Drove from Los Angeles to Seattle via I-5, returned via 101 and Highway 1 back to Los Angeles

In February this year, exactly like February last year, and almost the same trip, the same strange incident happened. I picked up the car with a full tank and returned it with a full tank, but both times I got charged $65. I only found out about it after returning to my home country last year and multiple complaints led nowhere. This year I made sure to point it out when returning the car, and without asking any questions, they refunded me immediately! I can't help but suspect this might be intentional. I hope for an explanation. ALEMO is usually cheaper on the ZUZUCHE platform, but once you get there, they strongly recommend upgrading the vehicle and adding extra insurance. Various charges (like $145 for 8 days of GPS; last year, I got talked into adding over $700 of extra insurance and received a free GPS, the charges can be very arbitrary), and then casually being charged $65 for 8 days of rental at $15 per day, once confirmed, they would immediately refund it! Am I being overly suspicious?

The car rental process was simple, everything was well-organized, and the staff was very helpful.

Fast and convenient

Convenient, fast service, and they even provided a business car to take us to a nearby hotel.

Overall, it was okay. Since this time we had a family of four (three adults and one child) with three large suitcases, the attendant strongly recommended an extra-large American car, a Chevrolet. As smaller-sized Asians, we had to climb into the car. Of course, the cost skyrocketed from over 4000 for 16 days to over 8000, doubling our budget. If it weren't for the car's navigation system being very helpful for this trip to the western USA, it would have felt like an upsell. Returning the car was relatively easy!