I’m back from the Cope show in Columbia SC. Tired, hung over and did I mention tired?
I’ll be napping today, so unless it’s urgent, don’t bug me until tomorrow. I’m old and cranky, you know. My bounce back time ain’t what it used to be!
I did take quite a lot of video and I’ll have it posted soon.
:-)
What happened: I rented a truck from those wankers Budget Truck Rental a few months back for a trip and the truck died in the middle of nowhere, at night, in subfreezing weather. Not only did it take 15 minutes to get through the Emergency line (good thing the damn truck wasn’t on FIRE) but Budget’s bastard CSR belittled and threatened me and told me it was no big deal that I was stuck in the middle of a mesa in subfreezing temperatures. He even asserted that the truck’s lack of maintenance was Ford’s fault! Budget then offered me a whole 20% discount for my troubles via Amex’s lame ass customer service, which I’m not too fond of anymore, either. (Yah, I thought a fucking Platinum card meant better advocacy for Amex members… uh, guess not. Amex can also lick my ass.) They wouldn’t even consider refunding the hundreds extra I spent on gas due to the truck getting half the usual mileage. Oh, because that isn’t their fault, either. Wankers.
I took it up with the BBB Online and got results. If you EVER have trouble with ANY company, take it there. You will get results. I’ve used BBB Online many, many times and it’s worked every time. 8/09: Updated with the actual info: The BBB office that handled this complaint, oddly, was the Tulsa OK office:
Dan Wade
Dispute Resolution
BBB Complaint Department
dwade@tulsabbb.org
The BBB complaint finally hit the desk of a Budget corporate lady who called me and was determined to get my money returned. 8/09: Updated with the actual contact info:
Brenda Waggoner
Budget Truck Rental
2236 Airport Drive,
Wichita Falls, TX 76306
(817) 446-5643
(432) 699-6220 Alt
800-283-4382
Conclusion: I got the final volley from Budget Truck today. The very nice lady in the corporate office called me and sadly told me that all she could get was a 60% refund. She was not happy to report this to me, as she felt I deserved all my money back for the way I was treated. I took the refund, because with the previous one that brings us to about 75% off plus paying for the hotel stay. (Not counting the fuel costs, natch.) I sent Ms Waggoner flowers for doing so much on my behalf. I’m sure she’s been fired because she was FAR too good to work for such slimebags.
I just wanted to make a public post about how horrible Budget Truck Rental is and how badly they treat their customers. They do NOT maintain their vehicles (mine died because all the filters were clogged and the oil was like molasses – it had 36k miles on the original oil filter) nor do the individual Budget leasing franchises know if the vehicle has had maintenance or not. I’ll say this, though: Ford makes one tough as shit truck. That baby drove 2000 miles with clogged filters and low, thick oil. It got shit gas mileage, but it ran until the poor thing misfired from lack of fuel and air.
Budget’s Customer “Service” treated me with disdain, disrespect and threatened to sue me if I dared return the truck on the spot rather than drive it to my destination. When I tried to call Brenda at Budget, her office drones would not even take a message. When she called me back a few weeks later about the BBB complaint, she said she’d not gotten any messages from me. This wonderful lady is the only person at Budget with any sense at all, IMO.
Do NOT use Budget Truck Rental. Not for around the corner. Definitely NOT for cross country. Their trucks are not maintained and the company itself does not give a rat’s ass about you or your safety. They just want your money.
If you need a truck, pay the extra money and get Penske. Penske rocks the house for taking care of their vehicles (every Penske rental place services their trucks ON SITE) and even allowing me to inspect the vehicle’s oil levels and filters prior to rental. They will also pull the maintenance records for you to inspect prior to renting. You really can’t beat that, IMO.
That is all.
Edit at bottom.
Clarence the Linux nerd from the Mac posting responded, but sadly, it’s not as funny as I’d hoped. Just more indignant accusations of a “scam”. Well, at least he’s smart enough to find my blog! :-)
He said:
““I’ve got this awesome job opportunity. I won’t tell you anything about it, but if you contact me then I will give you a link.â€
Oh, can I work from home and make a million dollars a day too?”
I think this is supposed to be in a mocking tone. But it just doesn’t come across, does it? I said a lot in reply, but the gist is:
“[…] You’re a presumptive asshole and overall not someone I’d want to help out. […] I’d be willing to bet that you’re not even a Mac specialist. You probably are a Linux propellerhead who thinks that he’s the God’s gift to computers and therefore are pissed off that I DARE thwart you. (Yah, I can use referrer logs, too.) [He is a Linux user.] As I’ve pointed out, TWICE: if you think Craigslist is such a scam then why were you trolling there in the first place? […] I absolutely will NOT give you the name of the company.”
So, that’s the state of the Linux Lurker for now. We’ll see if he comes up with a more entertaining email or comment. ;-)
Edit: I did get another email, but now we’re just chatting, so I guess that’s the end of the line for poking fun. This guy is a big ole propellerhead and not trying to be funny, I don’t think. He just wants me to acknowledge that there are many many scams on Craigslist, well, YES, there are scams, but my post wasn’t one of them. He now insists that we have met, but I don’t think so. I’d remember his name, it’s unusual. Anyhoo, I guess he’s ok in his snotty geek way… If we end up being friends, then not only will I LMAO but I’ll post a retraction! :-)
I’ve always been able to find four leaf clovers. When I was a kid, I’d sit in the yard and pick them by the dozen. I also find 5, 6, and once: a 7 leaf clover! (Keep in mind that I lived near Oak Ridge TN, the home of the Atomic Bomb and more polluted ground water than you can shake a stick at!) I found an old Bible I used when I was a kid and opened it up to find dozens of clovers pressed in it. :-)
I was in the yard taking flower and tree pics yesterday and found a patch of clover with tons of four leafs. It usually goes that way: the mutation will be in a patch and you can find four leafs in that patch regularly. Here are most of the fours I found yesterday (I got more after I took the pic):
Now, why doesn’t this luck ever kick in when I buy a lottery ticket?? LOL
For our Anniversary on Tuesday, we decided to go to the Boozer Doodle over at Vortex Midtown. The joke was that it was a DUDE! The first time we actually haul ourselves over there, on our Anniversary and it is a DUDE. A rather rotund dude at that. Dismay! It was a laugh, but got to be boring soon enough. Emily joined us and we hung out for a bit. Nick won $10 bar cash for his rendition of the Hunchback with Tater Tots. LOL I tell you, it never gets dull when you have an April Fool’s Day Anniversary.
The Bad Idea Bears were in full force after we got home from the Doodle… Emily and I got going and we didn’t hit the bed until 2:30am. Ooopsie! Nick was totally pissed off Wed morning when he drug himself to work on 4 hours sleep. I had my silversmith class at 10am, so I didn’t get off easy either. Poor Em gets up at like the crack of dawn! Boo! We all lived but Nick realises that he mustn’t be weak when it comes to shutting us down. He’s got to do it – and for gods sakes don’t join in!!
So with all the hubbub, getting taxes ready has totally not happened. Hence my cranky demeanor today. I did the stuff I said I’d do yesterday only to find out this morning that Nick didn’t do anything at all, all week! He has been working on it today, but some work was duplicated and it’s still not completely finished. Overall, I’m not pleased by our procrastination, but we’ll probably always procrastinate since it *is* taxes after all. It’s just that this year is so much more complicated with the home office and the write offs. It’s about 5 times more crap to round up – but hopefully it will benefit us. It BETTER.
If all this work turns out to be not much of an improvement, I’ll bust a vessel. :-/
We’ll know tomorrow if it was all worth it or not. Wish us luck!
