2017 Fall October 21 Saturday

2017 Fall October 21 Saturday

71 degrees this morning, no walk 

Sometimes, even your trusted “brands” of businesses fail you.  Today, three “brands” I normally trust have really disappointed me,

The Residence Marriott has been an extreme disappointment, since I normally feel that Marriott is a good brand.  The bed creaks, the room is somewhat tattered and the noise level is extreme to say the least.

All night I heard footsteps, occasionally some kind of high pitched noise, sounds of a shower etc. Really bad to say the least.  

Fortunately nothing stops me from sleeping during my appointed times, but I know I will really hesitate before I stay in a Marriott again of any type.

Also, Hertz has always been a dependable car rental.  While we rarely rent cars anymore, since we don’t travel that much, we have come to trust Hertz as a dependable company.

We rented what we thought was a nice car (weekend rate).   An “engine warning” light came on about the level of coolant in the car.  I called Hertz, expecting to get another car bought out, a technician to check the car or whatever. 

I realize any car can develop a problem, and I expected Hertz would fix it or look at it. 

Instead, I was advised by three separate Hertz representatives to “put some coolant in the car”. 

Sure, and then be sued by Hertz for cracking the block (or whatever your call it).  Plus I didn’t even know how to open the hood of the car.

The other alternative was to drive about 20 miles (on a Friday evening in rush hour traffic in one of the worst traffic cities in the USA) to “Pep boys” or Firestone and have them do it.  Of course, Hertz would reimburse me, but what about my time? 

We were spending some very limited time visiting friends and and didn’t really want to spend several hours on a problem caused by Hertz lack of maintenance. 

The third dependable brand that disappointed me was AAA.  While I have found they are not that dependable (they responded to Lakeland Florida once instead of Lakeland Tennessee!), this was perhaps the worst yet and probably I will save some money by not renewing my AAA membership.  

We have always been advised that they will respond to “any emergency or car breakdown as long as we are driving it”, a snooty AAA representative advised me “they don’t respond to calls for more fluid”. 

  

Actually i doubt very much the the problem was for “more fluid”, but it certainly decided me about AAA and how it is a waste of money.

Anyway, I just drove it anyway, I figured if they didn’t care, I didn’t.  (It said “check coolant level” which to me is a relatively threatening warning, but apparently  it is just one of those glitches in the car.  Obviously if the engine had started overheating etc. I would have pulled over and had them tow me in.  I can’t wait to get the car back to Hertz.

After this, I will just depend on one of the “travel websites” and save some money!

Anyway, we had a good visit, but a truly disappointing day in some if what I considered “dependable brands”.  

That’s it for now, Saturday, October 21, 2017.