[toddsiegel]

I feel like this too, but only when other people are at the counter.

When I’m at the counter the whole thing never seems to take more than a few minutes. It’s always quick, and smooth, and I’m out of there, seemingly, in no time at all.

I desperately want to know what other people are saying or doing at the rental car counter.

[lowercased]

Same thing at drive up ATMs. it feels like people are applying for a mortgage or opening retirement accounts when I'm behind them waiting. And... I know it's an exaggeration, but often I will time the person or people in front of me. Someone taking up to 1 minute - I don't generally mind (unless theres 3 people ahead of me). However, I've often sat behind someone who takes 3-4 minutes, and I can not figure out what the hell they're doing.

That said, I think I've only used an ATM 3x in the past year, so this may mostly be a thing of the past now.

[CydeWeys]

I have been, in the past, that annoying person taking up lots of time at the ATM. Here's what I was doing: Depositing lots of checks (up to a dozen at once), with an ATM that in theory supported depositing a whole stack at once but in practice spat them back most of the time if you put in more than one. Oh, and you have to key in the value of each check, and navigate menu options after each individual check deposit.

I was very damn efficient considering how much I was doing, but it still took a decent amount of time.

[clairity]

yah, it usually takes me 1-2 uses of any given atm to have the whole flow memorized for getting cash out, so that the next time i go, it's like speedrun time.

even at grocery self-checkout, the quirks of a given checkout machine get embedded in my brain so that i gravitate toward the quickest route through. produce lookup and weight vs. count are usually the biggest stumbling blocks. one nice trick is that the credit card terminal is independent from the checkout flow, so you can do those more-or-less in parallel towards the end.

[pelasaco]

and then the Person in front of you, pull a second card from his/her pocket and do the same procedure wit the second card...

[Ontonator]

The longer someone is at the counter, the more likely you are to see them. You’re biased towards seeing the relatively few people who take half an hour.

[zhte415]

I'm reminded of this train/bus is taking ages to come.

If one comes, say, every 15 minutes, that's an average waiting time of 7.5 minutes (and there's a +/- of around a minute for whether the 'time' is arrival, doors opening, closing, departure, depending on one's perspective of which 'time' is important to them).

If one's already there, or comes within 1-2 minutes, that's perceptively close to time = 0, which pushes out perceived average waiting time to 8-9 minutes with times approaching or exceeding average waiting time having a disproportionately negative perception (your total journey time/connection impact, expectation of unannounced cancellation, etc, increasing).

Nifty modern stuff like indicator boards work to re-align these perceptions.

Passage of time is also quite non-linear - back to the ATM queue. When using the ATM I'm engaged in a series of short-term tasks, just as writing a comment on HN when sitting on the subway causes stations to pass 'faster'.

And back to the ATM - I'm sure there's someone somewhere in a retail banking team that measures average interaction with ATM timings. Do they read HN or would like to comment?

[ajmurmann]

But those are also the people who ruin it for everyone. Why not heavily optimize for the 90% good case via full automation and discourage time intensive behavior. I'm thinking either only taking online reservations or doing a 30% surcharge for walk-ins. The happy case should be that I book online, I get a parking spot location where the car is and a QR code I show on exit. Hertz Gold at SFO is like 80% there, yet the normal case remains having to walk to a desk. It seems in their interest to discourage going to the desk as much as possible.

[daoismyname]

That's not the interesting part though.

The interesting part is WHY for some people it takes so long that everybody else has to wait.

Imagine being on a high speed train and having to travel at the speed of the slowest train in front or if e-mail were sent using snail mail.

It obviously happens frequently enough that virtually everyone who ever rented a car - even only that one time - noticed it, so why they do not optimize for that?

I used to rent cars very often and I had to wait every single time I went there, it's not really a bias, it's a certainty.

Lately there have been some improvements on that front and a couple of the major rental companies made it almost painless if you are a regular customer, but it's still a lottery most of the times.

[e_proxus]

The key is preparation. It’s the same for me at hotel check-ins. I’m always prepared, I have all my info available in my mobile or on paper, I’ve already thought about the trip several times before and on the way.

Some people seem utterly unprepared. They either don’t have their info at all, or have to login to their web mail, or find some printed paper at the bottom of their enormous suitcase. And then they tend to have tons of questions. I check out the facilities beforehand online so I know what to expect and how to use them.

[cpcallen]

I recently rented a car for the first time, with a co-driver. The rental was paid in advance online (which seemed to be the norm here in the UK) and I thought it was going to be fairly straightforward and quick to collect the car.

Instead, after waiting about 15 minutes for the single person ahead of us in line to be processed, we were met with a series of demands for various sorts of verification and documentation that has not been mentioned in the online checkout process. This included having to use a .gov.uk website to get a code that would allow the company to validate our driving licences, and provide a proof of address (despite our addresses being printed on our government-issued, just-verified-authentic driver's licences.)

The whole process took nearly half an hour just at the desk. I am glad that there was no one waiting in line behind us most of that time.

I've now joined ZipCar and will hopefully never have to deal with a traditional car hire company again.

[llampx]

Seriously, I have seen this phenomenon at government offices as well. Every other appointment seems to take ages, and mine takes a fraction of the time, no matter the outcome.

[mitigating]

They probably didn't rent online

[ajmurmann]

Maybe adding a surcharge for walk-ins or having a separate line for them seems like the way to go. Or maybe don't allow them at all and lay off the staff saved.

[spurgu]

In Europe the companies I've dealt with try to confuse you into buying various insurances, where you were under the impression that you had already paid for it when doing the online booking. Figuring out what the actual situation is takes time.

Tip: Do your research and read the fine print online before you leave for your trip.

[sjg007]

There's always someone trying to get a discount or unhappy with their car or something. This is why you join the rewards program, preregister and do the walk out program where everything is all preset and ready to go.

[bennysomething]

Standing at the counter is June at as bad, I'm still wondering wtf the guy is looking at on his screen