[UPDATE: Avis waived the extra day! So now all I need to decide is whether it's worth it to me to spend another 45 minutes driving around to get a $16 refund for the bad keys. Planet Hyundai failed in every way. I've got three big stories to write today, so I may just eat it.]
OK. I've got a situation. I'm going to lay out the facts. I'd like some honest feedback including, if appropriate, disagreement.
My car was in the shop when the courthouse shooting occurred yesterday, so I ran to a nearby local Avis office and grabbed some wheels to cover it for The New York Times. Then I somehow lost the keys to the rental car and had to have it towed back to Avis. The Avis fellow told me he'd find out by today what has to happen. He called late this afternoon to said the Avis corporate peeps claim they must have the Hyundai Elantra towed to their airport location for rekeying and that the whole thing was going to cost more than $400. Even my local Avis dude thought this was stupid and extortionist and it dawned on us that I could get another set of keys made myself at a Hyundai dealer using the VIN number and my rental contract.
Sadly, the Hyundai place that was 5 minutes away closed up suddenly this week. So I drove clear out to the other side of town, a good 25 minutes, to get a pair of keys made. Then I headed back to my Avis place, arriving by 5:10 p.m. My Avis dude had told me that if I got it back before 6 p.m. when they closed, he wouldn't have to charge me another day.
Ah, but the keys made by Planet Hyundai did not work. I called to ask them why. The technician was surprised and said he thought maybe his key-making machine was broken. He suggested that, rather than returning to him and chancing another error, I ought to go to the other Hyundai location, way down in Henderson, because they had a different machine.
Thus off I went on a 25-minute drive south. At Henderson Hyundai, they detected the problem. The guy at Planet Hyundai had used the wrong key blank.
Now it was after 6 p.m. I am responsible for another day of rental, another $50.
I called Planet Hyundai to ask for my refund. I was told I'd need to bring the keys back before I could have one. This was silly and time-consuming, seeing how I'm now a solid 35 minutes from them and I live a good 25 minutes from them. The manager told me there isn't any way for him to know if the keys were incorrect without having them back, which is to say that he is incapable of calling his counterpart at Henderson Hyundai to confirm this. That would save me even more inconvenience than they've already caused me, but that would be, how do we put it, good customer service. Which is not Planet Hyundai's gig, evidently.
So now I must drive across town again for a refund when all he has to do is void my credit card charge. It's done thousands of times every single day. He thought this was ridiculous.
OK. He's happy to cause me this trouble on top of the rest of it. Whatever. But then what about my rental car? Does Planet Hyundai also owe me to cover the extra rental car day? The manager thought this was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.
Because of Planet Hyundai's error, I will have had to drive an extra 50 miles, spend an extra three hours and pay for an extra day on a rental car. Those are facts.
So, should Planet Hyundai pay for the rental car?
