jackal

Also, when I said "a citywide de-facto blacklist," I did not mean you would be put on an official do-not-rent list. But contrary to popular belief, at least when you're dealing in a consolidated rental facility (as opposed to individual off-site offices), most employees of the various rental companies are actually [sometimes very good] friends with each other across company lines. Therefore, they're more motivated to "help" one of their friends at another company (by backing them up and "protecting their own" if a customer is rude to them) than to do what you might expect and try to solicit business. I have seen it happen where a rental agent at one counter will quickly call his or her friends at other counters the customer may be approaching and quietly say, "Hey, that guy is a jerk/shady/a liar/whatever--don't rent to him." The other agent then proceeds to either say, "Sorry, we're sold out" or quote an obscenely high rate. That's the "de-facto blacklist" to which I referred.

Don't shoot the messenger--I'm just telling you what happens in real life.