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August 24, 2002
My Friends Rental Car Experience
So my friend, the one who cut his finger on braille, had an interesting experience at the SFO Airport Rental Terminal a week or so ago.
After a weekend in Las Vegas, NV, my friend arrives uncharacteristically early for his flight to SFO: an hour and a half early, at the gate no less! Unfortunately he is rewarded with a 3 hour delay (take off at half past midnight!)
After arriving at the San Francisco Airport, he discovers the more temperate climate has made his choice of shorts and a golf shirt uncomfortably cold while he waits more than 20 minutes for the less-frequent-at-night rental shuttle service. Its 3am.
Upon reaching the Rental Terminal, he finds that the building has been temporarily evacuated for a fire alarm, and enjoys the cold for yet another 45 minutes. Its 3:45am.
He checks in with his Rental Car company and is told that he can pick up the car on the 4th floor of the attached garage. He, fortunately, has aquired a Smarte Carte. But, unfortunately, he is faced with having the golf clubs drag on the floor or balancing them by hand. He chooses to balance by hand as he travels to the end of the long hallway to ride the elevator. Its 4am
Imagine his frustration to find the elevator non-operational. After returning to the rental desk, they surmise that the fire alarm must have disabled the elevators, he refuses their offer to "call maintenance".
Instead, my friend choose to ride the escalators. And he proceeds to demonstrate his frustration with some rough treatment of the Smarte Carte on to the escalator. After riding the 2 escalators, precariously balancing his luggage, to the third floor, he is welcomed with a barrier and a disabled escalator up to the fourth floor.
Now the frustration has really kicked in. Cold, tired (Las Vegas is for playing, not for sleeping), he removes the luggage from the Carte, violently throws the barrier aside, sets the Carte on a 300-yard coast to the end of the hallway, and proceeds to walk up the broken escalator.
As he reaches the fourth floor he discovers that it is barren, with plastic covering the floors and sheets covering what must have been old rental counters. Incredulousness does not describe his emotional state, Profranity escapes his lungs at a large volume. In disgust he walks back down the broken escalator with his luggage. Its 4:15am
At the third floor, the carte is long gone down the hallway, and there are no down escalators nearby. My friend chooses his golf clubs and runs down the up-escalator, rides it up and runs down with his suitcase. He repeats this procedure for the next escalator. At the bottom of the escalator, he was winded and hot and angry. He yells at another rental agent. Another Passenger arrives, and was also told to pick up his car on the fourth floor. They decide to try again.
After finally arriving at the fourth floor, a small previously unnoticed sign is found in the corner with hand written note "Pick Up Cars Here."
My friend gets his car and cannot find his hotel. After stopping to ask for directions, he finally finds his hotel... Room 430, a long walk around a spacious atrium and he opens the room... Beer bottles, unmade bed, and a mess a wait him. Back to the front desk.... Its 4:45am
Room 530: long walk around a spacious atrium, clean room, good night.
Next morning. Unfortunately, my friend realizes that he has forgotten his toiletries in the car. So he heads down for the complimentary breakfast first. The line is long, so he decides to retrieve his personals from the car. He finds the golf club bag locked as he left it. He's faced with destroyin the back, roundtrip to his room for the keys or carrying the infernal golf bag up to his room.
So he carries the bag back to his room only to recall that it was locked with a combination lock. Well at least he still has the complimentary breakfast...
When he arrived downstairs, he found the breakfast was over...
Posted by KnipSter at August 24, 2002 02:47 PM
Comments
Bahahaha snort...poor baby. Hope he didn't end up with the nifty BRIGHT yellow Mazda Protege5 mini station wagon that WE had this past week...that will teach me to complain about the Ford Taurus.We'll talk in the morning...we are home but heading to NY later on sunday.
Posted by: knitmom at August 24, 2002 08:02 PM
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