If I could give this place zero stars I would. I live out of state, and I was in Sitka for about…read more3 months for work. My company rented a pickup truck for me to use for those three months. On my very last day in Sitka, the local police department pulled me over and gave me a ticket for driving a vehicle (the Birch truck) with expired license plate tags. The officer showed me the Washington State tag and it was indeed expired. (I recall it had expired a year and a half or maybe two years earlier.) The officer was very apologetic to me. Before he even asked for my driver's license, he said that he knew that I was from out-of-town, and that I "would be stuck in the middle of it." He knew I was from out-of-town because because it's a small town, and it's a rental truck. He knows the normal drivers. He went on: He said that he felt that he had to pull me over and give me a ticket because he needs to "send a message to Birch Equipment, because that's the only way they will listen". He said that he has gone round-and-round with Birch equipment over the past year and a half about having the expired tags. He said "The Birch people will tell you that it's a fleet vehicle that is licensed in Washington State, and that they are not required to license it in Alaska. You can tell them, as I've told them, that it's true they wouldn't need an Alaska tag, except for the fact that the vehicle hasn't left the state since it got here, and they are required to pay the registration after 30 days." So now I had a ticket issued personally to me, on my last day in Sitka, Alaska, whereas I was flying out of state home the next day. No problem, I thought. I immediately drove over to Birch and asked them to pay the ticket for me, as I shouldn't be in the middle of this mess. And could they please just go to the police department and pay the fine (I recall it as being $100+), as opposed to giving me a credit on the rental. Keep in mind that this is a very tiny and very "slow" town. It would have been no problem to drive the 5 minutes to City Hall and pay the fine. I was shocked at his answer. Stunned, actually!!! He absolutely would not pay the fine! In fact, he said he would NOT issue a credit on the rental!!! The Birch employee said that he'd gone around and around with the police on this, and that "Birch is in the right", and that he is not paying any such "unnecessary" fine. I explained to him that good customer service would be that Birch pay the ticket, right or wrong, just so that the customer wouldn't need to be drawn into the mess between them and the police department. By God, he would not budge at all and suggested that I just ignore the ticket, and not pay it! ( Huh? Does he know anything about the law?) I showed him the back of the ticket, where it said that I must pay the fine with cash or cashier's check within 14 days or agree to a court date in the future, or a warrant will be issued for my arrest. I explained that my company has routinely mailed things to me, and I have mailed things from Sitka to home, including Express Mail (no FedEx, here!), and it routinely takes more than 14 days to and from this island. So he is asking me to choose between 1. Returning to Alaska to fight a $100 ticket for driving a vehicle without a current tag, which I'm convinced I would lose, or, 2, go to an ATM and withdraw cash (The banks were closed on this, my last day in Sitka), or 3. Have an outstanding warrant for my arrest. What choices! Birch should pay the fee so that the customer that rented a truck for 3 entire months wouldn't be drawn into the middle of it!!. But he would not have it. So I had to choice but to go to an ATM machine, collect cash, go to City Hall and then pay the fine. The next morning, on the way to the airport, I dropped the truck off at Birch after-hours as previously arranged. My company reimbursed me for my expenses, of course. Now you may be wondering why it's taken me so long to write this review. This is why: For those three months that I was in Sitka, the truck was supposed to be charged to my credit card each week. But many times, the charge was done every 10 days or more. Sometimes less. It was not consistent. About a month after my trip, and I was going over my expense report and credit card statements, I noticed that Birch forgot to charge me for the last 10 days of the rental. So I've been watching it. It was never charged. I wanted to wait an extra good long time, such as a couple of years to write this review so that the bookkeeping error would be to their own disadvantage. Normally I would have brought this type of thing up to a business so that I can be properly charged. I decided not to this time. Karma! A Final note: I've researched. Alaska is not a partner in the Washington State International Registration Plan for fleet vehicle licensing. The Policeman was right! Washington's fleet tags are not valid in Alaska. Other states..yes.
