Fun With Moving

A couple of years ago I had occasion to go with my brother in law to the truck rental place. He and my sister in law had closed on their new house that morning and we needed to move all their stuff.

The conversation went something like this; “My name is ‘Allen’s brother in law’, and I have a 26 foot truck reserved with a trailer.” The rep responded, “OK, well, first off we don’t have any 26 foot trucks, so I don’t know who told you we did.” He took a deep breath and said, “I called the 800 number..” She interrupted, “OK, that’s the problem, see the 800 number people don’t know what they’re doing, so let me get them on the phone so that you can talk with them.”

She dialed the number and handed him the phone. He explained the situation to the rep on the phone who told him that it would be impossible to rent a 26 foot truck along with a trailer and that she didn’t even know who would have told him he could. The store rep took the phone from my brother in law and began yelling at the phone rep who promptly hung up on her. She said, “Something needs to be done about this!” He responded, “Finally!” She called and asked to speak to the supervisor in the phone unit. When a supervisor was secured, she began to explain the problem, “OK, ‘phone rep’ just yelled at me and hung up the phone and I don’t have to take that!” She looked at us and said, “There is no excuse for this!” We agreed. After a heated conversation she hung up and with joy proclaimed, “Problem solved.” My brother in law said, “Great, when can I get the truck?” “Oh, you still can’t get the truck, but she won’t be treating me like that anymore.” She said.

He asked, if there was any possibility of getting a 26 foot truck with a trailer to which he was told, no, but he could rent a smaller one if he would pay for 24 hour rental and have it back to them within 14 hours. Unable to contain my amazement, I asked, “Since the truck he has to rent is smaller than the original truck he reserved, could you give him a break on the mileage?” She said, “That won’t be possible.” I asked, “Is there any scenario where the customer wins with this company?” She looked in disbelief and walked away.

Just for fun, see if you can name the Truck Rental company.

Incidentally, FFIL was there also. He kept looking outside. I asked what he was doing. He said he was looking for a any other indication that the circus was in town.