Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Today's Nitwit is....
Me.
We have had a car from Hertz for a week. A Ford Focus. Cute, but a bit bloated and haunchy.
We picked it up the day after we arrived and it has carried us wherever we wanted to go. It has even gently squeezed into the teeny, tiny parking spaces (ringed with large support columns) underneath our temporary apartment without throwing its mirrors or bumpers wildly from side to side to catch obstacles like some cars do.
We go this car through priceline at a bid of $17 per day. I called Hertz to see if we could extend the rental because our very own cars, instead of winging their ways across the continental US toward us, are still in NJ getting snowed on. We could renew it, says Hertz, if we want to pay $39 per day. No thanks, says I (<----informed consumer). I go on priceline and place another bid for a rental car for 1 week. I start at $15 per day and immediately my bid is accepted. By Hertz. I now have to clean out the Ford Focus, go to SeaTac, drop off the car, and pick up a new car. Great business model, guys.
I head over to SeaTac after dropping Dan off at work this morning, clean out the car, and hand my keys to the nice attendant. It is at this point I realise that I have not filled up the tank with gas, and will be paying $24.00, or about $6.00 a gallon, for Hertz to do it for me. Not the smartest move ever, but not the one that earns me the Nitwit of the Day award.
I toddle off to the rental counter. The nice young woman who rented me the Ford Focus is still there and we exchange greetings. I sign some paperwork. I explain that I do not want extra insurance, I do not want satellite radio, I do not want OnStar, and I do not want an SUV or a Jaguar instead of a compact. I get my keys and I get into a cute little blue thing that will be SO MUCH EASIER to park and I start driving away.
"This car is so much skinnier," I think, driving merrily along. "It will be so much easier to park in the parking garage WHICH REQUIRES THE PARKING PERMIT I FORGOT TO TAKE OUT OF THE OTHER CAR!"
Ack! At this point I have not yet left the parking garage. I swing around and adroitly manuever around the guys driving the newly washed, returned cars. I go down a 'do not enter' corridor back to my original parking space. I dump my stuff and run inside and explain to the nice lady from last week that I have left something VERY IMPORTANT in the car I returned.
At this point you may be wondering why the parking permit is so important. It's just a permit. Surely you can pick up a replacement permit from the front office. And in fact, the permit itself is only a piece of paper with a hook on it. It's not like it has a transponder in it or anything. What it does have on it is a highlighted sentence: "RETURN WITH KEYS - FEE FOR REPLACEMENT $150.00".
I don't know why this damn apartment complex would have the gall to try to charge me $150 for a damn piece of paper, but apparently they do.
I am sent upstairs to the line of cars being returned, but it is TOO LATE! The Ford Focus has already been taken away. I am sent back downstairs to THE DISPATCHER. I explain my problem to the dispatcher and he runs off in some direction or other. I stand around wringing my hands. Another dispatcher wanders over and I explain why I'm standing there looking sad. He nods in understanding. Apparently I am not the first person in the world to leave something in their rental car. This is reassuring.
Dispatchers 1 and 2 exchange some words on the walkie-talkie thingie. I am informed that he has probably found it. It was in the trash. Dispatcher #1 returns with my $150 piece of paper and receives my profuse thanks for dumpster diving on my behalf.
Then he says "Was this yours? It was also left in a silver Ford Focus." He has my garage door opener. Which was clipped to my visor. Since it's electronic and everything, it would probably cost $599 to replace. And I forgot it even existed.
I'm a lucky, lucky woman.
We have had a car from Hertz for a week. A Ford Focus. Cute, but a bit bloated and haunchy.
We picked it up the day after we arrived and it has carried us wherever we wanted to go. It has even gently squeezed into the teeny, tiny parking spaces (ringed with large support columns) underneath our temporary apartment without throwing its mirrors or bumpers wildly from side to side to catch obstacles like some cars do.
We go this car through priceline at a bid of $17 per day. I called Hertz to see if we could extend the rental because our very own cars, instead of winging their ways across the continental US toward us, are still in NJ getting snowed on. We could renew it, says Hertz, if we want to pay $39 per day. No thanks, says I (<----informed consumer). I go on priceline and place another bid for a rental car for 1 week. I start at $15 per day and immediately my bid is accepted. By Hertz. I now have to clean out the Ford Focus, go to SeaTac, drop off the car, and pick up a new car. Great business model, guys.
I head over to SeaTac after dropping Dan off at work this morning, clean out the car, and hand my keys to the nice attendant. It is at this point I realise that I have not filled up the tank with gas, and will be paying $24.00, or about $6.00 a gallon, for Hertz to do it for me. Not the smartest move ever, but not the one that earns me the Nitwit of the Day award.
I toddle off to the rental counter. The nice young woman who rented me the Ford Focus is still there and we exchange greetings. I sign some paperwork. I explain that I do not want extra insurance, I do not want satellite radio, I do not want OnStar, and I do not want an SUV or a Jaguar instead of a compact. I get my keys and I get into a cute little blue thing that will be SO MUCH EASIER to park and I start driving away.
"This car is so much skinnier," I think, driving merrily along. "It will be so much easier to park in the parking garage WHICH REQUIRES THE PARKING PERMIT I FORGOT TO TAKE OUT OF THE OTHER CAR!"
Ack! At this point I have not yet left the parking garage. I swing around and adroitly manuever around the guys driving the newly washed, returned cars. I go down a 'do not enter' corridor back to my original parking space. I dump my stuff and run inside and explain to the nice lady from last week that I have left something VERY IMPORTANT in the car I returned.
At this point you may be wondering why the parking permit is so important. It's just a permit. Surely you can pick up a replacement permit from the front office. And in fact, the permit itself is only a piece of paper with a hook on it. It's not like it has a transponder in it or anything. What it does have on it is a highlighted sentence: "RETURN WITH KEYS - FEE FOR REPLACEMENT $150.00".
I don't know why this damn apartment complex would have the gall to try to charge me $150 for a damn piece of paper, but apparently they do.
I am sent upstairs to the line of cars being returned, but it is TOO LATE! The Ford Focus has already been taken away. I am sent back downstairs to THE DISPATCHER. I explain my problem to the dispatcher and he runs off in some direction or other. I stand around wringing my hands. Another dispatcher wanders over and I explain why I'm standing there looking sad. He nods in understanding. Apparently I am not the first person in the world to leave something in their rental car. This is reassuring.
Dispatchers 1 and 2 exchange some words on the walkie-talkie thingie. I am informed that he has probably found it. It was in the trash. Dispatcher #1 returns with my $150 piece of paper and receives my profuse thanks for dumpster diving on my behalf.
Then he says "Was this yours? It was also left in a silver Ford Focus." He has my garage door opener. Which was clipped to my visor. Since it's electronic and everything, it would probably cost $599 to replace. And I forgot it even existed.
I'm a lucky, lucky woman.
// posted by mapletree7 @ 4:30 PM 
