Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Enjoying our holiday in Europe

As I'm currently enjoying my graduation holiday in Europe, I haven't posted in a while. Just some good advice for anyone renting a car in Austria: don't rent it from Buchbinder rent-a-car. They might be the largest local rental company but they tried to rip us off yesterday. A very old trick; when you get the car they casually go around it,note some existing dents and scratches and let you sign a paper (I wasn't there at that moment, my wife did the honors). Yesterday they suddenly examined the car very carefully and off course found a scratch that wasn't noted on the rental agreement. So they tried to get us to pay EUR450 ($900) for the "damage". We had to come into "the office" where they tried to bully us into signing a damage declaration form. When I suggested to get a damage expert in they suddenly retracted their statement and said that it was probably caused by washing the car. I also noted that two Korean gentlemen were quoted a price that was about 3 times as much as what we paid (my wife is from Vienna). Not very professional and potential very damaging to a budding Herz, Avis or Sixt competitor.