Back from St. Augustine, Florida, where a friend of Amanda's was married last Friday evening. The author of a travel guide Amanda brought along called St. Augustine her favorite Florida destination before deploying the adjective "chic." If that is so it must be because the rest of the habitable part of the state is filled with wide streets lined with every imaginable franchise restaurant and chain store. At 4:00, the restaurants are full of senior citizens eating the early bird special. Compared to that, St. Augustine, which sports art galleries and boutiques near its quaint inns, and shabby-appearing housing away from the destinations noted in travel guides, qualifies I guess as "chic."
I don't travel very much and was highly annoyed by our experience renting a car at the Orlando airport. The agent, an unctuous flatterer, began his routine designed to screw us out of money by asking where we were headed. Ah, St. Augustine, very beautiful, he loves it there! Full of crapola, just like the author of the travel guide. Would we like to pre-pay for the tolls along Florida's highways between Orlando and St. Augustine? We don't know, tell us more. Well, it costs ten dollars, and then we don't have to stop to pay at the toll stations. Tell us one more thing: how much does one have to pay in tolls to drive from Orlando to St. Augustine? "A little more than five dollars, one way." That seemed a little too convenient. We declined, and later paid $3.50 in tolls to get to St. Augustine, and $3.50 more to get back to the Orlando airport.
Quoting a price of $2.63 per gallon, he also asked whether we'd like to buy gasoline from the car rental company. The trick here is that you pay $2.63 times the capacity of the tank in the car you're renting. Since $2.63 per gallon is the going rate, you come out even if you use the whole tank--and behind if you don't. Our experience suggests that driving from the Orlando airport to St. Augustine and then back to the Orlando airport takes about three-fourths of a Chevrolet Cobalt's tank. No wonder they want you to buy gasoline from them! What you pay for, but don't use, they'll sell to their next customer, too!
I almost forgot to mention the gambits that are easiest to see through, the insurance they want you to buy and, of course, the upgrade to a bigger car.
I hate all these songs of praise one hears for the vaunted "private sector." Political conservatives tend to whisper the phrase--"private sector"--as if the words themselves are too holy to pronounce out loud. Is it too much to expect that companies make money without cheating their customers and telling them lies--and complaining bitterly if they are as a consequence subjected to government oversight? And the car rental game is a square deal compared, say, to the financial industry. It's all crooked and rigged and we are asked to worship it.
And what is with "The Department of Homeland Security"? It seems we have honored our former mortal enemy by adopting the old Soviet practice of assigning bloated, ridiculous names to our government bureaus. Travelling around in our country does not make me feel good about it.
Agreed! We shoulda siphoned the tank...
Posted by: Amanda Jorgenson | October 06, 2010 at 09:44 AM