tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21395246490575906942012-02-16T10:38:56.951-08:00Mike Schillihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18248731075574189102noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139524649057590694.post-61221577402765591712011-05-18T06:39:00.000-07:002011-05-18T06:39:20.100-07:00It took the German Amazon website a while to offer books for the Kindle in German, but to my amazement, when I went to amazon.de this morning with my amazon.com account, I get this:<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dDM1E1RwQkw/TdPLJK77BgI/AAAAAAAAAA4/LuHUG0ifgoY/s1600/kindle-fuer-ihr-land.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dDM1E1RwQkw/TdPLJK77BgI/AAAAAAAAAA4/LuHUG0ifgoY/s1600/kindle-fuer-ihr-land.png" /></a></div>You've got to be kidding: They won't let you buy books for the American Kindle from the German site?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2139524649057590694-6122157740276559171?l=mikesmonologues.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mike Schillihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18248731075574189102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139524649057590694.post-7843641641099013442011-04-14T20:27:00.000-07:002011-04-23T22:04:24.630-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Dollar Rent-a-Car seems to have invented a new scheme on how to inflate rental fees for unexpecting US customers visiting Germany.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Before traveling to Munich recently, I had made a reservation on dollar.com in the US and printed out the confirmation.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I showed up at the Dollar Rent-a-car counter at Munich airport, however, a customer service rep named Benita Brunner refused to hand out the reserved car, demanding that I purchase additional LDW insurance.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I explained that my Visa Platinum card would cover LDW and that no additional insurance had to be purchased according to the credit card contract (also, liability insurance is included in the rental fee in Germany by law). Borderline patronizingly, she pointed at the fine print of the confirmation:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-44kJU4JX2wI/TaezbX_I6LI/AAAAAAAAAAw/uM-vMSmaU7w/s1600/dollar-contract-marked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="68" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-44kJU4JX2wI/TaezbX_I6LI/AAAAAAAAAAw/uM-vMSmaU7w/s320/dollar-contract-marked.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What? Apparently, Dollar wants a <b>*cover letter*</b> of the credit card company to accept insurance coverage? I'm not even sure the major credit card companies deal with this kind of nonsense, and I certainly didn't have a printout with me.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Long story short: They forced me to pay for insurance I already had. Instead of 168.94 Euros listed on my confirmation, I ended up paying 289.19 Euros.<br /><br />That's a 71% price increase, or, by today's currency conversion rate, $174.<br /><br />I'm going to file a complaint with their customer service department, just wanted to get the message out. Be careful to not step into this trap.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2139524649057590694-784364164109901344?l=mikesmonologues.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mike Schillihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18248731075574189102noreply@blogger.com0