Returning your rental car with a "full" tank

[Precambrianmollusc]

@Mithras

What does the receipt even prove? Only that you put some fuel into the car before you returned it. If I rented a car from an airport place with this policy, I’d fill up at a cheaper gas station on my way to return the car and then top off at the expensive gas station next to the airport. What good is a receipt for half a gallon of gas to the rental company?

It is all about the uncertainty in the gas gauge.
Most people will fill up until the automatic shut off goes. You can then drive about for a fair bit before the needle can be noticeably below full. Some may even chose to argue that the needle being just overlapping the F mark is a full tank. The rental car company wants a really full tank and doesn’t want to be holding the bag for fractional not quite full tanks over multiple cars , it adds up.
So they don’t care if you only put 1/2 gallon in the tank at the gas station within 12 miles, they are betting that you will just fill it up until the auto shut off goes pop, generally meaning you will be returning a full tank.
Sure you can sit there and watch the needle fill up and stop it right on the full mark, but not many people are going to waste time doing that.

Houston intercontinental is the place I have seen this practice. I have also seen they have the if less than 75 miles we need a fuel receipt clause. It is possible to run a few short meetings close to the airport and return the car with very few miles and still have the needle pretty much on full. The 75 miles limit should comfortable get the fuel gauge into noticeably moved territory.

[GreasyJack]

@Precambrianmollusc

The rental car company wants a really full tank and doesn’t want to be holding the bag for fractional not quite full tanks over multiple cars , it adds up.

Although in most cases it’s not the rental car company holding the bag, but the next person who rents the car (and then presumably actually does fill it up).

Also, I suppose the “show receipts” policy could prevent a certain jerk move I did a few years back. I rented a Dodge Caravan that just so happened to have a flex-fuel engine, so of course I found the only gas station in town that still sold E85 (for about $1/gallon less) and returned it full of that. If you were the next person who rented it and wondered why you only got 13 miles per gallon, I do apologize.

[What_the]

@Mr_Downtown

Was this at Houston Intercontinental, by any chance?

That’s the only place I’ve ever been asked for a receipt, and it was nearly 20 years ago. Since then, I generally put it in my shirt pocket but it’s never come up again. My theory was that it would be a natural concern at airports like IAH, DEN, or IAD that are really remote from ordinary freeway services, where you only have one “airport” gas station, and savvy travelers know it charges whatever the market will bear.

Nope…rented at LAX and returned to SFO.

Upon further review… it’s right in the rental agreement plus there was a yellow slip to warn me so I don’t believe that I was blindsided anymore.

I am going to complain about the ampount of the charge though … I can “prove” that I got gas the night before 12.4 miles away and they charged me about $30.

[commasense]

I suggest contacting the company through its Facebook page, instead of, or in addition to, its Web site or general e-mail address. In my experience, companies pay more attention to complaints received via social media and are more likely to be cooperative, rather than saying no or ignoring you altogether.

Anyway, it can’t hurt.

[JRDelirious]

Hmm, just did the one-way LAX-SFO last summer, no receipt request. Then again topped off a half hour earlier less than 6 miles away so I would have had it in my pocket.

[SmellMyWort]

I wouldn’t hesitate to call and complain. Say you filled it up before dropping it off and have a receipt to prove it. If they’re going to put a mileage restriction on where you can fill up then they should provide a list of all the stations within that radius.