My wife and I were vacationing in Paris, France a few years ago. This was our penultimate day before we left for Rome and we decided to visit the Gardens of Versailles. We had a few issues getting there as you need to change metro lines to get there from where we were staying (we had rented an apartment close to the Louvre) and frankly, I made a mistake interpreting the instructions to get there.
Anyway, we arrived past noon. That bummed us out, but we decided to make the most of the day anyway. After visiting the palace, we decided to rent some bikes in order to cover more ground as the gardens are huge (at least they are to my Puerto Rican sensibilities). During the renting process I was asked for an ID document for them to hold until I returned the bikes, so I gave them a copy of my driver’s license.
We were allowed to choose our bikes and both of them included locks. I’m not much of a bike rider, nor am I familiar with the locks they included so I didn’t pay attention to make sure that everything was fine. So anyway, we storm off and have a wonderful time visiting the Gardens, taking photos, and just taking in the beautiful sights. We got to the entrance to a separate, smaller garden, and we needed to park the bikes to get in. That’s when I noticed that I didn’t have the key the lock that I got on mine. No biggie, I thought to myself. I just waited outside since I couldn’t secure the bike as my wife went into the small section.
After we were done and went to return the bikes, the lady at the counter asked me about the key to the lock. I told her that I didn’t find a key to the lock; I think I may have been given a lock without a key. She didn’t like my saying that and immediately got on my case on how she personally makes sure that every lock has a key and that she never fails her job and asking a fellow employee to vouch for her thoroughness. I apologized and asked her about the fee to replace the lock since there was no key to it. She got incensed and told me how there was no fee and that she would keep my documents (my driver’s license) for having lost the key. I politely asked her if there was a way I could pay a fee, since I found it unreasonable for them to deny returning my license. She started being rude again, yelling at me in French.
Ok, I thought to myself. The ID is a guarantee for me to return the bikes and it wasn’t being returned to me and she wouldn’t even negotiate a fee to get it back, so I was under no obligation to return the bikes. I calmly waked away from the counter and into the lot with the bikes. The employee at the lot was confused, but didn’t say anything and I looked for the bikes that we had returned and grabbed them and started to leave with them. At this point I heard a shout as I left the lot with the bikes and this older man asks me why I had returned to take the bikes that I had returned. I explained myself to him and how I felt no obligation to return the bikes as the lady wouldn’t return my driver’s license. He promptly worked out a fee for me; it was about 5 Euros if memory serves me right. I paid the fee and walked away with my driver’s license. I wonder why the lady didn’t try to work out a fee with me, but I have to thank her for the fun of watching their faces as I walked out of the lot with the bikes in tow.