Comments:

Andy - 2004-11-16 08:42:42
At least your boss acknowledged your quick thinking to get a rental car and not call in sick. FWIW: After having a few episodes like yours I put rental on my car insurance. (if my car goes in the shop, I get a rental for next to nothing). Since your livelyhood depends on a working car, you might check into it.
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Slambo - 2004-11-16 09:00:02
Fuck Detroit and all the blood sucking vermin that it supports. Next time, buy a Schwinn or walk. Cars and car people suck dirty cock.
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Beth - 2004-11-16 09:07:54
I thought the whole point of having a Visa check card was the fact that it said "Visa" on it and could be used like a credit card. That's what I get for thinking.
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Barry - 2004-11-16 09:09:13
That Slambo fella certainly provides enlightening and direct comments,doesn't he? Posters with names that rhyme with Rambo felch hamster testes! Your diary entry sounds like a running commentary of my mind.Boring? No way-I feel you pain,U.B...any trip to an unfamiliar car place sucks-Heres the KY,let me know when to cringe.
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GoBucks - 2004-11-16 09:30:28
I love the thought of UB schlepping gallons of pee on a Schwin! :)
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warcrygirl - 2004-11-16 09:41:47
What, you didn't "accidentally" spill the equivalent of a gallon of piss in your rental car?

I would have.
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Stacy - 2004-11-16 09:45:41
Oh bob! I don't know if I should laugh or cry you poor thing. I hope Santa brings you some KY for xmas.
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Sheila - 2004-11-16 09:58:47
You are seriously an amazing writer. I would have just said "after some car hassles that made me cry" dot dot dot. You're the only person in the world who could keep a person on edge talking about *car repairs.*
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weaselly - 2004-11-16 10:02:41
Next time warn us that your story may bring on panic attacks. Seriously, my chest got tight and my breathing sped up just reading that.
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Sarah - 2004-11-16 10:04:11
Oh, Robert. I'm so sorry for your rental experience. I work at a rental place (not the one you went to - we're only in three states and none of them are yours) and their behavior was totally unacceptable. 1. When you're called to pick up a corporate customer (which is what you were) you do it IMMEDIATELY, not thirty minutes later. 2. You don't take customers on your errands. Ever. Ever ever ever. 3. What in the blue hell did they think they were getting paid to do if not pay attention to you? The Visa credit/Visa check card thing is a sticky issue. Honestly it is. I mean, my company takes them, but a lot of them won't. Because a lot of credit cards automatically protect rental vehicles, it's an insurance issue and not a judgment on anyone who's got credit card debt (right here, buddy). HOWEVER... there are a million little back door tricks to get around using check cards and they should have had you out in ten minutes tops. And why they assumed that a man in a hurry wouldn't take anything with four wheels is beyond me. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE write a letter to some company executive.
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Daniel - 2004-11-16 10:13:58
DON'T EVER EVER EVER!!!! go to that tire shop again. THEY RIPPED YOU OFF MAJORLY!!! If you have a leaking radiator, you can plug it. Aside from that, there's no reason a leaking radiator causes a slipping belt. If you get new tires, they HAVE to be aligned. The bushings and rods can be used to align the tires regardless of their shape, unless they just aren't there anymore. The worst that could happen would be that you would drive it for a while and the tires would come out of line. Take the cars somewhere you trust.
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Lori - 2004-11-16 10:15:02
Cars or anything remotely automotive is God's sadistic way of fucking with us.
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love - 2004-11-16 10:16:56
so next time somthings borked, get a new car
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Andy - 2004-11-16 10:37:20
Yea Bob, why didn't you just go out and buy a new car? Geezo.
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nibbleofcorn - 2004-11-16 10:39:33
You got sucked into the corporate car-repair rip-off-conspiracy vortex, Bob! My husband took the car in to get two new tires, they told him they "couldn't let him drive out of there" without four new tires, brakes, alignment, new axels, an in-trunk 5-disk CD changer, a nosejob and liposuction. Hubby was a hardass, took it to the one mechanic that we can trust (because we know where he lives) and the mechanic said that all we needed was an oil change in about 1000 more miles.
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Kagerou - 2004-11-16 10:53:21
Oh, man, am I glad I don't have a real job. At least, not one that's totally dependent on getting somewhere on time in a car. Thanks for the dose of schadenfreude to remind me how lucky I am.
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saidnot - 2004-11-16 11:28:51
Oh, LET ME GUESS which tire shop in our loverly area you took your cars to for that adventure! Either that, or they are all crooks. We got, "oh, we can't rotate and balance your tires because the ones on back don't have enough tread to be safe on the front." What the ??? They had just sold us those tires about 2 months earlier.
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dweezle - 2004-11-16 12:55:14
for the record, i never go near tire shops OR quickie oil change joints. need new tires? i let my mechanic do it. oil? do it myself. those other guys are just total fuckers. your "radiator is broken"? what the fuck does THAT mean??? i once got "screwy wires" as an explanation for the car running poorly, w/a price tag of over $1000. gimme a fucking break!
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Kitty - 2004-11-16 13:20:19
lol aww poor Andrew! I hate tire shops, they always take 3+ hours just to put on some new tires. Bastards!!
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Andy - 2004-11-16 13:42:48
FWIW:My wife swears by Firestone. We have a mechanic friend who double checks what they recomend and thier prices,and we have never gotten screwed by them. YMMV
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emmett - 2004-11-16 14:06:36
That sucks. Eww. Sorry about that. My radiator was $99 from Radiator Barn.com or something like that, and it was super easy to install it myself. Yay. Sorry yours cost so much.
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Nysha - 2004-11-16 14:45:18
Geez, UB, you got screwed and it doesn't sound like you enjoyed it much.
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Maggie - 2004-11-16 14:55:55
Me: Wow, did you read UB today? Best Friend: Heck yes. Poor UB. Me: I really love UB. BF: ... Me: Sometimes.
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Barb - 2004-11-16 16:46:00
Maybe this is wrong to use this as a forum.... but, HEY EVERYBODY! If Uncle Bob was selling his autograph for $1 to make money so his Andrew could have a nice Christmas, would you send him $1??? (I would) How about you????????
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kelly - 2004-11-16 18:09:06
UB, you shouldn't have shaken that guys hand, dude! It's flu season!
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kelly - 2004-11-16 18:16:35
I'd send UB a dollar or two and you wouldn't even have to send me your autograph, UB. If it meant Andrew having a good Christmas. Got PayPal? :-)
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Sharma - 2004-11-16 18:20:27
They lie like rugs when they say you can't use a check card to rent a car. I have a check card that doesn't say "check card" on it and I use it CONSTANTLY to rent cars. If I try to use my other check card that does say "check card" on it I get this same line of crap. Liars.
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Jamie - 2004-11-16 19:06:12
wow.... and I was gonna go bitch about MY shitty day. I think this takes the shitty-day cake easily.
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D - 2004-11-17 09:38:54
Those fucks.
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Slambo - 2004-11-17 15:08:23
Barry gargles dirty homeless person scrotebags. Rambo rules. Fuck yo mama.
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megan - 2004-11-17 19:36:11
We practically had the same day car wise! I take mine into the local VW dealership for warranty work (my window fell off the track suddenly) and a recall, and suddenly my car is on death's door, and needs all these services for $700 (which seems a bit cheap for a car they're surprised I can even drive), but wait! they just happen to be running a special of these very services (and it's minor stuff)... So not trusting them, I call my regular mechanic, they laugh and tell me to bring my car over and they'll check it out... nothing wrong with my car. They change the oil, rotate tires, stuff I was planning to do in the next week or so, and didn't want done at a dealership, but since I was at the mechanic got it done. Getting my car out of the dealership was nightmare, after I said no thanks to the life saving measures - first my car was being washed and they should bring it around in a few seconds, and then this one guy starts yelling at me that I have no oil in car and why have I been ignoring the oil light (it didn't come on and when it does - it goes immediately off.) So they claimed to put oil into my car since I was a stupid girl who was killing my engine my engine. My Dad who was going to follow me to the mechanic in case there was something really wrong with my car, at that point lost it, and there was an incident and um, we can never go back. So they bring my car around - it wasn't washed.. and the good mechanic said unless they put dirty oil back in my car, they didn't add anything and I wasn't low. Funny how they didn't mention the oil issue, at noon when they called to tell me how my car was dying. And! the recall was about my brake lights - which they supposedly fixed, but never reconnected! dealerships are slime.
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