David Politis

Re.:  If you want my continued business, please fix your Website.

Ronald L. Nelson

Chairman & CEO

Avis Budget Group, Inc.

Dear Mr. Nelson:

I choose to use a debit card for most of my electronic payment transactions. Apparently, certain Budget Rent A Car locations do not accept debit cards for payments, which is fine. At the same time, however, many Budget Rent A Car locations do accept debit card payments.

As a result, such a nonsensical, on-again, off-again policy where the traveler is left to decipher if/when a debit card is an acceptable form of payment is crazy — and very unfriendly to the customer.

When I arrived this past Friday at the Budget Rent A Car location for the San Diego Airport, I was told in a surly manner that “We don’t accept debit cards.”

When I asked, “Since when?” (as I have used debit cards many times at other Budget rental locations), I was simply told that this was the policy and that the only way I could use my debit card was to

• Provide a current utility bill (less than 60 days old) addressed to the same address as my debit card billing address;

• Present a current passport or military identification;

• Produce a current vehicle insurance card; or

• Present a round-trip airline ticket, e-ticket or travel itinerary for your current travel disclosing a return date and the renter’s name.

Unfortunately, I do not carry any of the above-listed items with me when I travel domestically, and I now use my BlackBerry for keeping track of my travel itinerary. Unfortunately, this was not sufficient, and the only way I could rent a car from Budget in San Diego was to provide my confirmation number to the counter clerk and have her look it up in the backroom.

All told, instead of taking my average of three-to-five minutes at a rental car counter, I ended up wasting 20 minutes. No, I was NOT HAPPY! 

As crazy as it seems to me to sometimes accept a debit card with no hassles and then at other times require a traveler to jump through all sorts of hoops to be able to use a debit card, it’s a company’s prerogative to do so, whether I think it’s whack or not.

However, these policies are not easily found on the Budget Website; in fact, you have to go looking for them to even find out that they exist, and even then it’s not perfectly clear whether some locations accept debit cards or not.

I finally found the policies under the Debit Card User Instructions section.

Here is my suggestion, Mr. Nelson.

Unless you have Neanderthals supporting Budget’s Websites, it should be quite easy to create a simple Web-based, pop-up window that would appear anytime a prospective customer was about to complete a rental reservation at the San Diego airport. The language in this pop-up window could simply read as follows:

Please be advised that we do NOT accept debit cards as payment at this location without additional identification or information. Please click here for a list of such required information/identification. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you and thank you for your continued patronage.

This way, any time a traveler made a reservation at a Budget reservation that does not EASILY accept debit card payments, he/she would know in advance of the policy and could make arrangements in advance to prepare for such additional requirements.

If, for some reason, your personnel or external partners/agencies are unable to write the software code necessary to complete this simple task, please let me know and I’ll be happy to refer you or your colleagues to some programmers who can do so.

For the record, I have been a long-time Budget renter, and I hope to continue to be a Budget customer in the future. (My RapidRez number is GE352C.)

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to avoiding such auto rental hassles in the future with Budget Rent A Car.

Sincerely,

David Politis

c/o Politis Communications

&

SOAR Communications

“Maximizing corporate value
thru strategic communications”
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So I’m down in San Diego this weekend as a representative of SOAR Communications to attend the 11th annual Bicycle Leadership Conference, a three-day event presented by the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association. (The weather is fantastic, by the way: mid- to upper-60s every day. Nice!)

Anyway . . . last night, my wife (Allisha) and I headed off for a little local cuisine with my cousin, Brad (and his wife, Leslie). In the end, we selected Sambuca, an Italian Bistro, for our dining adventure.

Located at 3888 4th Avenue, Sambuca is a white linen tablecloth, sit down restaurant where the meals are prepared behind glass to the side of the dining area.

They served a wonderful antipasti sampler plate, and each of us raved about our respective meals: shrimp primavera, filet mignon and chicken marsala. I had the marsala, and it was delectable. Total cost, without alcohol, was around $100.

Although the Website is weak at best, the food is not.

So if you’re in lovely San Diego and have a hankering for Italian food, check out Sambuca, an Italian Bistro. I give it a strong THUMBS UP!

As I mentioned in my 1/9/08 post on Utah Tech Watch, I got hit with a nasty cold down in Vegas while attending CES, the Consumer Electronics Show.

While taking a taxi from the Hilton to the Sands to get my luggage, I had my cabbie stop at a “qwik mart” to look for some cough medicine, ’cause by 4 p.m. Tuesday, I felt like I was dying. My throat was on fire, I had a sinus infection that made my head feel like it was about to explode, and I was starting to ache all over. NOT good. Thank goodness for NyQuil.

By the time I got to my boarding gate, I was ready to zone out. By the way, did I mention I liked NyQuil? In fact, I was asleep before the plane pulled away from the gate and didn’t awaken until we were less than 10 minutes out of SLC International.

A BIG THUMBS UP for NyQuil!

Anyway . . . if you haven’t had this cold bug hit you, your home or office, count yourself lucky. This is probably the worst cold I’ve had in several years. I finally feel better one week later after massive doses of antibiotics, decongestants and orange juice.

And to those of you I met and/or visited with in Vegas, my sincere apologies if you caught this same cold from me. I am VERY SORRY.  

It’s been awhile since I’ve tried this, but I’m writing this post from my BlackBerry.

In looking at the tiny screen on this phone, I see that many of the features/benefits found on WordPress have been stripped out. The result is that any special formatting I want to use in this and future posts will have to be added after the fact.

But for now, the stripped down version will work. This at least provides me a vehicle for blogging wherever I am.Very cool!

If you’re looking for great Italian food, you need to head to Ottavio’s in Provo.

Nestled in a modest location on Center Street just East of University Avenue, Ottavio’s Ristorante Italiano was a wonderful recent find for me.

Everything, the festive old world murals painted on the walls, the piped-in Italian music, to the prompt and attentive service, adds to the dining atmosphere. But it is the food where Ottavio’s excels.

I happen to love veal, so I try it often. And at Ottavio’s I was not disappointed as the Vitello Parmigiana was fantastic! Definitely five stars.

Come hungry, however, as the serving plates are actually platters that arrive heaped to overflowing — big meals that require carrying with two hands (or ample “to go boxes” once you’re done eating.)

And yes, I’ve been back, twice in fact.

In other words, I give a big THUMB’S UP to Ottavio’s in Provo.

[DISCLOSURE: My daughter, Alexi, recently began working as a server at Ottavio’s, as explained here. My sister-in-law Linda also works for the owners of Ottavio’s. The food is still great, however, as attested by these other reviews for the restaurant.]