Taken for a rental ride

Rankled hit new levels when faced with a Christchurch Airport car rental, writes Tash McGill

Among some, I am considered a travel professional. I can do three weeks in a single carry-on, shampoo included. Security lines don’t phase me, translating train schedules is achievable and delays are just to be dealt with. I am rarely rankled.

But every so often, one needs to be brought back down to earth. And though I’ll take responsibility for the self-assurance and overconfidence that meant I obviously skipped the fine print somewhere, I’d like to share the blame with the rental car company.

I was on the West Coast of the US, but booking a South Island road trip over an extended long weekend. Christchurch to Milford Sound and back, that sort of thing. I leapt on to trusty Expedia+ to find the best option. With a few of us in tow, a mid-size, late-model car was the order of the day. Or something similar.

That’s when it all went wrong. Not all midsize cars are the same, you see. And not all airport pick-ups are the same. When I selected a rental car pickup from Christchurch Airport, I expected to walk to the rental car desks, pick up the keys and walk to the rental car park, just outside the terminal.

Instead, when I called the number in the very fine print at the bottom of the confirmation email to find the terminal desk, I was informed the rental car company would pick me up from the airport waiting zone and take me to the rental car. Definitely not my definition of an airport rental car pickup.

That was the first sign it was all about to go wrong. The second was the decade-old people mover with frayed seats and a faint smell of wet dog that arrived to pick me up. Going with the flow and still relatively unrankled, we arrived at the warehouse-type business unit across the road from the terminal. There we walked up a flight of stairs into a shared office signposted with handwritten A4 signs. Nerves were on high alert.

The price — $350 for a four-day rental on a midsize economy car — was high, but not ridiculous, especially if it was the Holden parked outside the office. But 15 minutes and a phone call later, I ‘Is that the only vehicle? It’s not what I booked or ordered.’ was informed that Scotties Car Rental’s definition of a late-model, mid-size vehicle was the aforementioned people mover. A decade old, scratched and beaten up with a chipped windscreen, frayed and stained seats and that smell. You would have been rankled at this point, too.

“Is that the only vehicle? It’s not what I booked or ordered,” I questioned and explained.

“Yes, it is the only vehicle left available today.” It was 11am on a Saturday morning.

Rankled reached new levels when I was then informed that if I didn’t take the additional daily insurance at $15 per day (on top of the mandatory insurance), the company would have to take a $3500 security deposit on my credit or debit card.

Both Scotties Car Rentals and Expedia+ listings and their website promise no hidden fees. However, they make no mention of their upsell tactics, so it’s up to me to let you know. Who knows what happens to tourists in the same trap, but I finally paid up when it became clear it was that or a long walk back to the airport terminal.

Once we went back downstairs so I could get moving and pick up the rest of my travel group, I waited another five minutes while the attendant took a dozen photographs of each dent, scratch, worn bumper and window screen chip. I think it was meant to convey trustworthiness and transparency in the customer experience, but I was less than convinced. Then, finally behind the wheel, I was told just to return it with gas at the same level. A quarter tank.

My first stop was the local petrol station to fill, where I also pumped up two tyres, checked the water and oil, topping up both.

Cheaper than $3500 to pay for your own safety, but nothing you imagine taking care of for a latemodel rental car.

Consider this my humble-pie confession: I should have read the fine print, I should have stayed with the tried and true. And shonky operators are still peppered throughout the country giving us a bad name.