
The curious economics of being ripped off on holiday - hhs
http://timharford.com/2019/09/the-curious-economics-of-being-ripped-off-on-holiday/
======
maerF0x0
I've long been thinking about this topic. I sometimes call it the "Grief
economy" \-- The entity which can suffer the most grief "wins" . For example,
calling Comcast to cancel. The company is paying pennies per hour to have you
on hold. But its costing you your real time. Therefore comcast can easily
suffer more in the process and ultimately could just wait you out...

Another example is the idea that some people get a better price because they
jumped through arbitrary and non-cost affecting hoops. Things like coupon
codes or buying on an arbitrary sale day.

The best customer is one that comes in and says "I want this item, I will pay
a reasonable price right now and walk out a happy customer"... Instead we give
the best price to those who waste sales people's time with negotiations and
give the worst prices to those who dont first put in a bunch of work extract
the information about the right price. We are increasing the total cost of our
products by making the purchase filled with uncertainty (am I getting a good
price?) and external costs (I searched 2 hours for a $5 coupon) .

I would propose this. If you're going to give a customer $5 off then give them
all $5 off. If you cant give them all $5 off, then give none (maybe give them
all $1 off?).

~~~
noonespecial
I once sold a car to a man for $500 _more_ than my initial asking price
because he made me mad with ridiculous haggling.

I thought it would make him just go away. He produced the money instantly.
I've always wondered about that...

~~~
appleiigs
Any one know what happened to Saturn's fixed price cars idea? I know the brand
is gone, but not sure if its troubles had anything to do with fixed prices.

~~~
maerF0x0
Lots of used car brands doing that now. "No Haggle Pricing"

I have noticed their prices are consistently lower than the asking price at
high touch dealerships. Especially when you remove hidden feels like "Doc fee"
.

I will likely buy from a place with a fair advertised price sooner than
walking in at an advertised price of 125% aiming to negotiate it down to 95%.

~~~
Marsymars
You can also outsource it for new cars, e.g. Unhaggle.com

------
gnicholas
Resort fees are probably one of the best examples of rip-offs that travelers
have become accustomed to (but still loathe).

Fortunately, there is a proposal to make it illegal to list prices without
including mandatory fees. [1] This would include "resort fees" for hotels and
"cleaning fees" for airbnbs or other rentals.

1: [https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/hotel-resort-fees-
Cong...](https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/hotel-resort-fees-Congress-
airbnb-14470281.php)

~~~
frittig
> the legislation would prohibit hotels and other lodging providers from
> advertising room rates that do not include all mandatory charges other than
> government taxes and fees

so close, but what does "fees" include? If that legislation required them to
include tax _then_ I would be excited

------
crazygringo
Remember how credit cards had a bunch of consumer legislation passed a few
years ago to protect consumers in the US?

And how airfare comparison sites are required by law to show full prices, not
before airport fees etc. the way they did way back when?

It's time for the same kind of legislation to be applied to car rental
companies, and enforced on _reservation sites_ so their policies apply
worldwide (e.g. when an American books a car to rent from Hertz in Spain, they
can't resort to saying it's a foreign subsidiary the law doesn't cover). I'd
say they're now the #1 source of sneaky fees and hidden upsells, even worse
than banks, cell service providers, and internet providers at this point.

Surprise fees at time of booking should be illegal (e.g. "driving out of
country"), and "extra processing" fees (e.g. for a toll with no choice)
legislated to a reasonable level (e.g. $5 instead of $50) -- the same way
credit card late fees are currently set by law. And toll transponders included
in the base price in any country that has any roads where paying in cash is
unavailable.

Where's the movement for this? Why aren't we all writing our representatives
about this?

~~~
alanbernstein
Why limit it to credit cards, airfare, and car rental? Why shouldn't this
apply to every product and service sold, period?

~~~
crazygringo
Just a question of cost/benefit I think.

In long-established and stable industries like these, regulation can benefit
the consumer and we can trust it will still mostly make sense five years from
now.

But when industries are evolving quickly, nobody knows which regulations will
actually create benefit or harm to consumers (law of unintended consequences)
and by the time they're written they might already be out of date.

~~~
sgc
I agree with your principle, but I don't think transparent pricing is an item
that should fall under that umbrella. It's just basic honesty.

------
mgolawala
These types of things used to infuriate me. To stop them from ruining my mood
on vacations I just account for them as "various other charges". It is sort of
like tipping now.

For example, When you book a cruise, the price they give you doesn't bring up
the fact that the cruise line also expects you to pay the wages for the wait
staff and room stewards. If you bring a family of four (the charge is per
person) on a 10+ night cruise (the charge is per night), that charge adds up
quickly. Something like $15 charge * 4 people * 14 nights = $840 in charges.
That can be a significant percentage of the cost of your entire cruise.

Yes, those in the know, realize that they can change the amount that you get
charged by going to guest services - but now if you do adjust those fees...
the Cruise line has effectively shifted the guilt of shafting these
unfortunate and hard working souls on to you. Hope you sleep well at night.
Ugh..

Now when I see these types of charges I just shake my head, sigh and move on.
I just account for some percentage of unexpected charges such as these when I
visit tourist hotspots - Resort fees, Cleaning Fees, Bag check fee, City fees,
the list goes on and on and on. It's not right... but the way I see it I can
either fret over all these fees, or just accept that they will be there if I
travel to tourist hot spots. I don't really know of a solution.

~~~
netsharc
> Yes, those in the know, realize that they can change the amount that you get
> charged by going to guest services - but now if you do adjust those fees...
> the Cruise line has effectively shifted the guilt of shafting these
> unfortunate and hard working souls on to you.

Do the staff see any difference anyway? It's not like they get any more money
than minimum, and the cruise company is probably pocketing that "wage".

Just like that one asshole delivery company that pockets the "tips" you can
opt to give on their app.

------
doctorpangloss
T-Mobile's taxes & fees included pricing is the #1 reason I switched to them
from AT&T.

Amazon has items for less than $10, but most items with a price between
$0.01-$9.99 have to sell for $10.00 for their free shipping economics to work.
That's notwithstanding the fee that your license to buy, i.e. Prime, cost you.

In San Francisco, if you sit down at a restaurant, take the written prices on
the menu and multiply them by 1.5 to get what you'll actually be paying. I
don't think it's that bad in Los Angeles.

Further, in San Francisco, if you sign up for $40/mo fiber Internet, it's
really $63.50. Somehow Sonic managed to break past 1.5.

The takeaway is there is no hard and fast rule about transparency in pricing.
It's all psychological.

~~~
mynameisvlad
> In San Francisco, if you sit down at a restaurant, take the written prices
> on the menu and multiply them by 1.5 to get what you'll actually be paying.

Is this anything other than taxes and gratuity (which, technically, you can
give 0% for)? I'm trying to understand how even with 20% gratuity and SF's
8.5% tax, how you could get anywhere close to 1.5.

> Amazon has items for less than $10, but most items with a price between
> $0.01-$9.99 have to sell for $10.00 for their free shipping economics to
> work. That's notwithstanding the fee that your license to buy, i.e. Prime,
> cost you.

Amazon actually now will give you a longer ETA on cheap items to make it more
affordable for them.

~~~
tick_tock_tick
SF has a half dozen extra taxes that aren't listed on menus. It's not quite
1.5x bad but they aren't too far off.

------
AnimalMuppet
It's not "on holiday", but the one that always bugs me is inactive account
fees from banks. Is my account _increasing_ their expenses by being inactive?
No, it's not. If anything, it's _decreasing_ them. So why an inactive account
fee? The most charitable interpretation I can give is "since you're not giving
us a chance to make money on other fees, we'll make money this way". The worst
interpretation is "since you're probably not paying much attention to this
account, we're probably safe to rip you off".

~~~
u10
There are non-trivial compliance costs with maintaining accounts, an inactive
account can absolutely be a cost for a financial institution. Not to mention
that the bank makes a spread on deposits, so an inactive account is generating
compliance costs + not generating any revenue (not necessarily the fees).

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> There are non-trivial compliance costs with maintaining accounts, an
> inactive account can absolutely be a cost for a financial institution.

Sure. But in terms of compliance costs, an active account costs just as much,
and perhaps more (if there are compliance costs per transaction, not just per
account).

> Not to mention that the bank makes a spread on deposits

They make a spread on money left in the account. But I can leave money in an
inactive account, too, and they make just as much money on that.

~~~
vonmoltke
I have not heard of inactive account fees on accounts with a significant
amount held in them. Typically, they charge you for keeping too little in
there, sometimes regardless of activity.

Edit:

I did a little research. Bank of America has no dormant account fee that I can
find. SunTrust does[1]... but only for Florida accounts, for some unknown
reason. This may be a jurisdictional thing.

[1]
[https://www.suntrust.com/content/dam/suntrust/us/en/personal...](https://www.suntrust.com/content/dam/suntrust/us/en/personal-
banking/2019/documents/fs-retail-english.pdf) (page 6)

------
motohagiography
These scams work because once you have made a reservation online, and have
likely made other plans that depend on it, the service is now more valuable
than what you agreed to pay for it.

Thing is, nobody has agreed to anything yet, so you have just signalled your
willingness to commit to that anchor price when you show up, now at a
disadvantage because you have no other plan or way to get to a competitor, and
they can pile stuff on until your complaining causes them opportunity cost
against screwing other people.

Making a decision takes effort and energy, meaning once you have done it, you
have less if it to argue. Pretty much every online price for holiday or
services I have seen has a %33 markup of "fees," "insurance," "deposits,"
above the sticker price.

When someone renegs on a deal or tries to add "what about this one last
thing," once you've committed, leave.

------
tgb
My experience with this was trying to get my dad, who basically doesn't use
his phone, to a cheaper phone plan. He was on Verizon and paying $60 a month
but usually keeps his phone off. He didn't want to move to a different
provider, so I looked at what cheaper options Verizon had and they offer a
$35/month "Small" plan (this plan still is listed on their plans page but
trying to "get started" with it sends you to a page to purchase a smartphone).
We went in to the store and said we'd like to switch him to the small plan.
She says, oh you're already on the small plan. But then why are we paying $60
a month? Oh, that's the $20/month line access fee, plus taxes, 911 fees, etc.
But what the hell is a line access fee and how is that not just what the
$35/month would be for? The sad thing is I wouldn't have even blinked if it
had been just a few dollars a month even though that shouldn't be OK either.

I later got him to switch to PagePlus for under $30/month, but only after his
phone broke. The line access fee is, admittedly, marked in small text beneath
the actual price on their current website.

~~~
Symbiote
Is a phone plan even necessary at this level of usage?

In much of the world, I'd just use a pay-as-you-call SIM, probably with it set
to automatically top-up. The price of calls varies widely, I have one aimed at
immigrants which charges €0.005/minute for some _international_ calls but is
expensive for local calls, but it's appropriate for "emergency" phone use.

------
gnicholas
I recently booked a flight on Alaska Airlines that turned out to be their
version of United's "basic economy". But somehow Alaska managed to avoid
having an asterisk next to their flight listing in Google Flights (possibly
because you can bring a carry-on bag, you just can't pick seats and are in the
last boarding group — where you likely will be forced to gate-check your bag).
United's "basic economy" flight had an asterisk, so I knew to avoid it.

After buying the ticket, I was offered the chance to actually be able to pick
my seats, for $85 or so. I decided to do so, and was then taken to the seat
map, which showed 3 middle seats available. What's the point of picking your
seats if you have to pick between the 3 worst seats on the plane? And how did
Alaska thread the needle so their ticket prices don't get flagged as being
not-real-economy-tickets?

~~~
nikanj
There’s at least one dude whose job it is to thread that needle, and another
dude who tries to prevent that.

Our economy is filled with jobs that effectively cancel eachother out.

------
mark-r
Once on a family vacation to Florida, I found myself on a toll road with no
toll booths. If you didn't have a toll transponder, they just took a picture
of the license plate and billed you later.

I had rented the car in Georgia, so the transponder wasn't even an option. A
couple of weeks later at home, I got a bill in the mail - $4 for the toll, and
a $50 processing fee from the rental company. It had already been charged to
my credit card.

~~~
alexhutcheson
In case this helps anyone: Most cashless toll roads have an option where you
can go to a website within a couple days and pay the toll online by entering
your license plate. If you do this, your rental car company shouldn't get a
bill, and you will avoid paying the extra fees.

I agree that the processing fees charged by rental car companies are
ridiculous, though. The per-day rental charge for toll passes (in addition to
the tolls) is also ridiculously high.

~~~
rb808
Golden gate bridge is like this as well. Except I got the time wrong. Congrats
to Sixt who I think only charged me $8 for a fee.

------
6gvONxR4sf7o
This is even worse in the era of "sort by price." That top spot is immensely
coveted, so the competition and innovation is to get a lower sorting price,
rather than competition and innovation in getting a lower true price.

Of course, if your competitors engage in tricks, you have to as well.
Otherwise you're relegated to the bottom of the list where no one clicks.

The natural equilibrium sucks. What's the solution?

~~~
lmm
The solution is regulation. Here in the EU I see very few of these dirty
tricks I see Americans complaining about, because we have strong consumer
protection laws.

~~~
magicbuzz
Agreed. It’s mostly a non-issue in Australia too because of the law (which
includes airline tickets) - [https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/prices-
surcharges-receipts...](https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/prices-surcharges-
receipts/price-displays#single-pricing)

------
acomjean
Car rentals. The dark pattern kings.

Rented an Avis car in france, It came damaged so we got the guy in the shop to
sign off on the little car diagram.

Long story short, they charged us for the damage. It wasn't a ton (100$), but
Avis "dispute resolution" didn't believe us despite the photos and the damage
document.

There comes a point were you ask yourself, how much time I'm going to put into
getting this money back.

The credit card company thankfully looked into and the charge was rejected,
but the grief it causes.

~~~
netsharc
> There comes a point were you ask yourself, how much time I'm going to put
> into getting this money back.

Also the airbnb problem resolution.. the agent is getting paid to save the
company money, so they'll dick around with you as long as it takes.

Maybe someone can make a "Fight-against-companies-as-a-service", but maybe
that's the CC company's portfolio...

------
myrandomcomment
So I can not speak highly enough about having an Amex Platinum for this crap.
Call them, say this sucks, here is the reason why and they say yup, refund. In
the case listed the extra 14.99 EURO they would have said, hum not listed up
front, here is your refund and then told the car rental to take a swim. I have
had a number of instances like this where I just said whatever to the company
and after (returning car, airline fee, etc.) chatted to Amex and solved.

------
SketchySeaBeast
We got in to our Hawaii honeymoon at 10:30 pm, utterly exhausted and went to
get the rental car. We had prebooked everything with an agency, but we had
never traveled before, so we didn't know what to expect. They asked for $500
for insurance for the week. We felt sick, but we didn't know our options or
what coverage we had, so we paid. We phoned our insurance agent the next
morning, and realized we could drop a lot of that, so did the long drive back
to the car rental place, but it was quite the eye opener. I'm still angry
about it, and pretty sure even the reduced number was an absolute rip-off, but
we just didn't know.

Combine that with the sudden resort fee we didn't know about until we got to
the hotel, and we spent that first night and next morning wondering if we'd
made a huge mistake.

~~~
crooked-v
I don't understand how 'resort fees' haven't been prosecuted as fraud or false
advertising.

~~~
athenot
They are indeed annoying. Fortunately they are normally disclosed (in tiny
print) on the hotel website so at least now I can expect them.

Same goes for mandatory valet parking…

------
simonebrunozzi
Cost of a pizza in a normal pizza restaurant in San Francisco: $18. (if not
higher in some of the fancier places)

Oh, wait! We need to add:

1) sales tax (9.75%) = $1.75

2) tip (20%) = $3.60

3) S.F. Mandates (4 to 6% depending on restaurant, let's say 5%): $0.90

Total? $24.25, or roughly 35% higher. Unbelievable, and ridiculous.

I wish all restaurants would advertise the FINAL price.

~~~
masonic
A $6 baseball ticket on StubHub becomes $10.41. The seller receives $5.10. So
StubHub keeps more than half the total.

------
virgilp
We shouldn't expect the companies to be "fair&transparent", especially given
the documented evidence that it's unprofitable. It's really the job of the
governments to impose fairness rules. E.g. in Europe you don't see prices
without tax - I believe they're not legal.

~~~
lambertsimnel
In some parts of the EU, there are tourist taxes that are excluded from the
quoted price. They have taken me by surprise when I paid in advance and had to
make a payment just for the tourist tax.

------
JumpCrisscross
> _Why not offer a price with “no hidden extras”?_

In addition to the problem the article highlights, there is also the mess that
is human psychology.

JC Penney tried replacing random discounts with everyday low prices [1]. It
backfired. Their shoppers _wanted_ to play the irrational game. (My assumption
is rational shoppers shopped elsewhere, but that's neither here nor there.)

[1]
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2013/09/27/a...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2013/09/27/a-strategic-
mistake-that-haunts-j-c-penney/#2ad1c48e134c)

------
walrus01
An interesting corollary to this is that 3/4 star hotels in major business
centers can get away with charging $15 or $20 a day for wifi. This is because
they know that a huge percentage of their travelers are on business, and
putting all credit card charges through an expense reimbursement process, so
they don't really care what it costs as if it were their own money.

Whereas 1/2/3 star hotels aimed at the tourist market, and even the cheapest
freeway-adjacent motels like Super 8, mostly all have free wifi because if
they don't, people paying out of their own pockets will go elsewhere.

------
coldtea
> _There is a subtler problem too, explored a few years ago by the economists
> Xavier Gabaix and David Laibson. Even if an advert proclaiming “no hidden
> charges” is credible, it is not necessarily profitable. The problem is that
> not all customers would find the promise appealing. Some would instead infer
> “if you are good at avoiding hidden charges, try one of our competitors, who
> will offer you a cheap deal in the vain hope of ripping you off”. The
> transparent company would attract the suckers without exploiting them; the
> sneaky company would be a magnet for the sophisticates, who might well then
> avoid the tricks. The advertisement would backfire._

Without some experiments backing this up, this argument sounds contrived and
perhaps overthought.

I seriously doubt there are that many "sophisticates" who factor that into
their decision, even less so, sophisticates who would consciously go for the
"hidden charges" business with the idea that their savviness would help them
avoid the charges.

In any case, the fix is simple: regulating hidden charges away with business
destroying penalties.

If the rental companies face a law that they should make all charges known in
advance of be shut down, they'll change their tune in unison, and there would
be no "hidden charge" competitor advantage...

------
aidenn0
Cell phone plans are the most annoying one for this; I remember at one point
the advertised price for the plan I was on was $118 ($99 per line, plus $19
per additional line, I had 2 lines). The amount I actually payed was a bit
over $165. The big 3 providers had different amounts of tacked-on fees and at
one point I called up one of them to ask what my actual bill on a particular
plan would be 3 times and got 3 different answers. This made it essentially
impossible to price compare plans.

------
martingoodson
Europcar overcharged Tim Harford by €14.99? Europcar Barcelona recently tried
to me charge me an extra €260! I had arrived at the airport, after booking
online, and they wouldn't allow me to pay the rental deposit with a debit
card. 'Company policy' to only accept credit cards. Unless I paid the extra
€260.

This is nothing to do with subtle economics. It's extortion because you're in
a foreign country and desperate. I think we are just talking about a very
unethical company.

~~~
atemerev
Well, debit cards are not accepted anywhere for car rental (at least I don't
know any counterexamples). $260 in this case are returned at the end of the
rental term, it is just a (relatively recent) additional service from
Europcar, allowing people with only the debit cards to rent cars nevertheless.
(Disclosure: I use Europcar at Barcelona airport about 5-6 times per year;
they have some quirks, but I wouldn't use the terms "extortion" and
"unethical").

~~~
martingoodson
Well in this case at least this €260 was not going to be refunded. It was a
one off charge. And I have rented many cars elsewhere in Europe using only a
debit card.

~~~
atemerev
OK, this is called "prohibitory pricing". As in, "we really really don't want
your debit card, but if it is an emergency, here's an option. Still, please
don't". I tried to rent a car with a debit card a few times, and it was simply
not accepted everywhere I tried, (Europcar in Barcelona, Hertz in Geneva and
Copenhagen, Avis in Geneva).

------
paultopia
What I don't understand is why governments don't just flat-out legislate about
this. They actually have made steps in some narrow areas (like airline ticket
pricing). But not in most areas.

Probably my least favorite is event ticketing, just because it's so shameless.
And it isn't even a monopoly anymore. For example, my local concert venue
recently advertised tickets to a concert at $35 each. After all the ticket
fees and service fees and other mandatory unavoidable charges, two tickets
ended up costing $100. The service provided for that extra $30, which was to a
third-party ticketing company but not one of the giant ones, was, as far as I
can tell, to print off a piece of cardboard and leave it at will call.

It boggles the mind.

~~~
paultopia
Actually, I take it back. The answer is, of course, in Mancur Olson's _The
Logic of Collective Action_ \---it's much easier for ripoff industries to
organize politically than for consumers.

------
rdlecler1
I just keep a long list of companies that have dubious business practices and
then avoid them. Unfortunately in the aggregate the feedback loop is probably
too slow to change behaviors, particularly in an oligopolies with implicit
fee-fixing.

------
tpmx
Don't rent a car here in (northern) Europe, if you can avoid it.

Renting a car in the US is painless and pretty risk-free.

Renting a car in Europe is different. I've read multiple accounts of local
aquantancies here arguing with car rental firms about minor scratches that US
rental firms just wouldn't care about.

When I return a rented car in the US the overworked guy I return the car to
seems to be happy as long as the car is at least mostly intact.

In Europe meanwhile, you should worry about the rental company looking for
minute scratches and then charging absurd amounts for these.

I don't rent cars in Europe. (Not sure if this is a Scandinavian, Northern
European or European thing.)

~~~
Aeolun
I guess it’s because all these amounts are paid by insurance? Nobody ever pays
the €1000 themselves, so nobody cares?

~~~
angry_octet
I think it is to force you to pay the full CDW fee, or face the $6000 charge.
In North America it is common for people to have the hire car coverage option
on their main car. So it becomes a fight between e.g. Hertz and a big
insurance firm.

I can't pick up a car in Europe in less than an hour, have to check/photograph
everything. I have an actual checklist.

~~~
wanderer2323
can you share the checklist for us who are curious?

~~~
angry_octet
It's just like the one the hire car companies use, front/right/rear/left
elevation, roof, windscreen, tyres, side mirrors. Inside: seats, control
knobs, petrol gauge, odometer, warning lights. Engine bay: water, washer
fluid, oil cap.

The difference is that it's my checklist and I do it, taking the required
time. Photographs of every panel. It is inspired by all the times I've been
ripped off or they have tried to rip me off.

------
amelius
There should be fines for opaque pricing.

There should be a website where you can report shenanigans.

------
eafkuor
The only honest car rental companies I've ever used were a family owned one in
Romania and Sixt, I think, in Sydney. All the rest, in Europe, were
essentially scams. Not surprised.

~~~
primarydonkey
Which company did you use in Romania?

------
Aunche
For bullshit charges, you can just call your credit card to dispute them, and
chances are you'll get your money back. I'm sure Avis and Europcar have
probably received a bunch similar complaints, so they may just be
automatically approved.

------
ohduran
Gaming the aggregator in order to appear high in the search? Who would have
guessed!

------
tempsy
This seems like a pretty weak example of being "ripped off." He's complaining
about a 15 eur charge for a one-way car rental? One ways are notoriously
expensive...that reservation was probably a few hundred dollars.

I don't think there's a more egregious rip off than mandatory
"resort/destination fees" \- a lot of hotels charge $40-50+/day extra on top
of the stated room rate as a daily "fee" for the pleasure of using the gym or
internet. Marriott is currently being sued in several states for these fees.
Write about that if you want to discuss a "rip off" \- not a 15 eur fee.

~~~
nickjj
Yeah and the really lame thing about the hotel situation is when browsing and
comparing rates, they all show the rate without the inclusion of those "resort
fees". Suddenly your $60 / night room is really double that at checkout.

~~~
vkou
At least (in my experience) hotels tend to charge those resort fees at the
time of booking, instead of at the time of check-in.

~~~
nickjj
Sorry, I didn't mean checkout as in checking out from the hotel. That was
checkout from the booking site, when you're ready to enter in your billing
details (shopping cart style) to pay for the room you just browsed on their
site. The issue is the browsing experience on the main site and Google results
shows $60 but at payment time it's really $100-150 because of non-avoidable
resort fees and taxes.

It's one of those "dark patterns" that feels scammy.

~~~
vkou
Yeah, it's annoying, but it, at most wastes a few minutes of your time, when
comparison shopping.

Compare it to getting off an airplane, arriving at the car rental kiosk to
pick up your reservation, and discovering that your options consist of
shelling out $100 in bullshit fees, in order to actually get your car - the
car that you've placed a non-refundable reservation for.

(And even if you throw a fit, and get a refund, your only option is to go
across the street, and eat a $150 markup on a same-day car rental, instead.)

