2 posts tagged “national car rental can bite me”

So a couple weeks ago I railed against National rental cars and their insistence that I pay them $50 over what I had already been shelling out to them, so they could come jump-start the car in a situation where I had nothing to do with causing a dead battery.  For this second trip to Houston, I asked the company travel agent for an alternative, which turned out to be Hertz car rentals.  Having not used them before, I could only hope that they were better than my experience with National.  Boy, have they impressed me!

• Check-in time was about the same.  Hertz and National took the same amount of time to process my reservation, charge my credit card, etc.  No difference here, and the two lots were right next to each other, so no time lost on either case getting to my car.

• In terms of price, Hertz is a lot cheaper.  National charged me ~$450 for 4 days of driving.  Hertz has estimated that 5 days will be ~$300, including all the "hidden fees" that they load on your rental bill.  National didn't let me know of these charges until I returned the car; instead they only quoted their daily rate when I rented the car from them.

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  In terms of car quality, I received a much better car from Hertz.  My National car was a Pontiac G6 with the bare minimum of features (I believe it had power windows/locks, and that was about it for "special touches").  On the other hand, my Hertz car is a Mazda 6 with lots of extras, including a Bose sound system, retractable sunroof, power seats, heated seats (not that these are useful in Houston in the summer!), and of course the uber-cool flip-key that Volkswagen started to popularize a few years back.

• In terms of service, I cannot yet compare, as I have not had to call Hertz about a dead battery.  Not having to call customer service is a benefit in itself, however.

So which of these two companies will I be renting from in the future?  Hertz, hands down.  National had their chance to keep me as a customer before I even ventured to another company, and they lost it quibbling over a service fee.  From the talk I've been spreading around the office, I might not be the only customer National will be losing from our company...

Gosh Toto, it doesn't look like we're in Houston any more.  (At least, not this week).

Flew back late last night - for some reason (*grumble stupid US Airways*) the flight was oversold and there were lots of us poor stragglers who didn't have seat assignments.  Even though they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats and receive a free ticket/etc, it was not apparent whether I was going to make it on the flight or not.  They had the gate staff go check to see how many seats were left after everyone got on - there were two.  After some fiddling with the computer, they called out one name, and then mine.  I got the last seat on the plane...very stressful.

Things got worse, of course, as I managed to some how bang my mp3 player against something as I was getting up to get my luggage out of the overhead compartment.  I am now the proud owner of a large black paperweight.  Well, technically, it could still play music, if only I could figure out how to control the damn thing with a starry, cracked OLED display.  The weird thing is the plastic face is completely unmarred - it's the OLED behind that looks like it was hit with a BB gun.  I'm going to take it to Best Buy tomorrow and see if I can convince them it should be covered under the product replacement plan.  First though, I have to get all those season 3 Dr. Who episodes I somehow acquired off the device tonight.  Good thing I don't need to use the display to access the device from my computer!

This weekend should be relatively relaxing, with the big ultrasound soon to follow on Monday AM.  Then a short week next week before I take Dee to see The Police next Friday in Hershey.  Or rather, take her to Hershey, and then go visit with my folks while she and her mom and sister go see The Police.

And now for some bullets:

• I have a great dislike for National car rental.  They can bite me for trying to make me pay $50 for a jump start on a car they provided.  I didn't leave any lights on or anything - why the hell did your car's battery die and why the hell didn't you offer to take care of it for free?
• I may be too into this whole vox thing.  Last week while mowing the lawn I seriously considered doing a 2- or 3-part series on here on Zen and the Art of Lawn Mowing.  I still may.  I'll warn you though so you can avoid what will probably be my most boring posts to date.
• I met some folks who work for a company who runs clinical trials for various pharmaceutical companies.  They adamantly would not tell me any company names, but entertained me with many stories about various trials, including one for premature ejaculation.  I'll let you ponder how that trial was run.
• The newest Harry Potter movie was pretty good.  I can't say the same for the audience I saw it with.  Lady, if your 3-month old baby is crying off-and-on during the entire 2.2 hour movie, it's probably a sign that you should not be taking him/her out to the movies yet.  Next time I see you in my theater, I'm getting the staff to ask you to leave.
• I'm rereading Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card.  Although I will always have a fascination for Ender Wiggin's character, Bean is the one I most identify aspects of my childhood with.  I'm on the fence, but I think I like the "Shadow" series of books better than the "Ender" series.  More to come on this later in a book review.
• I always forget to take the sticker off the apple before I bite into it.  Luckily, there's only been one time when I've not caught myself in time from taking a bite with the sticker in it.  The stickers really don't taste like much, in my opinion...almost like eating paper (not that I'd know or anything).
• I'm late for a playdate with my daughter.  Time to get saddled up and ride on home.  Actually, it might be pretty cool to ride a horse to/from work.  Well, not on the highway, but you get my drift...