatever they want to take more out of your pocket. I was leery about Dollar after the terrible service I got on my last rental and now I absolutely refuse to rent from any of their locations after this blatent theft charge. Maybe their slogan can be “We try harder (to take your cash).”

  • Dennis Warren

    So what is the big deal? $2.00 is about 0.6 of a gallon of gas anyway. Why not top your car off maybe a little further away from the drop off point, maybe 10 miles or so and then the so called top off really is gasoline which has been used and not bogus?

  • Matthias

    I think Dennis missed the point. If a customer fills up further from the rental agency and leaves less fuel in the tank, the rental company will still collect the fee, but next customer in line will get a car that is now “less” topped off. That customer will then be paying for the fuel needed to top off the tank properly. Rental agency’s only pay to top off cars if the tanl is lass than “full”.

    The fee gives the rental company a potential windfall of $730 per vehicle ($2 x 365 days of “potential”rentals without providing any benefit or service (see comment by Joe F. on Jan. 29).

    Note: “potential” can only be reached if no one rents the car for multiple days)

  • MrBadExample

    Why not shift your business to another provider? Then write and tell Dollar exactly why?

    Better still every States Attorney General has a fraud unit and in my experience are more than willing to help. You can usually file on line in less time than it takes you to bitch here.

    Companies like Dollar count on the “Sheeple” to just follow along and when someone (Like Me) comes along they usually give in because 20,000 ate the dog food.

  • MrBadExample

    Why not shift your business to another provider? Then write and tell Dollar exactly why?

    Better still every States Attorney General has a fraud unit and in my experience are more than willing to help. You can usually file on line in less time than it takes you to bitch here.

  • Nick

    I guess the problem involves the person who fills the tank 30 or 40 miles from the agency when it’s time to return the car. The gas guage will still indicate a full tank and the rental company won’t bother to check how much fuel is missing. The next renter (you or me) will thus get only a partial tank of gas.

    So what do I do to protect myself? When I first rent a car I could stop and fill the tank at the nearest service station, keep the payment receipt, hand it in when I return the car at the end of the trip, and request an adjustment to my bill.

    Would that work, or have the rental companies already figured out a way to deny me what I’m owed for filling their tank at the start of my trip?

  • Chris

    As an employee of a Dollar franchise that actually bucked the trend of unnecessary fees (we dropped the Vehicle License Fee when most others in our market were still charging it–all we charge now are the mandatory city and state taxes, state-mandated Consolidated Facility Charge, and the exact break-even point on the airport concession fee), I find it sad that some of our other locations are tarnishing our brand name. I’m also sad that Janet is choosing not to participate in the great service we try to offer because of some rogue location.

    Let me point out that it is not just Dollar that has rogue locations: the Budget location just down the hall from us now charges customers $10 per gallon if they do not bring the car back full. That’s almost twice as much as everyone else at the airport (including us). Maybe you’d all better take Budget off of your approved vendor list, too. Hertz isn’t much better, come to think of it–they’re at $7.50 per gallon, so they should be taken off of your list, too. The rest of us offer a “refueling service” for “only” ~$5 per gallon (no “top-off” fees, either). I guess we’re cheap in comparison, although if I were in charge of operations, I admit I’d make it at least a bit more reasonable–say, $3.50 per gallon (local market’s about $3).

  • George

    It’s pretty rare that a car has a full tank when I pick it up at the rental lot. I’d say 90% of the time, it’s down 1-3 gallons. Sometimes even more.

    If you drove 70 miles and then needed 6 gallons to refill the tank. There’s something wrong here.

    If the rental agencies were actually topping off tanks upon return, it would always be full.

    So the average renter is getting screwed both on pickup and on return.

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