I recently used Avis, they were totally cromulent.

very often, the storebrand is usually a namebrand product with a different wrapper.

Yea, it's usually the nicer packaged, higher priced products that make dumb consumers feel like they're buying something better.

I use an app called GoMore in some places in Europe that allows you to rent cars from other peers. The rental process is cheaper and faster--everything is done through the app--and you avoid these shady corpo practices.

The term AI itself is a shifting of goalposts. What was AI 50 years ago* is now AGI, so we can call this shit AI though it's nothing of the sort. And everybody's falling for the hype: governments, militaries, police forces, care providers, hospitals... not to speak of the insane amounts of energy & resources this wastes, and other highly problematic, erm, problems. What a fucking disaster.

If it wasn't for those huge caveats I'd be all for it. Use it for what it can do (which isn't all that much), research it. But don't fall for the shit some tech bro envisions for us.

* tbf fucking around with that term probably isn't a new thing either, and science itself is divided on how to define it.

It's also the other way around. What was called AI in the past is now called bots. Simple algorithms that approximate the appearance of intelligence like even the earliest chess engines, for instance, were also called AI.

Sounds like they want to lose those customers.

I wonder what a credit card dispute would result in here. Underutilized feature when businesses pull shady shit. Think I've had 6 or so disputes over the years, never failed.

Too many people these days don't use or have access to credit cards for services like this. Many people I know only use bank debit cards, or worse, use the debit preloaded cash cards issued by their employers' payroll service provider.

Credit cards motivate banks to help you, because if you won't pay, and the business doesn't pay, the bank has to take the hit.

Debit cards will work as well if your bank values it's reputation - but not all banks do.

And I would not trust a preloaded card provider to assist. You are neither their business partner nor their customer and that puts your interests at the bottom of a very long list. You have to hope some law is on your side or that your issue is so trivial that resolving it is more cost effective then dealing with you.

Too many people these days don't use or have access to credit cards for services like this. Many people I know only use bank debit cards, or worse, use the debit preloaded cash cards issued by their employers' payroll service provider.

Credit cards motivate banks to help you, because if you won't pay, and the business doesn't pay, the bank has to take the hit.

Debit cards will work as well if your bank values it's reputation - but not all banks do.

And I would not trust a preloaded card provider to assist. You are neither their business partner nor their customer and that puts your interests at the bottom of a very long list. You have to hope some law is on your side or that your issue is so trivial that resolving it is more cost effective then dealing with you.

Sounds like they want to lose those customers.

Holy shit. The contract that dude signed had a maximum fee of $35 for EV recharge, yet they charged him $277 and claimed the contract allowed that. Thankfully, the worst I've had from Hertz is they just told me to fuck off and didn't give me my reserved vehicle.

But sometimes the nicer packaged product is better, it depends on the product.

I don't understand how this works out badly for the person using a debit card. You pay for the vehicle and if they try to make you pay more you ask for proof and if you don't get it you walk away.

Or do they require a collateral fee when renting?

I'm not sure how you can make the points you make, and still call it a "generally brilliant solution"

The entire point of this system - like anything a giant company like Hertz does - is not to be fair to the customer. The point is to screw the customer over to make money.

Not allowing human employees to challenge the incorrect AI decision is very intentional, because it defers your complaint to a later time when you have to phone customer support.

This means you no longer have the persuasion power of being there in person at the time of the assessment, with the car still there too, and means you have to muster the time and effort to call customer services - which they are hoping you won't bother doing. Even if you do call, CS hold all the cards at that point and can easily swerve you over the phone.

It's all part of the business strategy.

And all those uses are correct, because AI is a broad field. We should just use the more specific terms these days though: machine learning, LLM, Bayesian networks, etc.

I've had from Hertz is they just told me to fuck off and didn't give me my reserved vehicle.

And here I thought they just didn't like me... WTF kind of business is this lol