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Comment by thoraway1010 | Hacker News Reader

I filled up with gas literally at the closest station (.1 mile away? You could see the lot from station). BOOM, charged for an empty tank. No worries, I'd actually kept my receipt from the gas station showing exactly when I'd refilled (2 minutes before dropping car).

It was an endless headache and run around to try to get them to cancel out the charge. That kind of run around should be illegal.

I normally used National (because you can pick any car on their 'aisle') and never had that issue with them.

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I think the problem is the franchisees that operate the locations. There are a million stories out there of scamming people. Especially at airport locations where they know the person returning the vehicle is likely to be in a rush and not live in that location. It's more of a hassle for you to return and fight for something.

I had a rental company claim I "totalled the right front side of the vehicle" and had $3000+ in damages. I asked for dated photos of the damage and all of a sudden the claim of damage went away. I always take a dozen or so photos of the car before and after I drop it off. Takes 2 minutes but can save a ton of time and money down the road.

Same for apartments if you want any hope of fighting bogus claims on security deposits.

For some reason all the contracts I've seen want a written description of damage. That just isn't enough. Take photos of everything you find before you move in and include them in the statement of the state of the house.

Just file a chargeback for this kind of thing. If you got charged for something and "did not actually receive the goods/services" (in this case a convenient gas fill up), then this is exactly what they were designed for.

Of course, you have to ask for a refund first, but after doing so, skip the hassle and just charge it back.

They'll have to pay additional penalties, which discourages this kind of behavior in the first place.

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