I spent over a year working in the car rental industry, and its one of the worst industries to be affiliated with. Countless times I witnessed my co workers lying, and cheating customers. After my first week I fully understood why they were behaving like sharks. The company wanted them that way, and didn't reprimand them even when they got caught. I didn't make much money there because I refused to stoop as low as my coworkers to optimize a rental contract. I requested to take 3rd shift because that shift wasn't pressured to sale as much, or so I thought. I plan on writing several more articles on the topic, and an ebook. A first of its kind. "An insiders guide to renting cars without getting ripped off".

 I witnessed 70% of customers being taken advantage of by another rental agent several different ways. Many customers are not even aware they are being cheated when rental agents sell them upgrades,optional coverages,perform personal credit checks,include miscellaneous fees,taxes,pre-paid gasoline,& charges for minor damages to a vehicle.

It was making me sick to observe all the shady tactics my coworkers were using to make a few dollars, and meet or attempt to exceed the goals set by the company. Car rental companies require rental agents to meet certain goals before giving them commissions or earning incentives. This policy really brought out the absolute worst in employees. All of the agents I worked with blatantly lied to customers just to get a sale.

I recall witnessing a rental agent boldly lie to a customer. Claiming the car they were booked in was unavailable because the customer didn't want to buy the loss damage waiver. After 10 minutes of giving the a customer a bogus sales pitch, the customer caved in. The agent swindled the traveler into paying for an upgrade they didn't want. The customer took it because the alternative vehicle the agent offered was no where near comparable to what they booked. This alone violates company procedure, but when an agent is caught being dirty they get laughed at by management.

In another instance a foreign customer came in with a reservation to rent a car for 28 days. The customer denied optional coverages, and didn't want anything extra charged on his bill. The rental agent put it on anyway quadrupling the customers bill! The customer didn't even realize they were cheated until they were back home a month later looking at their credit card statement.

This customer was swindled because he understood very little english, and rental agreements place a final total as an estimated charge. The agent can easily misrepresent charges about a customers total if the customer doesn't read the agreement carefully. Various things affect the final cost such as bringing the car back late or early, not refueling the vehicle, & taxes.

The rental agent was more inclined to cheat this customer because having all those unprofitable rental days under their name lowers the percentage needed to reach a goal to get paid a commission. One agent in particular would ask me to take the loss by putting the contract in my name. I was working midnights, and never made a payout or reached the goal because my shift was very slow.

The work environment in this industry is very high pressure, & stressful. Often managers are constantly looking over an agents shoulder. Some will even antagonize an agent after the customer leaves if they didn't sell anything extra. Agents can even lose their jobs for falling behind ridiculous goals set by the company. Quite often the only person who made a commission every month was the "tyrant" of the sells counter. This person would use every trick in the book to dupe a customer.

Many of the goals set by the company were unfair. Too many variables affect if an agent has an opportunity to meet the goals. Lack of fleet inventory, poor sales motivation from management, weather conditions, current events in town, the number of agents staffed at the counter, & certain shifts had an effect on the performance of sales. The company created this policy because they were essentially cheating their agents. If an agent made the company an extra 30k in revenue for the month, and didn't hit a certain percentage yield they wouldn't get a penny. If they did come in a certain range of the yield they would get 1% or 2%. Most of the time all the money went to the house. Its just like gambling in a casino. The company cheats its employees, the employees cheat the customers. The shit just rolls down, and never back up.

Many customers get ripped off because the overall experience of traveling wears down a person. And by the time they get to the rental car facility they just want to get the keys, and go. Travelers rarely fully understand what there signing, and many of them don't read the rental contracts because they place a false sense of trust in the person standing behind the counter.
It gets even worse if a traveler arrives late at night or if their flight was delayed. These travelers are usually not mentally alert to deal with intricate details of renting a car unless they are frequent renters. They often get tricked into paying for a frivolous upgrade, buying prepaid gasoline, & adding an additional driver when they may not have one.