Beware of Orlando’s Rip-Off Gas Stations

The Orlando Sentinel reports that two gas stations near Orlando International Airport have refused to comply with a local ordinance requiring them to post gas prices that are visible to passing drivers. The story says:

Even though it’s been a year since Orlando passed a law to force the two notoriously high gas stations closest to the airport to post their prices, there’s still no way for potential customers to know the cost of a gallon of gas without pulling up to the pump.

The price the stations were charging on Friday: $5.79 a gallon, in an area where the lowest prices are now around $3.50. Of course, travelers returning to the airport with rental cars need are the ones getting ripped off.

The stations face fines of $250 a day for non-compliance with the sign ordinance. But since they’re charging more than $2 a gallon above the going rate, it’s probably a whole lot more lucrative to continue violating the ordinance. The city says it could shut down the stations by putting liens on them and foreclosing, but it’s not clear how likely or how speedy a resolution that might be.

Here’s hoping there’s punishment in Hell or the next life for the people who abuse travelers like this, but meanwhile let’s keep calling them out and warning each other on the Internet.

Hertz Investigation Determines Hertz Is Right

The central irony of my dispute with Hertz over its bogus claim of damage to a car I rented in Spain is that I chose Hertz because I considered it more reputable than its competition.

Sadly, not so much.

Yesterday, I received an email at 9:39 a.m. informing me that “Hertz Claims Risk Management in Spain is being asked to make an investigation” of my allegation that the $500 damage claim is false. Today, at 10:34 a.m. I got another email informing me that “We regret, the office in Spain has advised the damage charges are valid and the correct vehicle was rented and shows damages to the vehicle.” (Perhaps it’s more grammatical in Spanish.)

Anyway, that was a quick investigation. But then it saved a lot of time that the investigators would not talk to me or correspond with me directly. And when I called Hertz customer service about this most rapid investigation, I was told that I have no further recourse with Hertz and I will get no further explanation. The customer service representative told me (a tad impatiently because I keep asking all these pesky questions) that I can dispute the charge with my credit card company, which of course I have already done.

So, just to summarize:

Hertz won’t tell me how the photos it provided of the “damage” were time-stamped six hours before I returned the car — as confirmed by the time of return noted on Hertz’s own invoice.

Hertz won’t tell me why it has no photo of the car’s hood, although the company claims there was 196 euros worth of damage to the hood.

Hertz won’t tell me why its photo of a side mirror that it claims I damaged shows a mirror that is shaped differently than the mirror on the car I rented, as I can prove with my own photographs of the car.

Hertz won’t tell me why someone added a description of the alleged damage to a document I had already signed, as I can prove with my own carbon of the original document.

Hertz won’t tell me why its investigators don’t want to see the 16-page refutation of the damage claim that I sent to American Express.

Hertz won’t tell me why its investigators won’t talk to me, confirm that they’ve even seen the evidence I gave customer service or answer my questions.

Oh, Hertz. Can’t you just pretend you made a mistake and that you really weren’t trying to steal from me? Nobody would believe it, but we’d all feel a little better.

A European Lesson In Patience

My father and I were driving from Galicia to Madrid on Monday when traffic on the A-6 (care-ay-TAY-rah day la nor-oh-AY-stay, according to the GPS) came to a complete stop — and stayed that way for nearly an hour.

The Spanish drivers got out of their cars, stretched and, in the case of almost every male driver, urinated on the side of the road. I ate most of the food I’d brought along for lunch and read a few chapters of my book (“The Known World” by Edward P. Jones: Must. Read.) Finally, I asked a nearby driver what had happened. He let out a stream of Gallego-inflected Spanish from which I extracted the word “mineros” and little else.
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Why Airlines Suck

The story of American Airlines Flight 1233 on June 12 is basically the same old story. A flight from Dallas to Bradley International was diverted to Boston by thunderstorms and the passengers were abandoned for hours with no information about how they would get home.

We’ve all heard some variation of this tale 100 times. It happens regularly in an industry that, with few exceptions, can no longer muster the resources, the decency or the compassion to take care of its own customers.

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Feeling Old In Las Vegas

You would think that as a recent college graduate I would fit right in with the new Las Vegas, an endless spring break party with pounding music and overwhelming shows of cleavage.

Sadly, this is not the case.

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NYT Backs New Airline Regulations

From a New York Times editorial today in support of proposed new regulations for airlines: “It is true that many airlines are barely profitable. But the road to profitability should not be built on stranded passengers and crummy service.”

Amen to that.

And let’s remember that the most consistently profitable major airline in the United States is the one that consistently draws the fewest (by far) complaints about its service. That would be Southwest Airlines, which has also never laid off an employee and has by far the best employee relations in the industry. 

Maybe the airlines will find out that honesty, decency and good service will be the best policies for their businesses, even if they have to be forced into it.

LimoLiner Zips Past Hartford

I recently got an email from LimoLiner, offering a discount coupon on its luxury bus service. Too bad I can’t use it.

I really liked the LimoLiner when I rode it from Hartford to Boston last August, so I was eager to find a use for the coupon. But when I went on the LimoLiner Web site I discovered that the company ended its Hartford service last November.

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Your Government Services For Sale

I’ve ranted previously about the priority lines at some airports that allow first-class passengers to scoot to the front of the line for security screening. And now I’ve discovered something even more annoying.

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Formula For Airline Success: Loyalty To Employees

I just ran across this little news item about a Southwest crew buying pizza for passengers when a flight was diverted and delayed last week.

This happened just as Southwest reported a jump in revenues and analysts predicted the airline will earn $500 million this year, as Terry Maxon reported in The Dallas Morning News.

I believe these two things are related. Southwest Airlines succeeds in large part because its employees treat customers with concern and respect. And the employees treat customers well because the company treats them well. It’s very simple. What goes around comes around.

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Hotels Showing Wear And Tear

For the past 18 months or so I’ve been observing, in a clinical way, the effect of the severe recession on hotels.

We’re staying right now in an upscale hotel in downtown San Diego. Our room is very clean and nicely furnished, but when we arrived a lamp bulb was hanging loose in its socket. The bathroom door is very thoroughly scuffed and scratched on the inside. The mini-bar had been removed.

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