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A FOXY WRINKLE IN CAR-RENTAL FEES
By Chris Barnett
September 19, 2013 -- I have been a fan of Fox Rent A Car ever since 9/11 when they switched me to a full-sized sedan from a cramped Chevy so I could drive home to San Francisco from Los Angeles in comfort. Fox even waived the one-way drop-off fee.

The Los Angeles-based off-airport outfit with its strange smattering of locations--California, Florida, Seattle, Sao Paulo, Auckland, Mexico City and Bucharest to name a few--caters to vacationers. But Fox also quietly woos budget-sensitive business travelers with offers of corporate accounts, a rewards scheme and stunningly cheap rental rates.

In years past, I've scored deals like a factory-fresh Mustang convertible for $12.99 a day at John Wayne/Orange County airport. The computer may have blown a gasket on its motherboard that day, but I didn't complain.

Fox touts itself as a discounter and for the most part lives up to its promise. The trade-off: Its rental offices are fairly Spartan, its counter staffers don't measure up to the crackerjack customer service-savvy crews at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and you can have fits trying to raise a human being on its various 800 lines.

And during a recent rental at Hollywood Burbank Airport, I discovered the hard way that Fox is veering off in a different direction from its costlier competitors. If a customer isn't careful, Fox can pump up the car-rental bill by a lot more than just a couple bucks.

One example: Fox has trailblazed in the car rental industry by adding an "upgrade" fee to its current roster of extra charges. That means when you are filling out the registration forms at the counter and the agent says you can upgrade from the mid-sized car you reserved to a full-size car for just an extra dollar or two a day, you'll also be slapped with an upgrade fee. In my case, it was $12. And that's not a one time, one-trip charge. It's $12 for every day you have the upgraded car the agent suggested.

Change your mind at the rental counter and ask for a bigger car? You'll pay the upgrade fee then, too.

I recently reserved a Hyundai Elantra for $25.59 a day for four days because I wanted to see if the Elantra lived up to the advertising claims. The confirmation from Fox quoted a total of $102.36 plus taxes and fees that added another $45 to the bill. No problem there since car-rental companies get stiffed with extras--tourism levies, concession fees, off-airport assessments and sports-stadium surcharges--that they pass on to us. I also signed up for the loss damage waiver at $15 a day.

When I arrived to pick up my vehicle, however, Fox was out of mid-sized Elantras. There was a mid-sized replacement--a boring-looking Ford Fusion--but the clerk said I could have a candy-apple red Toyota Camary, deemed a full-size car, for the same daily rate of $25.59. I took it. But the clerk did not mention the upgrade fee.

I wound up keeping the car another day for another $25.59, but when I turned in the car with a full tank of gas, the total price was $368.

Sure enough, I had initialed the "upgrade" fee without fully reading the contact because I was in a hurry and the clerk said "initial here, here, here and sign there." And I didn't realize I'd also initialed to accept another sneaky Fox fee: a $10 a day charge for returning the car early or late.

I later discussed these unprecedented charges with Fox's operations manager. She agreed to drop half of the $60 in upgrade fees and knocked off another $10. She was pleasant but firm when she insisted that Fox had done nothing wrong with the upgrade charges and early/late return fees.

Curious, I checked with seven major car rental companies and not one imposed an upgrade fee for any reason.

As for early and late return fees, Avis doesn't charge if your car is returned ahead of schedule, but it does have a one-time "extension" charge that averages about $10 if you're late. Budget, part of the same company as Avis, charges you a flat fee of $10 each time you request a rental extension.

Dollar is more flexible. Bring the car back 24 hours early and you pay a $15 flat fee. But if you notify the rental office early, the fee is waived and it's considered a "modified" rental. Return it three hours late and you pay $10.99 for up to 24 hours, but call Dollar beforehand and that fee is eliminated, too.

National, which targets the business traveler, must realize that our schedules can change because it has no early or late fees of any kind. The same is true for Hertz. Meantime, Thrifty has a $20 flat rate if the car is returned 24 hours early, but no late fee.

Of course, rental rates are much like airfares, which means they have no rhyme or reason. A recent spot check found that Hertz was charging $26.49 a day for a new Mustang convertible at Hollywood Burbank Airport. On the same day, Fox quoted $93.11 a day for the same spiffy car I once rented from them for $13 a day. Yes, giant Hertz can be a better value than discounter Fox on certain days.

Meanwhile, I called the California Department of Consumer Affairs and a representative said car-rental companies can charge an upgrade fee when the renter voluntarily opts for a bigger vehicle or different car class at a higher daily rate. However, if you have a computer printout of your reservation for a specific car class--not a specific car brand--and the car-rental firm cannot fulfill the terms of that contract, you cannot be penalized with a fee of any kind.

Business travel has made me skeptical, of course, and I wonder how long it will take the big car-rental outfits to follow in Fox's footsteps and start imposing new gimmicks like the "upgrade" fee.

ABOUT CHRIS BARNETT Chris Barnett writes about business-travel tactics and strategies that save time and money and help minimize hassles. He is based in San Francisco and has written for a wide variety of major newspapers and national magazines.

THE FINE PRINT Joe Brancatelli makes this space available to Chris Barnett in the spirit of free speech and to help encourage editorial diversity and the wider discussion of important travel issues. All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property of Barnett. This material may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of Chris Barnett.

This column is Copyright © 2013 by Chris Barnett. JoeSentMe is Copyright © 2013 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.