Arrived at the airport and checked the car in and went into the office to hire a new car only to be told that they were sold out of cars!! WTF? So we strolled off to the next door place which was Hertz only to be told that they too were sold out and that Dollar/Thrifty were the only people that had cars and that we would need to catch the shuttle bus to the airport to head to the Dollar counter. Got to the Dollar counter in the airport and it was unmanned. Checked with Enterprise who were next door and actually had staff but they too were sold out. So we took the courtesy bus to the Dollar/Thrifty car area and got a car but it was double the cost of the previous one but when you're over a barrel.... And it was a zippy Ford Focus so it was a lil bit worth it cuz its a neat car.
Anyway when we got back I decided it was time to call them. Tried to call from my room phone but they don't do international calls. Tried to call from my Aussie mobile but the 0800 number was restricted. Not sure why as I can call 1800 numbers when I'm at home so I check out the Optus website. There's a lil section for International roaming that says "... and International call restrictions removed" so I've got to call them to have that removed. Whats the time, midnight in Aus. Great. Okay can't do that then. I check with my new US mobile as it does doe international calls this time (YAY!). Dial the number and get the "calls to this type of number are restricted". Insert a million expletives here...... and the juicy bad ones not just "gosh darn it".
So on the morning that I'm due to extend the rental... again... my friend gets the idea to find a local direct number for the UK travel company that I made my booking with and hey presto, I can ring that number. So I talk to a lady in customer service and explain the convoluted story to her and she puts me on hold and goes off to talk to the confirmations manager. When she gets back she tells me that he's going to ring the big boss at the Charlotte branch to find out why they couldn't give me a replacement car and will call me back within an hour. YAAAYYY!!! I think, it's almost over..... baboww. Wrong. An hour goes past, no phone call. An hour and a half later I call them back (as I have to extend the rental within 2 hours or go to the airport in time to drop it off and collect MY car if they've sorted it out) and again explain the convoluted story to a new representative and they go and check with the confirmations manager and come back and say that they called Charlotte airport and got no answer (??!) so they have emailed them to find out what is going on and resolve the problem and will ring me when they know. FFS! So I ring Dollar and extend my rental for another day at another exhorbitant rate.
By 8pm I still haven't had a phone call so I'm gonna be a pain in the ass and ring them again. I didn't check the time and got the night shift as it was after midnight there and after explaining the convoluted story the guy said that the people who were handling the problem were on day shift so he couldn't really do anything and could I ring back in 8 hours. No problemo...
So I ring this morning... And get told that they had already downloaded the reservation and that he's just resent it again and that I'll need to contact Charlotte airport to make sure they have all the details they need and it should all be fixed!!! YAAAY RIGHT?? So I ring the Charlotte Alamo only to be told that my original reservation number isn't valid.... So I ring the UK back to confirm what the new reservation number is and he gives me the number. I ring back Charlotte Alamo with the number only to be told that it was made for the 10th of December and that I was listed as a "No Show" so the reservation has been closed. WTF??!! I tried both reservation numbers that I had just in case the original one was still active but no. So I ring the UK back to find out wtf is going on and get directed to someone in sales by the phone system and he was rude and said that I needed to talk to customer service but couldn't transfer me through. Well that's who I thought I'd contacted fuckwit! *deep breaths* So I hangup and ring back again and get put through to customer service. Once again I go through the whole story only to be told that the confirmations manager is talking to Charlotte to resolve the issue and that they'll call me.
Couple hours go by and it's almost time to renew my rental again so I ring them again.... The confirmations manager that was dealing with my problem has now gone off duty and the new guy will be on deck shortly and blah de fuckin blah de blah. So I ask them to call me when they've sorted it and ring Alamo to make a new reservation (as Dollar/Thrify is about 3 times the price as Alamo). *deep breaths again* So we head off to the airport to return the Dollar car in exchange for the Alamo rental... And who do I see at the Alamo counter but the bitch from the initial rental. I'm not sure if I mentioned her but she is the height of anti-customer service and funnily enough she was on the phone while a customer in front of her was rolling his eyes and pacing impatiently. Anyway I got served by someone else and got that shit sorted and actually got a 2011 Ford Focus, very swish. I'm hesitant to ring Jigsaw again tonight because I'm just going to get the same fucking story.
AND THEN I log on to my email tonight and fucking well get an email from Alamo wondering if I could call them at the Dallas office to let them know what is going on with my rental. OOOOOOHHHH blood boiling!!!! I politely emailed back to let her know that I have no idea and that I'm still waiting (after 6 fucking days) to have an answer myself.....*deep breaths*
So that's where we are right now. I have a very cool 2011 Ford Focus.... but I'd really rather to have all of this rubbish sorted out because it's sending me broke.... bring on payday. I'll keep you posted. You'll probably hear me rejoicing from where you are when it does get sorted so you'll know when :)
*deep breaths*
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