re: #43 Eclectic Cyborg

Adventures in Rental Car land, Part 1.

Me: What time can I pick up our rental tomorrow?

Rental Agent: What kind of vehicle was it?

Me: XXX. It was booked online.

RA: Oh, it’s one of those. I don’t know why they keep offering that model on the website, we only have one in our fleet and it’s booked for the next month. Let me call around to some of our other locations and see if I can find one for you.

Me: (sighing internally)

(The whole reason I made the booking was BECAUSE that model of vehicle was offered. And this wasn’t a rare or high end model either).

I got that sort of thing once when renting a moving van. Booked a specific size since I know what I had to move and that a larger van would not fit in the alley by the apartment building. I show up and they don’t have one in the size I booked for at that location - and they basically say you can have a larger one or a smaller one.

I don’t have many options since I only have one person to help me, it’s Saturday, and I have to be moved out by Monday night.

So I take the smaller one and have a pretty ugly move. No ramp on the smaller van, tough fit for the larger furniture pieces*, and I will need two trip or otherwise abandon some stuff as well.** The two of us get one trip in and are pretty much wiped out at that point. So I return the van and swear to never rent a van from that company again.***

* - And I was not moving a mattress and box spring since I was replacing those.

** - Luckily someone who I play cribbage with offered to use his large van and help move the remaining stuff that Monday. So I did get everything out.

*** - And for my next move I paid someone to move my stuff. Especially since I was moving 300 miles west instead of 12 miles west.