jackal

I am totally confused. There IS a simple brilliant solution, and hospitality managers are already doing it. It's called doing additional screening on debit card customers! It's not foolproof, but it's about 95% of the way there!

Upthread, you were agreeing with me. Then you started proposing more draconian, less useful measures that even I find to be too harsh. And now you're actively contradicting me, yet you have no experience in my industry?

I really don't know how to respond to your posts when they're not consistent!

As for your question about Priceline and debit cards: I cannot speak to that, as I indicated upthread that our business does not deal with Priceline's Name Your Own Price program. I started out in this thread with some light speculation that I could indeed see the property manager's point that Priceline bookings could result in increased risk. That morphed into a discussion of how credit cards work, and finally into me explaining that, in my personal experience, debit card customers are indeed riskier, leading to the current phase of discussion. I did not, nor did I ever, claim to be an expert on the situation regarding Priceline.

When did I ever say I didn't trust you? I'm not making this a personal argument at all!

Trust me because I've established myself as a helpful, knowledgable, friendly, welcoming FlyerTalker--just look at my post history. (You don't need to go far; scroll up a bit and check out some of the posts I made in this thread in early March, or even simpler: take a look at the thread linked in my signature.) Trust me because I have given hours of my life free of charge to host random strangers I met on the Internet--FlyerTalkers--around the city of Anchorage, even taking off time from work to do so. Trust me because several people on these forums know me personally and can vouch that I am an honest, friendly, generous, giving, helpful person. And trust me because I have seven years of experience in front-line sales and front-line management. While I don't claim to have seen it all, I can attest that my perspective on this matter comes solely from personal experience.

As for cash: are you arguing that we are bad for not accepting cash deposits, or are you arguing that we are bad for not taking cash in our workplace? If the former, I have nothing to say, for you truly do not understand the concept of risk management. If the latter, then why should we accept cash when:

1) At least 999 out of 1,000 people would rather pay with their card (I only hear the request to pay with cash one or two times a month, and even then, they are virtually always fine with leaving it on their card)
2) Dealing with cash introduces risk of counterfeit bills and provides a temptation for employees to steal from their employer
3) Cash can get lost
4) There is no financial benefit to us to accepting cash (it does not bring in additional business that would otherwise accept risk)
5) The owners hold the management personally responsible for missing cash (i.e. if any cash goes missing, it comes out of my paycheck)

Given those criteria, again, why should we accept cash--especially when I'm personally on the hook for it?

And let me clarify: I did not say I don't trust people with only debit cards. While I think a credit card does show that at least one bank believes you to be responsible, I do not distrust people with only debit cards. I want to verify they are responsible, which is why I (and the entire rest of the rental industry) require some additional steps before accepting only a debit card. If you satisfy those criteria, then I am happy to take your business. Who I don't necessarily trust immediately are those who cannot fulfill those criteria. That is when my guard goes up. But if you do not have a credit card, I do not inherently distrust you.

I find it deeply insulting that you assume I do not support these actions. I return wallets without taking any cash from them. I correct the cashier when he or she gives me excessive change. I tip more than most people I know. I smile and nod and even say "How are you?" to strangers I walk by on the street (or hike by on the mountain). I pay my bills on time.

And I DEFINITELY do not assume the worst about people. Just ask any of my coworkers or friends (or even FlyerTalkers I know personally): NONE of them will say I do this. In fact, if anything, they will accuse me of constantly assuming the best of people, sometimes to my own detriment. It's a result of over the years having assumed the best about people and consistently getting burned that have made me adopt a realistic worldview towards customers: those who do not have credit cards (or who have maxed out cards that can't take a deposit for incidentals) are GENERALLY a high risk to my business. With proper qualification (a high deposit and a return flight itinerary), we've been able to provide customers the service of being able to use their debit cards while minimizing that risk (and *I* was the chief person arguing in favor of accepting debit cards--several others in our management simply wanted to deny them all, but I felt that was poor customer service to our many frequent renters from rural villages who tend to not have credit cards). Go try to rent from Avis here with your debit card. They'll flat out tell you "no." I dare you to say they are providing better customer service than we are.

Oh, and where did I ever say that we participate in Priceline's Name Your Own Price service? We don't. And I said so at the beginning of this thread.

You seem to have a thing against banks. I wouldn't argue the thought that owning a bank gives the owner a license to steal. But I bank with a local credit union. As a member in good standing with my local credit union, I think it is a good thing that the credit union's loan officers are protecting my assets by carefully screening people applying for loans. Would you argue that my credit union should put my money at risk by allowing people to borrow money whom they do not believe will be likely to pay the loan back? I hardly think that screening risky customers out is bad business. So for you to argue that me doing the same thing with my assets makes me a bad person and someone you would not want to do business with seems hypocritical.

I still see the goodness in people. I still make exceptions to our policies that have still bitten me in the end. Recently, I waived the requirement for a flight itinerary for a military wife who said she was moving up here by herself because her husband was deployed while they were being transferred. I reduced the extra deposit because she said the military had not yet processed the moving expenses disbursement to her. I worked out a way to let her have the car for three weeks even though she only had enough money to cover one week because she said her car was being shipped up, and I know from personal experience that can be subject to long delays. I went out of the way to take her personally to our off-airport location so she was not subject to airport taxes, helping to save her money. And I even split up her rental charges among multiple cards, because no single card had the money to cover the rental. Oh, and when she called and extended her rental and none of her cards approved the extension charges, I even violated our own policy and let her keep the car for two more days until her disbursement cleared, rather than immediately demanding the return of the vehicle. I trusted her, and I sympathized with her difficult situation of having to move herself and her kids without the support of her husband.

So, what happens? Two months goes by, and she is behind on payments and has stopped answering my phone calls. Her cards are all declining. We have no way to get in contact with her.

Fortunately, I remembered that she said she was staying on base until she figured out arrangements for living out in Wasilla, about an hour from our office. We contacted the Wasilla police to report the car stolen, and they were fortunately able to recover it that afternoon. To date, I don't think we're squared up on her bill yet.

Fortunately, we recovered our asset--a brand new $20,000 compact car--but we are still out of hundreds of dollars in real money, not to mention several hours of my and other managers' time and a tow bill to bring the car in from Wasilla to Anchorage. Oh, and she also told a bold-faced lie: she said she had told me that she was going to be closing the credit card we had on file for her but that I had told her we could still rent the car on it. The only thing she actually ever told me was that the military would be depositing more money on that card periodically so we should keep trying it.

Faced with that, would you do again what I did for this customer? I dare you to say yes. And I dare you to accuse me again of not seeing the goodness in folks. She was only one recent example. I have dozens of others. And even then, I probably am still likely to trust and believe the next person who comes along.

Unfortunately, I have business assets at risk to consider. My industry and the hotel industry have similar concerns: we are loaning out an asset that can be abused and can leave us on the hook for substantial costs. And unfortunately, it is an industry-wide established fact that people who do not have credit cards are, in general, riskier. That's why hotels and rental car agencies across the country have special screening criteria for people with debit cards. Whether it's running the customer's credit score, requiring a flight itinerary, requiring an additional deposit, or whatever, these criteria are in place as a customer service to help find alternatives to that assumption that debit card customers are risky!

So:

1. Bad things happen. A responsible business person should take reasonable precautions to prevent bad things from happening. Requiring a credit card, or requiring some extra screening for debit card customers, is entirely reasonable.
2. I find great satisfaction in the thousands of good customers whom I have dealt with, and I have been known to go above and beyond to take care of them or provide them with extra service beyond the call of duty. I cherish the friendships I have made with several regular customers, from school superintendents to anesthesiologists. I appreciate the numerous offers I have received to stay in touch, connect on LinkedIn, and potentially do business in the future. There are many good people. These many good people recognize the good in me.
3. We take the same precautions as everyone else in the industry because it is an industry-wide recognized risk that would be foolish, and expensive, to ignore. We are going above and beyond some other rental agencies who simply refuse to accept debit cards at all. If a customer does not have a credit card, with some verification that the customer has established he or she is responsible in other ways, we will rent to him or her. This is not burning down the whole village; it's installing fire-retardant insulation in all the buildings.