I run a (very) small mom-and-pop business, supplying rental equipment for do-it-yourself customers, to retail stores that act as my rental agents.

Most of my customers are independently owned hardware stores like Ace, True Value, etc.

I have thousands of rentals each year, almost all of them are painless and trouble-free. But (there's always a "but") a tiny fraction, maybe one or two out of several thousand, are problem cases. They do not understand, or maybe do not care, that the rental is for a 24-hour period. Yeah, some of these are for hotel / motel use, where they let the store know up front that they will be keeping the equipment for a few days and, of course, paying the daily rental fee for each day. Those are great. The problem is always the home owner or renter who just can't be bothered to return the rental equipment, maybe a couple thousand bucks worth.

One of my customers, an Ace hardware, had a case like this last month. Three weeks on a 24-hour rental. Once I found out about it I drove by the house which appeared abandoned, but there was a Sebring convertible and a Tahoe in the back yard, both looked well taken care of. Turned out that the people had gone out of town and neglected to return the rental equipment before they left.

Last night I got a text from the manager of the same store. She had just returned from vacation, checked my equipment, and found another rental that had gone out two weeks ago and not returned.

So, there goes my Saturday. An hour to drive to that store, confer with the manager, get a copy of the rental contract, drive past the customer's house, at which point I will assess the situation and decide whether I feel comfortable about knocking on the door or whether I should go to the police station and request an escort. A very subjective decision, going on gut instinct. Yeah, I'll be carrying, and no, hell no, I don't want to "have to" be carrying. I'll also have to stash the SIG if I have to go into the police station; going into a police station armed, is a no-no under Florida statute.

I hate this crap.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: V-Tail,

Double edged sword I know but it seems you need a way of "punishing" your agents that allow this to happen.

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You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to...

Remember to close your eyes and click your hammer dropper thingy three times...

quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
Double edged sword I know but it seems you need a way of "punishing" your agents that allow this to happen.

Can't do that. It would be too easy for the store owner to tell me to get my stuff out of the store. They could go to my competition, Rug Doctor, or Bissell, or they could buy their own equipment.

What I give the store owners, that they do not get from the "Big Guys" is friendly, personal, responsive, service. "Punishing them" would be counter-productive. I try to educate them, try to keep them aware that we have a partnership. When I make money on my product, they make money. It works very well with some of the store owners, not so well with others. They are all individuals. Unique, just like snowflakes.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

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You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to shoot them.

You are not allowed to...

Remember to close your eyes and click your hammer dropper thingy three times...

Temptation must be resisted.

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I have thousands of rentals each year, almost all of them are painless and trouble-free. But (there's always a "but") a tiny fraction, maybe one or two out of several thousand, are problem cases.

life is not perfect but it sounds pretty good from here

Do you service the ace hardware in umatilla?

Simple solution:

Charge your agents accordingly and let them recover the past due fees.

Can't you just shoot AT them instead?

Nothing like the wiz of a supersonic bee past the ear to get one's attention.

"24 hours? You mean, like in a row?"

Is there a late fee or a fee for each additional day they keep the equipment? Do the rental agents take a credit card authorization or hold deposit until the equipment is returned?

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Originally posted by sjp:
Do you service the ace hardware in umatilla?

Umatilla, Oregon? I work at the dam there.

V-Tail, I hope you have everything sorted out now.

Dave

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Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Simple solution:

Charge your agents accordingly and let them recover the past due fees.

Nope. I don't need to aggravate the store owners. All that would accomplish, is encourage them to switch to another vendor and I would lose a customer.

Carrot and stick. The stick does not work in this situation. Need to find a better carrot. I have already suggested that the store owners charge the end-user renters a bigger deposit at the time of checkout. Enough to encourage renters to bring the equipment back on a timely basis, or to cover extra days if needed.

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quote:

Jimmy123x:
Is there a late fee or a fee for each additional day they keep the equipment? Do the rental agents take a credit card authorization or hold deposit until the equipment is returned?

The rental charge is for each 24 hours (yes, zoom, in a row). Some customers, like hotel / motel, will rent for multiple days. No problem with this, they pay for what they use. My aggravation is the irresponsible individual customer who just does not bring the equipment back for whatever dumb excuse they dream up.

I used to ask the stores to enter a charge on the customer's credit card in these cases, but now with chip cards it doesn't work as easily.

Keep the deposits, yes, we do, but the deposits are no where large enough to cover the loss.

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Originally posted by lizardman_u:

quote:

Originally posted by sjp:
Do you service the ace hardware in umatilla?

Umatilla, Oregon? I work at the dam there.

V-Tail, I hope you have everything sorted out now.

Umatilla Florida. No, the Carter family, who own a bunch of Ace stores in the area, are not my customers. They used to be served by another company like mine -- there were about five of us in Forida -- but they succumbed to Bissell's marketing and now rent Bissell machines, instead of our better Thermax machines. Closest stores to Umatilla that I serve are the three Ace hardware stores in Deltona, or the Wekiva True Value in Longwood.

I normally don't do direct rentals to the end-user, but if any forum member wants to come to my hangar at the Apopka airport to pick up the equipment I will give a substantial discount on the rental. My email is in my profile.

I don't understand the problem. Three weeks rented out solid is awesome. Are the disputing the charge with CC company? I assume you have a signed rental agreement and I can't imagine how they'd wiggle out of the charges. Is the store refusing to charge the customer based on the contract?

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Originally posted by Skins2881:
I don't understand the problem. Three weeks rented out solid is awesome. Are the disputing the charge with CC company? I assume you have a signed rental agreement and I can't imagine how they'd wiggle out of the charges. Is the store refusing to charge the customer based on the contract?

Yes. To clarify, my rant is about two separate instances with the same store. First one, one day rental is pre-paid, customers leave town. They finally return from vacation or whatever, store is able to contact them, husband gives some BS answer "Oh, I thought my wife returned it before we left town."

Store manager just tells them to return the equipment, "no questions asked." I found out about it after the fact, too late to do anything.

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Second one, I spent most of yesterday (there went my Saturday trip to the gun club ) dealing with it. True miscreant. Had the equipment for two weeks. Store manager had called him a week ago, he "couldn't bring it back" because he "had no ride."

I was notified about this on Friday, went there Saturday (yesterday). Went to house, two vehicles in the driveway. "No ride?"

Spoke with adult male who said he was not the person who rented it, that person was not there at the time, knew nothing about the equipment, was not really cooperative. Not belligerent or anything, just didn't seem to give a shit.

I told him to tell the renter that my next stop, five minutes from them, would be to fill out police report, press charges under Florida statute 812.155 which defines failure to return rental property OR to pay all charges in full, as a felony. I said that I would drop charges when equipment is returned and ALL rental is paid in full.

I met with sheriff deputy immediately after, did the paperwork. A while later I got a message from the store stating that equipment had been returned but guy said he did not have any money, claimed he did not have credit card with him. I will continue with prosecution. Tired of this crap.

I usually have a situation like this once every two or three years. Usually around the Thanksgiving / Christmas holiday period, when people are doing house cleaning for the holidays. This year, three in September / October, all in the same city (Deltona FL), two from the same store.

People suck. Sorry you have to deal with this

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Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
People suck. Sorry you have to deal with this

Nah, most people don't suck. Just a few. I hit the bad apple every now and again and I get all aggravated.

Overall, it really isn't that bad. I just had to vent. Don't really want to rant and rave in the store, where good will with the customer (my customer is the store owner) is important, so I came here to let off steam.

All in all, it's a decent business. I'm sitting here looking at SIGforum, and my carpet cleaning machines are out there, earning. Not really all that bad. Tomorrow morning I'm planning to do some reloading while the machines are out there earning.

V-tail are you airport at Herndon blvd and Colonial ?