Well, my Iceland trip report is finally finalized, which means it’s time to tell a quick little additional story about something that happened during my trip.
Ok ok let me beat you to it:
- “You dummy”
- “Really?!”
- “Well duh”
- “Lol”
- “Hey where’s that $20 you owe me?”
I did a dumb. Here’s what happened.
It all started at Skogafoss
Skogafoss is incredibly beautiful. This also makes it incredibly crowded. But the crowds are worth it, honestly, because look.
I had pulled into Skogafoss at about 2pm. It was crowded all over the place so I didn’t really worry too much about taking many pictures. I figured I’d stop by to see it, then drive to my lodgings for the night, about 20 minutes north of Seljalandsfoss.
So I stopped at Skogafoss. I walked over near the falls, took the above picture, then decided to keep moving, preferring to come back to Skogafoss later.
A note: Iceland is cold
So, I was wearing jeans, a long sleeve thermal something or other, a t-shirt, and an outer jacket. Iceland is cold and windy, even at the end of summer. That said, the heater worked really well in my rental car so I usually tossed the outer jacket in the back of my rental car.
So I did the same this time. Tossed my jacket into the back, closed the hatch, and made my way over to the front door. It was locked. I reached into my jeans pocket for the car keys. There were no car keys in my pocket.
Here’s the thing about Andy and car keys
I’m very much a creature of habit. My phone has always been in a particular pocket, car keys in another, and wallet in another. I’ve been this way ever since I could drive, almost twenty years ago.
Surely you see where this is going at this point, but…
So the one thing that annoyed me about my rental car was that the button to open the hatch was broken. There was an electronic button that just didn’t work, so I had to take my keys out and unlock/open it with the key every time.
So basically what happened was I unlocked the hatch, opened it, threw my camera backpack into the car, and then dropped my keys. When I picked my keys up, for some dumb reason I put my keys in my outer jacket pocket. At the last minute, without realizing my keys were in the pocket, I threw my jacket into the back of the car for reasons still unknown to me.
So when I walked over to the car door, it was still locked. And the electric button to open the rear hatch was still broken.
My keys were locked in my car.
What options did I have?
I called Reykjavik Rent-a-car, from whom the car was rented. They told me there wasn’t anything they could do remotely. They said they could call a courier on my behalf to drive the spare key out to me though. I asked how much that would be.
THEY WANTED TO CHARGE ME $450 FOR A COURIER TO DRIVE A KEY OUT TO ME. This was more than double what I paid to rent a car for a week and was actually $11 more than I paid for my roundtrip airfare to Iceland.
I called my credit card company to see if there was anything they could do. After quite a while on hold, my Chase Sapphire Reserve representative said there was nothing they could do. Thanks, Chase! I subsequently cancelled my Chase Sapphire Reserve and heartily enjoyed telling them why I felt like I wasn’t receiving any value for the $450 annual fee I had paid.
I called Reykjavik Rent-a-car back and asked what the price would be if the car came back with a broken window. They said damage to the car started at $2000, which was hilarious, because the car was not worth $2000.
So what did I do?
I didn’t have a choice: I told them to send the courier. They demanded my credit card number before the courier could leave because he was an independent service and would charge me separately (one of the reasons my credit card insurance couldn’t help).
The courier set off on a 2-hour drive to Skogafoss and I walked around cursing for a while. Then I walked into the cafe near Skogafoss and got some food and stewed in my anger (at myself). I then started to think practically. I called Chase and initiated a chargeback against whoever it was that had just billed me. The agent then said I couldn’t charge anything back since it was my fault and I asked for the service being provided, so unless the guy just randomly didn’t show up they couldn’t do anything. Another thumbs up Chase!
Three hours later
I was sitting in the cafe eating a $40 meal of a burger and fries when I saw a big shiny Mercedes van pull up directly behind my car, blocking it into its parking space.
I walked outside to speak with the guy, who got out of his car to greet me. The following is a retelling of one of the most ridiculously hostile conversations I’ve ever had:
- He asked if I was the guy who called the courier, and, not being in the mood for chit-chat, I replied, “keys.”
- He replied, “Oh, you are still mad you locked your keys in your car,” with a bit of unnecessary attitude
- Not being one afraid of confrontation, I replied, “No, I am mad you are charging me $450 US dollars and showed up an hour late.”
- He replied, “Well I had to stop for a nap, I was very tired.”
- I speechlessly replied, “……….”
- He asked me to sign a credit card receipt, I told him to show me the keys. He showed me the keys, I signed his stupid receipt, and got the keys and my jacket out of my rental car
- I sat down in the car to get my bearings and check the map for where my hotel was when suddenly the driver appeared next to me, his van (and now the driver himself) still blocking me in
- I asked what he wanted. He replied, “I am very tired, do you mind if I have a cigarette very quickly,” and exhaled an enormous amount of cigarette smoke in my face
- I looked at this psycho with every bit of seriousness I have in me and, as calmly as I could, replied, “You have five seconds to move your car before something terrible happens.”
- He saw the truth in my eyes, got in his van, and sped off
As I try to shirk responsibility, let’s talk about Reykjavik Rent-a-car not fixing their cars
Reykjavik Rent-a-car gave me a good price on my vehicle for the week I needed it. They advertise “quality cars” on their site, but the entire reason the keys remained locked in my car was because they bought the absolute cheapest version of my car they could find. When I spoke to a reservations agent upon my return to Reykjavik she informed me that they didn’t pay extra for the ability to unlock the hatch with the remote. That this was untrue didn’t make things better, what a weird way to justify the whole situation: “it’s not our fault, we’re really cheap and try to cut costs wherever we can!”
So, the moral of the story…
Don’t be a stupid like I was. Oh, and make sure trunk buttons work on hatchbacks you rent.
OK, since you already have the most obvious comments i might make to you on this topic, I’ll just add … “nice picture”.
Haha! Thanks Randy, sorry to steal your comment!
Not much you can do in a situation like this. You could have called around to see what a replacement window would cost. If it was cheaper you could have gone that route but it likely would have been $500 in Iceland. Look at it this way. If this didn’t happen you wouldn’t have such a good story to tell for years and material for a great blog post like this one 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Andy – May I share a similar key story? We Road Warriors need to share our cautionary tales and Lessons learned for the greater good.
First I’ll tell you the lesson – I bought a carabiner and now have developed the habit of clipping all keys to the carabiner and then to the loop in my pants. Even though I’m female, I do everything I can to make sure while traveling I am wearing something with belt loops for this very purpose. I also got one of those tekvests that has pockets for everything and I never travel without those, too.
On to my story. I was on my last day on a business trip to Honolulu. Yes, that’s a thing. I had an Alamo rental car. A little economy model. I was checking out of my hotel, and true to form, I thought I had to have everything on me so I wouldn’t have to make two trips. [Note to self: geez, make two trips!]
I’m in the elevator with all my possessions. Keys are in my jeans pocket (this is pre-carabiner). Little girl in elevator starts crying as the doors open. She wants to be the absolute first person off the elevator. Me, being a mom, decide I’m going to let her do that. I step aside to hold the doors open for her to go first even though I’m at the front. As I reach over to wave her through, my keys fall out of my pocket and DOWN THE ELEVATOR SHAFT!
At first, not panicked, I calmly went to the front desk and asked if the Engineer or elevator repairman could go to the basement and retrieve the keys. Ah, nothing is simple. It was a Saturday. Hawaii is a union state. No elevator repairman until Monday. No Engineer on premises. No can do. “Keys could be caught on machinery. Might not have fallen to the ground. If your keys cause a problem with the machinery we could fine you for the repair…. and on and on…” (Interesting — that hotel went out of business and has changed hands. Wonder why…)
I Call Alamo.
“Need the spare key.”
Alamo: “No can do.”
me, “WHY?”
**Now this is important** — Always look at your keys, fellow road warriors. In some states, even in Hawaii, when they give you the keys to your car, IT’S ALL THE KEYS they have.
ALL. THE. KEYS.
They have no spare keys. Why? Because cars get dropped off in different places and managing the spare key situation is just too hard.
NOW I’m panicking. I have a plane to catch. I have a rental car collecting parking fees in the garage very soon. I have stuff in the rental car. I’m looking around for a thug who might know how to jimmy the car door and hot wire it for me.
“How much to get a new key made?” $350.00
(bad words were said here that shall not be repeated.)
Parking attendant watching all this: “Too bad you don’t have AAA.”
Me – “I do have AAA, Geez!!”
Parking attendant: “I’ll get’em for you.”
Story ends well. Turns out all that extra premium fee I paid to AAA all those years paid off. AAA Locksmith was there in 10 minutes. Got into the car. Put stuff in there for flight home. Turns out my premier fee gave me $150 worth of key services. The locksmith laughed at the fee they were going to charge me. Said that was actually for both keys. Made me a key on the spot. It was an economy car – not a chipped key (note to self: don’t go with high-falutin’ fancy cars. Keys, windows, and damage cost more!!)
Locksmith advised me to file a report with the hotel and request that on Monday the Engineer go down to the basement and retrieve the keys for Alamo. Told me to ask for a copy and give the copy to Alamo so they can coordinate. He said since we knew where the keys were, Alamo shouldn’t be a prick about it. (His word, not mine.) I tipped him $100 and tipped the parking attendant too. Made them happy and made them want to help me on Monday.
Was able to drive car to the airport and turn it in, made my flight and was only out the tips and a few new gray hairs.
Follow up – Called the hotel and Alamo on Monday. Got a really cool guy at Alamo who remembered me (and Thank God I had been nice to him…) He sent a guy over to get the keys and now they have 3 keys to the car.
TL;DR: Get a TekVest, Get a Carabiner, Develop habit of putting keys on carabiner on your person at all times; invest in AAA, Be nice to the people involved in case you need their help later. Use the services you paid for and tip generously when people help.
How’s that, Andy? Did I miss anything?
Love your blog, love your stories, love your honesty! Glad I met you on FlyerTalk!
Wow that’s awesome! Thank goodness for AAA! Thanks for sharing and for the kind words
A locksmith might have known someone who could break into the car without breaking a window.
No locksmith would touch a rental car because I didn’t have any proof of ownership of it
So you cancelled one of the best-in-class credit cards because they wouldn’t take your side in a situation where you are CLEARLY at fault? Makes sense…
I get that we’re all about working the system to our advantage as travel hackers, but damn sometimes you gotta own up when you screwed up and not point the blame at everyone around you.
Question: Did you try using a clothes hanger or something similiar (may be someone may have had one you could buy/borrow from them) and tried opening the door that way? It looks like a cheap car, so the locking mechanism was probably very basic and easy to unlock. I ask because I have done this before in the past when I still drove cheap cars.
So…you locked your keys in the car miles away from the rental company. Your mistake. You didn’t have insurance to cover it. Your mistake. The rental car company expected you to pay the actual cost of getting the keys. Their right. I’m not sure why you think everyone did you wrong here. It’s an easy mistake to make. Happens to the best of us. Perhaps just enjoy the scenery and pay the guy to get the keys and move on. The sense of entitlement isn’t pretty.
Emilie – I didn’t get entitlement from Andy’s article at all. From the beginning he admits he made a mistake. It’s a wonderful reminder to us all to pay attention and to create habits to prevent these things from happening! Geez. Chill. Oh, BTW, some foreign car rental agencies’ insurance policies wouldn’t cover the key thing anyway, so….
The important detail…How was the courier coded on the CC? So the next person who does this knows which CC to recoup points on the mistake.
I didn’t think he was entitled, but rather frustrated at an unfortunate circumstance. It’s annoying to expect a car to function properly and it doesn’t. It’s extremely frustrating to be price gouged for a courier. It’s frustrating to pay for premium cards which offer roadside assistance and not be able to get some assistance. And it is beyond reprehensible to receive such terrible service while being extorted by a courier. Thanks for sharing your cautionary tale!
Trying to initiate a chargeback was a “prick” move…