Rental Scams

 The guy over at Equipment Rental and Sales is trying to whack me $140
extra because I ran the machine for more than 8 hours in a 24 hour
rental period. He claims he told me about the hour limit per day, as
if I would have missed that part. What a scammer.
Oh, and $20 for probably half a gallon of diesel. Disgusting, but more
typical.

I personally have never heard of such an hour limit from any rental
company. Is that just me, or does this sound scammy to you too?

Neighbor picked up the machine.
I never even saw paperwork (no email or fax with power out).
Donated my time (20 hours on the machine clock in a 48 hour rental)

I didn't realize the machine was a union member. NTTAWWT.

No good deed goes unpunished.
The card will probably choke on his inflated charge.   :-/

-Dean
I dreamed I was building a track...

 On 9/6/2011 11:51 AM, Dean H wrote:

If he doesn't have that in writing, I would tell him to go *** himself
and dispute the extra charge on the credit card. I wouldn't even think
twice.. In fact if somehow he does have it on paper, I would dispute it
anyway and make him prove to the CC company he wasn't just gouging you
because of the storm.... and of course if he did that, you might suggest
to him a full refund of your money or a call to the States Atty might be
in order...;) The guy is an asshole, make it hard on him either way...

 
I rented plenty of skid loaders and they all had an hour limit on them
with an hour gauge on the machine.  They recorded the hours when I
took it out and checked when I brought it back.  Even though I had 24
hour rentals, the engine could only be run for 8 hours in that 24 hour
period.  They usually had some sort of per hour fee on top of that not
to exceed the cost of the 24 hour rental period.

These fees were explained on the contract too.

 
Yep... 8  hours by the meter is typical. I'll bet it's in what you
signed too... :)

 
Thanks for the info. Live and learn, I guess.

Of course, I never signed anything as this deal was done by phone. Too
bad the clown didn't send the paperwork with the machine. It's not a
logical assumption that one could only use a machine for 1/3 of the
rental period, so it should really be spelled out. The guy claims he
told me but he didn't. He also twisted other words to prove to me he's
full of shit. So, even if it's typical, the guy will never get my
business again.

The irony is that if I knew I was working off the hour meter I would
have been able to make a bunch of money selling all the side requests
that I declined because it was time to park the machine. And the
rental guy would have sold twice as many hours. Bad business on my end
and his...

The problem with "8 hours by the meter" is that the meter is only
accurate to one hour. If you get the machine five minutes before it
turns an hour and park it five minutes after you turn an hour, that's
a big win for the casino.

My complaint is that the guy didn't explain the deal up front.
And as Jimi said, that ain't too cool.

-Dean
helping all the wrong people