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.

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).

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?

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.

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.

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)

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

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.