Hertz Makes Amends

I recently wrote about a 2-part epic fail with a car rental from Payless here and here. My string of bad luck with car rental companies extended to my very next rental, this time with Hertz.

A couple weeks ahead of time, I reserved my rental car through Hertz via Expedia. On the day before and the day of my car rental, I received text messages to remind me about my reservation.

On 12/1/2025, I picked up my rental car from the Indianapolis International Airport (IND). Upon leaving the car rental facility, an agent asked me for my driver license. She appeared to do some sort of data entry and then handed my driver license back to me and opened the gate to let me through, all without saying another word. I confirmed that I was free to go, to which she nodded, so I was on my merry way.

On 12/6/2025, I filled up the gas tank at the Shell station on the outskirts of the IND and then returned the car to Hertz. Because of my prior car rental for which I was charged $727.41 for “glass damage” that I did not incur, I took photos of the car’s exterior before walking away. I felt that everything went smoothly with this car rental (foreshadowing).

On 12/9/2025, I received an email from Hertz along with an invoice and an unexpected charge on my credit card for $90.25.

I called Hertz to inquire about the charges and specifically asked about the “FUEL & SERVICE” charge for $69.43. The Hertz representative said it was documented that the fuel gauge was 61% when the car was returned. I said that it must have been an error because I verified that the fuel gauge was in fact full after I filled the tank. As an aside, the fuel gauge was analog with markings at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, so how in the world did they determine that it was 61% full? But I digress. I said that I didn’t have a photo of the fuel gauge, but I did have a receipt from the Shell station where I pumped gas immediately before returning the car. Originally the agent asked me to email the gas receipt to customerrelations@hertz.com and ask them to consider reversing the charge. He then placed me on a brief hold and then decided to just process a refund on the spot. I was told that it would take 3-5 business days for me to be credited the $90.25 (by the way, this happened earlier today, and I hope I don’t have to write a follow-up to this post about not getting my refund). He also apologized for the inconvenience and credited my rewards account with 1900 points which he said was enough for 1 free day of rental (I’d be responsible for paying tax on the rental).

Although I was the victim of errors at both Payless and Hertz, I think my experience at Payless was worse. Payless made multiple errors (did not charge car battery, did not give me charging cable, and erroneously charged me for glass damage), and I made more than 20 phone calls to get all of these issues resolved. On the other hand, Hertz made 1 error (erroneously charged me for fuel service), and it took 1 phone call to resolve (again, I have not yet received my refund, so I hope I am not speaking too soon). Additionally, they apologized and issued me reward points. I will probably never use the points because I spread my rentals across many car rental companies based on wherever I can get the best deal, but it was a nice gesture, and I felt that the customer service was better at Hertz. I think I am willing to use Hertz again in the future, but I can’t say the same for Payless.

Payless Car Rental - The Sequel

In my last blog post, I wrote about a bad experience that I had with a car rental from Payless. It turns out that there was a sequel to the saga which I discovered when I received the following letter via US mail:

I was being charged $727.41 for “glass damage” that I did not incur. In fact, I have photographic evidence that all the windows on the Hyundai IONIQ 5 were intact when the tow truck driver took possession of the vehicle:

I called 1-888-728-5377 as instructed on the letter from Payless. When speaking to an agent, I was told that the number is only for Avis and Budget rentals, and I was instructed to call 1-800-729-5377 instead. To be honest, I was not surprised that Payless put the wrong phone number on the letter. Annoyed, yes. Surprised, no.

Anyway, I called the correct number and gave the Payless agent my rental number and stated that I did not damage any glass and I had photos to prove it. I wanted to first ask what glass was allegedly damaged, and I was ready to ask how they wanted me to provide the photos of the Hyundai IONIQ 5 with all the windows intact. She placed me on hold for a few minutes and then told me that my charges would be dismissed because the charge was invalid. I was relieved to hear that, but I was also curious to understand why the charge was invalid. She stated that whoever brought the charge against me did not provide any photos or evidence when reporting the damage. I was also told that I would receive an email confirmation within 4 hours of the dismissal of charges, and she confirmed my email address. I asked for a case number in case something happened, and she provided that information to me. It’s been more than 12 hours, and I have not received an email confirmation from Payless either in my inbox or spam folder. Again, I’m not surprised. I’m glad that I asked for the case number, although I hope that this saga is over and that I will not have to use it.

I still don’t know exactly what led to the generation of the “glass damage” charge. It is possible that the entire thing was a mistake, or perhaps glass was damaged during or after towing. In any case, there are 2 takeaways from this experience. First, I am glad that I took photos of the rental car when the towing company took possession of it. I don’t know if I will routinely photograph every rental car that I return, but for special circumstances such as the sequence of events that transpired with this rental, it made sense for me to take photos, and I’m happy that I did. Second, I will never rent from Payless again.

Payless Car Rental - Epic Fail

I travel regularly and have rented cars from many agencies in many cities. For my last visit to Indianapolis, I rented a car from Payless. I booked the rental through Expedia like I normally do, and an electric vehicle (EV) from Payless was the least expensive option, so I went with that. I have rented EVs before, as I am comfortable driving and charging them. We have a Tesla Model Y at home, so EVs are familiar to me.

At the rental counter, the agent confirmed that I was OK with a Hyundai IONIQ 5, and I said yes. She emphasized that I must return the vehicle with at least 70% battery life to avoid a fee, and I acknowledged. When I started the car, I noticed that the battery was at 25% with an estimated range of 60 miles. I mentioned this to the gate attendant who checked my paperwork and driver license, and I asked him to document that the battery level was 25%. He declined to document this. I stated that the lady at the rental counter made a big deal about me incurring fees if I don’t return it at 70%, and I didn’t think it was fair for me (or rather, my company) to have to pay for miles that I didn’t use. Again, he declined to document the battery level and said, “It’s not even worth it to document” and told me to just return the car at 25% and I would not get charged. I felt that this exposed me to unnecessary risk, so I took a photo of the dashboard with the battery level, making sure to also capture the clock to note the time and portions of the car rental facility to provide evidence that the 25% battery level was taken before I drove the car off the lot.

I drove 30 miles to my destination, by which time the battery level fell to 13% with an estimated range of 30 miles, so I had used half of the remaining charge to drive to my destination.

I often stay at a corporate apartment where I plug in EVs to charge them overnight. However, there was a second problem with this rental from Payless. The car did not come with a charging cable like it normally does. I searched the entire car, and the only trace of a charging cable was an empty bag in the trunk where I think the charging cable would normally have been stored.

I called Payless to ask them to document that the battery level was 25% upon pickup, which they did. I also asked them send a charging cable to me or allow me to drive to a nearby rental facility to pick up a charging cable, but they said my only option was to drive back to the airport to get a charging cable or replace the vehicle. I said that I wasn’t sure if I could make it all the way back to the airport without the battery dying. They gave me 2 options: call roadside assistance to have the car towed, or go to a local Avis or Budget car rental facility, as they are sister companies with Payless. I preferred to try Avis or Budget because it seemed like such a waste to have the car towed when there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. The local Avis and Budget rental facilities which were just a few miles away, and I decided to call them in the morning because it was after hours and those facilities were already closed.

Meanwhile, I tried to resolve the battery charging issue on my own and decided to look for charging stations in the area. Public charging stations have charging cables tethered to them, so my lack of a charging cable would be a non-issue when using public EV charging stations. I found a free charging station next to the corporate apartment, but there was only 1 charger and it was taken. I returned an hour later, and the same car was still using the charger. I then located another charging station, only to find that the entire facility was out of order and sectioned off with “do not cross” tape. I found a third charging station with 2 charging stalls, both unoccupied. But when I tried to charge the vehicle, it refused to let me do a 1-time charge with a credit card. Instead, it required that I download their app, set up an account, and upload my credit card information to the app. By this time, it was past 11 PM, and I had completely run out of patience and decided to go back to the apartment to get some sleep rather than set up the account and sit there while waiting for the car to charge.

First thing the next morning, I called the local Avis and Budget car rental facilities. Unfortunately one of them stated that they had no charging cables or available cars, and the other one stated that their computer systems were not capable of handling rentals from Payless despite them being sister companies. So my last option was to get the car towed. I called Payless Emergency Roadside Assistance and summarized my situation. The dispatcher initially said that I needed to hop in the tow truck and accompany the EV back to the airport, exchange the car, and drive back to my origin. I politely reminded him that Payless made 2 errors by giving me a rental car with 25% battery and omitting a charging cable, and because I spent almost my entire evening and part of my morning trying to rectify their mistakes, and making more than 20 phone calls, half of which were a result of me being disconnected, I asked that they send the replacement vehicle to the office where I work, and they obliged. The dispatcher asked me if I had a preference for a vehicle, and I said that any sedan was fine, even an EV, as long as it was properly charged and came with a charging cable. They said that my replacement vehicle would be “same, similar, or better”.

So Payless Emergency Roadside Assistance towed my replacement vehicle, a Toyota Tundra, 30 miles from the airport to my office, swapped vehicles, and then towed a perfectly working Hyundai IONIQ 5 another 30 miles back to the airport, all because it was not in their standard operating procedures to send me a charging cable. And of course, I thought it was fitting that they gave me a monster of a car as a replacement. The Tundra barely fit in the garage, and its gas mileage is poor as compared with sedans. But at least I had a vehicle to drive and no longer felt stranded.

The moral of the story is that if you rent an EV, make sure you have a way to charge it before you drive it off the lot. If you plan to charge it using standard electrical outlets, make sure the EV comes with a charging cable and recognize that it will trickle charge, perhaps adding a few miles of range for every hour of charging. If you plan to charge it using public charging stations (which charge the vehicle more quickly), make sure you are aware of the charging infrastructure and either have your accounts properly configured or be prepared to create new accounts along the way.

Final Cut Pro Video Exports

I recently made a video to commemorate my daughter’s 16th birthday, and I wanted the video to be of the highest possible quality, so I decided to use 4K (technically UHD, 3840x2160) resolution. The videos from my daughter’s first few years were recorded in 720p or 1080p, so I researched methods to upscale videos for the purpose of getting higher quality videos from Final Cut Pro (FCP). Bottom line: while FCP can upscale videos, you’re better off with a third party video upscaling application like Topaz Video AI. What I also found out was that all these years I’ve been exporting videos from FCP the wrong way.

Normally I’d export my FCP projects using the H.264 codec. I learned that it’s better to export from FCP using one of the Apple ProRes codecs (Apple ProRes 422 offers a good balance between quality and file size) and then use Compressor to convert the ProRes video to the H.264 codec. FCP uses Apple’s internal H.264 encoding engine which is optimized for speed, but it doesn’t always use the most efficient compression passes or bit allocation strategies. It may use a single-pass variable bitrate encode with conservative parameters which results in a quick export but can produce larger file sizes and may be associated with some quality loss. On the other hand, exporting in Apple ProRes is an intra-frame codec that yields a high-quality master, and feeding that master to Compressor has quality advantages. Using the Social Platforms > 4K preset, Compressor uses multi-pass encoding and performs better motion analysis and bitrate distribution, giving more bits to complex scenes and fewer to static ones. Here are the file sizes for each workflow:

1-STEP WORKFLOW
FCP export with H.264 codec: 8.44 GB

2-STEP WORKFLOW

FCP export with Apple ProRes 422 codec: 72.34 GB
…followed by Compressor conversion to H.264 codec: 5.15 GB

In full screen mode on a 32-inch UHD 3840x2160 monitor, I cannot see any difference in quality between the two H.264 files. In reality, there are some technical advantages with the 2-step workflow. FCP’s built-in exporter prioritizes speed over compression precision, which can lead to slight quality loss. The 2-step workflow is superior because Compressor encodes from a pristine, uncompressed ProRes master using more advanced multi-pass analysis and smarter bitrate allocation, producing a cleaner, more efficient H.264 file. It’s like the difference between working with an original photo vs. a photocopy. Perhaps a more discerning set of eyes could tell the difference in quality, but I’ll just conclude that the 2-step workflow yields a file whose visual quality is at least as good as or possibly better than the 1-step workflow.

So in summary, the 1-step export from FCP to H.264 is faster but comes at the expense of larger file sizes and possibly some slight degradation in quality, whereas the 2-step process involving FCP export to ProRes, followed by Compressor conversion to H.264 takes longer but results in smaller file sizes and equally good if not slightly better quality. I don’t mind waiting a few minutes for Compressor to convert videos, so unless I’m feeling particularly impatient, I plan to use the 2-step workflow from now on.

For more on this topic, see this article. Happy video encoding!

Ultra-Think Mode for LLMs

I use large language models (LLMs) almost every day to ask a variety of questions ranging from simple to complex. By default, LLMs generally provide concise answers. Did you know that you can alter the default prompting style? You can shape how LLMs respond through a set of instructions. For example, try using the following as your next prompt (copy and paste in its entirety):

From now on, use Ultra-Think Mode. That means:
• Analyze problems step-by-step before giving conclusions
• Explain reasoning clearly and in plain English
• Consider alternative explanations or perspectives
• End with a short summary or takeaway
If I say “Ultra-Think off”, go back to your normal concise style.

For both ChatGPT and Google Gemini, I’ve found that Ultra-Think Mode results in a structured response that follows a logical flow. Responses are slightly longer, but they remain topically relevant. I have not tried Ultra-Think Mode for other LLMs, so results may vary.

When I asked ChatGPT to tell me about Ultra-Think Mode, it emphasized that it is not an official ChatGPT feature name or setting. Rather, it is a behavioral configuration achieved through prompting. With some additional inquiries, it said that the following are all appropriate terms to describe Ultra-Think Mode:

• Prompting style: The most accurate everyday term. It’s a way of shaping how the model responds through instructions.
• Cognitive scaffolding prompt: A more technical term sometimes used in AI alignment and education research — it means a prompt that guides structured reasoning (like step-by-step analysis).
• Metacognitive framework: In human reasoning terms, it’s a way of prompting the model to think about how it thinks — examining assumptions, alternatives, and reasoning clarity.
• Response protocol: A practical phrasing for users who treat it as a repeatable, standardized mode of communication.
• Instructional schema: In prompt engineering, “schema” refers to a reusable instruction set that defines structure, tone, and reasoning process. Ultra-Think Mode fits that definition well.

Based on these explanations, I would expect Ultra-Think Mode to work similarly across many LLMs. Regardless of how you’d classify Ultra-Think Mode, let me know if you think it is useful. And if you have found other prompting styles that are useful for certain inquiries, leave a comment!

Bartering for a Phone

I sell a variety of items on Craigslist, and I am accustomed to receiving lowball offers and scams. I recently received a different kind of inquiry that I thought was too funny not to share.

I don’t know if the buyer was serious, as I simply did not respond.

Retrieval of Apple Card & Savings PDF Statements

I have accounts with both Apple Card and Apple Card Savings. At the end of each month, I receive an email for each account that tells me my statements are ready for viewing.

I prefer to download my statements so I can view them on my laptop or desktop computer. Apple Support provides guidance on how to view and download Apple Card statements and Apple Card Savings statements. There are lots of steps involved, and here’s what I have to do to retrieve my statements through the Wallet app on my iPhone.

Apple Card

1. Open the Wallet app
2. Tap Apple Card
3. Tap Card Balance
4. Under Statements, tap the monthly statement you want to view
5. Tap Download PDF Statement
6. When your PDF statement appears, tap the Share icon
7. Tap AirDrop
8. Tap the device that will receive the PDF file
9. Tap the X to close AirDrop
10. Tap anywhere other than the Share window to close the Share options
11. Tap the X to close the PDF statement
12. Tap the < to return to return to your statements
13. Tap the < to return to Apple Card

Apple Card Savings

1. Open the Wallet app
2. Tap Apple Card
3. Tap Savings Account
4. Tap the 3 dots
5. Tap Documents
6. Tap Statements
7. Under Statements, tap the monthly statement you want to view
8. Tap View PDF Statement
9. When your PDF statement appears, tap the Share icon
10. Tap AirDrop
11. Tap the device that will receive the PDF file
12. Tap the X to close AirDrop
13. Tap anywhere other than the Share window to close the Share options
14. Tap the X to close the PDF statement
15. Tap the < to return to return to your statements
16. Tap the < to return to return to your documents
17. Tap the < to return to return to Apple Savings
18. Tap the < to return to Apple Card

Note that Apple Card statements can also be downloaded via laptop or desktop:

1. Launch a web browser
2. Go to https://card.apple.com
3. Click Sign In
4. Authenticate (e.g., with Touch ID)
5. Click Statements
6. Click the download icon next to the monthly statement you want to view

Although there are fewer steps required to download the Apple Card statement on a browser, there is currently no option to download Apple Card Savings statements on a browser. Therefore, I prefer to download and AirDrop both statements from my iPhone. It would be nice if (1) there was a way to also download Savings statements from the Apple Card website and/or (2) the process for downloading statements through the iOS Wallet app required fewer steps. Are you aware of a more efficient process to retrieve your statements?