yesterday was quite a nightmare for me. no...wait...the ending of yesterday was a nightmare for me. the day had gone perfectly well, up until the gas pedal stopped working on the I-5 south in santa ana. i'd rented a minivan to carpool my parents and their friends to a gathering in los angeles. the timing of the day was awesome. we had left when i expected and were on the road back home at a descent hour. no complaints what so ever. the auro in the minivan was nice too. everyone had a great time at the gathering and were relieved that we would be back in san diego before 9pm...which i thought was awesome cause that meant i could return the minivan that same night.
it was just a couple hundred feet before we reached the First street/ fourth street exit 104a that the gas pedal stopped working and the check engine light came on. i had no where to go but to pull over on the left side of the highway near exit ramp 55 south, and at that same time the van coasted as far left as i can get her, i instinctively yelled FUCK. keep in mind, the folks in the van are seniors. i had surprised them. i knew at that moment i was up shit creek. it was dark out, cars were zooming by us at dangerous speeds. i quickly grabbed my dads cell phone and dialed enterprises's roadside assistance. i was on the phone with them for no kidding 2 hours. the fuckers kept hanging up on me. the first person i spoke with was mario. he seemed nice at first and eventually hung up on me. i called back and spoke to another person who'd transferred me to ana at AAA who, ironically was the same person mario spoke to when i'd called. so she thankfully knew what the situation was. while on the phone with ana, the line disconnected. so i called back a 3rd time. this time pissed off as all hell.
at this time i had noticed a chp car causing a break in traffic. he came up to the window to see what the hell i was doing. he realized we were in car trouble and decided to push us off the highway. he was nice enough to push us onto 4th street and mulberry. officer peterson was a graet help to get us out of danger. i was very thankful for his aid. he stayed with us for as long as he could - then he left to answer another call.
finally i'd called back and spoke to michael. at this time i demanded that i speak to a manager. i was then connected to michael who works out of Louisiana. he was asking me for my location, i repeatedly told him i was at 4th and mulberry in santa ana. this fucker...had hte audacity to tell me .... sorry i have no idea what you're talking about i'm working out of Louisiana. oh man, my blood started boiling. are you seriously fucking kidding me. you're asking me how far i am from lax? you're the goddamn manager and your asking me to figure out the specifics of my location. bitch plug that coordinate into yahoo and you'll see where i'm at. during this feud, scott the tow guy came to take the van. i told him i was in no way or shape ready to give up this van without a replacement or a cabbie. i was not about to stand out on the fucking corner in harms way in an area where officer peterson told us not to leave our windows open. oh hell no.
scott stuck around. in the meanwhile, i was still on the phone with michael. he had me on conference call trying to get a hold of the enterprise at john wayne. it took him 25 min to finally get through the phone maze. erik from john wayne instructed that a minivan was ready for me. the problem was...i had to take a cab there. ok no big deal until michael said we'd have to pay our fare. seriously? you rented me a fucked up vehicle and you expect me to pay a $50 cab fare to pick up another vehicle? at this time profanities came out of my mouth. i agreed to pay the cab since that would be the only way to get us off the damn corner.
scott asked if i had a aaa card. and of course, i did. he suggested that he can tow me 1 way up to 100 miles. quizzically i asked...can you fight 6 in your cab? he answered, why not? i looked over my shoulder and realized that he had a crew cab. i felt relieved. i convinced everyone that it would be better and faster for scott to tow us down to san diego. so we all piled into the tow truck. i know that what scott did was illegal since we all did not have seat belts, but he was risking that for us. he totally provided great customer service. i was very impressed by him. he was a great guy, good humored and very helpful. he finally got us into the enterprise return lot at 951. talk about bad publicity for your future customers to see that a vehicle was being towed back.
i'd spoken to a brian and told him my situation and he looked at me like i was a lunatic. he insisted on telling me that the car wasnt working because i had the gears in manual. at that time i looked at him and asked him...if the car was in manual, wouldnt you think that the gas pedal would work? i asked him to explain to me how the gas pedal would stop working if the gears were in manual but would work in automatic? seriously this guy was clueless. so i insisted in saying that the gas pedal would work whether the gears were in automatic or manual. it doesnt take Einstein to figure that out. that is driving 101. give me break brian, even the retard of all retards would know a gas pedal would work either way. not so macho now are you? well, brian decided at that point, he would shave off 1/2 the price of the rental. i told him to cash me out and that was that. oh and to make a peace offering, he gave me a 2 upgrade coupon for free. wow, like that was supposed to make it all better.
needless to say, a trip that would have normally taken 2 hours to get home took 4 hours. the night was very eventful. did i mention, that we had to pass through the scales to get weighed on the highway, and that i had to ride bitch between my dad and scott? note to self, never rent a minivan from the san diego branch again. i've been renting from enterprise for quite a few years now, and this was the first bad experience for me. and you know, sometimes it only takes the 1 bad experience to steer you away from doing things another time around.
to top things off...i came down with a cold. what a weekend. i cannot wait for next weekend, new zealand here we come.
