*DISCLAIMER* Everything I’m about to write is based on my own personal experiences as well as those of my co-workers at a rental car company that shall remain unnamed. This is solely to give a bit of perspective from the other side.

Courtesy: autoremarketing.com

Cleanliness. The thing on everyone’s mind right now. We understand how important this is don’t get us wrong but people are using this as an excuse to get whatever they want. Want a discount, just tell the manager the car wasn’t clean. Maybe fight a little harder and they’ll give it to you for free just to appease you. The thing people don’t understand is that we clean 30-40 cars EVERY DAY. We don’t run a professional detailing shop. We do the best with what we have. Most of the time that consists of 20 minutes with a vacuum, pressure washer, and some disinfectant spray. So we’re sorry that your Toyota Camry that’s been rented by 200 different people has some grass on the carpet. And there’s no winning for us because if we take longer to clean the car you complain that your rental process took too long. Any way you slice it, you’re getting mad at us.

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

The thing that burns us most about this is that nine times out of ten people bring the cars back looking like they lived in them for a week. The cleanliness thing should go both ways. We’re supposed to be taking care of each other here. Why is it okay for you to ream us out over some grass but you can return the car a cesspool of used masks, gloves, empty drinks and everything in between? Oh yeah, and the floor mats are caked in mud so we have to throw them out now. Then when we say we’ll have to charge you a detailing fee you threaten to complain to our head office because that’s unethical during a pandemic. What’s unethical in this situation is to borrow something from someone and destroy it…

We’re just trying to do our jobs here. Have some mercy on us. We know this is a trying time for everyone but if we were all a little nicer to each other we might have a better time for the rest of this pandemic.

Next time you go to rent a car, the grocery store, a restaurant, or anywhere for that matter, be kind. Put yourself in the shoes of the person helping you before you lose it on them.