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I realized a few days ago that my sister’s flight will arrive in Los Angeles for my wedding at 8:00pm, which meant that there was no way for her to get to the car rental place before it closes at 5. So, I went online and tried to change the pickup time to the morning of the following day. Much to my surprise, the quoted rental price went up even though it was still the same one week rental!

I thought to myself that the online system probably recalculates the weekly rental price based on the current rate that they were offering. Unsatisfied by this, I called customer service because I actually just wanted to pick up the car the next day as the car rental facility closes at 5. Once I got someone on the phone, I explained my situation of not being able to get to the car rental place at the original time specified on the reservation. I asked if I can change my car reservation to pickup the car the next day or whether I can just leave it the same but come the next day. The agent on the other end said it’s no problem to change the reservation without changing the rental price and it was done, taking all of 10 minutes.

I’m part of the group that hate calling customer service because I’m frustrated more times than not. Therefore, if at all possible, I try to do everything myself online. This time though, the online system were not able to help me because of its inflexibility.

Maybe talking to a live person isn’t so bad after all. It saved me money this time and it is probably not the last.