Thursday, October 8, 2015

Burn all the Things

It only took a week of this blog's life before I ranted a rant. I need to write. I also need to vent.

Counties in the Atlanta metro area require a car owner to have their car's emissions checked out before every yearly tag renewal. I have no real problem with this policy on its own. Combine this policy with a lack of accountability on used car dealerships to sell a product that will pass the emissions check. Especially when that sell assured a buyer (hint: me) that the car WOULD pass emissions, and to call them if it didn't.

Of course - it did not.



The check engine light has been on since the day after I drove Edna off the lot. They kept telling me they'd fix it, and a couple of visits saw the light go off, but it would come back on within a couple of days. I attempted to call them again when I realized I was nearing my tag renewal date, but discovered that they had gone out of business. (big surprise!) Driving by the location showed that there were no cars and the sign was gone. Even the website was down. Gross.

We are moving out of the state (see previous entry) so the expired tag thing was a minor issue to me, and we were a 1-car family for a little bit, though for longer than I had expected. Buying a house isn't easy, or quick.

Recent circumstances found my wife back at our new house painting it so that we can be ready to move in soon. I'm still in Atlanta working, so obviously we couldn't have a car in two places at one time. I managed to catch a ride with a dear friend for the first 3 days, but Thursday and Friday required me to rent a car, for lack of a better option...

(Begin the rant part of my ranty post)

I made a reservation for a car with (the devil that is) Enterprise on Tuesday to pick up on Wednesday. They even called me to confirm it. I walked in yesterday right at 6pm. Granted this was an hour later than my appointment time, but Atlanta traffic. What can you do? First of all, NO ONE was in there. We looked around, calling out for anyone who might be there, asked a guy in front of the storefront if he worked there. My friend even shouted out back for anyone. Ghost Town. I picked up one of the business cards to see if there was a cell number on it, and was in the process of dialing when three men walk in through the back door. They were surprised to see us there and said that they were closed, to which we affirmed that the door wasn't locked and we'd been there since before 6pm. I gave my name and reservation number, but was told that they had NO cars to rent. I kept asking for an explanation, but was told that reservations can be cancelled within an hour and those cars rented out, then told again that they didn't have any cars, and all other locations were closed as well. I kicked some puppies and walked out.

After some frantic internet searches, I found that the airport had several rental places that were open til midnight or later. I made a reservation for a car with Sixt, called to make sure that said car existed, then not sure I would make it in time for my appointment, made a second reservation a little bit later. My aforementioned friend gave me a ride there (she's so wonderful y'all!) and dropped me off once we found where the rental desk is. I made my way upstairs and to the rental desk, SO happy to finally be done with this ordeal and ... no rentals without a credit card. Despite my two debit cards having cc logos on them, they don't take debit. They sent me next door to Advanced rentals, who, when they discovered I had a debit card said "Oh, look. The rates just quadrupled." I'm not even embellishing. I was then pointed downstairs to EZ Rentals, but Enterprise was next door, so I went there. I spoke to the woman there briefly, and she did look up my reservation information from the devil-place earlier, but after I confirmed that I had a debit and not credit card, she just kinda blew me off. Going over to EZ Rentals, I was near tears at this point. I spoke to the man at the counter there, who kept referring to me as "sir" despite my correcting him each time. By the third time he said that, I was in full on 'leaky eyes' mode. I had planned a 3 day rental with the evil E, but that was way too expensive with the EZ folks. I whittled it back to bringing the car back Friday evening. No idea how I was going to get home from there, but I accepted the deal just to get home. Mercifully, the attendant filled the paperwork out really fast and I got out of there.

I managed to keep my composure until making it out of the parking garage.

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